Another challenge for ship operators- IMO likely to include requirements for sulphur verification of in-use bunker sample. The proposal, put forward by China, says “Onboard sampling is an essential tool to verify the sulphur content of the “fuel oil used on board ships”. Some port States, such as the European Union (EU) States, the United States and China, have already started to sample fuel oil being used on board ships. However, there is only a fuel oil verification procedure for the MARPOL samples, as required by appendix VI of MARPOL Annex VI. As for in-use fuel oil samples, no harmonized verification method and procedure has been developed.”

Source: SINOTECH Marine News Network

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