Qatar Petroleum has begun supplying very low sulfur fuel oil (VLSFO) at Ras Laffan Industrial City Port in advance of a 0.5% sulfur limit in marine fuels under new IMO regulations effective 1 January 2020. Qatar’s energy minister and QP chief executive Saad al-Kaabi said “we are proud to be one of the first countries to limit the availability of marine fuels to only grades that are compliant with the International Maritime Organization’s 2020 regulation.”
QP and state fuel retailer Woqod began providing bunker fuels in June 2017 to meet the fuelling needs of the Qatargas LNG fleet and vessels calling at Ras Laffan. QP says it supplied 1.5mn tons of marine fuel to the port from June 2017 through August 2019 (roughly 12,000 b/d). Qatar had imported high sulfur fuel oil (HSFO) for bunkering, since its only crude distillation unit is a relatively small 80,000 b/d and liquid fuels are mainly produced in gas-to-liquids (GTL) plants and condensate splitters, which produce no fuel oil. QP has not said whether it is now importing VLSFO or importing HSFO for blending. (CONTINUED - 175 WORDS)