Competition to provide ships with a low-sulphur alternative will hot up as the IMO deadline approaches. It’s not clear which fuel will win.

The battle between competing fuels for shares of the marine propulsion market when the International Maritime Organization’s (IMO) 0.5% sulphur-fuel content limit becomes effective in 2020 is heating up.

On current trends, fuel oil may well maintain its primacy over marine gasoil and new competitor liquefied natural gas.

International organisations pondering the outlook for the marine fuels market, which is estimated to account for up to 5m barrels a day of world oil use, have differed on the outlook for fuel oil demand.

Marine fuel oil use accounts for about 63% of world fuel oil consumption, and quality restrictions on fuels used by land-based consumption will likely increase that proportion. read more.