Sulphur directive has Stena Line looking at LNG

The new sulphur directive for shipping traffic within the North European SECA area, which comes into force on 1 January 2015, is good for the environment but has a significant economic impact on Stena Line’s business due to which the company is looking at other fueling options, including LNG. 

“From an economic perspective, this is one of the largest negative political decisions since tax-free was discontinued. We have a positive attitude to environmental improvement rules as long as they are the same for everyone and are implemented at a rate that we and our customers can handle – but this isn’t the case with the new sulphur rules. Ultimately, the increasing fuel costs affect the North European export and import industry negatively because a significant share of transports is done by sea,” says Stena Line’s CEO Carl-Johan Hagman.

Stena Line has since 2005 worked to reduce its environmental impact within its Energy Saving Programme, which has successfully reduced vessel energy consumption by 2,5 per cent every year. In parallel with the change to low-sulphur oils, Stena Line is running a number of projects to look at alternative fuels and different techniques for emission purification.

“In early 2015 we will be starting a trial with methanol as a fuel on one of our ferries. At the same time we are investigating scrubber technologies and also looking at LNG as a fuel. Naturally, converting and rebuilding our ferries will both take time and cost a lot of money,” says Carl-Johan Hagman.

Press Release, September 25, 2014; Image: Stena Line