Demand for fuel oil is under threat: media are paying growing attention to the upcoming new emissions standards introduced by the International Maritime Organization, to take effect from January 1, 2020, and fuel oil—the high-sulfur residual product after processing oil into light fractions and middle distillates—is the biggest victim. Two recent headlines tell us that Trafigura and BP Singapore have merged their fuel oil and gasoil trading desks ahead of the 2020 deadline, which will ban all bunkering fuel with sulfur content of more than 0.5 percent unless the vessel has a scrubber—equipment that strips sulfur emissions from the fuel. Traders are clearly preparing for a huge slump in fuel oil demand and so are refiners. But, interestingly, they are not turning their backs on fuel oil completely. Reuters recently polled 33 refiners on their IMO 2020 plans and found that although as much as 40 percent planned to […]