Trinidad’s Paria Trading Meets IMO’s Low-Sulphur Fuel Oil Deadline

A report in today’s Business Express, credited to Anthony Wilson, states that Trinidad and Tobago’s sole fuel importer, Paria Fuel Trading, has met the January 1, 2020 deadline to ensure that the bunker fuel sold to local and international ships using T&T ports is in line with the International Maritime Organisation (IMO) regulations for the 2020 global sulphur limit.

Paria said it was fully prepared and implemented the low-sulphur limit for marine fuel in December last year. The new IMO regulations stipulate the implementation of a 0.5 per cent global sulphur cap for marine fuels as of January 1, 2020

Paria stated that fuel oil used for propulsion accounts for about 75 per cent of the global bunker market fuel and the remaining 25 per cent is gas oil (diesel). Paria offers both fuel oil and gas oil products, but noted that fuel oil is not used as a bunker fuel by the local market.

The company said it imports gas oil with a maximum sulphur limit of 0.1 per cent, which will continue to be used for the bunker market post 2020. Paria said it also began importing IMO-compliant fuel oil with a sulphur content of 0.5 per cent as of December 2019. Local demand for bunker fuel is approximately 7,600 barrels of gas oil per month. Total bunker sales, including sales to international vessels is 3,400 barrels per day of gas oil and 1,100 barrels per day of fuel oil.

Find out more about the IMO 2020 initiative here.