Luxembourg-headquartered shipowner CLdN is offering pooling services to support the FuelEU Maritime compliance. CLdN, with a fleet of more than 30 vessels, offers the new service to enable potential partners, as it says, to meet more stringent EU environmental norms.
The FuelEU Maritime directive aims to reduce greenhouse gas emissions in the maritime sector by promoting the use of renewable and low-carbon fuels.
The short sea shipping operator CLdN emphasises that this approach entails higher fuel costs given that biofuels, which can deliver significant reductions in well-to-wake and tank-to-wake emissions, cost between 50-150% more than conventional fossil fuels.
Jasper Meireman, head of shipping operations at CLdN, explains: “Biofuels are significantly more expensive and present procurement challenges for companies that do not have the ability to bunker biofuels or are irregularly sailing in EU waters.
“The financial penalties for not meeting the requirements of FEUM are significant. For example, a capesize vessel sailing from South America to Rotterdam, would incur penalties of some $50,000 should the vessel not be fuelled with the required tonnage of biofuel to meet the regulatory requirements.”
CLdN owns more than 30 vessels that sail up to 2.5 million nautical miles per year, mainly in the EU waters.
“All our ships are capable of using either biodiesel or bio-LNG and by adapting our fuel mix to use higher proportions of sustainable biofuels we can help other ship owners and operators comply with the regulations and reduce costs,” Jasper notes.
In accordance with CLdN, pooling is a mechanism that provides flexibility for ship owners and operators in achieving regulatory compliance and enables them to avoid these penalties.
“Companies are allowed to pool the performances of different ships, using the over-performance of one ship to compensate the under-performance of other ships, provided that the total pooled compliance is positive. This creates a possibility to reward over-compliance and provides incentives for investment in more advanced technologies,” reads the company’s statement.
