RE: 2023 Will be a great year for QED7 Apr 2023 15:09
I've been here over 10 years too, and I'd say we are in a great position to succeed.
When we had Maersk LONO running and Saudi power trial almost starting, it looked like we were going to make it, and we all know what happened there.
But this time it feels very different.
The MSC CEO is actively promoting bioMSAR and MSAR with JM at conferences and no doubt in private discussions too. He's also sneakily bought the MSAR test vessel and it's sister, is investing tens of millions (over $100m IMVHO) into getting LONO. He looks to be a man on a mission, not just testing the water.
Maritime Transport Efficiency Conference:
"Prabhat Jha, went on to highlight MSCβs partnership on a proof of concept with fuel supplier, Quadrise, to use cleaner and more efficient fuel. MSC will trial the use of Quadriseβs oil-in-water emulsion fuels (MSAR and bioMSAR), which produce 25% less NOx and lower CO2 emissions."
A lot of that enthusiasm by PJ is undoubtedly due to the Carbon reduction available from bioMSAR, which we didn't have when the Maersk trial was running, if we had that back then maybe Maersk would have had the impetus to finish the trial.
Morocco is now further ahead than Saudi, as the fuel is on site and just waiting for the client to commence manufacturing of its next production batch this month. That is down to the significantly reduced complexity of dealing with just one party, not several huge entities as was the case in Saudi.
Once Morocco proves MSAR and bioMSAR, and commercial supply agreements are signed off, QED will send the test results to every other power client waiting in the background, and more will quickly step forward to do their own trial, knowing that the risk of failure is greatly reduced, and that the product is commercially acceptable.
MSC LONO success will surely be followed by as quick a rollout as MSC can effect with their suppliers and logistics. As with power, the risk level for other shipping companies looking at bioMSAR and MSAR plummets once MSC take the fuel commercially, the market will build itself.