Oil Price17 Mar 2023 03:31
Prior to 2020 ships were allowed to burn fuel up to 3.5% sulphur called HFO which is approximately half the bunker price as it's low sulphur equivalent which is less than 0.1% sulphur named MGO. Since 2020 ships have had to burn fuel of less than 0.5% sulphur, and also less than 0.1% sulphur in Emmision Control Areas. Merchant ships around the world have bypassed these air emission regulations set by the International Maritime Organisation by using 'scrubbers' (which in themselves are power hungry and expensive to retrofit and maintain). These scrubbers put the sulphur content into the oceans and not the air allowing ships to still use the cheaper higher sulphur content fuels legally (if not morally questionable). As the world has wised up to restricting sulphur content with air emissions, the legislation to restrict the use of these scrubbers to bypass the legislation on air emissions. More and more ports and regions of the world are banning the use of scrubbers and forcing ships to use the more expensive MGO, like the legislation initially intended. So whilst oil prices are falling, fuel and running costs are not necessarily reducing to reflect that due to the push towards lower sulphur fuels and the banning of scrubbers. Something to consider. Cruise ships around the world have been championing the use of scrubbers from the get go. When it's been stated that a cruise ship can produce as much emissions as a million cars it's not such a bad thing to have in place.
Don't get me started on LNG, it has been unfortunately a bad time to introduce this fuel source to newer ships due to the astronomical cost of LNG in the past 12 months.
All I'm saying is you cannot expect a direct relationship to price per barrel of oil to the share price. There are many other factors to consider, even if external financial hicups and politics were removed from the equation.
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