Column: Sulfur standard aims to curtail maritime fuel oil

With the new decade comes an international air pollution regulation which hastens the switch from high sulfur fuel oil to either diesel or LNG in ocean-going ships.

The mandate drops the sulfur content from 3.5 to .5%. While that number sounds trivial, it is applied to 62,000 vessels worldwide.

Ship owners and environmental regulators battled over the sulfur limit for years; however, starting on January 1, the International Maritime Organization (IMO) implemented it as promised. It has a dramatic impact on shippers and consumers.

Oil refineries are not configured to process the high sulfur fue...