Higher cost of diesel fuel due to maritime usage?

gitane59 wrote:
,,, Curious to know whether ship engines can switch back and forth between ULSD and heavy bunker oil.

Yes, they do it all the time. Switching over at 200 miles off bunker and on to a lighter more refined fuel is standard operating procedure just than same as holding black water on board at 13 miles.

Read another trucking industry insider report today in which a transportation analyst was recommending trucking companies budget up to an additional .35 cent's per litre or $1.30 per gallon for up to 3 years while the shipping industry and refineries adjust to the increased demand for ULSD over bunker oil. Don't know about anyone else but for me as a Canadian between our pathetic stock market performance, our lousy Canadian dollar and now likely substantially higher fuel cost's the affect on our travel budget will certainly have any affect on our travel spending.
Curious to know whether ship engines can switch back and forth between ULSD and heavy bunker oil.

The USA gets only a tiny portion of our oil from overseas. Most comes from Canada via pipelines so this oil will not be affected at all. Now there may be some increase in the demand for low sulfur fuels and that may make a slight difference.

But count on the oil companies to point to "Higher shipping costs" as an excuse to expand their Greed.. To charge way more.. and of course nobody will do anything about it.

DutchmenSport wrote:
The oil companies will use ANY excuse to raise fuel prices. This just sounds like another excuse so it gives some kind of legitimization to pre-condition us into accepting yet another price hike in our future.

It doesn't make any sense, a mouse is found dead in Bangladesh and it raises fuel prices in Indiana! Yet, they do this all the time for reasons just as ridiculous.

Fuel companies don't need a reason to raise prices. They can set their prices at any amount. Prices are kept in line by competition. Set them too high and the other suppliers will swoop in and take all their business. If the company gets so big that they quash the competition the anti-monopoly laws break them up. This happened in the oil business to Standard Oil. If they conspire together to fix prices, the conspirators can go to jail. Because of this you can be reasonably assured prices are competitive and fair. That is the beauty of free enterprise and the safeguards built into the system. Yes, many companies try to explain the extraneous factors (like that dead mouse that led Bangladeshi' elephants to stop working forcing Bangladeshi construction firms to switch over to diesel fueled construction equipment raising worldwide demand for oil;)) that are effecting pricing, but they are not under any obligation to do so.

It's about time they go after the BLACK TAR these huge ships burn.

So thick, it has to be pre-heated so it flows.

SidecarFlip wrote:
It is what it is. Glad I run off road diesel in the farm equipment. I agree ocean going ships are BIG polluters.

Off road diesel has been ULSD for eight years now. I agree it is what it is, the sky is not falling. Oil companies have had plenty of time to plan for this.

theoldwizard1 wrote:
There was discussion of doing this on the Great Lakes. All the shipping companies said they would just park their ships because the cost of replacing the engine was not feasible.

As having been an engineer on lakers for a few years, let me assure you that this is fact. When I started on the lakes, there were over 300 US flagged ships. There are now fewer than 100. The vast majority are diesel and most of those use engines that are also used in rail and stationary power. Until the companies that build those engines have the time and resources to re-engineer the fuel systems for low sulfur, there will be no parts and/or service available. Lake shipping is a marginal operation any way, and limited to about 9 months of the year. I bet the lay-up of 2019 will be the last of many of these ships. With the cost of this change, many will get converted to barges and the others will be scrapped.

I can also tell you exactly what the blue water ships will do. The have lots of tanks. That is what the double bottom is for. They will have enough low sulfur to get from the 200 mile into and back out of port. That is what they will use when they have to, but the rest of the time, they will run what ever cheap fuel they can find.

Matt - Still has the license, but not going back any time soon.

I don't see it. There's a lot more ocean beyond the 200 mile territorial limit where there are no regulations. Easy enough for a freighter to dedicate a small tank (in comparison to the primary tank size) for the more expensive low sulfur fuel, which by the way, they already do. Hit the 200 mile limit they switch tanks until they get back out to sea.

Technically, anything has an impact but realistically, they don't use enough fuel to budge the needle.

Will it get used as an excuse...maybe.

The oil companies will use ANY excuse to raise fuel prices. This just sounds like another excuse so it gives some kind of legitimization to pre-condition us into accepting yet another price hike in our future.

It doesn't make any sense, a mouse is found dead in Bangladesh and it raises fuel prices in Indiana! Yet, they do this all the time for reasons just as ridiculous.