As the new sulfur emission rules of the International Maritime Organization are about to come into effect in January, a shortage of refueling barges is causing delays in compliance, Reuters reports . Analysts had expected disruptions ahead of the IMO 2020 rules, but the general opinion was that these would be caused by shippers’ slowness in equipping their vessels with sulfur scrubbers and by refiners who would be unable to produce enough diesel and very low-sulfur fuel oil to replace the high-sulfur version. Now, it appears there is enough diesel and enough very low-sulfur fuel oil , but not enough refueling barges to deliver the fuel to the vessels that need it. “It’s a very disrupted bunkering market,” Reuters quoted a shipping industry source as saying. “There is enough product in most places but it’s the barge availability that’s a problem.” The cause of the problem is as prosaic […]