A clean slate for Gulf refiners
The region's refiners have less than three years to play their ace card as the IMO implements new sulphur limits on bunker fuel from 2020
The biggest surprise following the International Maritime Organisation's (IMO) ruling last October was that anyone was surprised; reducing the sulphur cap for bunker fuel from 3.5% to 0.5% has been on the regulatory table for nearly a decade. Sulphur caps of 4.5% from 1997 and then 3.5% from 2012 also gave refiners and their slow-but-steady attitude a heads up. Still, many are now hurriedly reviewing their crude slates and balance sheets to try—and it is an ongoing, not guaranteed, effort—to keep pace with the biggest shift in the shipping industry since coal-powered vessels crossed the world's oceans nearly a century ago. Only the complex refineries producing a broad crude blend and an abil
Also in this section
19 February 2026
US LNG exporter Cheniere Energy has grown its business rapidly since exporting its first cargo a decade ago. But Chief Commercial Officer Anatol Feygin tells Petroleum Economist that, as in the past, the company’s future expansion plans are anchored by high levels of contracted offtake, supporting predictable returns on investment
19 February 2026
Growth in LNG supply will surpass the rise in demand in 2026 for the first time in years, according to Mike Fulwood, senior research fellow at the OIES, but lower prices are likely to encourage fuel switching and could create more demand on a permanent basis
19 February 2026
Awais Ali Butt, manager for sales and business development at Pakistan LNG Ltd, discusses LNG’s role in energy security across developing, price-sensitive economies, as well as examining trade-offs between buying strategies and the impact of lower prices and policy on import behaviour
19 February 2026
LNG’s technical maturity, availability and price, as well as regulation, have driven its rapid adoption as a marine fuel, yet its future in shipping will depend on transition policies and progress in cutting methane emissions and scaling bio- and synthetic LNG, according to Carlos Guerrero at Bureau Veritas
