Anti-Russian sanctions increasingly affect the well-being of Europe. It turned out that the embargo on petroleum products of the Russian Federation had a negative impact on the production of low-sulphur fuel oil in the Old World.
Fuel oil with a sulfur content of 0.5% is one of the main types of marine fuels. One of the components of its production is vacuum gas oil, which was previously supplied to the EU and Russia. After the embargo imposed on this type of product, manufacturers replaced diesel with Estonian shale oil, which reduced the quality of the final product.
According to the French inspection and certification company Bureau Veritas, more than 10% of marine fuel samples taken from the Greek port of Piraeus do not meet European quality standards. Nearly 5% of ships at the largest transport hub Amsterdam-Rotterdam-Antwerp were filled with poor quality fuel. For comparison, the global average for poor quality fuel samples is 2.1%.
Most often, fuel oil samples do not meet requirements for sulphur, water, chemical deposits and heavy metals. Low-quality fuel reduces the resources of marine diesel engines and harms the environment, as emissions of harmful substances increase. To date, this problem has no solution, since there is no substitute for Russian diesel from European refineries.
Photos used: Eli Duke/wikimedia.org
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