IMO 2020 set to boost Fujairah's bunker industry.

A century after the shipping industry moved from coal to oil as its primary energy source, another change on the same scale is now under way - one prompted this time by a change in environmental regulations. The shift could provide a significant boost to the status of the UAE's East Coast Port of Fujairah as a global oil hub.

The London-based UN body, the International Maritime Organisation (IMO), has toughened its rules on marine fuel emissions, setting a global sulphur content limit of 0.5 percent to come into effect from January 1, 2020. At present, most of the shipping industry burns high-sulphur fuel oil, a dense, dirty refinery by-product, as its main fuel, but these new regulations will force most to shift to new 0.5 percent sulphur blends that more closely resemble diesel.

The current...