Per Wistoft, ceo of Brightoil Shipping Singapore, has given a stark warning on the dangers of the so-called ecoship revolution.
Speaking at Sea Asia, Wistoft said: “Ecoships are not really ecoships, it is a marketing tool by shipyards to sell the ship.”
A typical $100m tanker costs $450,000 a day in fuel, Wistoft said.
Wistoft gave a comparison to delegates to help understand ecoships, saying they are like buying a Volkswagen Golf, but with a Volkswagen Passat engine inside. “One day you’re going to have to drive up a hill,” he said. “It’s the same with ships, they will
encounter bad weather – you cannot rev up – so the ship will stop – and that’s an interesting aspect that oil traders are not aware of yet.”
The penalties the shipyard will have to pay to shipowners if they cannot meet what they promise is minute relative to what it will cost the owners over the lifespan of the ship.
“You have to be very careful when you look at so called ecoships,” Wistoft warned.
Wistoft also called for younger ships to be scrapped as a new normal – suggesting the age range for scrapping now should be between 15 and 20 years.
Sea Asia is co-organised by Seatrade and the Singapore Maritime Foundation.