Sulphur Emission Control Areas (SECA)
Changes taking place from January 2015 in relation to the European Union directive on Fuel Emission that all ferry operators operating in the Sulphur Emission Control Areas (SECA). The SECA zone includes English Channel and North Sea that we must travel though when moving your cargo going to/from Mainland Europe. The current maximum allowed Sulphur content in marine fuels is 1.0% and this will reduce to 0.1% within the Sulphur Emission Control Areas (SECA). Effectively this means that traditional heavy fuel oil used in freight ferries will be replaced with more refined fuel oil which is more expensive to purchase. All the various ferry operators within this area have slightly different but similar systems for calculating the SECA surcharges. We together have absolutely no control over this forced European taxation, The cost implications are unavoidable with a significant impact on current operating cost that we have to pass onto the customer. Details that we have received fro...