Dutch government cuts marine biofuel rebate multiplier - GoodFuels
The Dutch government has accepted the proposal to halve its rebate multiplier for marine biofuel sales from 0.8 to 0.4, GoodFuels says.
PHOTO: 3D blueprint of Port of Rotterdam's green hydrogen project. Twitter of @PortofRotterdam
The multiplier forms part of a market mechanism to boost sales of renewables and cut emissions. Bunker suppliers can obtain tradeable renewable energy units (HBEs) by selling renewable energy such as biofuel to ships. 1 gigajoule (GJ) of energy equals 1 HBE.
A multiplier reduction was adopted to "rebalance" renewable fuel supply from marine to road transport, GoodFuels said, citing the Dutch Ministry of Infrastructure and Water Management.
"Quality requirements for renewable fuels for the maritime sector are lower (so can be made from cheaper raw materials) and are therefore cheaper... this means that [they are] making the maritime shipping sector more sustainable at the expense of the road traffic sector,” GoodFuels quoted the Dutch Ministry of Infrastructure and Water Management saying.
Jaap Steensma, general press officer at the Dutch Ministry of Infrastructure and Water Management also made this point in an interview with ENGINE in September. Steensma explained that the multiplier helped pull biofuel supply from road fuels toward marine fuels. A new multiplier was proposed by the Dutch government to redirect some supply back to the road fuel market.
“The objective is to remove the advantage of supplying to the marine industry compared to the road sector,” GoodFuels argues.
However, by halving the multiplier, Dutch marine biofuels can lose part of their significant price advantages over Singapore, Fujairah and Houston. Historically, Rotterdam's biofuel-VLSFO blends have been priced significantly lower than their equivalents in Singapore, but that cost advantage could now decrease in tandem with the multiplier reduction.
The change in multiplier will come into effect from 1 January.
By Konica Bhatt
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