Shipowners who put exhaust gas scrubbers on their vessels to bring sulphur emissions within IMO 2020 standards will have to buy fuel on term contracts, says an ExxonMobil advisor.

Since only about 400 of all 50,000 to 60,000 ocean-going vessels now have scrubbers, most fuel suppliers will convert their infrastructures to carry low-sulphur marine gas oil versus high-sulphur fuel oil, John LaRese said.