Euronav chief executive Paddy Rodgers has blasted the 2020 sulphur regulation as “the worst piece of legislation” ever.

Rodgers fears shipowners will pay higher fuel prices but warns that the costs will be spread more widely.

“I’ve never seen a worst piece of legislation,” he told a meeting in Hamburg today.

“It’s absolutely awful in terms of the speed it came in at the drop-dead deadline, it’s as if they wanted to exacerbate the problem.