The International Maritime Organization needs to provide greater clarity and direction to the global shipping industry on ship emission regulations t, said several panelists at a conference in Dubai Tuesday.

The panel discussion, which took place at the Red Sea and Gulf Bunkering Conference (RESCON) 2013, consisted of shipowners and industry association leaders.

If the IMO is to impose stringent emission regulations on the shipping industry, it should be clear about what types of fuel shipowners should use in order to comply with regulations, said the general manager of Mur Shipping's bunker department, Morten Dehn.

"From a shipowner's perspective, it is extremely frustrating...and the question is if shipowners should be using gasoil or fuel oil to meet any requirement of less than 0.1% sulfur levels... no one knows and the IMO has also not been clear on that," he added.

IMO should conduct "some help studies to [help shipowners] understand their regulations...and if the emissions level is less than 0.5% or 0.1%, then IMO should tell shipowners what types of fuel to use," Dehn said.

There has been "enormous pressure" on the global shipping market in terms of coping with the ever increasingly stringent regulations being imposed on the shipping industry and "every dollar" that shipowners earn have been channeled towards compliance efforts, as opposed to making any money at all, said UK Petroleum Industry Association director general Chris Hunt at the conference.

The International Maritime Organization's mandate, under the revised MARPOL Annex VI, that reduced the global sulfur cap to 3.5% from 4.5%, effective from January 1, 2012. This is expected to be reduced to 0.5% from January 1, 2020, subject to a feasibility review to be completed no later than 2018.

Also, the limits applicable in Emission Control Areas for sulfur and particulate matter were reduced to 1% from 1.5%, from July 1, 2010, and this is being further reduced to 0.1%, effective from January 1, 2015.

It certainly looks like the industry will be guided by refiners' production output at this point in time because many refiners are choosing to maximize gasoil output which has higher profit margins than fuel oil, so the question will eventually be, "where will shipowners source fuel oil to burn as bunker fuel, when the shipping industry bounces back from depression in two years' time," said Sharaf Shipping Agency general manager, Captain Farhad Patel.

The other question is also if shipowners should adhere to ISO standards which are just industry guidelines, which then differ slightly from IMO's mandated standards.

But the key issue remains: "What specifications of bunker fuel should shipowners aim for in 2018, when the IMO review comes up, and if IMO continues to "not consider the finer details of their regulations," said another panelist.

Another issue the panelists touched on was how IMO would enforce these regulations, come 2018 and 2020, especially in the Gulf and Middle East region.

While it is not a problem to enforce ocean-going vessels, who would then police coastal bunker ships, asked Sharaf Shipping Agency's Patel.