Last month LUKOIL Marine Lubricants invited customers to a Technical Seminar in Athens to address the changes in engine lubrication that the shipping industry is facing because of the crucial legislative changes in 2020. Stefan Claussen, Technical and Marketing Director of LUKOIL Marine, presented on the uncertainties around the marine fuel landscape after 2020 and discussed the future cylinder lubrication solutions for very-low (VLSFO <0.5%S) and ultra-low sulphur fuel oils (ULSFO <0.1%S) as a major topic.
Claussen reinforced the approach advising to start with 40 BN cylinder lubricants for VLSFO operation from 2020, a method also shared by OEMs, for example in MAN’s latest service letter SL2019-671/JAP: “It is expected that the vast majority of all vessels with MAN B&W engines will experience a trouble-free transition to max. 0.50%S fuels. We recommend beginning with 40 BN cylinder oil and evaluating the condition continuously.” According to Claussen, “the challenge is to create a sufficient level of detergency to avoid deposits in the engine”.
Kenny Park, Technical and Marketing Manager at LUKOIL Marine Lubricants explained: “Similar to 2012, when we launched our BN100 cylinder oil NAVIGO 100 MCL as a pre-emptive countermeasure against cold corrosion, we have already been anticipating in advance that with cylinder oil for all fuels up to 0.5%S the crucial factor will be cleaning capability rather than neutralization.”
“No 40 BN cylinder oil designed for pre-2020 low-sulphur residual fuels was covering distillate fuel operation sufficiently to handle 0.1%S and any 0.5%S fuels”, added Claussen, “So, we acquired major engine designers’ full Non-Objection Letters for our new extra-detergency BN40 cylinder oil NAVIGO MCL Extra on the basis of a successful field test in 2014 to 2017. Since then, we have been experiencing its excellent cleaning performance e.g. on engines running long-term on low sulphur fuel between Brazil and northern European ports.”
NAVIGO MCL Extra is a new 40 BN marine cylinder oil for distillate, ULSFO, VLSFO and low Sulphur heavy fuel oil (<1.5%S) applications. It was launched by LUKOIL Marine Lubricants in May 2017 and is approved for MAN, WinGD and J-ENG (Mitsubishi) engines.
“We developed NAVIGO MCL Extra in order offer our customers the best possible lubricant solutions in the years leading up to 2020 and beyond. Regardless of whether de-sulphurisation, MGO or distillate blends or any predominantly hydrocarbon blend with a maximum of 0.5% sulphur content or a 0.1%S limit in ECA - We are ready.”, says Claussen.