ABL May Market Briefing 2026
Join us for ABL’s May Maritime Market Briefing, exploring the following topic:
Hydrotreated Vegetable Oil (HVO) as a Transitional Fuel for Decarbonising Specialist vessels
ABL’s Marine Engineering Director, Kevin Williams, will present our May briefing.
Introduction to the topic
Hydrotreated Vegetable Oil (HVO) is presented as a practical transitional fuel to support near‑term decarbonisation of specialist and research vessels while fully zero‑emission solutions continue to mature.
Driven by tightening IMO emissions targets, the maritime sector faces a clear gap between regulatory ambition and the technical and commercial readiness of zero‑emission vessels.
HVO helps bridge this gap by offering a renewable, drop‑in diesel fuel that can be used in existing marine engines with minimal or no modification. HVO delivers strong technical performance, including high cetane number, good cold‑flow properties, and reduced local pollutants compared with marine gas oil.
Operational experience shows broad compatibility, with only minor maintenance considerations. Key constraints include higher costs, limited global availability, immature bunkering infrastructure, and sustainability concerns linked to feedstock choice.
From an insurance perspective, HVO is regarded as a low‑risk fuel with a hazard profile similar to conventional marine distillates. Overall, HVO enables immediate emissions reductions without locking operators into higher‑risk or immature propulsion technologies.
The technical presentation will be followed by a Q&A and finalised with a summary of last month’s high-cost marine casualties.
When: Wednesday 6th May, 9:30 AM UK time
Where:
- In-person: Lloyd’s Old Library, 1 Lime Street, EC3M 7HA, London. Arrivals from 9:00 AM for coffee, tea, biscuits and networking.
- Virtual: Zoom Webinar from 9:30 AM
Learning objectives:
- You will be able to explain the drivers of maritime decarbonisation.
- You will be able to assess why fully zero-emission vessels are not yet universally viable.
- You will be able to describe what hydrotreated vegetable oil (HVO) is.
- You will be able to evaluate the technical, operational and environmental performance of HVO.
- You will understand how the use of HVO affects marine insurance risk profiles.
Meet our speakers:
Oliver Tattersall
Naval Architect, ABL
Case Reports Presenter
CPD Accreditation
This is a CPD-accredited event by the Chartered Insurance Institute. Attendance is worth up to 1 CPD hour in person and up to 30 CPD minutes online.
ABL offers extensive experience in all shipping and maritime-related matters including marine casualties, salvage and wreck removal, hull and machinery, P&I claims, fixed object damage, pollution, personal injury, and ports and harbours, marine accident investigation amongst other areas. Our reputation covers work in ports & harbours, small craft, global shipping, defence and yachts.