It’s been something of a holding pattern for Quadrise Fuels (QFI) after a test of its proprietary MSAR marine fuel was brought to an abrupt end in March. The trial agreement with Maersk was then left to expire, after the Danish shipping giant decided low sulphur fuels would better help it meet looming changes to shipping regulations. Management noted that “whilst Maersk's decision was disappointing, the trial demonstrated that MSAR can be used…with no adverse impact on the engine or the normal operations of the vessel”.
The commercial focus has now switched to Saudi Arabia, which Quadrise cites as the world's largest consumer of crude oil and heavy fuel oil (HFO) in power generation. The company signed a memorandum of understanding with the firm’s unnamed Saudi client (one candidate springs readily to mind) in 2016 with a view to evaluating MSAR's application in the Desert Kingdom's grid.