Company: DLNG
Filing Date: 2025-04-10
Form Type: 20-F
Source: 0001104659-25-033744
Chunk: 225

Company: Dynagas LNG Partners LP
Filing Date: 2025-04-10
Form: 20-F
Item: Item 4
Chunk 225
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 or above 70°C as mandatory information, became effective May 1, 2024. These regulations subject ocean-going vessels to stringent emissions controls, and may cause us to incur substantial costs.
Sulfur content standards are even stricter within certain “Emission Control Areas,” or (“ECAs”). As of January 1, 2015, ships operating within an ECA were not permitted to use fuel with sulfur content in excess of 0.1% m/m. Amended Annex VI establishes procedures for designating new ECAs. Currently, the IMO has designated four ECAs, including specified portions of the Baltic Sea area, North Sea area, North American area and United States Caribbean area. Ocean-going vessels in these areas will be subject to stringent emission controls and may cause us to incur additional costs. Recently at the MEPC78, the IMO approved a proposal for a new ECA for the Mediterranean Sea as a whole. These amendments entered into force on May 1, 2024, however ships operating in this ECA will be exempted from compliance with the 0.1% m/m sulfur content standard for fuel oil until July 1, 2025. MEPC 82 adopted additional amendments to Annex VI designating the Canadian Arctic and the Norwegian Sea as ECAs, which will become effective on March 1, 2026. Other areas in China are subject to local regulations that impose stricter emission controls. If other ECAs are approved by the IMO, or other new or more stringent requirements relating to emissions from marine diesel engines or port operations by vessels are adopted by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (“EPA”) or the states where we operate, compliance with these regulations could entail significant capital expenditures or otherwise increase the costs of our operations.
Amended Annex VI also establishes new tiers of stringent nitrogen oxide emissions standards for marine diesel engines, depending on their date of installation. Now amended Annex VI provides for a three-tier reduction in Nitrogen Oxide (NOx) emissions. Under the amendments, Tier III NOx standards apply to ships that operate in the ECAs designed for the control of NOx produced by vessels with a marine diesel engine installed and constructed on or after January 1, 2016. Tier III requirements could apply to areas that will be designated for Tier III NOx in the future (such as the Canadian Arctic and the Norwegian Sea). At MEPC 70 and MEPC 71, the MEPC approved the North Sea and Baltic Sea as ECAs for nitrogen oxide for ships built