The European Union has proposed that from January 2015 all ships in the Baltic Sea, North Sea and English Channel must shift from using a bunker oil of 1.0-1.5 percent of sulphur into a more emission reducing bunker oil of below 0.1 percent of sulphur. The directive is to be approved by the European Parliament during the summer or autumn this year.Russian oil companies produce and sell the majority of heavy fuel oils used by North European vessels. In Russia there are concerns about the possible decline of this established marine fuel market. Millions of tons of Eastern oil products have traditionally travelled to West through Finnish ports and the Finnish logistic infrastructure is well-equipped to handle two to three million tons of new transshipment.A Finnish regional development company Cursor Oy, Port of HaminaKotka Ltd and Baltic Port Service Oy have examined the possibilities for an oil desulphurization plant to be located to the Port of Hamina-Kotka. The pre-feasibility study has been conducted by the Finnish consulting and planning company Logiwin Ltd, which specializes in logistics and port planning and in liquid terminal planning.Situated by the Gulf of Finland in Southeastern Finland, the Port of Hamina-Kotka is the biggest universal, export and transshipment port in Finland. Currently, potential partners and implementation options for the project are being researched.The plant is designed for fuel oils desulphurization with well-known traditional hydrodesulphurization technology in its highly modernized version.