Optimal ship speed and the cubic law revisited: Empirical evidence from an oil tanker fleet

Roar Adland, Pierre Cariou () and Francois-Charles Wolff ()
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Roar Adland: NHH - Norwegian School of Economics and Business Administration, Department of Economics - Norwegian School of Economics and Business Administration
Pierre Cariou: Kedge BS - Kedge Business School
Francois-Charles Wolff: LEMNA - Laboratoire d'économie et de management de Nantes Atlantique - IEMN-IAE Nantes - Institut d'Économie et de Management de Nantes - Institut d'Administration des Entreprises - Nantes - UN - Université de Nantes

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Abstract: We develop a flexible framework for the estimation of the fuel consumption-speed curve for ships which allows for speed-dependent elasticity with endogenous thresholds. Using a large dataset of noon reports for 16 crude oil tankers, we estimate the corresponding elasticities net of weather effects. Our empirical findings confirm that the classical cubic law for fuel consumption is valid only near the design speed but also that the sensitivity with regards to sailing speed can be substantially lower at the sailing speeds actually observed. Our results can be used to question the economic and environmental benefits of slow-steaming and fuel levies.

Keywords: Fuel consumption; Cubic law; Optimal speed; Noon reports (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2020-08
Note: View the original document on HAL open archive server: https://hal.science/hal-03422276v1
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Citations: View citations in EconPapers (3)

Published in Transportation Research Part E: Logistics and Transportation Review, 2020, 140, pp.101972. ⟨10.1016/j.tre.2020.101972⟩

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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:hal:journl:hal-03422276

DOI: 10.1016/j.tre.2020.101972

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