The institute's federal launch in July achieved bipartisan support, with federal energy minister Josh Frydenberg, Perth's Shadow Resources Minister Tim Hammond from Labor both attending in Canberra.
The new institute's founding directors are Woodside Petroleum chief operating officer Mike Utsler, Jackson McDonald partner Richard Sandover, P and H Marine Australia's Captain Walter Purio, Mitsubishi's Hero Gohda, GE Oil & Gas' Mary Hackett, Altegra Property group's Tony Brooks and Stephen Smith.
However, despite those industry leaders' participation, none of those groups were obligated to join the MFI.
Yet ahead of tonight's Perth launch expected to draw more than 150 people, Energy News has learned that not only have Woodside, Baker Hughes, a GE company and Mitsubishi all joined the MFI, but Woodside's North West Shelf partner BHP, the Pilbara Port Authority and MOL Group have also jumped on board.
The MFI has support from the London-based Society of Gas as a Marine Fuel on technical capabilities that ensures consistent training, standards and competencies for the industry globally, while the US-founded SEA/LNG is also aware of the MFI.
While SEA/LNG includes 25 of the world's leading technology companies including ABS, Shell, Total and Qatargas, MFI CEO, Captain Walter Purio, told Energy News that his group's mandate is to help Australia and the region become the focal point for the same drive.
Captain Purio, a former US navy officer with six children - four of whom will be at this evening's launch, including one who's in the US air force - helped develop the International Safety Management Code.
He said the MFI's four pillars are security of supply and balance of payments for Australia, public health and jobs for remote Australia.
The North Sea, the Baltic and the Americas have requirements for .1% sulphur. China has set 0.5% voluntarily in several of their ports, though industry scuttlebutt is that China will go to .1%.
With all this happening ahead of the International Marine Organisation's new marine fuel mandates kicking in by 2020, Australia has the opportunity to lead the charge regionally.
Ships can put $5 million scrubbers on an existing ship and scrub heavy fuel to get to 0.5%, but if they don't do that they have to burn distillates which are more expensive than heavy diesels.
"There's an argument that [meeting the new sulphur rules by burning distillates] will be no problem, but there is an economic issue where they need to prove they can actually do it," Captain Purio said.
"The other option is gas, which has zero particulates, effectively zero sulphur, at least a 60% reduction in NOx, 25% reduction in CO2. That's significantly cleaner than even burning distillates."
To give some context, he said one ultra-large containership burning heavy oil at speed will emit more sulphur in one 24-hour period than 50 million cars over a year.
"We the shipping industry are 2.2% of the pollution, so we have to get our act together," he said.
"If we don't do anything and we continue to burn sulphur and the world becomes cleaner, our footprint goes up to 14% a year.
"So we're being held to task, which is only right. We need to be part of the solution, not part of the problem.
"Gas does a lot for Australia. We're soon to be the largest LNG exporter in the world, we have some great commercial and geopolitical opportunities to leverage our resources."
