The ship.energy podcast: Recent Episodes
ship.energy
The http://ship.energy podcast allows subscribers to engage first-hand with the many discussions that are happening and evolving around shipping’s energy transition.
We talk regularly to maritime thought leaders, technology experts, policymakers and finance providers as shipping embarks on its huge learning curve towards decarbonisation.
Expect some tough talking, intelligent thinking, as well as some questions – nobody has all the answers!
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Evelyne analyses the different proposals submitted by different countries ahead of the MEPC 84 meeting, which will mark the first time the committee reconvenes since the extraordinary session, in October 2025, that was expected to formally adopt the first global greenhouse gas (GHG) pricing mechanism for shipping but was instead adjourned for a year.
With Pacific Island States and Brazil calling for the existing Net-Zero Framework (NZF) text to progress without substantive alterations, while the United States and a group of petro-states including Saudi Arabia and Russia are opposed to any centrally administered pricing mechanism, she expects the current text to be reopened, and any potential outcome to ‘fall somewhere in the middle.’
Evelyne also dissects two ‘middle path’ proposals, one submitted by Liberia, Panama and Argentina and the other by Japan, which would weaken emissions reduction targets and remove the Net-Zero Fund. From a climate perspective, she warns that both options risk under-delivering on the IMO 2023 Strategy’s ambition of reaching net-zero ‘by or around’ 2050.
She argues that the outcome of MEPC 84 will largely be dictated by how seriously countries will take pressure from the United States, and whether they will be willing to butt heads with the Trump administration. She emphasises that the war in Iran has given the U.S. ‘considerable’ leverage on countries that depend on its LNG, and expects that some delegations, including the EU, could be less vocal in their defence of the NZF as a result.
While the White House has ramped up the ‘rhetorical volume’, she explains that the country’s opposition to the NZF is not purely ideological and reflects genuine economic concerns. However, she highlights that the longer-term strategic picture goes in the opposite direction, and the U.S. could benefit from the Net-Zero Framework as a leading producer of LNG and biofuels. She also interprets the country articulating its ‘red lines’ as a sign it might remain open to a deal, which she notes is a change from its previous posture during October’s extraordinary session.
https://www.energypolicy.columbia.edu/
We take stock of the latest developments in IMO’s work to update seafarer training requirements for the arrival of new fuels and technologies.
Podcast highlights
Arvind hails the two sets of interim training guidelines for seafarers working on ships using methanol and ammonia as fuel, which were agreed at the IMO’s HTW Sub-Committee in February, as ‘a big step ahead’ and a ‘great achievement.’ He explains why he expects the industry to embrace those guidelines even though they are not mandatory.
He also comments on the ongoing revision of the International Convention on Standards of Training, Certification and Watchkeeping for Seafarers (STCW), which sets mandatory standards for seafarer training. He describes progress as ‘slow’ but ‘encouraging’, and outlines how IMO delegates are trying to ensure the new convention will be ‘future-proof’ for the 2040s and 2050s, amid rapid technology developments.
A former seafarer and captain himself, he shares his views on what crews need in order to be prepared to safely deal with new fuels and technologies, insisting on the importance of onboard familiarisation and of avoiding overburdening seafarers with additional training requirements.
Arvind also describes how alternative fuels training remains fragmented across the industry, with most first movers generally offering their own in-house training. Looking ahead to the wider adoption of new fuels, he acknowledges that questions around who will cover the cost of upskilling thousands of seafarers remain unresolved.
We unveil how some e-fuel producers are progressing their projects despite the uncertainty around the fate of a global pricing mechanism for shipping’s GHG emissions.
Podcast highlights
In this episode, Lara explains how the FuelEU Maritime regulation, with its requirements on the GHG intensity of the energy used on ships to ratchet up from 2030, was instrumental in sealing a 10-year binding offtake agreement under which ETFuels will supply e-methanol to shipping company RFOcean.
The agreement, she says, demonstrates that the EU regulation, with its clear penalties for non-compliance and incentives for e-fuels, is strong enough to incentivise a fuel switch and make e-fuel production projects viable. She warns that companies that opt to do nothing and end up being hit by penalties are likely to see their fuel costs increase by 55% by 2030.
Lara explains that the biggest challenge for ETFuels isn’t offering a mutually agreeable price for its e-methanol, but rather persuading shipping companies to commit to offtake agreements several years before they receive the fuel. While such long-term deals are essential for e-fuel producers to secure financing, she argues that locking in a long-term price for e-fuels is also a good risk management approach for shipping companies, as supplies of compliant fuels will be limited throughout the 2030s.
Asked whether shipowners’ appetite for long-term agreements was dampened by the uncertainty around the IMO Net-Zero Framework, she reports that the potential global regulation was never a main driver for early transactions. She reveals that ETFuels currently has terms agreed for over 200% of its first plant’s production capacity and advanced commercial discussions with four additional companies, driven by European regulation.
She also reflects on the role of public funding in making the first e-fuel production projects financially viable in the short and medium term, and on the reasons why installations in the United States and Europe can be competitive with countries like China.
We ask what a sensible approach to decarbonisation can look like with the new Marine Fuels Transition Lead for Soya Group, which partly owns UECC, Wallenius Wilhelmsen and Wallenius Sol.
Podcast highlights
Daniel argues that shipping companies should move ahead of regulatory requirements on decarbonisation and start integrating alternative fuels into their operations despite uncertainty around the IMO Net-Zero Framework. He warns that adopting a ‘sit back and wait’ approach risks creating knowledge gaps, which would lead to those companies being outcompeted in the longer term.
He makes the case that ‘union is strength’ when it comes to decarbonisation strategies, both in terms of sharing learnings between individual companies and aggregating demand to send stronger demand signals to alternative fuels producers.
Daniel also shares some key learnings from UECC’s experience trialling and adopting LNG and biofuels. He emphasises that pilots must be designed to generate ‘repeatable learnings’, as well as the importance of mastering data and certification requirements for the use of renewable fuels to be recognised by regulators. He also explains how the company achieved, five years ahead of time, its ambition of having 40% alternative fuels in its energy mix by 2030.
Reflecting on whether using alternative fuels pays off in business terms today, he acknowledges that first movers are not consistently rewarded commercially yet, with the picture depending on whether each company’s customer base is prepared to pay for decarbonised shipping. However, he highlights that the benefits are ‘more strategic than financial’, and insists that being prepared to introduce alternative fuels is a pragmatic decision.
Shipping companies Ardmore and Stena Bulk discuss how they have navigated the first year of the FuelEU Maritime regulation.
Podcast highlights
Ardmore’s Chief Operating Officer, Robert Gaina, explains how the company, which operates 25 chemical and product tankers, has decided to comply with FuelEU Maritime by bunkering biofuels on selected voyages.
Describing how the new regulation, which sets a limit on the greenhouse gas (GHG) intensity of the energy used on ships, has impacted crews and onshore teams in practice, he argues that the biggest change was not technical, but ‘behavioural’ – as ensuring compliance requires closer collaboration between different teams on voyage planning and bunker procurement.
As Ardmore’s fleet is operated primarily on the spot market but also includes vessels on time charters, Robert compares the complexity of ensuring compliance under the two trading models.
Asked about the commercial repercussions of the regional regulation, he explains why he doesn’t believe that it has made European companies less competitive, and why he expects the additional costs to eventually be passed down as the market adapts.
Stena Bulk’s Sustainability Manager, Filip Feurst, explains why the tanker operator opted for pooling as its main FuelEU compliance strategy, despite having six vessels capable of using methanol as fuel in its fleet of 58 ships.
He illustrates how companies that operate the majority of their vessels on the spot market, like Stena Bulk, face additional challenges in planning for their FuelEU Maritime compliance – as a lack of visibility on whether a voyage will call Europe makes it harder for those companies to plan the bunkering and use of alternative fuels. But he explains how the new regulation has nonetheless changed Stena Bulk’s approach to fuel procurement.
Filip also relates how the industry has leapt forward on data sharing as owners, operators, and pooling parties need to exchange information to ensure compliance and avoid penalties.
Looking ahead, he sees a commercial potential for companies that are able to monetise and trade the compliance surpluses of their dual-fuel vessels, although he notes that the opportunity might be easier to seize for companies on liner trades.
DNV’s Global Decarbonization Director analyses the main trends from the alternative-fuelled vessel orderbook in 2025, and sheds light on what to expect in 2026.
Jason Stefanatos
Jason Stefanatos is Global Decarbonization Director at DNV, a role which he has held since 2023. He joined the classification society 15 years ago, having previously worked in a technical role for the Hellenic Navy and as a research assistant at the National Technical University of Athens (NTUA). Jason holds a M. Sc. in Naval Architecture and Marine Engineering from NTUA.
DNV’s Alternative Fuels Insights (AFI) platform gathers data on the development and uptake of alternative fuels and technology, covering both vessels and bunkering infrastructure. The platform has more than 18,000 users across the maritime industry.
Representatives from academia, the bunkering industry and environmental NGOs reflect on some of the positive developments that marked 2025 and share their main wish for 2026.
Speakers:
Tristan Smith is Professor of Energy and Transport at the UCL Energy Institute, where he leads a research group focused on the global shipping industry. He attends MEPC meetings as a delegate of IMarEST and is a contributing author to work published by the IMO, UNEP, and the UK Committee on Climate Change. He trained and worked as a naval architect before joining the UCL Energy Institute in 2010.
Alexander Prokopakis is Executive Director of IBIA – the International Bunker Industry Association, which represents companies across the marine energy value chain, including traditional and alternative marine fuels suppliers, traders, brokers, shipowners and port authorities. Previously, he worked in the bunkering industry, including as the CEO of PRO Holdings, the founder of the Probunkers project, and the lead of Mamidakis Group’s shipping, bunkering and aviation activities. He holds an MBA from St. John’s University.
Sian Prior is Shipping Director at Seas At Risk and Lead Advisor for the Clean Arctic Alliance, which consists of 24 not-for-profit organisations and is focused on protecting the Arctic from the impacts of shipping. She has 30 years of experience in policy development, primarily in the non-government sector, but was also seconded to government positions. She has a B.Sc. in marine biology and oceanography from Bangor University and a PhD in marine ecotoxicology from Queen Mary, University of London.
Irene Rosberg, Director of the Executive MBA in Shipping and Logistics at the Copenhagen Business School – which is widely known as The Blue MBA – explains why this globally recognised course came into being nearly 25 years ago, how it has evolved by keeping a finger on the pulse of a rapidly changing maritime sector, and what skills ‘fit-for-purpose’ leaders need today to grow and succeed, and, most importantly, to take their companies forward in a highly competitive and quickly evolving market.
Over 450 ‘students’ have graduated since the course was launched, and its most recent cohort comprised 48 participants from 25 countries.
At its launch nearly a quarter of a century ago, leaders in shipping and related sectors were predominantly male and drawn from the countries that had the largest maritime economies, such as Western Europe, the US and Japan.
As Irene explains, today’s Blue MBA requires a mindset that embraces diversity in terms of nationality and gender but the course is laser focused on providing a holistic view of shipping and its connected industries, and one of its strengths is that its students are drawn from a wide range of industry segments, including owners, operators, freight forwarders, ship managers, lawyers and finance professionals. The students learn from their tutors – and also from each other.
The MBA also requires its students to have a job in maritime, and this enables them to apply the learning and insights they gain throughout the course to real life challenges and issues within their own companies – education informs practise and vice versa.
An executive leader today cannot just be an expert in a niche area, they must be able to read the market, put together forecasts, understand risk management, create strategies, understand ESG obligations and environmental regulations – and also recognise the importance of soft skills, emotional intelligence, human capital and taking a collaborative approach to decision-making.
In this conversation, Paul Hexter lifts the veil on some of the practical challenges that Waterfront Shipping experienced since the first seven methanol dual-fuel vessels joined its fleet in 2016. He emphasises the central role of onboard teams and shipowners in solving technical teething issues around pilot fuel and lubricating oil, and in helping improve the technology from the first to the second and third generations of dual-fuel ships.
Today, 19 of the company’s 30 deep-sea tankers are able to use methanol as fuel.
Paul reports that the company has run its vessels on conventional methanol and some bio-methanol for over 245,000 hours to date, and that the fleet is currently operated on methanol ‘quite often’ in the current fuel price environment.
He also outlines his vision for the transition to green methanol, revealing that Waterfront Shipping is already using some bio-methanol as fuel to ensure compliance with FuelEU Maritime regulations.
While Waterfront Shipping does not currently have more vessels on order, the company aims to stick to methanol dual-fuel technology for future newbuild orders.
Asked about trends in the alternative-fuelled orderbook, which show that LNG has overtaken methanol in newbuild orders since the second half of 2024, Paul argues that ‘there is definitely room for multiple alternative fuels in the market,’ and highlights that methanol ‘makes a lot of sense’ as a fuel option, given that it doesn’t need cryogenic treatment and pressurisation and few modifications are needed to existing bunkering infrastructure and processes.
He also comments on the IMO member states’ decision to postpone the Net-Zero Framework by a year. While many owners may defer newbuild or retrofit decisions amid the uncertainty, he points out that the industry as a whole remains supportive of a transition towards more sustainable fuels, and believes the delay might give companies a chance to further evaluate their options.
The CEO of green analytics firm GENA Solutions examines the impact of the one-year delay of the IMO Net-Zero Framework on renewable fuel production projects, and on future ammonia and methanol volumes available for shipping.
Podcast highlights
While it is still too early to measure the full effect of the IMO Net-Zero Framework postponement, Vitalii explains why he has no doubt that the pipeline of renewable fuel projects will be impacted, with likely cancellations and a slowdown in new projects being launched.
He anticipates that the uncertainty around the adoption of the first GHG pricing mechanism for shipping will make shipping companies more reluctant to sign binding long-term offtake agreements, without which many project promoters will struggle to secure financing and reach a final investment decision.
Vitalii notes that renewable methanol projects are likely to be particularly affected, as more than 80% of total global demand for the molecule was expected to come from the shipping sector before the MEPC extraordinary session. He expects a mixed picture, where projects that have already secured offtakers for their future production are likely to continue to progress, while others may require more time to attach financing or attempt to reorient their production to aviation or the chemical industry. Even though FuelEU Maritime will maintain some maritime demand and the Net-Zero Framework could still be adopted next year, he warns that some projects will ‘inevitably’ be cancelled as a result of the delay.
He remarks that the scenario is ‘quite opposite’ for renewable ammonia projects, as only about 10% of global consumption in 2030 was expected to come from the maritime sector. While GENA Solutions has revised its projections for the renewable methanol capacity available by 2030, down from 8-14 million tonnes to 6-13 million tonnes, its predictions for ammonia capacity have remained unchanged at 5-10 million tonnes.
Vitalii also compares prospects for renewable methanol and ammonia with other alternative fuels, such as bio-LNG and biofuels. He predicts that the delay to the Net-Zero Framework will shrink the market for all renewable fuels, but will disproportionately affect projects that require higher risks and investments, as well as long-term commitments from shipping companies.
Finally, he reflects on the countries and regions that will be most affected by a potential slowdown in offtake agreements and rise in project cancellations, and on whether governments should jump in to bridge the gap while the fate of the global IMO regulation remains uncertain.
In this special episode, we analyse the implications of the IMO Net-Zero Framework postponement with representatives of the shipping industry, Pacific Island States and environmental NGOs who attended the extraordinary MEPC meeting.
John Taukave, researcher at the Micronesian Center for Sustainable Transport, describes the outcome of the extraordinary MEPC session, where a majority of IMO member states voted to adjourn the meeting for a year, as ‘very heartbreaking’ and ‘a huge disappointment’ that will bring an additional year of climate impacts for Pacific Island communities.
A technical support and advisor for the Vanuatu delegation during the meeting, he describes the pressure, including at the highest level of government, that many countries came under from the United States, which opposed what it described as a carbon tax and threatened possible retaliation against states that would support it.
John also looks ahead to the next steps, vowing that Pacific Island States will continue their outreach work and the development of proposals to build support for the adoption of a first global GHG pricing mechanism for international shipping.
Simon Bennett, Deputy Secretary General of the International Chamber of Shipping, also expresses his disappointment at the outcome of the MEPC session, which he says fails to provide shipowners with the certainty they need to make major investment decisions.
Asked to analyse why the IMO Net-Zero Framework went from having the support of a majority of countries in April to a majority voting to postpone it six months later, he emphasises the importance of avoiding ‘blame games’. Although ICS had supported the proposed regulation to ensure a level playing field for the global industry, Simon acknowledges that the agreement’s complexity had caused concern. He argues that ‘a way has to be found’ to account for the reservations expressed by many countries.
Simon also reflects on what the outcome of MEPC means for IMO’s role as shipping’s global regulator. He warns that, if member states opt for an ‘explicit’ acceptance procedure, as was suggested by the United States, it risks creating a precedent that would make future regulatory updates more difficult.
Blánaid Sheeran, Policy Officer for Climate Diplomacy at Opportunity Green, insists that the IMO Net-Zero Framework is not dead, but delayed. She highlights that there is now an opportunity for regional and national players, as well as corporations, to take leadership on maritime decarbonisation.
While acknowledging that current geopolitics may make it harder to reach global climate agreements in the short term, she points out that politics is ‘ever changing’, whilst ‘climate change is not politics; it is science, and it is facts.’
Asked about the development of implementation guidelines, which began immediately after MEPC, she reports that those discussions have so far been constructive, with member states showing a ‘collaborative spirit.’ She expresses her optimism that a consensus could be found in the next year, before delegates have to adjudicate again on the proposed GHG pricing mechanism for international shipping.
As countries prepare for a decisive vote on the IMO Net-Zero Framework, the EU Commission expresses confidence that the first global pricing mechanism for greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions from international shipping will be adopted.
Podcast highlights
In this conversation, the EU Commission’s Director of Waterborne Transport, Fotini Ioannidou, explains why she remains confident that the IMO Net-Zero Framework will be adopted by a ‘large majority’ of member states at an extraordinary session of the organisation’s Marine Environment Protection Committee (MEPC) in mid-October.
While acknowledging that pressure from the United States, which includes possible retaliation against countries that will support the proposed global GHG pricing mechanism, is ‘serious’ and will weigh on countries’ positions, she does not believe it will be sufficient to destroy what she describes as ‘the commitment of the global community to deliver this first-of-its-kind global decarbonisation agreement.’
Asked what ‘plan B’ would look like if a majority of countries reject the Framework, she insists that there is ‘no credible alternative’ to the deal and there won’t be an opportunity to negotiate another one. She warns that, should MEPC fail to adopt the global regulation, the consequence would be regulatory fragmentation that would raise administrative burdens and costs for shipping.
Fotini also responds to calls, from the industry, for the EU to align its Emissions Trading System (ETS) and FuelEU Maritime regulations. She assures that the review process for both legislations will start ‘without delay’ as soon as the global framework is adopted to avoid a double regulatory burden for shipping companies.
Looking ahead, she also remarks that the next phase of negotiations on the development of guidelines is ‘likely to prove as difficult’ as were the talks that led to the agreement on the Net-Zero Framework itself. She singles out guidelines on rewards for zero or near-zero (ZNZ) fuels as ‘a priority among priorities’, which she says will be critical to provide clarity for investment in new fuels and energy sources.
Cruise company Carnival Corporation unpacks the learning from its experience spearheading shore power in this new episode of the First Movers series.
Podcast highlights
Marcel explains how a combination of geography, available renewable electricity supplies and community support led Carnival Corporation to develop shore power in Juneau, Alaska, back in 2001.
Nearly 25 years later, he acknowledges that the use of shore power across the fleet of 90 ships remains relatively small, given that only 33 of the 800 ports where the vessels call (about 4%) currently offer shore power.
Nevertheless, he argues that the investment in making vessels capable of using shore power, which runs into the millions per ship, was worth it.
While he recognises that shore power does not make sense for all ports due to insufficient grid capacity or a lack of maritime traffic, he argues that the investment would make commercial sense for many more ports. He points to the importance of leadership from port authorities in driving initiatives like shore power, and shares his view on why deployment has been sluggish in the past two decades.
Marcel also responds to the wider debate about sustainability in the cruise sector. He points out that by improving energy efficiency, the company has lowered its greenhouse gas (GHG) intensity per passenger by 41% compared to 2008 levels and peaked its total emissions in 2011 despite growing its business by 37%.
However, he emphasises that the transition to alternative fuels depends on many factors outside cruise lines’ control, such as the availability of new fuels at an economically viable price. Describing hydrogen and ammonia as currently unrealistic for the sector, he explains why the company has opted for the LNG pathway, with 10 LNG-capable ships in its fleet and 8 more expected to be delivered by 2033.
Finally, he reflects on how Carnival Corporation’s experience with shore power development revealed the importance of a long-term vision and collaboration to achieve progress on decarbonisation.
In this episode, we examine the potential of ammonia to take off as a marine fuel, by considering trends on both the production and demand sides.
Although numbers of ammonia-fuelled vessels are lower at present than LNG or methanol, Sofia sees clear signs in the global orderbooks that ammonia is gaining momentum as a marine fuel.
She believes that the market is likely to first emerge among ammonia carriers, and in regions where infrastructure is already being developed for receiving ammonia as an energy vector, including Japan and parts of Europe.
With future low-carbon ammonia production expected to reach nearly 50 million tonnes by 2030, she highlights that the bulk of that production isn’t earmarked for the maritime sector. Instead, she notes that the lion’s share of investments is for projects using ammonia for energy production and to decarbonise land-based industries.
Sofia urges shipping companies to get involved where potential ammonia production, infrastructure and import ecosystems are already emerging, by joining clusters to co-invest and share risk with other industries.
While she is confident that technology developments will meet the challenge of ensuring safe, leak-proof ammonia fuel and bunkering systems, she argues that the bunkering industry needs to step up to ensure operational readiness for ammonia bunkering.
She also insists on the importance of developing robust protocols for verifying and certifying the lifecycle carbon footprint of different ammonia production sources.
Finally, she explains why the adoption of the IMO Net-Zero Framework, which is scheduled to take place in October, will be essential for the development of a market for ammonia as a marine fuel.
The Executive Director of the Norwegian Shipowners’ Association, Helene Tofte, unpacks some of the main reasons why the country seems to have a head start on the energy transition – from the impact of ownership structures on individual companies’ willingness to invest for the long term, to the presence of industry clusters to foster collaboration on new technologies.
Data from the Norwegian Shipowners’ Association shows that 90% of its members have invested in emissions reduction technologies, including battery and hybrid systems, wind propulsion, and shore power.
Moreover, about 15% of vessels owned by the Association’s members today are powered by alternative fuels, compared to 2% of the global fleet. The orderbook reveals a similar trend, with 72% of newbuilds on order from Norwegian owners set to run on alternative fuels, compared to the global average of 27%.
Helene explains how Norwegian shipowners make business cases work for those investments in new fuels or technologies, and whether those decisions are already paying off in commercial terms.
She also lifts the veil on the challenges faced by the country’s shipowners. While the level of state support for decarbonisation makes Norway the envy of other owners elsewhere in the world, she argues that there is a need to ensure that enough funding is allocated for energy efficiency measures, and not solely for cutting-edge net-zero projects.
Finally, she reflects on the importance of the IMO adopting its Net-Zero Framework in October, but also of the EU harmonising its regulation, to create a level playing field globally.
About the Norwegian Shipowners’ Association
The Norwegian Shipowners’ Association (Norges Rederiforbund) is a trade and employment organisation representing Norwegian-controlled companies in the shipping and offshore industry.
The Association has 128 members, which control a 450-strong offshore fleet, including wind- and subsea vessels, as well as 240 ships on short-sea routes and over 700 vessels in the deep-sea segment. In addition, 50 mobile offshore units are part of its member fleet.
In this episode, GCMD’s CEO Prof. Lynn Loo unpacks the learnings from two landmark pilots: ship-to-ship ammonia transfers in the Pilbara and a demonstration of an end-to-end value chain for onboard captured CO₂ in China.
She describes how safety risks, including toxicity, were managed during the first ship-to-ship transfer of liquid ammonia between two gas carriers, which was carried out in Western Australia. She also shares technical and operational insights from the pilot, which aims to provide guidelines for other ports to conduct trials and ultimately strengthen their confidence to develop ammonia bunkering capabilities.
Asked for her views on how and when this might unfold, she explains why she sees large bulk carriers on the iron ore corridor between Western Australia and Northern Asia as probable frontrunners – and why containerships are unlikely to be first movers on ammonia as a marine fuel even though they have been first movers on other fuels and decarbonisation measures.
Lynn then discusses the results from another pilot that saw 25 metric tonnes of liquefied CO2 that had been captured on a ship being offloaded, transported, and used as feedstock in the production of low-carbon calcium carbonate. Demonstrating this possible end use for captured CO2 was a major first step, she highlights, adding that the next trials will focus on lifecycle assessments and solving some technical challenges.
She also emphasises the importance of building trust in existing decarbonisation options, such as biofuels and energy efficiency technologies, to accelerate their uptake by the shipping industry. She outlines how GCMD is currently working on projects to improve biofuel traceability and validate the fuel savings delivered by energy efficiency technologies.
Finally, she reflects on how the financial, operational, technical, and safety risks of the energy transition can be managed through a cross-sector collaborative approach.
In this episode, BV’s maritime head details why he believes that shipping needs ‘radical ideas’ to achieve its decarbonisation targets.
Speaking after the publication of his second book, titled Toward a sustainable blue economy, in which he calls for ‘a revolution in how we finance, fuel and operate the global fleet’, Matthieu de Tugny outlines what this looks like in practice.
He offers some avenues to reinvent the current economics behind investment and funding decisions in shipping, which are generally geared towards proven technology – often conventional fossil fuels – and tend to incentivise shipowners to ‘sit back and wait’.
Describing green financing as a ‘structural enabler’ of decarbonisation, he shares his views on the impact of initiatives such as the Poseidon Principles and the Sea Cargo Charter, and explains what more can be done by regulators to give a competitive advantage to first movers and bring more certainty on broader infrastructure and supply chain investments.
Matthieu de Tugny also shares his advice for owners of smaller fleets or vessels operated on tramp trades. Whilst acknowledging that those companies are unlikely to become early adopters of new fuels such as ammonia or methanol, he emphasised the importance of incremental progress delivered by efficiency improvements or transition fuels such as biofuels.
He reflects on how classification societies are set to be transformed by shipping’s decarbonisation transition, helping mitigate risk around new fuels and technologies and taking on a more advisory role.
Finally, he shares his views on the potential applications of artificial intelligence (AI) to optimise the performance and maintenance of fleets, and explains why he believes that training could be the most important challenge for the industry going forward.
In this episode, we meet the new CEO of the Methanol Institute to hear his gameplan for the development of methanol as a marine fuel.
Alexander Döll explains why he is confident that renewable methanol production will be able to meet shipping’s demand. With 240 projects for blue, bio- or e-methanol currently under development, he expects ‘real volumes’ to be available by 2027 or 2028.
He discusses the role of China as a first mover, representing 88% of renewable methanol production today, and outlines how he anticipates production and bunkering infrastructure to scale up in more shipping hubs in the short, medium and long term.
He also reacts to the latest figures in the global orderbook for alternative-fuelled ships, which showed LNG overtaking methanol from mid-2024, arguing that methanol isn’t losing momentum as a marine fuel option.
He reports ‘genuinely encouraging’ results from the practical experience of bunkering, crew training and using methanol as fuel on ships since the entry into service of Ane Maersk in early 2024. He also addresses reports from Maersk of maintenance problems with their methanol dual-fuel engines, which he says were ‘completely expected’ at this stage, and reveals that a solution has been found by the engine manufacturer.
Reflecting on the energy transition more broadly, he emphasises that a multi-fuel approach will be needed, and explains why he believes that shipping should stop thinking of the transition as a race or a competition between fuels.
In this episode, we meet students, tutors and managers at the South Devon College Marine Academy to discuss how maritime training is evolving amid shipping’s digital and energy transitions.
The Academy, on the banks of the River Dart, in South West England, trains between 70 and 100 students and apprentices each year in its maritime programmes.
Join our Senior Editor Ariane Morrissey as she accompanies a group of Maritime Studies pupils on a sea outing on the last day of their year-long programme, in June 2025.
We meet Emma Eggleton and Harry Clayton, both 17, who share their thoughts on the profound changes that the maritime industry will experience during their future careers at sea – and why they feel up to the challenge.
During our visit, learning support technician Shaun Cuming and lecturer Rebecca Sanders explain how they have already started adapting their teaching to prepare their students for the new fuels and technologies that they are likely to encounter on ships.
Finally, Paul Singer, business and qualification development coordinator at the Academy, reflects on the challenges that the energy transition is bringing for maritime training institutions, including that of developing new course content, training its own teaching staff, and finding funding for new equipment for its workshops.
He argues that the transition can open up new opportunities, as the industry is already manifesting its demand for training courses to upskill its workforce, and demand for trained maritime workers will grow from emerging sectors such as offshore wind.
With shipping’s energy transition calling for huge investments in new ships, fuels, technologies and supply chains, Enova’s Rune Holmen discusses how governments can best support – and fund – maritime decarbonisation.
Owned by the Norwegian Ministry of Climate and the Environment, Enova’s mandate is to allocate funds to projects that will help the country reach net-zero by 2050. It manages an annual budget of around $1 billion. A substantial part of this is allocated to maritime decarbonisation initiatives, ranging from battery installations to carbon capture, fuel production, and ships capable of using hydrogen or ammonia as fuel.
In this conversation, Rune reflects on the results delivered by the funds, which have supported more than 900 maritime projects in the past 10 years. He recalls how one of the first projects – charging stations for Norway’s first fully-electric ferries – was initially dismissed by many as ‘science-fiction’, but ultimately helped build the battery value chain in the country, leading to about 45 battery-powered ferries hitting the water since. Today, such electrification projects often materialise without any public funding as they have become financially viable on their own, which he emphasises is Enova’s end goal.
Rune describes how Enova is now attempting to replicate this success with ammonia and hydrogen, with funds being allocated for production and bunkering sites at the same time as investments in ships using those fuels. He insists that a ‘whole supply chain’ approach is essential, but explains why directly financing fuel purchases to cover the cost gap between renewable and fossil fuels isn’t the best option in his view.
With public finances around the world feeling the squeeze and many competing demands for funding, he explains how Enova selects the projects it supports – and why it will no longer fund projects to fit wind propulsion or energy efficiency on newbuild vessels powered by LNG or fossil fuels, as those would reduce greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions but fail to reach net-zero by 2050.
Asked what lessons Enova’s experience can reveal for other countries that don’t have the same level of resources as Norway, he highlighted that even relatively small investments can make a big difference, if targeted wisely. Among his top tips: ‘think systematically and accept that this takes time’.
In this sixth episode of the First Movers series, Odfjell’s Erik Hjortland discusses the results and lessons learned from the installation of more than 140 energy efficiency technologies across the company’s fleet of 71 chemical tankers.
The Norwegian owner and operator first embarked on an energy efficiency programme in 2007, using enhanced data collection to drive operational improvements, before rolling out a retrofitting programme to upgrade rudder systems, propellers and main engines across its fleet from 2015.
In this conversation, Erik comments on the results achieved by the programme, which has improved the energy efficiency of Odfjell’s managed fleet by 53% compared to a 2008 baseline. He also sheds light on the company’s approach to selecting what technologies to install on its vessels, and shares his insights into which ones have delivered the best return on investment in real-life operations.
He argues that the business case for energy efficiency is clear, revealing that Odfjell has invested $40 million in energy efficiency technologies since 2014, which led to $108 million in savings in the past five years.
Erik also explains why Odfjell decided to move one step further with the installation of suction sails on the Bow Olympus, and the completion of a near carbon neutral transatlantic voyage which combined wind propulsion and biofuels. He calls on the industry to do more to harness the emissions reduction potential of existing technologies.
First Movers puts the spotlight on maritime companies that that were among the first to trial and adopt new fuels or technologies. The series goes beyond initial big announcements and headlines, and asks what happens in the months and years that follow. It aims to unpack the practical challenges that first movers experience, and implementing new fuels or technologies have transformed their operations and business.
Listen to the previous episodes in the First Movers series:
Episode 01: Rasmus Nielsen, Naval Architect / Officer at Scandlines, one of the first companies to install rotor sails on their ships
Episode 02: Andrew Hoare, Group Manager of Green Shipping at Fortescue, which pioneered the world’s first ship to use ammonia as fuel
Episode 03: Jordan Pechie, President of Seaspan Marine Transportation, about the deployment of fully-electric tugboats in their fleet
Episode 04: Femke Brenninkmeijer, CEO of NPRC, which spearheaded the world’s first newbuild inland vessel that can use hydrogen as a fuel
Episode 05: Henrik Røjel, Head of Decarbonisation & Climate Solutions at Norden, which became one of the first companies to trial 100% biofuels on a large ocean-going vessel
In this edition of the ship.energy podcast, Lesley Bankes-Hughes talks to a very well-known and proactive leader in the maritime industry, Pia Meling.
Pia has had an extensive career in shipping and the imperatives of sustainability and decarbonisation have informed and underpinned her job choices, including working on good practice in ship recycling and on zero emission, autonomous shipping.
In March this year, she left Grieg Green where she was Managing Director, and she is now leading the team at EVIGO, the green services offshoot of the ship management company, OSM Thome.
One of the largest global ship managers, OSM Thome handles the operations and crewing of around 1,000 vessels across a range of segments, and when it launched its EVIGO division in late 2024 one of its mission statements was ‘to tackle environmental targets head-on’.
In this podcast, Pia discusses the business culture and values she is looking to inculcate in this new venture and also explains why she decided to take the job is its MD.
She explores a changing relationship between shipowner and ship manager in the context of shipping’s decarbonisation, the challenges as well as the positives of stakeholder collaboration, the GHG emission reduction options available to the existing global fleet, fuel ‘demand signals’, and the importance of training the maritime workforce to be able to deliver the energy transition onboard and landside.
She also offers her ‘take’ on EU regulation and the outcomes of IMO MEPC 83, as well her views on what leadership should be as shipping navigates its course through one of the biggest changes in its history.
As the dust begins to settle on the landmark approval of the first global greenhouse gas (GHG) pricing mechanism for international shipping, the IMO Secretary-General considers the road ahead, and urges the industry to not delay action on decarbonisation.
In this conversation, Arsenio Dominguez reflects on the eventful MEPC 83 meeting that led to IMO member states approving a ‘compromise’ text comprising mandatory requirements for the GHG intensity of the energy used by ships, with penalties for non-compliant vessels based on a tiered system.
He responds to criticisms that the new IMO Net-Zero Framework is unlikely to achieve the IMO’s own GHG emissions reductions targets, insisting that the organisation remains on track to meet its ambition of reaching net-zero ‘by or around’ 2050.
Although the approval required a vote, a rare occurrence at the IMO which generally makes decisions by consensus, the Secretary-General describes the agreement as ‘an immense achievement’ and is adamant that the measure will be formally adopted in October as scheduled.
Asked what his priorities will be in the lead-up to that extraordinary MEPC session, he outlines how he will attempt to address the concerns of member states that opposed the measure in April – and explains what will be his approach to the United States, which did not attend the discussions in London, instead sending a letter to oppose the measure and threaten retaliatory action against any fees.
Arsenio Dominguez calls on ship owners, operators and fuel producers to take action, laying out a timeline for when much-anticipated guidelines will be available ahead of the planned entry into force of the new pricing mechanism in 2027.
https://www.imo.org/
In this episode, we find out more about the results of the first commercial deployment of Blue Visby, which aims to end the practice of ‘sail fast then wait’ and thereby reduce shipping’s greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions.
Led by CBH Group, a Western Australian co-operative of grain growers, the first few months of operations saw emissions avoided of about 15%, which is consistent with results from earlier prototype trials, and what was modelled by digital twin pilots before that.
Blue Visby achieved those emissions savings by giving each ship’s captains an optimal time of arrival that keeps their place in the queue and allows them to slow down, reducing their fuel consumption, and arrive when their berth is ready.
In this conversation, the coordinator of Blue Visby, Haris Zografakis, reflects on whether similar emissions savings could be replicated elsewhere.
He discusses the scaling up potential of Blue Visby, and the consortium’s plans to deploy the system in more commercial settings, including the Panama Canal and the ports of Rotterdam, in the Netherlands, and Newcastle, in Australia.
He insists on the importance for any decarbonisation solution to be ‘commercially palatable’ to enable their uptake by the industry. He explains how Blue Visby’s contractual arrangements aim to neutralise ‘split incentives’ by which some parties benefit financially from ‘sail fast then wait’ (SFTW) because they can claim demurrage.
Nearly three years after the Blue Visby consortium was launched, Haris estimates that there has been progress in industry awareness and willingness to accept new ways of working – and he believes that shipping’s decarbonisation transition will only increase the urgency to solve SFTW.
In this special episode, representatives from Small Island Developing States (SIDS) and the bunkering industry lay out their hopes and expectations ahead of the IMO’s MEPC 83 meeting, which is set to approve potentially ‘game-changing’ measures for shipping’s energy transition.
Ambassador Albon Ishoda, Marshall Islands’ Special Envoy for Maritime Decarbonisation,
and Edmund Hughes, IBIA’s Representative to the IMO, concur in calling for Member States to agree a strong economic measure or greenhouse gas levy when they meet in London.
They highlight the ‘vast’ needs to both fund shipping’s energy transition and build climate resilience in developing countries.
Ambassador Ishoda explains why a GHG levy – something that Pacific and Caribbean SIDS have been demanding for years – is one of the most important elements that he wants to see in the final agreement. He also argues that the price of this levy must be ‘high enough’ so that in addition to incentivising new fuels and technologies, revenues can also be used to support developing countries that are experiencing first-hand the impacts of climate change.
IBIA’s Edmund Hughes also backs the proposal of a fund supported by a levy or another
similar maritime GHG pricing mechanism. He believes this has the potential to be a game-changer, by providing the clear demand signals needed by the industry to invest in the production and bunkering of low- and zero-carbon fuels for shipping.
Both guests share their thoughts on whether an agreement can be reached at MEPC 83, despite fundamental differences in opinions between countries and amid changing geopolitics. Although the GHG levy proposal has gained momentum and is now backed by more than 50 countries, it is opposed by others who cite concerns about potential impacts of a levy on economies, shipping prices, and food security.
Hughes and Ishoda also give their views on what will come after MEPC 83: how the industry and financiers might respond to an economic measure, and how a potential IMO Fund could help build climate resilience in developing countries.
In this fifth episode of the First Movers series, Ariane Morrissey is joined by Henrik Røjel, Head of Decarbonisation and Climate Solutions at Norden, to discuss how their business and operations were transformed since the company became one of the first to trial 100% biofuels on a large ocean-going vessel in 2018.
First Movers features maritime companies that were among the first to trial and adopt new fuels or technologies. The series goes beyond initial big announcements and headlines, and asks what happens in the months and years that follow. It aims to unpack the practical challenges, and opportunities, that first movers experience as new fuels and technologies become part of their operations.
In this conversation, Henrik reveals why he believes that being an early biofuel adopter helped Norden develop a competitive edge. Even though there was hardly any demand for green shipping from cargo owners at the time of the first trials, the move helped the Danish operator and its crews build knowledge and experience around the fuel.
Henrik describes how biofuels have since become part of Norden’s day-to-day operations, leading to the development of a ‘book-and-claim’ service that enabled the company to obtain high-profile deals with BHP and Meta to help decarbonise their supply chains. Asked about the challenges of limited feedstocks, he explains why it ‘made a lot of sense’ for Norden to acquire a minority stake in the biofuel producer MASH Makes to secure access to sustainable biofuels at a competitive price.
Henrik notes that the business case for decarbonisation measures is evolving quickly amid new regulation, describing FuelEU Maritime as a ‘game changer’ for biofuel use in shipping. He also reflects on the challenges of transitioning to future fuels, such as ammonia or methanol, for companies like Norden, which operate bulk carriers and tankers primarily on the spot market.
Listen to the previous episodes in the First Movers series:
Episode 01: Rasmus Nielsen, Naval Architect / Officer at Scandlines, one of the first companies to install rotor sails on their ships
Episode 02: Andrew Hoare, Group Manager of Green Shipping at Fortescue, which pioneered the world’s first ship to use ammonia as fuel
Episode 03: Jordan Pechie, President of Seaspan Marine Transportation, about the deployment of fully-electric tugboats in their fleet
Episode 04: Femke Brenninkmeijer, CEO of NPRC, which spearheaded the world’s first newbuild inland vessel that can use hydrogen as a fuel
AYK Energy’s Chris Kruger is known as one of the founders of marine battery technology, having worked first in the electric car industry before moving to marine. He developed the battery for the first hybrid propulsion ferry, Princess Benedikte, and the first fully electric ferry, Ampere, in 2012.
A native South African now based in Andorra, he established AYK Energy in 2018, building its first factory in 2023 China to be close to the centre of the battery industry supply chain, which he says is 10 years ahead of Europe.
In this conversation, Chris draws on his long experience in the battery industry to explain some of the operational challenges associated with using the technology in a harsh maritime environment. He also gives an overview of AYK’s recent and ongoing projects, including a ground-breaking contract with Frances’ Brittany Ferries.
He addresses safety concerns in using batteries onboard ships and he explains why he supports the use of lithium iron phosphate batteries in this operational environment. He also looks at what might be on the horizon for batteries as the technology advances.
Achieving commercial viability is also the name of the game for technology companies – whether they be mature businesses or start-ups – and Chris offers some key insights into the processes and challenges of setting up manufacturing operations overseas and moving from concept to production.
With his deep knowledge of the battery sector, he also has some interesting perspectives on how the industry is evolving, the business climate for new entrants, and whether some market consolidation may be on the cards.
For more information, go to www.aykenergy.com
The new edition of the ship.energy podcast features Ingrid Irigoyen, Senior Director, Ocean and Climate at the Washington-headquartered Aspen Institute’s Energy and Environment Program, who is also President and CEO of the Zero Emission Maritime Buyers Alliance (ZEMBA), and Dr Charlie McKinlay, who is the Fuels and Technologies Lead at LR’s Maritime Decarbonisation Hub.
The podcast is released to coincide with the launch of ZEMBA’s second tender to shipowners which will focus on 3–5-year off take contracts for e-fuel-powered container shipping, starting in 2027.
A key focus of ZEMBA’s work is to make advanced market commitments for innovative fuels and technologies.
ZEMBA’s inaugural fuel tender to shipowners was completed in April 2024. Hapag-Lloyd was the winner, and it has been supplying ZEMBA members with bio-LNG.
Ahead of its new tender, ZEMBA drew on the expertise of Lloyd’s Register’s Maritime Decarbonisation Hub to send out a request for information to assess the market readiness of e-fuels for commercial deployment in the shipping sector from a 2027 starting point.
In the maritime sector, we are hearing a lot about the need for fuel demand signals to catalyse shipping’s energy transition. New or alternative marine fuels – and particularly the very low and zero carbon variants – are expensive to produce, and we are starting from a low base in terms of their scalability and geographical availability.
In this podcast, Ingrid and Charlie look at the low and zero carbon fuel demand and supply conundrum, offer their perspectives on how industry collaboration is working in practice to address this, and discuss the latest ZEMBA tender process in detail.
Ingrid Irigoyen is the Senior Director, Ocean and Climate, for the Aspen Institute Energy and Environment Program (EEP), where she leads EEP’s work at the ocean-climate nexus and serves as a strategic advisor and facilitator for multi-stakeholder initiatives seeking to address climate, ocean, and coastal challenges. She also serves as the President and CEO of the Zero Emission Maritime Buyers Alliance (ZEMBA), a non-profit organization and first-of-its-kind buyers group within the maritime sector with the mission to accelerate commercial deployment of clean energy powered shipping, enable economies of scale for new solutions, and support cargo owner engagement in maritime clean energy policy.
Prior to joining Aspen in 2018, she was a Senior Mediator and Program Manager at Meridian Institute, where she devoted 13 years to the design and execution of collaborative multi-stakeholder sustainability solutions, with a special focus on oceans and coasts. Prior to this, among other positions, Ingrid was a John A. Knauss Marine Policy Fellow with the U.S. National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration. She holds a Masters of Environmental Management from the Nicholas School of the Environment at Duke University and a Bachelor of Science in Environmental Science from the University of New Hampshire.
More information about the work and membership of ZEMBA can be found at its website: Zero Emission Maritime Buyers Alliance – ZEMBA
Dr. Charlie McKinlay is a researcher in the field of maritime decarbonisation and is the Fuels and Technologies Lead at the Lloyd Register’s (LR) Maritime Decarbonisation Hub, where he one of the key team leads for The Silk Alliance Green Corridor Cluster initiative for shipping focused on bunkering alternative fuels in Singapore.
Charlie’s professional research expertise focuses on clean maritime fuels, encompassing the whole value chain, from sustainable and scalable supply chains to efficient onboard deployment.
Charlie holds a PhD in Dynamic Energy System Modelling from the University of Southampton, where he researched into transition technologies for viable zero emissions shipping solutions, such as fuel cells, energy saving technologies, and smart energy management.
The Lloyd’s Register Maritime Decarbonisation Hub is an independent, not-for-profit social purpose organisation, working towards our vision of a safe, sustainable, and human-centric decarbonised shipping industry for the benefit of society.
Formed in 2020 with a grant from Lloyd’s Register Foundation, and in partnership with Lloyd’s Register Group, we are an evidence-led research and action unit. Our team of specialists in economics, fuels, risk & safety engineering, human factors, and analytics deliver research, insights, and implementation pathways to future fuels across the maritime supply chain.
For more information, go to www.maritimedecarbonisationhub.org.
The First Movers series puts the spotlight on maritime companies that were among the first to trial and adopt new fuels and technologies.
But rather than focusing on initial big announcements and headlines, this series asks what happens in the months and years that follow. It aims to unpack the practical challenges, tangible results, and new opportunities experienced by shipping’s first movers as new fuels and technologies become part of their operations.
In this fourth episode of First Movers, Ariane Morrissey is joined by Femke Brenninkmeijer, CEO of NPRC, a Dutch cooperative of barge owners. The company pioneered Antonie, the world’s first newbuild inland vessel that can use hydrogen as a fuel.
In this conversation, Femke reflects on the key learnings from the project, which was launched with a vision for the 135-metre-long inland ship, which transports salt for Nobian from its production site of Delfzijl to Rotterdam, to be fuelled by green hydrogen that is created as a by-product of salt production.
While Antonie officially started operations in late 2023, it has not been able to use hydrogen as a fuel yet – due to delays in some certifications, engineering, and deliveries of hydrogen containers.
Despite those setbacks, Femke is confident that the vessel will sail on hydrogen in the coming months, and the company is already working on two more projects for hydrogen-fuelled ships.
She recognised that being a first mover comes at a price, but she believes it is worth it for the learnings gained – not only in terms of technical and engineering expertise, but in shedding light on the importance of solid partnerships to go through the inevitable ‘ups and downs’ of spearheading innovation.
Listen to the previous episodes in the First Movers series:
Episode 01: Rasmus Nielsen, Naval Architect / Officer, Scandlines
Episode 02: Andrew Hoare, Group Manager of Green Shipping at Fortescue
Episode 03: Jordan Pechie, President, Seaspan Marine Transportation
Could compliance with FuelEU Maritime be as simple for shipowners as it is for consumers signing an electricity supply contract? This is what Risto-Juhani Kariranta, CEO of Ahti Pool, argues in this week’s episode.
Finland-based Ahti Pool currently brings together about 250 vessels from a number of different companies. It enables owners of ‘under-compliant’ ships, or those that fall below the GHG intensity reduction targets set out by FuelEU Maritime, to tap into the ‘compliance surpluses’ of dual-fuel vessels in the pool, by compensating them for their use of green methanol or bio-LNG.
The concept works, Risto says, because both parties are set to benefit financially.
In this conversation, he discusses some of the practical challenges of compliance pooling, from constant monitoring to developing contractual arrangements, and explains why he believes it will genuinely help accelerate investment in renewable and low-carbon fuels.
The ship.energy podcast gets into its stride in the New Year with a conversation between ship.energy’s Tom Barlow-Brown and Cameron Mitchell, Director of the Isle of Man Ship Registry (IoMSR).
At the celebration of its 40th anniversary last September, the Registry emphasised its proactive stance on decarbonisation and crew welfare, and in this wide-ranging discussion Mitchell talks about the IoMSR’s consultancy work on decarbonisation, including a recent partnership with Berge Bulk. He also shares insights on how the Registry’s sustainability goals align with global and national energy and maritime strategies.
Mitchell looks at all the energy options on the table – including nuclear down the line – and as technical innovation and digitalisation/AI initiatives gather pace, he emphasises that a strong regulatory framework is essential to underpin and facilitate the direction of travel in shipping’s energy transition. Implementing effective and comprehensive crew training on new marine fuels will also be critical in delivering shipping’s decarbonisation safely and competently.
Mitchell takes a pragmatic approach to the industry’s decarbonisation – be focussed on ‘the art of the possible’ – but he also calls on industry and the regulators to keep the momentum going – it’s imperative to for all stakeholders to keep moving forward.
Cameron Mitchell is a qualified Marine Engineer who has worked for Geest Line, Maersk and Farstad. He moved to the Isle of Man in 2001 and joined the Ship Registry in 2003, becoming Director in 2019.
He has a Diploma in the surveying of ships and yachts and more recently he has completed the Isle of Man Government's Senior Leadership Development Programme.
The First Movers series puts the spotlight on maritime companies that have been among the first to take the plunge on decarbonisation by trialling and adopting alternative fuels or green technologies.
This series goes beyond the initial and optimistic big announcements and headlines and asks what happens in the months and years that follow. It aims to unpick the tangible results achieved and the practical challenges faced by these decarbonisation pioneers.
In this third episode of First Movers, Ariane Morrissey caught up with Jordan Pechie, President at Seaspan Marine Transportation, about a year and a half after the company welcomed the first of three fully electric tugboats into its fleet, on Canada’s West Coast.
In this conversation, Jordan gleefully recalls the surprise on the captain’s face as the tug pulled off the dock silently, and how day-to-day work was transformed as captains adapted to operating the vessels without the usual cues provided by the engines’ sound and vibration.
As for many first movers, the project was ahead of both regulation and of any government financial support programme. This meant that Seaspan had to complete a lengthy series of HAZIP and HAZOP to secure approval for the battery-powered vessels, but also that it didn’t receive any government funding for the electric tugs.
Despite this, Jordan explains that the project was successful because it made financial sense, with an 8 to 9 years payback period on OpEx through fuel savings. With several new fuel and technology options emerging, he insists on the importance for first movers to develop their green projects around their own operational needs and constraints, and to anchor their decisions in real world data. In Seaspan’s case, the company opted for batteries because British Columbia has abundant clean energy, and the technology was suited for tug operations that require high torque and high power for a short period of time.
With more green projects in the works, Seaspan’s experience also underscores how collaboration was essential on several levels: from captains feeding into the vessel design from the outset, to the shared vision of the project partners and clients, which were committed to walking the walk on environment protection.
Listen to the previous episodes in the First Movers series:
Episode 01: Rasmus Nielsen, Naval Architect / Officer, Scandlines
Episode 02: Andrew Hoare, Group Manager of Green Shipping at Fortescue
Our guest this week works day in, day out, on a question that may appear technical at first glance, but will be central to deploying new green fuels in shipping: how can we bunker those fuels safely and efficiently?
The ship.energy podcast caught up with Stephen Gallagher, Technical Advisor at SGMF, a few weeks after the publication of its first bunkering guidelines for ammonia and methanol. This milestone, Stephen says, signals that the maritime industry is entering a more practical stage in the transition to new fuels, as the first vessels powered by those fuels hit the water and more are being built.
SGMF is hardly new to developing bunkering guidelines for new fuels. The organisation was first known for its LNG bunkering guidelines, which were launched in their initial version in 2016 and have since become a global reference.
In this conversation, Stephen explains how experience gained with LNG was applied to developing the new bunkering guidelines, while accounting for the unique characteristics of each fuel, such as the toxicity of ammonia and the flammability of methanol.
He believes that the new guidelines will help alleviate seafarer concerns about potential safety risks associated with new fuels, but also insists on the importance for shipping companies to foster an open dialogue with crews from the outset to build trust and ensure a safe environment.
Stephen also highlights the need for tailored training, as seafarers must be prepared for the unique scenarios they may encounter, depending on the characteristics of the fuel type. SGMF is working to expand its guidance on training and competency in areas such as ammonia and methanol, by leveraging insights from members and fuel producers, aiming to complement STCW requirements.
As SGMF expands its scope to include new fuels, Stephen says he is optimistic for what comes next. In his view, the multi-fuel era is an opportunity to innovate and improve practices.
First movers series, episode 02
Andrew Hoare, Group Manager of Green Shipping at Fortescue
The First Movers series puts the spotlight on those maritime companies that have been among the first to take the plunge on decarbonisation by trialling and adopting alternative fuels or green technologies.
This series goes beyond the initial and optimistic big announcements and headlines and asks what happens in the months and years that follow. It aims to unpick the tangible results achieved and the practical challenges faced by these decarbonisation pioneers.
As the series develops, we will interrogate the concept of a ‘first mover advantage’. How does being a trailblazer deliver in terms of achieving commercial success, developing cutting edge technology, and driving the energy transition forwards? With the benefit of hindsight, would these companies take the same decisions again or would their strategies be very different?
In this second episode of First Movers, Ariane Morrissey is joined by Andrew Hoare, Group Manager of Green Shipping at Fortescue. The company made global headlines for completing trials of the world’s first ammonia capable ship, the offshore vessel Green Pioneer, in Singapore.
In this conversation, Andrew relates how the company overcame a lack of regulatory readiness for the use of ammonia as a marine fuel. He reveals the multiple ‘chicken and egg’ situations that they faced, and how close collaboration with port authorities and classification societies was critical to obtain the necessary approvals for the project to go ahead.
Andrew highlights that the biggest learning from Fortescue’s experience as a first mover was the importance of involving the crew from the outset, with a rigorous ‘safety-first’ approach and extensive training.
Looking ahead, he argues that there will be a first-mover advantage, as a growing range of EU, global and national regulations will put a price on carbon emissions. He points out that this will not only make it increasingly expensive to operate on traditional fossil fuels, but also means that companies will find it difficult to secure financing unless they act on decarbonisation.
Listen to the first episode of the First Movers series here: Rasmus Nielsen, Naval Architect / Officer, Scandlines
In this week’s ship.energy podcast we look at the issue of methane slip across the maritime fuel supply chain and, more specifically, onboard LNG dual-fuelled vessels.
We hear a lot about the need to cut shipping’s carbon dioxide emissions but in terms of climate impact methane is much more pernicious than CO2. It has a global warming potential 28 times greater than CO2 over a 100-year timeframe, and when we are looking at a 20-year period, this rises to 87.
The Methane Abatement in Maritime Innovation Initiative – or MAMII – was launched over two years ago, in September 2022, by SafetyTech Accelerator, which was established by Lloyd’s Register and has a mission to find and put to the test a range of technologies will measure and abate methane emissions in the maritime sector.
To discuss the challenges posed by methane slip and the work being undertaken by MAMII, we are joined by its programme director, Steve Price.
During the conversation, Steve explains current approaches and methodologies in measuring methane slip and the project’s selection of measurement technologies.
He gives an overview of the methane slip abatement technologies that could be adapted for the maritime environment.
Steve also looks at the increasingly complex regulatory environment for shipping and considers what role MAMII could potentially play in developing or harmonising a standard for methane measurement.
For the last six years Steve has worked for Safetytech Accelerator, established by Lloyds Register, to bring innovation into safetytech critical industries including construction, shipping, ports, mining and nuclear). Challenges have included safety, sustainability and welfare. Steve has spent the last 20 years running innovation programmes for large corporates and the UK government’s innovation agency. He started his career with a computer science degree and went on to run digital transformation programmes throughout his management consulting career.
First movers series, episode 01
Rasmus Nielsen, Naval Architect / Officer, Scandlines
The First Movers series puts the spotlight on those maritime companies that have been among the first to take the plunge on decarbonisation by trialling and adopting alternative fuels or green technologies.
This series goes beyond the initial and optimistic big announcements and headlines and asks what happens in the months and years that follow. It aims to unpick the tangible results achieved and the practical challenges faced by these decarbonisation pioneers.
As the series develops, we will interrogate the concept of a ‘first mover advantage’. How does being a trailblazer deliver in terms of achieving commercial success, developing cutting edge technology, and driving the energy transition forwards? With the benefit of hindsight, would these companies take the same decisions again or would their strategies be very different?
In this first episode of First Movers, Ariane Morrissey is joined by Rasmus Nielsen, Naval Architect and Officer at Scandlines, a ferry company that operates routes between Denmark and Germany. Rasmus was involved throughout the preparation, installation, and performance evaluation of rotor sails on M/V Copenhagen in 2020, and on M/V Berlin two years later.
In this interview, he reveals how the company started small to test the technology, document performance and solve any teething issues – and how being a first mover paid off, with the wind propulsion system genuinely delivering the 4-5% average emissions reductions that were promised in the project.
Rasmus also reflects on the challenges faced by first movers who pioneer technologies before regulation and rules are fully ready, and how Scandlines successfully jumped through those administrative hoops to install battery systems on board back in 2013.
He believes that new regulation including EU ETS and FuelEU Maritime will make it inevitable for other companies to follow the path paved by first movers, arguing that doing nothing will also have a cost.
As Ardmore marks 10 years without a lost-time injury (LTI) on its tanker Ardmore Endeavour, the company’s Fleet Management Director Gerry Docherty reflects on the importance of listening to seafarers to build a robust safety culture on board, and how that can be done in practice.
In this interview, Gerry argues that maintaining an open dialogue with seafarers will be essential throughout the energy transition. He also expands on the role that digital technology will play in upskilling crews as new fuels and technologies are introduced on board – and how Ardmore is already using virtual reality as part of its training regime.
Himself a seagoing marine engineer with BP Shipping in the 1990s, Gerry then served as a Project Manager and Senior Surveyor with Lloyd’s Register before joining Ardmore in 2011.
Rob Mortimer, Founder and CEO, Fuelre4m
The first guest on the ship.energy podcast in October is Rob Mortimer, Founder and CEO of Dubai-based Fuelre4m. Rob has taken on the challenge of transforming how industries think about fossil fuels, with a focus on modernising outdated practices through innovation, digitalisation, and cutting-edge technology.
At Fuelre4m, Rob spearheaded the development of Re4mx, a fuel optimisation technology that improves fuel efficiency by up to 20% while reducing emissions by as much as 80%. He also led the development of Styrex, a world-first innovation that recycles polystyrene waste into sustainable fuel, helping industries transition to circular economy models.
Before launching Fuelre4m, Rob honed his leadership skills across various sectors. His role as Managing Director at Valley Utilities Ltd demonstrated his ability to drive business growth while focusing on the sustainability of energy resources. Additionally, his time as Managing Director at Catomance Ltd provided him with extensive experience in technical and regulatory leadership within the fuel and energy industries.
In conversation with ship.energy’s Lesley Bankes-Hughes, Rob explains how Re4mx technology can move the dial on conventional marine fuel in terms of energy content, combustion and emissions reduction. He also sets out his concerns over the accuracy of current data on fuel consumption and how that data is being collected and interpreted, and he gives his perspectives on how digitalisation can optimise the accretion and value of data.
This week’s podcast guest is Ahila Karan who is the Senior Lead on Green Initiatives at the Lloyd’s Register (LR) Maritime Decarbonisation Hub. In this role she led the launch of The Silk Alliance Green Corridor Cluster to catalyse the bunkering of alternative fuels in Singapore, as well as the Maritime Fuel Supply Dialogues, a regional initiative facilitating public/private dialogues across the energy and transport sectors to accelerate hydrogen-based fuel supply development across Asia Pacific and Africa.
Ahila has more than 7 years’ experience covering global energy markets, with a particular focus on transportation fuels and the cleaner fuels transition.
She holds a Master of Science degree in Economics from University College London and previously worked at oil trading company Trafigura as the Global Distillates Analyst where she was also involved in producing analysis on shipping industry trends and fleet analysis. Prior to this, Ahila worked at S&P Global, reporting on major energy news and the latest environmental policy changes affecting the shipping and road fuels industries.
The Lloyd’s Register Maritime Decarbonisation Hub is an independent, not-for-profit social purpose organisation, working towards a safe, sustainable, and human-centric decarbonised shipping industry for the benefit of society. It was formed in 2020 with a grant from Lloyd’s Register Foundation.
ship.energy marks a new month with a new podcast, featuring Alexandre Tocatlian, Head of Business Development at Gaztransport & Technigaz (GTT) Commercial Division.
Taking a deep dive into all things LNG, Alexandre will discuss GTT’s work on LNG containment systems, explain the characteristics of bio and synthetic LNG, and consider how LNG can maintain its reputation as a low-emission fuel on a well-to-wake basis.
Alexandre Tocatlian graduated in 2011 from the Ecole Centrale de Lyon, with a specialiaation in Mechanical Engineering at Imperial College London.
He joined GTT in January 2014 as a Technical Project Manager on LNGCs and FSRUs projects. In September 2016, he moved to the LNG Fuel Division, as a Product Line Manager for the passenger ship market. From July 2019 he managed the Product Lines team, delivering solutions for all types of LNG-fuelled ships and LNG bunker vessels.
Since July 2021, Alexandre has been heading the Business Development team covering all GTT products and services for Europe, Russia, Middle East, Africa and India.
In this week’s podcast, we discuss the issues surrounding the commercial viability of nuclear-powered ships and how they could change the shipping industry.
In conversation with Mark Williams, Chirayu Batra, an independent expert on advanced reactors and small modular reactors, addresses technical questions on nuclear reactors. They are joined by Amelia Hipwell, Decarbonisation Innovation Manager at Lloyd’s Register Maritime Decarbonisation Hub, who offers her perspectives on the business case for nuclear-powered shipping as well as the challenges, including overcoming public perceptions about the use of the technology.
Amelia is the Decarbonisation Innovation Manager of the Lloyd’s Register Maritime Decarbonisation Hub (LR MDH). She manages the Hub’s proprietary Zero Carbon Fuel Monitor website which provides an insights-based assessment of the readiness of zero carbon fuels for maritime applications and industry-wide comparisons of alternative solutions across the entire fuel supply chain.
Amelia joined Lloyd’s Register in 2016, after graduating with a Master of Engineering (Mechanical, Design and Operations) degree from the University of Durham. She joined LR on the graduate scheme before moving into the role of an Additive Manufacturing Inspection Surveyor, developing LR's additive manufacturing expertise and value propositions, and then as a Business Model Innovation Architect.
At the LR MDH, Amelia has grown and evolved the Zero Carbon Fuel Monitor, which assesses the readiness levels of shipping’s most promising zero-carbon fuels and energy sources in three main areas: technology, investment, and community. She has authored two published update reports for the Monitor – the Zero Carbon Fuel Monitor October 2023 update and How close is the shipping industry to adopting nuclear for propulsion? She has also worked with the Sustainable Shipping Initiative (SSI) on the report, Green Steel and Shipping.
Chirayu Batra has over a decade of experience in advanced nuclear technology. Currently, he is channelling his expertise into a new stealth-mode venture, focused on advancing nuclear technology.
Previously, as Chief Technology Officer at TerraPraxis and LucidCatalyst, Chirayu worked on large-scale deployment strategies for nuclear energy. Prior to this, he served as a Project Officer for advanced reactor technologies at the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA).
As a subject matter expert, Chirayu has in-depth knowledge of nuclear reactor design, safety, and technology development. His advanced degrees in Nuclear Engineering and Nuclear Reactor Physics, complemented by research experience in neutronics and thermal hydraulics, underpin his technical and project management proficiency.
At the IAEA, Chirayu was the first scientific secretary for the agency’s platform on Small Modular Reactors (SMRs), coordinating the development of the IAEA’s medium-term strategy for near-term deployment of SMRs. He also led the creation of the international SMR Coordination and Resource Portal for Information Exchange, Outreach, and Networking, which is currently the primary source of information for all relevant activities on SMRs at the IAEA.
Additionally, Chirayu spearheaded the IAEA’s activities on codes and standards, design engineering, and manufacturing of SMR components. His contributions extended to several international scientific committees, where he regularly provided technical insights.
Chirayu holds a double master's degree in Nuclear Engineering and Nuclear Reactor Physics, along with an undergraduate degree in Material Science.
On this week’s ship.energy podcast, Paul Stuart Smith, Managing Partner, JS Global Advisory, and Mark Williams discuss whether, in the light of recent announcements from energy companies and recent election results, decarbonisation is going backwards.
They consider the progress and challenges of decarbonisation and the broader ESG (Environmental, Social, and Governance) framework.
Paul emphasises the need for increased investment in renewable energy and alternative fuels, as well as stronger government support and regulatory clarity.
He also highlights the importance of ESG reporting and the pushback it has faced, but notes that companies are increasingly focusing on ESG issues and adopting reporting frameworks like TCFD (Task Force on Climate-related Financial Disclosures) and TNFD (Task Force on Nature-related Financial Disclosures).
Paul is a former Executive Director at the Baltic Exchange where he led its regulated subsidiary from 2009-17. He previously held high-profile roles in Capital Markets at Morgan Stanley and Chemical Bank in London and New York. His experience includes managing Morgan Stanley’s financing and borrowing activity in Europe, as well as managing significant risk positions for both firms in bond, currency and derivatives markets.
As a consultant he has advised the Climate Bonds Initiative on its Shipping Criteria and a UK bank on the structuring and roll out of a ground-breaking green finance product based on Green Bond & Green Loan Principles and the EU Taxonomy.
He works with listed companies across sectors and geographies with a particular focus on decarbonisation, the energy transition, and corporate reporting of climate-related risk in line with the TCFD recommendations, including scenario analysis and selection and reporting of KPIs. Other current projects include advising on the development of the business model for a new Global Biodiversity Standard which aims to provide much needed assurance to carbon sequestration projects and carbon credit markets world-wide.
In 2023 he contributed to a report from the UNDP which calls on regulators and policymakers to integrate social inequality-related risk fully into financial stability and disclosure frameworks.
He is an Oxford-educated mathematician and trained as a barrister
On this week’s ship.energy podcast, Mark Williams talks to Giampiero Soncini, Managing Director of the digitalisation and decarbonisation company, Oceanly.
In the course of his career, Giampiero spent 20 years at SpecTec - the company behind the AMOS software - including 11 years as its CEO. During this time, he played a significant role in establishing the company as a major player in IT for the shipping industry.
Giampiero believes that the future of digitalisation in shipping lies in achieving complete control over all aspects of navigation planning, fuel consumption, and emissions. As a result, he is convinced that Oceanly Performance will become a crucial element of fleet management. For this reason, he decided to join the company as CEO.
In this podcast, Mark and Giampiero discuss trends in onboard data collection, analysis and reporting, automation, decision support and autonomy, and the benefits and limits of voyage optimisation.
Giampiero served as an officer in the Italian Navy for 14 years, and for 13 years was the Technical Manager for NATO Research Vessel Alliance, the world's first ship to be equipped with both GPS and Inertial Navigation System technology. During this time, he became passionate about integrating technology into ships.
In this week’s ship.energy podcast, the spotlight is on the Maritime Fuel Supply Dialogues, an initiative from Lloyd’s Register’s Decarbonisation Hub. The Dialogues were launched at a first roundtable discussion on 16 April during Singapore Maritime Week which was hosted by the Ocean Stewardship Coalition of the United Nations Global Compact in partnership with the LR Maritime Decarbonisation Hub.
The initiative is a dialogue series focused on scaling fuel supply development across Asia Pacific and Africa to support regional maritime decarbonisation, that brings together stakeholders across energy and transport sectors. The series aims to unlock the potential for clean and sustainable fuels, especially hydrogen-based fuels, and to foster a thriving blue economy.
In this ship.energy discussion, contributing editor Mark Williams finds out more about the focus and aims of the Dialogues in conversation with Karan Sawhney, Senior Project Manager, Ocean Stewardship Coalition, United Nations Global Compact and Carlo Raucci, Director of Sustainable Fuels and Strategy, Lloyd’s Register Maritime Decarbonisation Hub.
Karan SawhneyKaran Sawhney is a Senior Project Manager at the Ocean Stewardship Coalition of the UN Global Compact with a background in the maritime and energy sectors.
Karan began his professional journey in the shipping industry in Singapore. He then ventured into entrepreneurship by founding his own company in the offshore oil and gas sector.
Seeking to deepen his understanding of energy and environmental issues and pursue his passion for sustainability Karan left the industry to pursue a Master's degree in Energy, Natural Resources, and the Environment at the Norwegian School of Economics (NHH), complementing his Bachelor's degree from the Kelley School of Business at Indiana University Bloomington.
Karan then joined the Worldwide Fund for Nature (WWF) as a Program Advisor, where he played a crucial role in international conservation projects. His work in project management and sustainability led him to his current role at the UN Global Compact, where he is responsible for developing and managing sustainability linked initiatives within the maritime sector. Karan is currently leading the establishment of Ocean Stewardship Centers in the global south, as well as spearheading an international ports working group, focusing on high-level policy recommendations to be presented during the UN General Assembly Week.
Dr Carlo RaucciDr Carlo Raucci is a highly regarded expert in maritime decarbonisation, with over 15 years of experience driving change in the industry. As Director, Sustainable Fuels and Strategy at the Lloyd's Register Maritime Decarbonisation Hub, he spearheads efforts to accelerate the adoption of sustainable fuels for shipping.
Dr Raucci’s study "A framework for first movers in shipping's decarbonisation (2021)" played a pivotal role in establishing the Silk Alliance, a green corridor cluster in Singapore, which is currently managed by his team. He is accountable for the First Mover Program of the Hub, where he supervises a team and supports stakeholders across the maritime industry to embrace sustainable fuels and expedite the transition to a clean future.
His expertise extends beyond hydrogen, encompassing fuel mix projections, production cost models, and decarbonisation strategy development.
Dr Raucci has authored numerous publications, including: “The scale of investment needed to decarbonise international shipping”, “The Potential of Zero-Carbon Bunker Fuels in Developing Countries”, and The Future of Maritime Fuels.
Dr Raucci's research from his PhD at University College London (2016) was the first to propose hydrogen and hydrogen-based fuels as a viable option for decarbonising shipping.
On the ship.energy podcast this week, Dan Slater, VP Sales and Business Development at Scanreach, takes a deep dive into the world of digitalisation to explain the importance of IoT for smart shipping and how data can be collected, reported and acted on to improve vessel efficiency.
Dan has a BSc in Applied Chemistry from Cardiff University in Wales. He has three decades of experience in telecoms and data sales and business development. He joined ScanReach in 2022 after a number of years at GreenSteam. He has also held senior positions at i4-Insight and Eniram.
ScanReach is a maritime IoT company based in Bergen, Norway. The company was founded in 2015 with the mission of developing affordable and user-friendly live lifesaving technologies for vessels and offshore installations, in particular for Personnel On-Board (POB) Control.
The company has developed a wireless IoT platform for complex and confined steel environments such as ships and offshore structures. This means that the inside of vessels and rigs can be wirelessly fully covered. Other IoT applications also include wireless control of assets, equipment, room conditions, and cargo monitoring and gas detection.
Julian Boulland, head of the sustainable shipping commercial department at Bureau Veritas Marine & Offshore, is this week’s podcast guest.
In a wide-ranging conversation with ship.energy’s contributing editor Mark Williams, Julian considers the challenges and potential timelines for scaling up the availability of next generation shipping fuels. He also looks non-fuel tech options which are going to be vital in meeting the IMO’s intermediate emission reduction targets.
Julien has represented Bureau Veritas for over 18 years in positions around the world, including a decade based in South East Asia. An expert in gas technologies, he has worked on various aspects of LNG in shipping related to Classification, Certification, Regulatory Compliance and Innovation. He frequently delivers workshops and trainings on technical aspects of LNG shipping and Code compliance (IGC Code and IGF Code) and is a well-known speaker at forums and conferences.
Julien has an MSc in Naval Architecture / Naval Engineering from the University of Southampton in the UK and aMSc in Engineering from the Ecole Nationale Superieure des Mines de Nancy in France.
Dr Adi Imsirovic, Director of Surrey Clean Energy, gives his insights on alternative marine fuels and the future of oil in this week’s ship.energy podcast. Dr Imsirovic has some 35 years of experience in oil trading and has held a number of senior positions in his career, including as Global Head of Oil at Gazprom Marketing & Trading and Regional Manager of Texaco Oil Trading for Asia.
As well as looking at the trajectory of shipping’s energy transition, Dr Imsirovic is extremely well placed to consider the future of oil. How much oil will still be produced, traded and consumed by 2050? How will oil be priced? What will carbon pricing and carbon capture do to oil markets?
In addition to his roles in the commercial sector, Dr Imsirovic was a Fulbright Scholar, studying at the Graduate School of Arts and Sciences, Harvard University. He taught Energy Economics as well as Resource and Environmental Economics at Surrey University for several years, where he remains affiliated to its Energy Economic Centre. He has also worked as a Senior Research Fellow the Oxford Institute for Energy Studies.
He has a PhD in Economics and a Masters degree in Energy Economics.
Dr Imsirovic has written a number of papers and articles on the topic of oil and gas prices, benchmarks, and energy security. He is the author of ‘Trading and Price Discovery for Crude Oils: Growth and Development of International Oil Markets’, published in 2021 and also editor of ‘Brent Crude Oil: Genesis and Development of the World's Most Important Oil Benchmark’.
His next book to be published is ‘International Oil Markets in the Era of Climate Change’.
This week’s ship.energy podcast features Arsenio Domínguez, who began his four-year term of office as the Secretary General of the International Maritime Organization (IMO) at the start of 2024.
The podcast was recorded in the wake of the 81st session of the Marine Environment Protection Committee (MEPC) and, in conversation with ship.energy’s contributing editor, Mark Williams, Dominguez underscores the importance of the IMO when it comes to establishing global regulations for the shipping sector.
Dominguez also gives his views on:
• How the shipping industry is progressing towards 2030 and 2040 interim emissions targets, that were adopted in MEPC 80, as well as the 2050 net zero goal.
• The Carbon Intensity Indicator.
• How the IMO can retain its global primacy in shipping in the face of regional shipping regulations and emissions regimes.
• His personal hopes for the industry between now and the end of the decade.
The first ship.energy podcast in April features Christophe Tytgat, Secretary General, SEA Europe (Shipyards and Marine Equipment Association) and CESA .
Christophe is a professional lobbyist with an extensive network in the European Institutions, in European lobbying associations and in the shipping and transport industry.
He is an expert in European policy and legal matters as well as in shipping-related issues with a particular focus on the following domains: shipping policy; social affairs; state aid; EU competition; security; customs; maritime law, and taxation.
He has a Master of Arts degree in East European Studies from Leuven University
In conversation with Contributing Editor Mark Williams, Christophe discusses his work at SEA Europe and CESA and offers his views on likely policy developments and how/if EU and IMO policies could align. He also addresses the current fragmentation and complexity of maritime funding in Europe.
Fuel cells take centre stage on this week’s ship.energy podcast. In conversation with Mark Williams, Johan Burgren, Business Manager at PowerCell Sweden AB, discusses their role in the decarbonisation of the RoPax and ferry segments – and their potential for scalability.
Johan has been with PowerCell since 2017 and before that worked at Volvo from 1998. PowerCell Sweden AB was founded in 2008 as an industrial spin-out from the Volvo Group. Since 2023, the company’s share (PCELL) has been listed on Nasdaq Stockholm.
Johan is also Vice Chairman of the Board of the Zero Emissions Ship Technology Association (ZESTAs), a role he has fulfilled since 2021.
This week’s ship.energy podcast guest is Michael Barnard and in conversation with Mark Williams he discusses his work projecting scenarios for decarbonisation 40-80 years into the future and his recent publications around maritime decarbonisation.
Whether it's refuelling aviation, grid storage, vehicle-to-grid, or hydrogen demand, his work is based on the fundamentals of physics, economics and human nature, and informed by the decarbonisation requirements and innovations of multiple domains. His leadership positions in North America, Asia and Latin America enhance his global point of view.
Michael publishes regularly in Forbes, CleanTechnica and other outlets on decarbonisation, business and policy. He is host of the podcast Redefining Energy - Tech, a channel within the award-winning Redefining Energy ecosystem that European investment bankers Laurent Segalen and Gerard Reid created.
His research has been published in books and peer-reviewed journals. He is regularly invited to speak at academic, technical and business conferences as well as corporate events.
In the first ship.energy podcast of 2024, Mark Williams talks to Hans Judek, President and CEO of J.E. Access Ltd.
Hans discusses his CAMBIO fuel project in which he works with partners from the Americas, Europe and Asia on the conversion of biowaste from agriculture into a synthetic liquid marine fuel with an asphaltic byproduct which captures and stores carbon, thus making the process carbon negative.
In the conversation, he also addresses the relative advantages and disadvantages in using methanol, ammonia, hydrogen and nuclear as energy for shipping’s propulsion.
Hans is an entrepreneur with experience over more than four decades in Japan's trade and technology transfer world. Over the last 15 years he has mainly engaged in developing projects for renewable energy production in Asia, India and Africa.
Steven Jones returns to the ship.energy podcast this week to discuss the strategic priorities of the Sustainable Shipping Initiative. As its recently appointed CEO, Steven explains how this multi-stakeholder collective is combining policy research with positive actions that its members can make within key focus areas: Oceans, Communities, People, Transparency, Finance, and Energy.
Steven and ship.energy contributing editor Mark Williams discuss the increasing transparency requirement for shipping companies, particularly in regard to fuel decisions and emissions reporting, and the role that digitalisation is having in pushing the transparency agenda.
They also address the conversations at COP28, and Steven answers the question, does the shipping industry actually need a phase out date for fossil fuels to focus activity?
Steven Jones brings over 30 years of maritime industry expertise to his role as Chief Executive Officer of the Sustainable Shipping Initiative (SSI). A former seafarer, Steven has worked across maritime fraud investigations, insurance, Vessel Traffic Services (VTS), and maritime security. He leveraged this frontline experience in roles with the UK Government as a specialist in services, ports and technology, and is the Founder of the Seafarers Happiness Index.
He is motivated by a passion for the sea and a desire to highlight the vital role that seaborne trade, transport, and infrastructure play in connecting the global economy. He believes in promoting sustainability and innovation to ensure the maritime sector continues enabling prosperity worldwide.
This week’s ship.energy podcast features two guests - Toni Stojcevski, General Manager, Project Sales & Development at Wärtsilä, and Tim Scarbrough, Director of Maritime at Ricardo.
In conversation with Mark Williams, Toni and Tim discuss the ‘what, where, and when’ in relation to decarbonisation technology and regulations. The discussion covers engine developments, including for dual-fuelled vessels operating on ammonia or methanol; how marine engine efficiency can support CII compliance, and the future of the internal combustion engine in the shipping sector.
Toni Stojcevski is a professional within marine engineering and business development. He has worked in various positions in Wärtsilä for 22 years and has gained a broad experience in the marine industry, especially within the field of medium speed combustion engines and alternative fuels.
In 2013 Toni graduated from the Executive MBA on the University of Gothenburg. Between 2014-2016, Toni was responsible for the “Methanol development project” covering new product development, application and market strategy, and the delivery and conversion of the four main engines onboard Stena Germanica, which was the first ship in the world to operate on methanol as a fuel.
Tim Scarbrough has directed many high-profile techno-economic and policy studies for policymakers, such as the European Commission and the International Maritime Organization. He’s also worked with individual ports and shipping industry organisations on their journeys to reduce their environmental impacts. His clients value that his expertise comes from policy insights, strategy delivery, and implementation projects, drawing on cross-sectoral insights and an evidence-driven approach.
He has expertise in low/zero carbon fuels, their production pathways, energy efficiency / emission abatement techniques, emission inventorying, life cycle assessment and the policies regulating the maritime sector. Above all, he’s passionate about decarbonising the maritime sector.
sThis week’s ship.energy podcast guest is Simon Sharpe, Senior Fellow at the World Resources Institute and Director of Economics for the Climate Champions Team. He is the author of ‘Five Times Faster: Rethinking the Science, Economics, and Diplomacy of Climate Change’, which has been longlisted for the Financial Times Business Book of the Year 2023.
In the podcast, Simon discusses his work and his book, in which he investigates the policy, economic and diplomatic avenues to accelerating the energy transition to reduce emissions by 8% a year instead of the current 1.6% a year in order to achieve the 1.5 Celsius cap on global average temperature increases.
Simon was previously Deputy Director of the UK government’s COP26 Unit, where he led international campaigns on energy, transport, land use, science and innovation. His other roles in government included leading international climate change strategy, developing the approach to clean growth in the UK’s industrial strategy, and serving as head of private office to Ministers of State for Energy and Climate Change. He has also served on diplomatic postings to China and India.
Simon has published academic papers on climate change science and economics, and policy reports on climate change risk assessment, economics, and diplomacy. His current focus is on the Breakthrough Agenda – a process to strengthen international collaboration to accelerate transitions in each emitting sector of the global economy; and on projects to apply new economic thinking to climate change policy, including the Economics of Energy Innovation and System Transition (EEIST) project, working with China, India and Brazil.
On the ship.energy podcast this week, Mark Williams talks to Claudia Beumer, Global Account Manager at VT Group (Verenigde Tankrederij BV), who discusses the company’s approaches to the energy transition as well as her role as a board member of the International Bunker Industry Association (IBIA) where she participates in a number of working groups.
Claudia is a chemical engineer by education, but moved into the maritime world some 13 years ago whilst working at Emerson in the Analytical Department. While at Emerson she was involved with the business development of mass flow meters for bunkering, and VT was one of her first customers.
After some years at Ampelmann and Wärtsilä, Claudia is back to where it all started and is now working for the VT Group as Global Account Manager, looking after existing and new customers worldwide. Her chemical engineering background and her experience in alternative fuels have given Claudia the perfect background to also drive the developments for bunkering of future fuels within VT.
In April 2023, she was elected as an IBIA Board member.
We have a repeat visitor to the ship.energy podcast this week, Aoife O’Leary, founder and CEO of the environmental NGO, Opportunity Green.
This time round, however, Aoife is talking about the aims and work of the Skies and Sea Hydrogen-fuels Accelerator (SASHA) Coalition which was established earlier this year to bring together shipping and aviation to ensure that an adequate supply of green hydrogen goes to their sectors.
In her capacity as Director of the SASHA Coalition, Aoife is also speaking at ship.energy’s Marine Energy Transition Forum taking place this week (17-18 October) at the Port House in Antwerp. The event’s theme is: Making Connections – Partners as drivers for shipping’s energy transition.
Aoife is the founder and CEO of Opportunity Green, an environmental NGO using law, economics and policy to take bold climate action. A lawyer and economist with deep environmental expertise, she has extensive experience across a range of different environmental sectors, especially international transport. Aoife is also a Visiting Senior Research Fellow at King’s College London’s Department of Political Economy.
On the ship.energy podcast this week, Simon Hindley, Managing Director of Solis Marine Engineering, joins Mark Williams to discuss his experience of working with hydrogen, ammonia, electric and methanol fuelled projects and he offers his views on which of these really has the potential to provide the answer to the maritime industry’s future fuel requirements.
Simon is a naval architect with experience in offshore, shipping, defence and renewable energy sectors. He has worked on ship and submarine design and operation, stability analyses, structural analysis, hydrodynamics, and standardisation.
He has been responsible for numerous engineering projects ranging from research and development to demonstration, covering clean shipping and marine renewable energy.
In this edition of the ship.energy podcast, Mark Williams talks to Danial Kaabi, CEO of Sea Horizon Marine Services about the expansion of the north Field expansion project and whether low carbon technologies were specified for suppliers. With COP 28 to be held in the UAE in November this year, Mark and Danial discuss changing attitudes to the energy transition across the Middle East among governments, industry and maritime organisations. They consider whether propositions like carbon taxation will be perceived as burden or opportunity for shipping operations in the Gulf region.
Daniel Kaabi comes from a shipping family and has maintained the family tradition, not only in taking on the CEO position at Sea Horizon but also as a Board Member of YoungShip UAE and a Seatrade Maritime Club Ambassador for Qatar. Daniel has a Bachelors’ Degree in Economics from the University of York in the UK and has studied business at Ryerson University in Toronto, Canada.
Sea Horizon has worked in the offshore oil and gas industry in the Gulf region for a half century. It is headquartered in Qatar with a substantial presence in Dubai and has offices across the region. Sea Horizon operates a fleet of offshore supply vessels, jack up accommodation barges as well as offering agency, chartering and towage services among others.
On the ship.energy podcast this week, Mark Williams is conversation with Yuvraj Thakur, Commercial VP for Maritime Transport and the General Manager of Verifavia Technical Services, who explains the role of an independent maritime data verifier– particularly in relation to the upcoming inclusion of shipping in the EU’s Emissions Trading System (ETS).
Yuvraj discusses the type of data that ship owners will have to submit for the EU ETS and he outlines the steps that owners should be taking today to be best prepared for the new regime?
Part of the Normec Group, Verifavia is a global independent environmental accredited verification, certification and auditing body for aviation, airports and maritime transport.
Based in Chandigarh, India, Yuvraj is a qualified auditor for the EU Monitoring, Reporting and Validation scheme and the IMO Data Collection System, and a Hazmat expert.
He is a Marine Engineer who has worked on various tanker and container ships. He holds a B Tech Marine Engineering degree from Maharashtra Academy of Naval Education & Training, Pune and an MBA degree in Global Logistics and Supply Chain Management from Jain School of Global Management (Singapore, Sydney and Dubai).
On this week’s ship.energy podcast, Mark Williams talks to Jimmy Redman, MD of SulNOx Fuel Fusions, and Nawaz Haq, Executive Director of the green tech company which provides solutions towards the decarbonisation of liquid hydrocarbon fuels.
Inventor of the SulNOx range of chemistry, Jimmy Redman has four decades of experience in diverse chemical fields from technical printing chemistry, coatings and sealants through to industrial detergents and retail household brands. He is experienced in managing all aspects of business from market research, product development, packaging, marketing, sales and promotions, including construction and renewable energy installation.
The oldest son and namesake of a legend of Grand Prix motor racing, he spent his childhood growing up in the pits of what is now Moto-GP. A national champion sportsman himself, Jimmy brings a unique blend of practical experience and management to SulNOx.
An entrepreneur and professional with broad experience, Nawaz Haq started his first business while studying and joined multinational and national real estate consultancies, qualifying as a Chartered Surveyor. He has advised a range of major multi-sector businesses, financial and government institutions and oversees a business providing services to oil & gas and logistics industries.
Nawaz recently transitioned from RemNOx, a distributor for SulNOx, and is now focused on adding value through corporate and sales strategies and implementation.
In this week’s ship.energy podcast, Tim Smith of MSI considers how changes in global energy consumption out to 2050 might impact global shipping demand. He also addresses the oft-mooted issue of ‘stranded assets’ in the context of the energy transition. Could ships become obsolete – from a technological and regulatory standpoint - before their assumed 25-year lifespan?
Tim leads MSI’s oil tanker market research, analysis, modelling, and reporting, whilst playing a key role in MSI’s coverage and forecasting of global energy markets and the energy transition. The company provides market forecasting, business advisory services and consultancy across all shipping sectors.
Tim contributes to a wide range of consultancy and project work range from strategic planning to investment proposals for a range of marine assets, as well as acting as an expert witness in dispute resolution.
He also presents, contributes and moderates at conferences and industry events, and his views and analysis are regularly quoted in the maritime media.
Prior to joining MSI, Tim worked for Shell Trading and Shipping Company and he has a BSc in Economics from the University of Warwick.
In a new ship.energy podcast, Danielle Southcott talks to Mark Williams about her ambitions for zero cargo shipping and her role as founder of SAILCARGO INC. and Veer Group (which is nominated for the EarthShot prize). Danielle was named by the Royal Institute of Naval Architects as one of the most influential women of the past century and was listed by The Ocean Opportunity Lab as an inspirational female founder to watch.
Hailing from the Great Lakes of Canada, Danielle began sailing at the age of 13. A graduate of the ‘’Enkhuizer’’ Sea Academy, she learned Dutch to graduate. She obtained her 200T master’s ticket at the age of 21 which enabled her to captain the flagship of Barbados, the cargo schooner RUTH.
She is co-founder of a Costa Rican non-profit that plants thousands of trees and creates jobs in a vulnerable coastal community. Each year Danielle’s company sponsors a young woman to sail on the tall ship ST. LAWRENCE II – as a ‘thank you’ to the Canadian ship that first inspired her.
In this, the first ship.energy podcast of the week, Michelle Wiese Bockmann, Senior Analyst at Lloyd’s List Intelligence and also Markets Editor at Lloyd’s List, and Mark Williams discuss the recent MEPC 80 meeting at the IMO HQ in London, England. Michelle offers an independent view of progress and roadblocks towards net zero.
Michelle has worked at Lloyd’s List Intelligence/Lloyd’s list since 2019. She has a 23 year track record of reporting on shipping for Fairplay, Lloyd’s List, Bloomberg, Clipper Data, and the Oil Price Information Service.
She has won numerous plaudits for her analysis of the dark fleet of oil tankers shipping sanctioned oil, as well as for her coverage of the IMO’s work on decarbonising shipping. Michelle is an active member of WISTA.
This week’s ship.energy podcast guest is Dylan Keil Co-Founder and CEO of Bearing, a company which uses its proprietary technology to leverage large amounts of real-world data to generate highly accurate ship performance models.
Keil started out as a business analyst for McKinsey (2008-10) and, via number of start-ups, came to Bearing, which was established in mid-2019. Based in Palo Alto, California – the heart of Silicon Valley – Bearing describes itself as a team of engineers and product people, with deep expertise in building scalable AI-enable products, and a passion to help the shipping industry become greener and more efficient.’
Bearing is backed by Mitsui & Co. and the AI Fund, a venture capital firm led by AI pioneer Andrew Ng.
In conversation with ship.energy contributing editor Mark Williams, Keil runs through the evolution of Bearing. He explains how AI can help shipowners in improving their vessels’ carbon intensity index (CII) ratings and also looks at the impact that predictive analytics will have on technical and commercial ship management.
Links: https://bearing.ai
Making a return visit to the ship.energy podcast, this week’s guest is Valentina Keys, Senior Associate in the Environment, Health & Safety Team at law firm Watson Farley & Williams.
In conversation with Mark Williams, Valentina assesses the impact of the Carbon Intensity Index (CII), which came into play in January this year. She also looks forward to the discussions and decisions expected to come out of the meeting of the Marine Environment Protection Committee (MEPC 80) in July, such as the revision of the IMO’s initial greenhouse strategy, first published in 2018, and the ratification of the Mediterranean Emissions Control Area (ECA). Valentina also considers how maritime stakeholders might be preparing for the inclusion of shipping in the EU’s Emissions Trading System (ETS).
Valentina regularly advises clients on various aspects of Net Zero, the EU Green Deal, Fit for 55, EU ETS, the Circular Economy and the wider sustainability/climate change/decarbonisation agenda as it applies to different sectors.
She is a regular speaker at international maritime and clean cargo events and advises on a range of topics from compliance with cleaner fuel and emission reduction requirements to sustainable ports, clean cargo and innovative financing models such as Poseidon Principles and the Sea Cargo Charter, amongst others.
Valentina has been named as a ‘Rising Star’ by Legal 500 in 2022.
Valentina’s previous ship.energy podcast, recorded last May, can be accessed here (https://ship.energy/2022/05/31/valentina-keys-senior-associate-watson-farley-and-williams/)
This week’s ship.energy podcast features Professor Simon Baughen, Professor of Shipping Law at the University of Swansea.
In conversation with Mark Williams, Professor Baughen considers the impact of the EU’s ‘Fit for 55’ basket of measures on the shipping sector, including the possibility that shipbuilding contracts may require revision. He looks at the ongoing discussion about altering charterparties to replace due despatch clauses with voyage optimisation clauses. He also addresses some key questions about the EU’s proposed Ocean Fund, such as its administration and decisions on the allocation of funding.
Professor Baughen was appointed as Professor of Shipping Law at the University of Swansea in September 2013. He studied law at Oxford and practised in maritime law for several years before joining academia. His research interests lie mainly in the field of shipping law, but also include the law of trusts and the environmental law implications of the activities of multinational corporations in the developing world.
His book, Shipping Law, has run to seven editions (soon to be eight) and is well-known to academics and students alike as by far the most learned and approachable work on the subject. Furthermore, he is now the author of the very well-established practitioner's work Summerskill on Laytime. He has an extensive list of publications to his name, including International Trade and the Protection of the Environment, and Human Rights and Corporate Wrongs - Closing the Governance Gap. He has also written and taught extensively on commercial law, trusts and environmental law.
Professor Baughen is a member of the Institute of International Shipping and Trade Law, a University Research Centre within the School of Law, and he currently teaches at Swansea on the LLM in: Carriage of Goods by Sea, Land and Air; Charterparties Law and Practice; International Corporate Governance.
This week, ship.energy contributing editor Mark Williams is in conversation with Gina Panayiotou, an ESG strategist with a background in maritime law and an MBA focused on change management and ethical leadership. They discuss where decarbonisation sits within an overall ESG strategy as well as the role of P&I clubs in supporting this agenda.
Gina has held senior roles, mainly within shipowning organisations, and is the founder of consultancy firm Oceans Arena, aimed at leading industry stakeholders through their ESG journey, from strategy formulation to brand positioning. Gina has also acted as a Communications Consultant of the IMO-UNEP-Norway Innovation Forum. She currently leads the global ESG strategy at West of England P&I Club.
Based in London, she is the UK Chair of the G100 Network Sustainable Brand Creation & Marketing, the Secretary of WISTA UK and the Co-Chair of the WISTA International Environment Committee, while she also supports the World Ocean Council as an Associate o
In this week’s ship.energy podcast, Steve Bee, Group Commercial & Business Development Director for fuel quality testing specialist VPS, discusses the company’s approaches to digitalisation and decarbonisation, including its Core software which enables vessel owners to plan for fleet-wide emissions-reducing initiatives.
Steve also talks about marine biofuels and the absence – as yet – of a commercial standard for their use, as well as the uptake of methanol as a bunker fuel and VPS’s work on sampling and testing this fuel.
With VPS now owned by the pan-European investment firm Fremman Capital (since 2021), Steve also looks at the role of private equity in shipping’s decarbonisation.
Steve joined VPS in 2016 and in his current role he is responsible for the development and implementation of the company’s global commercial strategy.
A graduate of Northumbria University with a BSc (Hons) in Applied Chemistry, Steve worked as an R&D Chemist for BNFL, ICI and Sanofi-Aventis, before joining Anachem Ltd, in a commercial role in 1997.
Following sales and marketing roles at A1 Envirotech, he joined Lintec Testing Services Ltd, a subsidiary of Intertek, as Operations & Key Accounts Manager in 2007, before becoming General Manager of Lintec in 2011, and then Director of Intertek ShipCare in June 2012, a role he held until he moved to VPS.
This week’s ship.energy podcast guest is Madadh MacLaine, the Founder and CEO of Zero Emissions Maritime Technology Ltd (ZEM-Tech) and Secretary-General of the Zero Emissions Ship Technology Association (ZESTAs), which was recently granted consultative status at the International Maritime Organization (IMO).
The IMO recognises that 15% of GHG emissions from international shipping result from vessels under 5,000 GT, and Madadh believes that the IMO and EU must include such vessels in environmental legislation, as excluding them is a wasted opportunity and lack of policy is a key barrier to action. With only seven years to 2030, she believes that we should focus on where we can reduce emissions right now to keep shipping in line with 1.5ºC of warming.
Madadh also highlights that the zero-emission fuel supply chain needs to start small and build out, and that finance is ready to back a swathe of new investment but needs assurance from policy makers to trigger upscaling.
Madadh is also co-founder of the International Windships Association (IWSA), as well as Founder Director of the sustainable development NGO, Fair Winds Trust. She has a background in hydrogen water electrolysis and maritime systems, having represented ITM Power plc in the maritime industry.
She has been working in zero-emissions shipping since she began designs for a zero-emission multi-access cargo ship in 2000. Frustrated by the lack of available technology, she set off on a course to bring zero emission ship technology to the market.
Martin Crawford-Brunt, CEO of Lookout Maritime, returns to the ship.energy podcast to discuss his work with the Baltic Exchange and ship owners on implementing the Carbon Intensity Indicator and shipping’s entry to the EU’s emission trading scheme.
Martin and Mark Williams discuss ‘the good, the bad and the ugly’ elements of the CII and how it could take two more years of adjustments for it to work properly. They talk about the pitfalls of not being fully briefed about the ETS and the potentially huge impacts on ship owners’ working capital requirements that carbon trading presents. They also discuss the enhanced requirements for transparency from the CII and ETS and what that means for shipping’s operating model.
On this week’s ship.energy podcast, Alberto Llopis Pascual of bound4blue talks to Mark Williams about the company’s rigid sail technology and its energy/emissions saving benefits – as well as the all-important ROI. He also considers the take-up of wind technology so far and outlines his hopes for its future.
Alberto is Lead Aerodynamics Engineer at bound4blue where he is responsible for the aerodynamic development of the company’s technology, both numerical and experimental.
Alberto holds a PhD in Aerospace Engineering in the field of experimental aerodynamics (University of Manchester, 2017). Previously, he spent six years working with University of Manchester, BAE Systems and a NATO task group researching and developing fluidic control effectors for aircraft, designing, and building the first aircraft to fully integrate and demonstrate this technology.
Later, he also spent two years carrying out the aerodynamic design of medical delivery drones.
This week, Steven Jones, Founder of the Seafarers Happiness Index, talks to Mark Williams about the training requirements for new low and zero carbon fuels. As seafarers recover from the difficulties of the pandemic, deal with the threat to their roles from autonomy, and cope with geopolitical uncertainty and conflict, how are they responding to the debate about decarbonisation? Listen to this conversation for a clear voice from the bridge on the practical challenges that lie ahead.
Steven spent a decade working as a navigation officer, mainly on cable ships. He has a Chief Officer certificate and Masters’ degrees in both Marketing and Communications, and International Relations. After working in a range of shore-based roles he founded the Seafarers Happiness Index working with the Mission to Seafarers. The aim of the project is to produce data and insight from seafarers, finding the mechanisms to address concerns of crew, ensuring that the voice of those at sea is heard.
He is author of a range of maritime publications, Past President of the Propeller Club Liverpool, an Associate Fellow of the Nautical Institute, and Fellow of the Royal Society of Arts.
This week, Ben Murray, CEO of Maritime UK, talks to Mark Williams about the organisation’s engagement with environmental issues – one of its five priorities, its cooperation with overseas industry associations, and the ways in which it can leverage industry concerns into government policy discussions.
Maritime UK is the umbrella body for the maritime sector, bringing together the shipping, ports, services, engineering and leisure marine industries. Its purpose is to champion and enable a thriving maritime sector. Maritime UK has responsibility for the coordination and delivery of industry recommendations within Maritime 2050.
Ben joined Maritime UK from a political consultancy. Prior to this he worked for the Labour Party as a campaign manager and ran the Labour deputy leadership campaign of Angela Eagle MP. He studied Politics at the University of Warwick and East Asian studies at City University of Hong Kong. Ben is a director of a digital communications agency.
He has responsibility for coordinating and leading the activity of Maritime UK, working with the National Council to implement its strategic plan including coordination and delivery of industry recommendations within Maritime 2050.
In this week’s ship.energy podcast, Siri Khalsa, Founder and CEO of Stance Advocacy Services and a member of the board of directors of the Monaco Hydrogen Alliance, discusses the ambitions of the not-for-profit Association and explains how its members are working to promote the use of green hydrogen in land, air, and maritime transportation, including through the Monaco Prize for Innovation in Renewable Hydrogen and Transportation.
Siri’s current work focus builds on her decades of global experience in political advocacy and social impact in the US, the Middle East, Central Asia and Europe.
Links:
https://www.stanceadvocacy.com
https://monacoh2.org
Twitter @CorpActivist
IG @stanceadvocacy
In this week’s ship.energy podcast, Mark Williams catches up again with Jason Miles, CEO of Quadrise Fuels International, along with energy and mobility consultant Vick Boiten Lee, who provided input on Quadrise’s 2022 Sustainability Report.
In this conversation, Jason and Vicky discuss the methodology behind the report and they explain how and why they have applied ESG principles throughout the company. They also provide some guidance on the type of frameworks that can be useful for businesses looking to produce their own sustainability reports to demonstrate their commitment to achieving net-zero
Vicky is an experienced advisor focused on the energy and mobility sectors. She spent over 20 years at Shell and now works with boards of high-growth companies that have a strong commitment to net-zero. A champion for the low-carbon economy, Vicky previously partnered with renowned polar explorer Robert Swan O.B.E. and his son Barney for the ‘South Pole Energy Challenge’ which saw them attempting to walk to the South Pole supported only by renewable energy.
Vicky is assisting Quadrise in accelerating its journey to net-zero and progression to commercial scale.
Jason Miles spent the first 12 years of his career developing emulsified fuels projects as a Process Engineer for BP, and subsequently for PDVSA as Business Development Manager where he implemented numerous Orimulsion power projects globally.
Jason joined Quadrise in 2006 and now has some 25 years’ technical and commercial experience in the emulsion fuels industry. He is a chartered Chemical Engineer, with an honours degree in Chemical Engineering from Loughborough University, and has an Executive MBA from the Cass Business School in London.
Jason’s first ship.energy podcast, where he discusses the development of Quadrise’s MSAR emulsion fuels and outlines the benefits of their use compared to ‘traditional’ heavy fuel oil and gasoil, can be heard here
The first ship.energy podcast guest of 2023 is Philip Goedkoop, CEO of Oilchart International, an Amsterdam-Rotterdam-Antwerp (ARA) marine fuels company. He joined Oilchart in May 2022 as CEO with a specific focus on the development of biofuel as a bunker fuel.
In this conversation with Mark Williams, Philip looks at the sourcing, blending, storage and delivery of marine biofuels. He also addresses the issues of availability and scalability of these fuels and considers the evolution of other alternative marine fuels which are intended to reduce shipping’s GHG footprint, including methanol, ammonia and, further down the line, synthetic fuels.
Philip began his career in banking in the City of London and he has a BSc from the London School of Economics. In 1990 he moved into the oil sector, beginning with a role in retail sales and then moving into wholesale and trading operations.
From 1997 – 2006, he was CEO at European Petroleum Group, where he managed a wholesale operation out of an Antwerp refinery, acquired a distribution network and a chain of filling stations and oversaw a truck centre project.
In the following years he held various senior positions in IT and oil trading companies, and in 2019 he joined Cargill where he was tasked with developing high blends of biofuels for transport, shipping, heating and industrial applications.
This week’s ship.energy podcast – and the last of 2022 – features Jacob Armstrong, a sustainable shipping officer at Brussels-based NGO Transport & Environment (T&E). As Europe’s ‘Fit for 55’ package of measures moves ever closer to final adoption, in this timely discussion Jacob offers his perspectives on shipping’s inclusion in the EU’s Emissions Trading System (ETS), the IMO’s progress on GHG emissions reduction, and the knotty issue of carbon pricing for bunker fuels.
In his current role, Jacob manages T&E’s advocacy work on shipping in the EU ETS, the Monitoring, Reporting and Verification (MRV) Regulation and the UNFCCC.
Prior to joining T&E, Jacob spent a year working for the European Commission, before joining the European Sea Ports Organisation (ESPO) and the European Federation of Inland Ports (EFIP) as policy officer in charge of files concerning energy, the environment and blue growth.
His educational background is in history, with a specialisation in the history of political thought, at institutions including the University of Edinburgh, the Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México (UNAM), Queen Mary’s and University College London (UCL).
In this week’s podcast, Dipak Mistry, Director of Commercial Partnerships at Ceres, explains the contribution that solid oxide fuel cells can make to shipping in terms of efficiency gains and emissions reduction.
Dipak joined Ceres in 2021 as Director of Commercial Partnerships, responsible for establishing strategic partnerships in new and emerging markets for Ceres’ fuel cell and electrolyser technology. Prior to joining Ceres, Dipak has over two decades of international experience working at Ricardo plc, in established and emerging Automotive and Energy markets.
He holds a degree in Electro-mechanical Engineering from The University of Manchester and an MSc in Advanced Mechanical Engineering from The University of Sussex.
On this week’s ship.energy podcast, Mark Williams talks to Sandi Ennor, President and CEO of Transparensea Fuels, LLC. The conversation covers upcoming CII and EEXI regulations, demand for new shipping fuels, the energy landscape and climate policies in the US and, in the light of Sandi’s choice of name for her company, the rate of progress on achieving transparency in the shipping and bunker industries
Sandi established Transparensea Fuels as an independent global marine fuels brokerage in June 2017 following 10 years working in bunker trading and broking at LQM, Integr8 and Peninsula. She is a 1998 graduate of the U.S. Naval Academy.
Prior to entering into bunkering, she served for over nine years as a U.S. Navy combat helicopter pilot and is a decorated combat veteran for her work during Operation Iraqi Freedom.
Sandi is currently serving as the Vice President of the Connecticut Maritime Association and is an active WISTA and IBIA member.
This week’s ship.energy podcast features Andy Erlam, Executive Chairman of Carbon Neutral Petrol Ltd, a UK-based start-up which markets its own patented synthetic fuel production process. In the podcast, Andy discusses CNPL’s activities, the rationale behind synthetic fuels and which they think has the best chance of success, and how fuel producers can deal with the extensive technical and cost issues in making synthetic fuels.
Andy has had a varied career in campaigning, politics and business, including lecturing at Goldsmith’s College, London, advising an MEP on energy policy and being an advisor to a UK Cabinet Minister, as well as running a consultancy advising industry and the voluntary sector on EU policy.
This week’s ship.energy podcast features Steve Esau, COO of SEA-LNG, and Bruno Piga, Research Consultant at Nanyang Technological University in Singapore.
Steve and Bruno discuss the findings of their recently published report, Comparing the future demand for, supply of, and life-cycle emissions from bio, synthetic, and fossil LNG marine fuels in the European Union.
The study which was commissioned by SEA-LNG and conducted by the Maritime Energy and Sustainable Development Centre of Excellence at Nanyang Technological University, found that the average cost for delivered bio-LNG will fall by 30% by 2050 compared to today’s values, ‘mainly driven by the reduced cost of producing biomethane in large-scale anaerobic digestion plants.’
According to the report, this would make bio-LNG one of the cheapest sustainable alternative marine fuels compared to bio methanol and electro-fuels, including e-ammonia and e-methanol.
The report also found that that pure bio-LNG could cover up to 3% of the total energy demand for shipping fuels by the end of this decade and as much as 13% in 2050.
Steve Esau has over 25 years’ experience in the industry working with financial institutions, energy companies, governments and NGOs in a variety of strategic, operational and policy roles. He is COO of SEA-LNG, where he has been involved from the organisation’s inception.
Bruno Piga is a Research Consultant currently working for the Maritime Energy and Sustainable Development Centre of Excellence at NTU. He has a background in Energy and Nuclear Engineering, but works on numerous research topics related to alternative energy: hydrogen and sustainable mobility for aerospace and maritime sectors, biofuels, geothermal energy, heat exchange in automotive application and life-cycle analysis of alternative fuels.
He works in research projects in Europe and Asia to foster the use of clean energy in the power and transport sectors, including comparative analyses of alternative fuels for shipping with a focus on safety, costs and emissions. He has a Batchelors degree in Energy Engineering and a Masters in Energy and Nuclear Engineering.
This week’s ship.energy podcast guest is Elisabeth Munck af Rosenschöld who takes the lead on sustainability in IKEA’s Supply Chain Operations, based in Switzerland. She discusses the work IKEA has done to calculate and reduce its carbon footprint across its supply chain, as well as the role of a charterer and the importance of maritime stakeholder partnerships in facilitating and delivering transport’s energy transition.
Elisabeth joined IKEA in 2016 and one of her focus areas is to develop the decarbonisation agenda in transportation and logistics based on the principles to Reduce, Replace and Re-think.
She has a background in sustainability from different business sectors and management consultancy and in leading cross-cultural teams from years of working in an international environment. She holds a Master of Law from Lund University and a Master of Science in Environmental Management and Policy from the international Institute of Industrial Environmental Economics, Lund University.
A new study by UCL Energy Institute researchers has determined that the world’s growing fleet of ships that can run on LNG could potentially be at risk of asset value losses of $850 billion by 2030.
In this week’s ship.energy podcast, Mark Williams talks to the report’s co-authors, Marie Fricaudet, a PhD student at the University College London (UCL) and Tristan Smith, Associate Professor at UCL Energy Institute.
The report, ‘Exploring methods for understanding stranded value. Case study on LNG-capable ships’, alsofound that the write-down of the full $850 billion value at risk would not be not realised if LNG-capable vessels were retrofitted to run on scalable zero emission fuels (hydrogen and hydrogen-derived fuels such as ammonia). Under these circumstances, the potential loss is estimated at approximately 15-25% of their value (£113 billion-£185 billion if the LNG-capable fleet grows strongly this decade).
In the discussion, Fricaudet and Smith run through the main findings of the study and offer their perspectives on which fuel will be the long-term winner for shipping.
Marie Fricaudet is a PhD student at UCL. She holds an MSc in Public Policy from the University Sciences Po Paris and the London School of Economics and Political Sciences (LSE). She is lead author of the report ‘Exploring methods for understanding stranded value. Case study on LNG-capable ships’ and the academic article ‘Understanding the Scale of the Stranded Assets Risk in the Shipping Industry’ (pre-print version).
Her interests and areas of expertise include financial climate risks, shipping decarbonisation and stranded assets risk in shipping.
Tristan Smith is Associate Professor at UCL Energy Institute, where he has worked for 12 years, and Director of University Maritime Advisory Services, where he leads a group of students focused on studying the global shipping industry. Together they combine expertise across engineering, economics, programming and optimisation, operations research, policy, business and finance.
Dr Smith has a Masters’ degree in Engineering from the University of Cambridge, an MSc and a PhD in Naval Architecture from UCL.
On this week’s podcast, Jason Miles, CEO of Quadrise Fuels International, discusses the development of Quadrise’s MSAR emulsion fuels and outlines the benefits of their use compared to ‘traditional’ heavy fuel oil and gasoil. He also explains how the MSAR offering can contribute to IMO 2030 emission reduction targets.
Jason spent the first 12 years of his career developing emulsified fuels projects as a Process Engineer for BP, and subsequently for PDVSA as Business Development Manager where he implemented numerous Orimulsion power projects globally.
Jason joined Quadrise in 2006 and now has some 25 years’ technical and commercial experience in the emulsion fuels industry. He is a chartered Chemical Engineer, with an honours degree in Chemical Engineering from Loughborough University, and has an Executive MBA from the Cass Business School in London.
In this week’s podcast, Erno Tenhunen, Managing Director of Danfoss Editron, discusses the role of electrification in shipping’s energy transition. He explains the company’s work on the Horizon 2020 E ferry project to electrify a ferry operating on the regional route between Søby and Fynshav in Denmark and considers the importance of industry collaboration in such initiatives. He also offers his perspectives on one of shipping’s key decarbonisation challenges – how much of maritime transport can be electrified?
In his current role, Erno oversees the development of new systems and leads the company’s marine business. He also oversees the operations of the Editron division’s global marine teams across areas including Europe, the United States and Asia Pacific. Before joining Danfoss Editron, Erno spent over 20 years at ABB where he became Vice President of Sales and Global Sales Manager for specific marine segments, such as icebreakers and cruise vessels. Erno holds a Master in Energy Technology degree from LUT University.
Danfoss Editron builds electric hybrid powertrain systems for heavy duty and commercial vehicles and machines, on both land and sea.
In this edition of the podcast, Carole Plessy, Head of Maritime Commercial Development at OneWeb, explains how predictive analytics can deliver value to shipowners in terms of managing opex and maintenance costs. She also looks at how digital services can assist in emissions reduction and considers how the shipping industry is stepping up to meet its ESG responsibilities.
OneWeb is a global communications company which operates satellite networks to bring connectivity to rural and remote places, and greater connectivity to existing markets. Carole’s focus is on developing global maritime services for commercial launch to bring high speed connectivity to the seas.
Carole joined OneWeb in 2018 with a background in satellite telecommunications and more than 20 years of business leadership and experience working across R&D and complex project management and product integration. Carole has extensive knowledge of the Maritime sector based on her previous role at Inmarsat, where she was Senior Director of Digital Products and, prior to that, Director of Maritime Product Development, responsible for new product delivery from concept to launch.
She has an MSC in Aeronautics and Telecommunications from the Ecole Nationale de L’Aviation Civile, and a doctoral program degree from the University Paul Sabatier.
This week’s podcast guest is Anthony Mollet, who became the first Executive Officer of the newly formed Marine Fuels Alliance (MFA) in October 2021. Mollet has over 20 years’ experience in the bunkering industry having started in Shell Trading as a buyer for the global fleet. He has also managed GAC Bunker Fuels, GAC UK’s Ship Agency network, Top Fenders, a Ship-To-Ship business operating in West Africa and most recently he assisted Maltese bunker supplier IFS with business development and sales. His commitment to operational excellence and the highest standards of ethics and business practices helped develop the concept for the MFA with its initial founding members. Mollet has put the topic of sustainability as one of the main focus groups for the MFA and will be working with Partner companies to help provide critical guidance and key resources for members to access and discuss.
In this week’s podcast Guillaume le Grand, founder and CEO of TransOceanic Wind Transport (TOWT), discusses how the French company is looking backwards to move forwards on the decarbonisation of shipping by building sailing cargo ships to carry goods across the world’s oceans.
Earlier this year, the company contracted shipbuilder Piriou to build its first of its 80-metre Phoenix Class vessels. Scheduled to enter service in mid-2023, the ship will have capacity for up to 1,100 tonnes of cargo.
Guillaume graduated from the Institut d’Etudes Politiques (IEP) in Lyon in 2005 and then spent four years in London at Bloomberg, where he helped create the Carbon Desk. After achieving a Masters in Sustainability, Environment and Energy Economics from EHESS AgroParisTech X in 2010, he has dedicated himself to TOWT to launch an ecological transition in maritime transport. He oversees strategy and business development, finance, shipping and logistics.
In this edition of the podcast, Mark Williams talks to Valentina Keys, Senior Associate at Watson Farley and Williams about the latest developments in the European Union's work to bring shipping into its Emission Trading Scheme. Their conversation covers the new start date and wider scope agreed in Strasbourg as well as the impact on EU and non-EU ship owners. They also discuss the parallel MEPC meetings at the IMO and the possibility of a global IMO carbon levy. Listen now to get the very latest advice on what you should be doing to prepare for the new regulations.
In this week’s ship.energy podcast, Jesse Fahnestock of the Global Maritime Forum explains the concept of Green Shipping Corridors. Introduced in the Clydebank Declaration launched at COP26 in Glasgow last year, these corridors are intended to bring together actors from across the value chain to get shipping to the point where it actively adopts low and zero carbon technologies in a competitive commercial setting. Jesse has years’ experience in sustainability and environmental projects working for a variety of organisations. In his current role, he is Head of Research and Analysis at Global Maritime Forum, a position he has held since January 2021. His work there covers research and innovation on zero-emission shipping fuels, including analytical work, the development of industry-led first mover projects, and the promotion of Green Shipping Corridors.
In this week’s ship.energy podcast, Mark Williams talks to Mads Bjørnebye, Manager of Bunker Services at Teekay.
Mads discusses ship operators’ varying routes to compliance for EEXI and CII and how annual emission reductions are required to be 1.42% from this year and every year to hit the IMO’s 2050 targets.
He looks at the agenda for the forthcoming Marine Environment Protection Committee (MEPC 78) in June, where the IMO will consider well to wake not just tank to wake emissions, and he also considers what bunker market consolidation means for buyers and how volatile energy prices and uncertain fuel availability may affect decarbonisation strategies.
Mads has worked in the Oil & Gas industry for 17 years, starting at ExxonMobil in 2003. Since 2009 he has been working in the bunker industry, having held various positions with Wilhelmsen Premier Marine Fuels, Cockett Marine Oil and KPI Bridge Oil. Since 2018 he has headed up the bunker procurement team at Teekay.
In this week’s ship.energy podcast, Mark Williams talks to Marcus Schaerer, General Manager of Technical Services at Shell Marine. Marcus explains Shell’s innovative approaches to engine monitoring technology and outlines the company’s vision for marine fuel and lubricants in a multi-energy future. He also discusses energy demand – in the decades ahead and, importantly, in the run-up to 2030. Based in Hamburg, Marcus has spent over 25 years in the maritime industry, starting from his time as a ship chandler. He joined Shell in 1997 where his responsibilities have included overseeing the company’s sales, marketing and technical teams. Outside work, Marcus has a passion for cooking, stemming from his hospitality training at Ecole Hôtelière de Lausanne (EHL)
This week’s ship.energy podcast guest is Jesper Bo Hansen, the recently appointed Chief Revenue Officer at Danish vessel optimisation specialist Zero North.
Prior to joining ZeroNorth at the start of 2022, Jesper was the Managing Director of Maersk Broker Advisory Services, where he set up a consultancy on climate affairs for shipping companies, investors and lenders.
He has also held leadership roles across Europe, Asia, and the Americas at Torm and Heidmar, as well as a director role at Team Tankers International.
Jesper is active in catalysing shipping’s decarbonisation and has previously led a project addressing the industry’s green transition with global consultancy McKinsey.
Jesper spoke at COP 26, and at the time of his appointment at ZeroNorth, he commented: ‘The next generation is keeping our sector accountable like never before, and it gives me hope for the future that most young people enter the industry with the aim of transforming it,
’‘ZeroNorth is part of that transformation, and I am looking forward to getting to work and becoming part of it as well. Now, the real work begins.’
This week’s podcast guest is Patrick Ryan, Senior Vice President – Engineering and Technology for ABS. In his discussion with Mark Williams, Patrick gives his perspective on the role of Class in shipping’s decarbonisation. With a strong background in digital innovation, he also considers how digital advances – such as simulation technology – will play a role in addressing maritime’s energy challenge. As Senior Vice President – Engineering and Technology for ABS, Patrick is responsible for global engineering, digital engineering, rules and software, research and development, and the Global Ship Systems Group. Patrick and his team at ABS help ship owners, designers, and builders bring their plans into the digital world, and to lead the development of new technologies that will support remote and condition-based class services A naval architect, his career has always been focused on great ships. For over 20 years prior to joining ABS, he was in a design and construction role, and most recently responsible for digital innovation around those two big processes at Newport News Shipbuilding. Ryan was at the forefront of their digital transformation; he founded their digital innovation lab, led the development and implementation of CAE, CAD, and digital twin technologies to support Engineering and Design for several major shipbuilding programs, and held a senior position in Corporate Strategy where he wrote several of their digital strategies. Ryan is a SNAME member, has a bachelor’s degree in Aerospace and Ocean Engineering, and a master’s degree in Ocean Engineering, all from Virginia Tech.
On this week’s ship.energy podcast, Mark Williams is in conversation with Sjoerd de Jager, MD of the port call optimisation software specialist, PortXchange, and Adina Fenton, Business Development Director of the data and analytics company Windward. The focus of the discussion is on how digitalisation is optimising and streamlining port and vessel operations, thereby delivering more transparency in terms of industry processes and stakeholder interaction and supporting the maritime sector in meeting its decarbonisation targets.
Sjoerd de Jager span off PortXchange from the Port of Rotterdam Logistics Incubator into a standalone digital venture in 2019. PortXchange develops software to optimise port calls in ports worldwide leading to more efficiency, lower costs and less emissions.
Sjoerd is an engineer by training with an MSc in Industrial Engineering and Innovation from the Eindhoven University of Technology.
Adina Fenton takes the lead on business development for Windward Decarbonisation Solutions. Before joining Windward in 2017, she worked in commerce and as a trainee lawyer at the Israeli Ministry of Justice. She has a Batchelors and Master’s in Law from the Sorbonne in Paris.
Windward was established in 2010 in Tel Aviv and last year listed on the AIM in the UK. Windward uses Artificial Intelligence and data analytics to model different aspects of risk at sea.
This week’s ship.energy podcast guest is Roger Strevens, VP, Global Sustainability at Wallenius Wilhelmsen. In discussion with Mark Williams, Roger explains the company’s approach to decarbonisation, including its ‘Lean Green’ strategy. He also looks at the impact of the energy transition on the liner sector, offers an overview of the company’s projects involving wind technology, and considers how shipping – a 21st century smokestack industry – can attract younger, environmentally engaged talent.
At Wallenius Wilhelmsen, Roger’s responsibilities range from representing the Group’s interests in maritime environmental policy, to driving sustainability collaborations with industry partners, customers and innovators.
Roger is the Chair of the Irish Norwegian Chamber of Commerce, a board member of the Ocean Exchange, a forum for acceleration sustainable innovation, a steering committee member of the Ship Recycling Transparency initiative and a member of the SASB Standards Advisory Group.
Before starting his current role in 2017, Roger was VP of one the commercial divisions of Wallenius Wilhelmsen Logistics, having been VP, Environment for three years prior to that.
He holds a mechanical and manufacturing engineering degree from the University of Dublin, Trinity College.
This week’s ship.energy podcast guest is Robin Byde, an equity research analyst who works for a leading independent investment bank in the London market, Zeus Capital.
Robin gives his perspectives on investor attitudes to transport decarbonisation and, looking more closely at the shipping sector, he considers whether ESG concerns could be advantageous for shipping companies seeking investment. He also mulls the risk to investors of being left with stranded assets as maritime stakeholders take decisions on their respective routes to decarbonisation.
Robin has worked in the City of London for over 2o years as an analyst covering industrial and transport companies, advising on dozens of transactions over the years including in the maritime space.
Prior to Zeus, he worked at HSBC, KPMG and Cantor Fitzgerald.
This week’s ship.energy podcast guest is Martin Crawford Brunt, CEO at Lookout Maritime. He talks to Mark Williams about Lookout Maritime, which he set up last year to contribute towards sustainable business practices in the maritime industry, and he also identifies the particular challenges facing the maritime industry at this point in the energy transition Martin is well known in the industry. He has over 25 years of practical experience, a great network and a clear understanding of the relationship between the technical, regulatory, political, commercial and sustainability drivers of the various stakeholders in the maritime supply chain. Martin was CEO of RightShip from 2018 to 2021, where he led the digital transformation of products and services to deliver a completely new data platform, algorithm and operational safety benchmark. Before that, Martin ran DNV’s customer engagement and consulting business across West Europe and Africa focused on emission reduction and innovation projects. He was directly involved in the implementation of alternative fuels for the marine industry for over 15 years, including the important practical considerations such as key stakeholder acceptance, safety, and training and wider impacts. He holds a master’s degree in engineering and naval architecture, is a graduate of IMD executive business school and is a qualified marine auditor and ship surveyor. In October 2021, Martin was also appointed as the strategic lead for carbon at the Baltic Exchange and is a serving member of the Baltic Exchange Council.
In this week’s podcast, Mark Williams and Di Gilpin discuss the ways in which technological innovation can make a difference today, and how wind power is future proof and can survive the energy transition. They also take in a review of COP26 maritime events and the challenges innovators face when raising venture capital.
Our next ship.energy podcast guest is Antoon van Coillie, CEO of Zulu Associates, who discusses his company’s work in the area of autonomous and zero emission shipping.
Zulu is a Belgian firm which describes itself as an ‘initiator, developer and operator of innovations in the marine component of logistic chains.’ It has two main business arms: Blue Line Logistics and Anglo Belgian Shipping Company.
Blue Line operates its own design of Pallet Shuttle Barge. With its one crew operation and auto discharging capability, these barges are ideally suited for handling freight on inland waterways and in urban logistics. Blue Line became a full subsidiary of the Sogestran Group in March 2021.
Anglo Belgian Shipping is developing the Zulu MASS – MASS standing for Maritime Autonomous Surface Ship.
Antoon is an ex-banker with 20 years’ experience in financial services. He established Blue Line Logistics in 2011 and Zulu Associates in 2019. He has an MBA from UCLA Anderson School of Management.
Our next podcast guest, offering her perspectives on some of the themes and conversations coming out of COP 26, is Natalie Gupta, Director of Bunkering – Value Chain Partnerships, at Yara Clean Ammonia.
In discussion with Mark Williams, Natalie gives an overview of Yara’s operations and introduces the company’s newly established business unit, Yara Clean Ammonia. She also talks about ammonia as a molecule, a commodity, and as a shipping fuel.
At Yara, Natalie is responsible for supporting the development of the ammonia bunker market. Previously, she worked as an international consultant in the maritime industry with a focus on ports, trade facilitation and decarbonisation of the industry. She has a PhD in development economics and an MSc in finance and financial law.
Our next podcast guest is Simon Tarrant, Director, Commercial Engine Lubricants, Large Engines, at the specialty chemical provider, Lubrizol.
In conversation with Mark Williams, Simon offers his insights on shipping’s decarbonisation challenges and also explains Lubrizol’s key role in developing additives used in marine lubricants, not only for today’s range of bunker fuel grades but also for the marine fuels of the future. As Simon highlights, given the 3-5-year timeline required to develop and test additive systems and then bring them to market, work on developing products for fuels that are yet to be supplied commercially and at scale must begin now.
Simon has been Business Director of Engine Lubricants for Large Engines (Marine, Power Generation and Railroad) at Lubrizol since 2017. He is responsible for the long-term vision, market development strategies, advocacy and implementation of region-specific business plans.
He joined Lubrizol in 2003 in Product Management in the Driveline area of the Transportation business, spending three years in Asia supporting the Regional Driveline business management, returning to Europe in 2010 leading the EMEA Driveline team, with a further three years as Regional Business Director for Chemtool, EMEA, integrating the acquisition. He also served as a Lubrizol UK Ethics leader between 2016-2020.
Prior to Lubrizol, Simon held a variety of Business and Marketing management roles in both the manufacturing and services sector, including four years in Saudi Arabia.
Simon is a Chartered Marketer and Fellow of the Chartered Institute of Marketing (CIM), holding postgraduate qualifications in Marketing (DipM) and Supply Management (BPICS).
In this ship.energy podcast, Gavin Allwright, Secretary General of the International Windship Association (ISWA), explains why he is such a passionate advocate for the use of wind propulsion for commercial shipping worldwide.
ISWA has just announced its campaign, ‘The decade of wind propulsion.’ The Association is a forum for all industry stakeholders, experts, academics and NGO supporters in the development of a windship sector to shape industry as well as government attitudes and policies.
Gavin has been ISWA’s Secretary General since 2014. He also sits on the ship efficiency subgroup of the European Sustainable Shipping Forum, led by the EC DG of Transport. He sits on the stakeholders’ advisory committee of the IMO Maritime Technologies Cooperation Centres Programme, and he is a Non-Executive Board Member of the World Wind Energy Association.
Gavin holds a Masters degree in Sustainable Development, specialising in small-scale sustainable shipping and logistics in developing countries. He has contributed to numerous studies and projects on alternative propulsion solutions and helped coordinate and contributed extensively to the UN-affiliated International Renewable Energy Agency (IRENA) technical brief – Renewable Energy Options in Shipping.
Our next COP 26 podcast guest is Steven Lua, CEO and Founder of Unitrove Group – and a recent contributor to September’s virtual ship.energy summit.
Unitrove’s mission statement tells it like it is: To create a virtuous world for the next thousand generations powered entirely by clean, reliable and affordable energy.
An ambitious ambition.
In conversation with Mark Williams, Steven looks at the IMO’s 2030 and 2050 GHG reduction targets and offers Unitrove’s ‘take’ on the potential for future shipping fuels, such as liquid hydrogen and compress gaseous hydrogen.
Steven created Unitrove in 2008. He has an engineering degree from the University of Oxford and has experience in banking, software and engineering.
Aoife O’Leary is a lawyer and economist who has been working on climate change for many years, and has just started her own organisation, Opportunity Green, to continue that journey. In the first of ship.energy’s series of podcasts focussing on the key challenges and issue to be debated at COP 26, Aoife explains how her new venture will address shipping’s decarbonisation by identifying and unlocking the economic opportunities from tackling climate change.
As well as shipping, Opportunity Green will focus on the other international transport sector of aviation, and also look more broadly at higher level governance issues such as legal challenges and opportunities, and the transparency of decision-making.
This week, Rachel Hoyland, shipping lawyer and Senior Associate, Hill Dickinson, returns to ship.energy to explore a sometimes overlooked theme in shipping’s decarbonisation – downsizing or, to put it another way, decarbonising by default.
In conversation with ship.energy’s Mark Williams, Rachel picks up the threads of a talk she gave in advance of London International Shipping Week. (https://bit.ly/3GjjIjC)
But what does ‘downsizing’ mean? Is it a case of maritime Armageddon? Or are there positives to a scenario in which shipping demand growth is cut due to the megatrends of the 21st century - and where shipping could be sustainable and profitable?
In this week’s ship.energy podcast, Harold Malone, Principal of Sea/Switch Partners and a seasoned shipping finance and operational leader, discusses whether ship owners need to change their traditional approach to financing ships as the industry decarbonises. Will they, for example have to become more ‘corporate’ in their operations?
In conversation with Mark Williams, Harold talks about the Marine Money Decarbonisation Index, established by Sea/Switch Partners and Marine Money and Breakwave Advisors. The Index is used as a benchmark for the ETFMG Breakwave Sea Decarbonization Tech Exchange Traded Fund (ETF), a fund listed on the NYSE on 20 September this year.
Harold is currently Principal of Sea/Swtich Partners, with a mission is to bring together the technology innovators, capital providers, shipowners, cargo movers, regulators and other parties needed to drive maritime decarbonisation through thought leadership and delivering practical solutions to complex challenges.
Previously, he was Head of Transportation at Invesco Private Capital’s WL Ross Division for four years. He has also acted as Chief Strategic Officer for Navig8 Group and has two stints at Jefferies totalling 12 years, as well as a seven year term at RBC Capital Markets.
He has a BSc with a concentration in finance from the Wharton School, University of Pennsylvania, summa cum laude.
In this week’s podcast, John Phillips of Awyr Las joins Mark Williams to discuss the challenges around organisational structure, skills and knowledge development during shipping’s energy transition; why Maersk’s methanol solution may not wash for other ship operators; and why innovation in marine fuels continues to generate unexpected opportunities.
Alex is a PhD researcher at the Smith School of Enterprise and the Environment, University of Oxford, where his research focuses on the identification and transmission of fossil-fuel related economic risks in the public sector, and how governments and their agents should respond to these risks, with a focus on China.
Alex supports Oxford's engagement with China through the Economics of Energy Innovation and Systems Transition (EEIST) project. He is a Global China Initiative Fellow at Boston University, a Visiting Fellow at the European Council on Foreign Relations, a Europaeum Scholar, and a 2021 Summer Programme fellow at the International Institute for Applied Systems Analysis (IIASA).
Alex also works as a consultant to the Center on Global Energy Policy at Columbia University, and Climate Policy Initiative (CPI). He holds an MSc in Global Governance and Diplomacy from Oxford, and is a former holder of the Henry Fellowship at the Harvard Graduate School of Arts and Sciences, where he focused on energy geopolitics and policy, electric mobility and international law.
Alex joins us to discuss the recent report published by the Smith School: Zero-Emissions Shipping: Contracts-for-difference as incentives for the decarbonisation of international shipping
This report looks at the feasibility of applying a policy instrument known as a ‘contract-for-difference’(CfD), which has seen previous success in driving down the costs of renewable energy generation technologies in the electricity sector.
In our podcast, Alex explains the origins of the report, its implications for the energy transition and how it could work to encourage ship operators and fuel suppliers to switch investment to low-emissions alternatives.
This week’s podcast guest is Rashpal Bhatti, VP, Maritime and Supply Chain Excellence at the Anglo-Australian multinational mining, metals and petroleum company, BHP. Recently announced as a director at the Maritime Decarbonisation Centre in Singapore, where BHP is one of the founding members, Rashpal discusses how BHP is already approaching the challenge of reducing the carbon impact of transporting its products and how he thinks shipping’s decarbonisation journey may play out in the future
BHP is a world-leading resources company with global operations and is of one of the biggest iron ore miners and exporters in Australia, producing over 250 million tons from its six iron ore sites in the year to June 2021.
Rashpal joined BHP in 2002 and has held various senior positions across Marketing, Technology and Procurement and has been based in Europe, the US, India and most recently, Singapore.
He was appointed Vice President, Maritime & Supply Chain Excellence at BHP in August 2015. He is accountable for BHP’s marine freight requirements which in aggregate makes the company one of the largest bulk charterers in the world.
Prior to his arrival at BHP, Rashpal worked at Schlumberger and Enron. He graduated with an honours degree in Accountancy and Finance in London
Rashpal is the chairman on the RightShip board and is a key proponent of raising performance and safety standard in the bulk marine industry.
Titan LNG is a leading LNG fuel supplier, experienced in truck-to-ship and ship-to-ship refuelling across the world. Titan’s fleet of FlexFueller LNG barges operate in the ARA region and in addition to these Titan operates chartered LNG carriers globally.
As Commercial Director Marine, Michael Schaap leads the development of the marine and bunkering proposition for Titan LNG.
Michael has an extensive background in LNG bunkering, gas and energy supply, predominantly in the commercial and trading activities for physical suppliers — including Shell, Argos Bunkering and GoodFuels.
Michael has degrees from HU University of Applied Sciences Utrecht, and Nyenrode Business University. He now works in the ARA region.
In this week’s podcast Jay Goodgal, MD of Castalia Partners Ltd, New York, tackles the tough questions about investing in shipping. How can an investor find value in today’s shipping market with such uncertainty about future regulations? Are ESG scorecards useful – and are they being used? How is the Biden Administration measuring up in terms of its environmental policy? And, perhaps the most difficult question of all – how does an investment firm with a clear focus on consistent gains and low volatility approach the ever inconsistent and volatile shipping market? Castalia Partners, registered in Guernsey, has managed assets worth hundreds of millions of dollars. Its core competencies include agriculture, commodities, energy, infrastructure, and real assets. In the maritime and transportation space, Castalia has experience in investing in ships, ports and terminals. Castalia focuses on stable cash flow, consistent gains and relatively low volatility. The firm has an eye for ESG policy issues and the rule of law. Jay has been with Castalia for 29 years and has a BA in Social and Behavioural Sciences from Johns Hopkins University and an MBA from the University of Chicago’s Booth School of Business. In 1992, in partnership with Peter G. Stokes, Jay launched the first shipping hedge fund, Castalia Offshore Partners Limited (COPL). In 1996, COPL launched the first FFA fund, Excalibur Global Investments Limited.
In this week’s podcast, Mark Williams is joined by Mathieu Philippe, Commercial Director, Marine Offshore Division, Bureau Veritas. In this wide-ranging discussion, Mathieu explains the contribution that BV is making as a class society in assisting shipping to address and comes up with solutions to the challenge of decarbonisation.
Started in 1999 as a trainee at BRS in Paris, Mathieu went to Dubai in 2002 and was there for eight years, before being hired by UACC as Commercial VP where he was responsible for Sale and Purchase before becoming COO. After six years he returned to Europe, joining SOCAR in Geneva to build its own shipping company, including vessel chartering. He joined BV Marine and Offshore in 2020 where he is Commercial Director, based in Paris.
With origins in the 1820s, Bureau Veritas has grown to be one of the leading testing, inspection and certificating institutions. It now has over 70,000 employees in over 1,400 offices globally. Bureau Veritas is listed on Euronext Paris and belongs to the Next 20 index.
This week’s ship.energy podcast focuses on vessel design and retrofit options to meet forthcoming emission regulations. Mark Williams is joined by Jonathan Strachan, Director of Ship Design and Engineering at Houlder Ltd. He and Mark discuss why today is a great time to be a naval architect; how ship owners and designers can future-proof their vessels; financial and other constraints on upgrading the global fleet; the limits of retrofit and what proportion of the global fleet may have to be scrapped as the new emission regulations come into force.
In his conversation with Mark Williams, Denis Petropoulos, Chairman of the Baltic Exchange, ranges over some original ideas to cut emissions; how the Baltic Exchange might alter its operations in a multi-fuel world; whether a ‘sweet spot’ exists at which cargo owner bears responsibility for ships’ emissions and their costs while assisting owners with sailing ‘with due despatch’ and what happens to the tanker spot market if cargo owners sponsor increasing numbers of low-carbon fuelled ships via long-term charters.
One of the best known names in international tanker shipping, Denis is currently serving a double term as Chairman of the Baltic Exchange. He is also an NED of Tsakos Energy Navigation. Denis began his career as a shipbroker at Clarkson’s in 1978. He was a founding partner of Braemar Tankers Ltd in January 1986 and moved to the main board of Braemar Shipping Services Ltd in 2002 where, until his departure in 2018, he was particularly responsible for building the group brand in Asia. Never short of an opinion and a keen defender of the uses of data and research, Denis has chaired the Baltic Exchange Council during its early days as part of SGX.
This week’s podcast guest is Rachel Hoyland, shipping lawyer and Senior Associate at Hill Dickinson. She provides an incisive and informative legal ‘take’ on the key issues on the decarbonisation agenda. As the call grows for a price to be put on shipping’s GHG emissions, and countries begin to implement their own emissions trading systems, Rachel takes a look at recent regulatory developments. She also shares her insights as to how charterparty clauses may have to adapt to changing regulations, and the variety of low- and zero-carbon fuels that are entering the market.
After qualifying as a lawyer in 2020, Rachel moved to an In-house Counsel role at CMA CGM in the city of Liverpool. She joined the shipping team at Hill Dickinson in 2015 and in recent years has taken a particular interest in ESG, decarbonisation and green issues for clients, and has worked on projects in these fields with the IMO and the UK Department of Transport.
This week, Charles Haskell, Decarbonisation Program Manager at Lloyd’s Register, is taking centre stage as ship.energy’s podcast guest.
Class societies are playing a key and proactive role in assisting the shipping industry to meet the massive challenge of decarbonisation and deliver on the IMO’s 2030 and 2050 GHG emission reduction targets. Earlier this week, some of the leading class societies and flag states demonstrated that they had ‘heard the call’ for more cross industry collaboration to accelerate the energy transition, with the announcement of the Maritime Technologies Forum.
The Forum will draw upon its members’ expertise to offer guidance and advice to the maritime sector on the technical and regulatory challenges associated with its decarbonisation.
Lloyd’s Register is one of the seven founding members of the Forum and last October the class society also announced the setting up of its own Maritime Decarbonisation Hub, a joint initiative between Lloyd’s Register Group and Foundation. This initiative is intended to draw together thought leaders and subject matter experts who can help the maritime sector develop pathways for the creation of safe and commercially viable marine fuels.
The Maritime Decarbonisation Hub is taking shape under the leadership of Charles Haskell, and in this ship.energy podcast he discusses how it is framing its approach to shipping’s energy transition and explains how class societies are collectively playing a major role in facilitating the industry’s drive to ‘zero’. Along the way, he also addresses the topical issues of carbon pricing and fleet renewal timelines.
Charles joined Lloyd’s Register in 2001 and worked in various ship repair and new construction yards in UK, France and Poland before working in South Korea on a number of projects for container ships, tankers, and LNG carriers.
Following this he moved to the Middle East, conducting audits and in-service surveys. He then transitioned into client management and led the Middle East and Africa business development team before returning to the United Kingdom and resuming a similar role. During this time he has worked with several clients on zero-emission projects that spurred his passion to work more on helping shipping achieve the IMO 2050 ambitions.
We are delighted to welcome our podcast guest this week, Barend Thijssen, VP & Head of Segment Marine Four-Stroke at MAN Energy Solutions. A shipping engineer by trade, Barend has over 20 years’ experience of the global shipping industry. He took up his current post at MAN ES in 2016.
As the LNG-fuelled vessel orderbook continues to grow, so does industry debate around the issue of methane slip. In this discussion with ship.energy’s Mark Williams, Barend explains what the methane slip challenge is all about and, more importantly, how MAN ES is working at the forefront of technology to resolve the problem for its two-stroke and four-stroke dual-fuel engines. He also shares his insights on other exciting and innovative engine developments that are underway at MAN ES to help shipping get to zero.
Following his participation in our first ship.energy summit this week, we’re pleased to welcome Chris Chatterton to this week’s podcast to discuss the case for methanol.
As the future fuels debate has evolved over the years, methanol has been keeping pace with its rivals LNG and ammonia as a low carbon alternative to diesel fuel and fuel oil for shipping. The Methanol Institute, founded in 1989, advocates for methanol as an attractive option for a range of uses, from powering ships to heating homes.
Chris joined The Methanol Institute in 2015, continuing his 20-year career in the power, oil and gas, biofuel, and chemical sectors, with key expertise in strategy, fundraising, restructuring, and operations for large and small organisations alike. With his expertise we’ll be focusing the lens on methanol and its uses and advantages, and ultimately its position within the future fuels landscape.
Marine LNG has its strong proponents, with major shipping companies continuing to add their names to the dual-fuelled vessel global order book and energy suppliers joining the dots in building a robust bunkering infrastructure. LNG also has its critics who question its longevity as a marine fuel as shipping embarks on its very challenging path to decarbonisation. LNG is a transitional fuel, according to its naysayers, and shipping should be moving straight ahead to future fuels such as ammonia and hydrogen.
In today’s podcast, our guest Peter Keller, Chair of the Board of Directors of pro-LNG industry coalition SEA-LNG, presents a firm case for LNG’s place within the future marine fuel mix.
A former Executive Vice President of TOTE Maritime, Peter Keller’s brief at TOTE included leading the conversion of the company’s fleet to LNG fuel including fuel acquisition and supply chain activities. He oversaw the introduction of the first LNG-powered vessels in US waters, the 2016-built, 33,127 DWT Perla del Caribe and 2015-built, 33,106 DWT Isla Bella.
SEA-LNG is a not-for-profit collaborative industry foundation, bringing together key players from across the supply chain, including shipping companies, classification societies, ports, major LNG suppliers, downstream companies, infrastructure providers and original equipment manufacturers.
The coalition promotes the use of LNG as the only currently viable marine fuel that can cut GHG emissions at the point of combustion and, with modern technology, on a well-to-wake basis.
Financing, funding, and investment continue to be sticking points in the road to decarbonisation for the shipping sector. Despite increasing focus towards unlocking the barriers to investment for zero emissions projects, such as the formation of the Poseidon Principles and various studies and reports outlining cost projections, the path to funding the industry’s decarbonisation remains foggy.
Today’s podcast guest, Dr Pablo Rodas-Martini, President of the Gliese Foundation, takes an analytical view of current endeavours to establish a financial pathway towards decarbonisation. He takes us through the Gliese Foundation’s scoring of the first Poseidon Principles Annual Disclosure report, as well as his personal views on the shipping industry’s ability to meet the IMO’s ambitious targets, based on a long and illustrious career in the sector.
With such focus on future fuels, we sometimes need to remind ourselves of the considerable opportunity that rests with alternative propulsion systems and fuel efficient technologies in driving the shipping industry to its zero emissions future. Joining us to discuss this interesting avenue of the decarbonisation challenge is Tuomas Riski, CEO of Helsinki-based rotor sail manufacturer, Norsepower. Having established Norsepower in 2012 and steered the organisation through a string of successful installations, Tuomas guides us through the important role of technologies in furthering the zero-carbon agenda, as well as in maintaining cost efficiency for maritime operations today.
Mr Tuomas Riski, CEO, Norsepower M.Sc. (Econ. & Tech.) is the CEO of Norsepower Oy Ltd, which is a Finnish clean tech and engineering company pioneering modern auxiliary wind propulsion for the global maritime industry.
Norsepower’s Rotor Sail Solution is a proven, low-maintenance, easy to use, and reliable fuel saving technology, supporting the decarbonisation of the shipping industry.
Norsepower’s Rotor Sails are currently used on board a variety of vessels. The latest installation involved installing two 35m high Rotor Sails on a Ro-Ro, the SC Connector. This installation was the first time the Rotor Sail design has been adapted to provide a tilting function to almost horizon when on height restricted routes.
We’re exploring the macro topics in a big-picture podcast this fortnight with Adrian Tolson, Director and Lead at BLUE Insight. With 35 years’ experience in marine fuels supply & demand and bunkering infrastructure development, Adrian speaks to the commercial, societal, and logistical challenges on shipping’s journey towards zero emissions – including slow steaming, market consolidation, and the declining trend of globalisation.
Adrian founded maritime consultancy 20|20, which was acquired by business, brand and communications consultancy, BLUE, in 2019. Adrian leads BLUE’s Insight practice, which provides commercial advisory, research and intelligence services across the key areas of transformation within the maritime industry. This includes the changing marine energy supply chain, digitalisation and the drive for decarbonisation and sustainability.
Adrian leads numerous global business development projects across the marine supply chain. This includes assisting ship owners and suppliers on fuel procurement and supply strategies in a post 2020 world; the development of bunkering infrastructure projects for clean and new fuels; as well as working with the financial and investment community on the opportunities of the future marine energy landscape.
Adrian’s experience spans leadership roles with some of the industry’s largest marine fuel suppliers, including Chemoil Energy, where he was responsible for successfully driving the company through to IPO; and as Vice President and General Manager of OW Bunker where he established its physical supply operation in the USA.
We’re pleased to welcome you all back for our first podcast episode of 2021. We open the new year with a look into the uncertain future of oil demand within shipping as the industry steams its way towards cleaner alternatives.
Today we’re joined by Damien Valdenaire of the European Petroleum Refiners Association (CONCAWE) to explore the impact of 2020 on oil demand in Europe and the anticipated trends ahead for 2021. We’ll take his expert views on the drop in oil demand and refining during the pandemic and the potential for recovery this year, as well as considering expectations for emerging alternatives and the potential for a multi-fuel future.
Damien Valdenaire joined Concawe in 2016 as a Science Executive for the Refining Technology at Concawe. He has been involved with Concawe since 2014 as he was at that time a TOTAL Member Company representative.
Previously, he spent his 18-year career in the refining industry within TOTAL. He held a variety of process Engineering, Planning, Economics and Managerial positions in four different sites in the TOTAL group, in Belgium, England and France, before moving to TOTAL Refining & Chemical in Brussels as Senior Refining Strategy Analyst.
In his current position, Damien has led the studies regarding the impact of Regulations on the EU refining industry (product quality, CO2 intensities of refined products, ETS, etc.) and contribute in projects such as the future of refining in a “low carbon economy”.
He is also a member representative in IPIECA Climate Change Working Group, in the ESSF (European Sustainable Shipping Forum) and IOGP CCS (International Oil and Gas Producer, working group on Carbon capture and Storage).
Damien holds a Master Degree in Chemical Engineering from National Institute of Applied Sciences in Toulouse (France).
Our final podcast of 2020 features the Founder and CEO of Forward Ships, Alexander Panagopulos. As the son of a cruise operator, Alexander has a lifelong history with ocean travel, which has fuelled both his impressive career track and his passion for improving the environmental impact of the sector.
Alexander’s career has taken him to C-suite positions with organisations including Magna Marine, BlueStar Ferries, and Attica Group, as well as senior advisory positions on the Greek and Hellenic boards of the American Bureau of Shipping and Lloyd’s Register respectively. Alongside this he co-founded Superfast Ferries and served as its President and CEO until 2007, and is also the founder and chairman of Arista Group, Arista Shipping, and Project Forward.
In this podcast we’ll take a retrospective tour through the establishment of Project Forward, its ongoing journey, and reception across the market, as well as Alexander’s views on the pacing, challenges, and opportunities of maritime decarbonisation.
In this fortnight’s edition of the ship.energy podcast we’re speaking to Daniel Rose, CEO of LQM Petroleum Services. The episode follows on from the recent “Future Fuels: The Road to Decarbonisation” webinar hosted by Daniel, which our podcast host Mark Williams participated in and which considered operations and technology, future fuels, and policy as three pathways towards zero emissions. We’ll be considering these pathways in more detail, and discussing the results of a survey conducted live with attendees to last month’s webinar.
Manager of Lloyd’s MIU’s credit reporting department.
2010 Risk Manager at Rudder SAM – Part of the prestigious d’Amico group (Monaco).
Director of Integr8 fuels (part of Navig8) – helping grow that business into a well known bunkering brand (London).
Chief Commercial Officer of OceanConnect Marine (owned by Glencore at the time) (London).
CEO of LQM Petroleum Services since October 2019 – LQM is a very well-known brand in bunkering, having been active since 1982 (London).
The 75th meeting of the International Maritime Organisation’s Marine Environment Protection Committee (MEPC) rolled on this week in the crosshairs of a wary shipping sector. The decisions made this week in developing a regulatory pathway away from fossil-based fuels and energy sources for shipping will have key implications for an industry already in turmoil, as to what alternative fuel options and technologies are available to them in this transition.
Bryan Comer, senior researcher within the International Council on Clean Transportation (ICCT), joins us for this week’s podcast to discuss these options and technologies in more depth, as well as the other global trends sending ripples across the shipping industry.
Before joining the ICCT, Bryan spent more than five years as an independent environmental policy analyst for clients including the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency as part of Energy and Environmental Research Associates.
During this time, Bryan developed expertise in conducting marine and port emissions inventories and in modeling the economic, environmental, and energy use tradeoffs of freight transportation policies. Bryan holds a Ph.D. in Environmental Science and Policy from the SUNY College of Environmental Science and Forestry, as well as an M.S. and B.S. in Public Policy from the Rochester Institute of Technology.
Rounding up our latest conversations on the next generation of ships and marine fuels, in this rendition of the ship.energy podcast Mark Williams and Tony Foster of Marine Capital Limited tackle the million – or indeed billion – dollar question of how we finance the impending transformation the world’s shipping fleet. They consider the future funding landscape for the shipping industry within the zero-carbon transition, the potential demand for greater transparency and stricter governance within the sector, and the impact of corporate versus regulatory influence upon investment decisions.
Marine Capital Ltd (MCL) is a specialist shipping asset manager providing direct shipping investment strategies for institutional investors.
MCL acts as a link between steel and paper, connecting investors to ships, including asset sourcing, transaction management and commercial management.
Over the last four decades working in shipping Tony has worked in ship ownership, commercial management, broking and fund management. He has spent considerable time in Asia including as a Director of the Handysize bulker operator Pacific Basin before setting up MCL.
MCL is something of an evangelist for decarbonising shipping. The company is a member of the Global Maritime Forum, the Getting to Zero Coalition, also involved with the Green Finance Institute in the UK and in discussion with the Department for Transport on developing its maritime strategy.
In this podcast Simon and Mark Williams take the temperature on the Akti Miaouli as Simon shares his take on how Greek ship owners are approaching the decarbonisation agenda. They compare the environmental credentials of LNG, hydrogen and other fuels against low-sulphur marine gasoil and consider the balance between economic and ecological factors in the shipping investment decision. The two former HSBC colleagues compare notes on the balance of responsibilities between ship owners and charterers for driving forward to a post-hydrocarbon shipping industry.
Simon is well known around the maritime world especially as one of those braver Englishmen who has made a successful shipping career in Athens.
Simon began his career in Liverpool working for Harrison Line before moving to London to work as a sale and purchase broker first for Seasure then HSBC Shipping Services. In 2008 he set up the HSBC Shipping Services office in Athens. After a stint back in London in 2012 he moved to Greece permanently and became a partner at Ursa Shipbrokers.
Simon is passionate about Maritime education. In his spare time he lectures at the Institute of Chartered Shipbrokers, as well as being a guest lecturer at the University of Piraeus, the Athens University of Economics and Business, and City University London.
This week’s podcast guest is Dr Lucy Gilliam of the Brussels based think tank Transport and Environment. T&E has been reporting on the impact of transport on our environment since 2007. T&E is a member of the Clean Shipping Coalition which has observer status at the IMO as well as being represented on a number of maritime industry groups.
Dr Gilliam joined in 2017, after several years as an advisor to the UK Government’s Department of Environment, Food and Rural Affairs followed by several years as a founding director of eXXpedition, an all-female company that runs research voyages investigating issues like plastics pollution of the oceans.
Dr Gilliam and Mark Williams discuss the potential for a number of non-fossil fuels for shipping, consider the option of carbon capture and try to answer the question, are we heading for a multi-fuel, no-size-fits-all future?
Our ship.energy podcast this week celebrates World Maritime Day with our guest Bob Sanguinetti, CEO of the UK Chamber of Shipping.
The theme for this year’s World Maritime Day – “Sustainable shipping for a sustainable planet” – provides an opportunity to raise awareness of the United Nations’ Sustainable Development Goals and showcase the work that the IMO and its Member States are undertaking to achieve the targets.
Bob and Mark Williams examine the UK’s current work on sustainable shipping projects, and the roadmap for the industry as it stands today including challenges and opportunities for the UK in the global decarbonisation race. They discuss the UK’s expertise in developing future technologies, and opportunities for collaboration between government and commercial sectors.
In this edition of the ship.energy podcast, Eddie Valentis, CEO of Pyxis Maritime Corp and Pyxis Tanker Inc (NASDAQ: PXS) tells Mark Williams how smaller and independent ship owners have to hang together to influence the process of decarbonisation. The pair discuss the challenges of raising capital to invest in new low-carbon technologies and compare notes on whether regulators are giving independent ship owners a clear signal as to their intentions and the most likely path to the IMO’s carbon reduction goals.
In ship.energy’s inaugural podcast, Ardmore Shipping’s Executive Vice President & COO, Mark Cameron, joins Mark Williams in a conversation about the company’s approach to the GHG reduction challenge.
The ship.energy podcast has its finger on the pulse of the marine energy transition. In the coming weeks and months it will feature the views and perspectives of the key stakeholders and opinion-formers who are engaged in shaping shipping’s evolution to becoming a low – and ultimately zero – GHG emissions industry.
Expect some forthright, always informative – and sometimes controversial – opinions from the leaders of the global shipping, marine fuels and technology sectors
Join the journey and listen to the growing discussion about shipping’s mission to be a ‘clean’ industry.