Mr. Dimitris Orfanos, Chief Operating Officer , Dorian LPG Management Corp., has responded to GREEN4SEA questions addressing environmental challenges for the shipping industry in 2017. He noted that USCG/IMO Ballast, MRV, SECA/NECA will continue to capture shipowners’ interest and forecast that things will not become simpler or easier for the industry unless we see coordination between US, EU and UN.
GREEN4SEA: Do you think there was a significant success and/or progress made with respect to marine environment protection during 2016? Focusing on your area of expertise, what were the most important industry developments within 2016?
Dimitris Orfanos: The recent decision by IMO to stick to the original 2020 implementation date for the new global sulfur cap or 0.1% and the BWMC achieving its ratification threshold are clearly the two most important developments of 2016. Apart from that the progress in the USCG approval process for the ballast water treatment systems and the (slow) progress in clarifying the EU MRV regulations have also been important developments for the year.
G4S: Focusing on your area of expertise, what do you think that it will be the biggest marine environmental challenge(s) for the industry for the 2017?
D.O.: The point where the USCG will have approved a “reasonable” number of systems and stop exempting ships from its ballast water treatment regulations will be a significant challenge as owners will have to really face meeting both the USCG and IMO ballast water regulations against very real deadlines. I consider this likely to happen at some point within 2017. Same for MRV; actual implementation will require clarity on a number of its mechanics and this will be a challenge, first to determine and then actually implement on a very large number of companies and vessels.
G4S: What would be the 2017 resolutions for your company/ organization? What are your goals and aspirations to enhance environmental excellence? Do you have any new projects on the pipeline and/or plans for 2017 that you would like to share?
D.O.: Our plan is to implement MRV as smoothly as possible, keep accumulating operational experience from the ballast treatment systems and scrubbers we have in operation and finally introduce new technical measures like mewis ducts that we plan to install on some higher-consumption vessels. We are increasingly focusing on energy conservation which is synonymous to emissions reduction and of course a direct result of optimizing consumption of main and auxiliary engines and other machinery consuming a lot of power (cargo compressors on our LPGs for example).
G4S: What is your overall forecast for the marine environmental developments in 2017 and what would you like to share and/or wish and/or ask other industry stakeholders?
D.O.: I expect that the mix of major environmental regulations (USCG/IMO Ballast, MRV, SECA/NECA) will keep representing significant challenges for owners. Things will not become simpler or easier, if anything we might see more unilateral regulations by countries like China who may be tempted to join the US, EU and UN in setting their own rules. The ideal wish would be for the US, EU and UN to increase their coordination and reduce unilateral regulations and any other player to refrain from doing so, opting to work through IMO, however I am not optimistic
The views presented hereabove are only those of the author and not necessarily those of GREEN4SEA and are for information sharing and discussion purposes only.
