Panos Kourkountis, Technical Director, Andriaki Shipping doesn’t anticipate revolutionary changes in marine environmental technology in 2017 and urges operators to complete the necessary plans for the MRV Regulation.
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?
Panos Kourkountis: With respect to Marine environment protection, 2016 has been characterized by two important decisions by the IMO; The Global Fuel/Sulphur CAP implementation date in 2020 and the ratification of the Convention on Control and Management of Ballast Water and Sediments.
I believe that the global CAP implementation will be not an issue. I am expecting that the oil industry, as they have already announced, will offer enough fuel to cover the demand at a reasonable cost difference. In Andriaki Shipping we have done our homework and we have concluded that alternative solutions such as scrubbers are viable only in case of big price difference between the high and low Sulphur content fuel. I doubt that the refineries which will all invest in the production of new fuel will allow this to happen.
Regarding the ballast treatment systems, it is time for planning and decision taking. There are technical issue and challenges to confront and IMO in 2017 may reconsider the deadlines, however we should probably not become too disappointed that so far our efforts to further postpone the implementation of the BWT systems were in vain.
It is probable that in the present market, Owners will not invest in this technology on very old ships. Is it worthwhile keeping old ships, including ancient vessels, in a struggling market? In 2015 the average age of the Suezmaxes that were scrapped was 24 years.
I expect that in the next few years, because of the bad market and Ballast Water regulations, the average age of scrapping will be lower. Getting rid of surplus tonnage in a glutted market can only be a good thing.
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?
P.K.: In 2017 we must have completed the preparation and plans for the MRV regulation. Its implementation would appear to be an easy task for shipping companies; However we are implementing a regulation without a clear target. It is not clear how the Administrations will use the data collected and what their next step will be. We shall see what the motivation of the regulatory bodies was and whether the MRV is an environmentally or financially driven regulation as many maintain.With MRV companies will compete for efficiency. In the near future the ships’ performance may not be an option for operational excellence but the only tool for sustainability.
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?
P.K.: Efficiency is an ongoing race. This involves constant monitoring of the input in manpower and resources against the output in quality and reliability. For the next year one of the main tasks of Andriaki Shipping is the re-evaluation of tools we use to monitor ships’ performance.
Since 1995 all ships of our fleet have been equipped with torque meters. During the last few years we also started installing mass flow meters and are working on the online transfer of the ships’ performance data to the office. Technology is moving forward rapidly and the systems must always be evaluated and updated.
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?
P.K.: I do not see revolutionary changes in marine environmental technology in 2017. Since ship’s propulsion is “married” to the internal combustion engines and to their emissions, the environmental regulations are focused on reduction of emissions. In the case of Marine propulsion a revolution could be the adoption of nuclear power, batteries or hydrogen cells. These technologies are still out of the regulatory framework of our industry. Revolutions bring abrupt changes and many sectors of the shipping industry are not willing to implement them.In shipping we always face important decisions. For instance in 2017, despite the number of uncertainties in BWT technologies, we should plan the BWT systems installations. It is certain that of the dozens of systems that are available today only a few will be in the market in a decade. I trust that we and our colleagues will take the correct decisions on this matter as well on the other issues we will face in the New Year.
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.
