Tanker owners' association INTERTANKO reports that its Council has approved the appointment of current Deputy Managing Director, Katharina Stanzel, as Managing Director of INTERTANKO effective July 1, 2012. Joe Angelo will then return to his previous position of Deputy Managing Director and Director for Regulatory Affairs and the Americas.

"We are delighted that Kathi has been confirmed as INTERTANKO's next Managing Director," says INTERTANKO Chairman Capt Graham Westgarth. "Kathi's vision, and dedication and commitment to INTERTANKO and its Members will be invaluable as she takes over the leadership of our first class international shipping association."

"We are also extremely pleased to have Joe continue with INTERTANKO as part of the leadership team. Joe agreed to take on the duties and responsibilities of Managing Director as part of our long term succession plan and he has served us well in that capacity."

Five-year strategic plan

INTERTANKO is finalizing a five year strategic plan, whose main objectives are to look ahead and ensure that, given today's regulatory and economic climate, the association is well-positioned to face the challenges expected.

The Council believes that the most likely scenario facing the tanker industry will be one of strong environmental concern within an unstable geopolitical state, and that the major issues confronting members will be:

• Sustainability of the tanker industry;
• Human element
• Tanker safety and performance
• Global maritime security threats
• Greenhouse gas emission reductions
• Air emission reductions
• Ballast water management

The Council says the association must engage proactively at every level, working with all stakeholders including regulators, to ensure that the interests of its members are taken into account and that operational realities are considered, leading to regulation that is workable and practical.

There should also be a focus on developing industry cooperation, and on achieving a cohesive and proactive approach in getting governments to understand the consequences of their decisions, thereby influencing the outcomes of the political decision-making process.

Sustainability INTERTANKO's Council remains deeply concerned about the current tanker market, and that members have been struggling to cover their operating costs at prevalent market rates. It firmly believes that this situation cannot be maintained long term, and threatens the sustainability of oil tanker operation.

To assist INTERTANKO Members, the Council supported the development of an optimal speed model. This shows the relationship between the time charter equivalent earnings and CO2 emissions, based on a known freight rate for a specific route and different tanker speeds.

The objective is to provide Members with a tool that will allow them to achieve an optimal speed for their ships and voyages, to the benefit of the tanker operator and the environment, since reduced speed means reduced CO2 emissions.

ECA Guidelines

The Council reaffirmed that it wishes to continue to promote a global switch to cleaner fuels. Compliance with ECAs by use of cleaner fuels may be attractive when compared with the significant cost of fully equipping a ship with two or three scrubbers.

Compliance with IMO Emission Control Area (ECA) emissions limits means that for the period 2015 to 2020/2025, stricter SOx emissions limits in ECAs will result in the impact of compliance varying according to the time a ship spends in ECAs.

To help its Members, INTERTANKO has developed ECA Guidelines based on a number of specific technical, operational, safety and cost-efficiency elements which need to be considered by ship owners when choosing between alternatives for compliance with the ECA regulatory regime between 1 January 2015 and the enforcement of a global sulphur cap in 2020 or 2025.

These Guidelines are not intended to promote one means of compliance over another. They are intended to facilitate ship owners' decisions on how to comply with the ECA regulatory regime, and to provide advice on the foreseeable impacts of each of the alternatives to meet ECA emission limits.

Fuel quality

INTERTANKO will continue its campaign to promote the need of professional standards on quality control of bunkers delivered to ships, seeking the cooperation of other ship owner associations and of the bunker suppliers. INTERTANKO will increase its bunker quality reports to Members.

The Council finds it completely unacceptable that some EU ports, having no quality control requirements on bunkers delivered, consider off-spec bunkers onboard ships as "waste" and require costly de-bunkering to follow the EU Waste Directive.

Piracy

The Council emphasized that it will continue to encourage INTERTANKO Members to wholly embrace the industry's Best Management Practices for Protection against Somali Based Piracy (BMP 4).

It also noted the increased use of private and national armed guards on vessels transiting the Gulf of Aden and Indian Ocean, and reaffirmed that it believes it is the responsibility of the international navies to ensure the right of free passage on the high seas including the use of vessel protection detachments (VPDs) on merchant ships.

The Council expressed concerns about the issue of regulation of provision of armed guard services on merchant vessels, in particular as their use involves the use of force, including lethal force.

The Council reaffirmed that INTERTANKO does not advocate the arming of ships' crews and that the use of private armed guards or government armed security forces onboard merchant ships has to be a matter for each individual owner or manager to assess as part of their voyage risk assessment.

In the context of U.K. Government setting up a Task Force to curtail ransom payments, the Council adopted a policy that stressed the need to maintain members' ability to make the lawful payment of ransoms, which shipowners recognize as a duty of care for their seafarers and the only certain exit strategy following a hijack.

The Council reaffirmed its support for the SOS SaveOurSeafarers campaign which in its first 12 months has developed a very strong and distinctive brand, has secured broad mainstream media coverage of Somali piracy, and has helped achieve political recognition of Somali piracy as a real economic and humanitarian threat.

The campaign will be focusing on maintaining a hard-hitting website and active social media, together with a sustained outreach to the mainstream media. It will also be encouraging meetings around the world at the very highest levels between shipping industry and politicians.

May 14, 2011

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