IBIA EVENTS
SPRINGING INTO SUMMER
IBIA’s global footprint has been evident this spring with involvement in events held in Asia, Africa, the Americas and Europe. As spring turns to summer, IBIA heads to South Europe’s shipping capital
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his has been an eventful spring for IBIA. Hot on the heels of our prestigious Annual Dinner held at the start of IP Week in London in February, we had a packed events schedule during the months of March and April. Our Asia branch, together with the Asia Pacific Maritime Conference and Exhibitions (APM) organised a bunker symposium, held 15 March. Our Singapore-based office also held the annual IBIA Asia gala dinner on 26 April, where we were honoured that the Maritime and Port Authority decided to announce an important development. You can read more about these two events in the IBIA Asia report on page 13. Later in March, we held the third IBIA Africa bunkering conference in a new geographic region. “IBIA’s Africa Bunkering Conference” was hosted by Ports of Tenerife and took place from 20 – 22 March, attracting 100 international and regional attendees. More about this in the Africa Regional Manager’s report on page 16.
During the same week as our Jamaica event, IBIA was also well represented at the world’s longest running bunker conference; the International Bunker Conference which is now in its 39th year. IBIA provided an update on the work undertaken by the IMO to ensure consistent implementation of the 2020 sulphur limit, which was apt for the “Sailing into Changing waters, how do we adapt?” theme for IBC 39. As this issue goes to print, the agenda has been fixed for a one-day conference jointly organised with BMS United in Greece. “What’s Next? A glance into the Future of Shipping” will take place in Athens, at the Benaki Museum, on 30 May in the week before Posidonia, one of the world’s largest Shipping exhibitions. It looks set to be an interesting selection of topics. For those that are relatively new to the industry, we offer the opportunity to learn about a whole raft of topics from industry veteran Nigel Draffin, founding IBIA member and renowned author of several books on bunkering.
He will be leading an IBIA training event in Athens on 29 May, the day before the conference, at the Piraeus Marine Club. This summer we will be busy preparing for our Annual Convention, which will take place on November 6 to 8 in Copenhagen, the wonderful capital of Denmark. We are already looking forward to the gala dinner in Tivoli Gardens, Copenhagen’s iconic theme park right in the heart of the city. There will be fireworks! Apart from a timely and relevant Convention programme, we also intend to invite IBIA members to Workshops to examine two hot and closely related industry issues: compliance with sulphur regulations and ethics in the bunker industry. We think Copenhagen - where the industry and authorities have many years of experience with low sulphur limits and the bunker industry has come under intense scrutiny - is an ideal place for IBIA’s members to convene to talk about these issues, which have global relevance. We look forward to seeing IBIA members from all over the world convene in Copenhagen for our annual event in November.
Moving west, IBIA was invited to speak at Connecticut Maritime Association conference in Stamford, Connecticut on the US east coast on 14 March. The CMA Bunker Session: 2020 – Making sense of it all, examined the key issues raised by the International Maritime Organization’s global 0.50% sulphur cap, a subject IBIA is heavily invested in. Staying in the Americas, we were proud to partner with the Maritime Authority of Jamaica (MAJ) to organise two-day conference and training session at the Hyatt Ziva Hotel Montego Bay from April 17-19. The inaugural IBIA Caribbean Bunker Conference received fantastic support from the relevant policy makers and we’re sharing some news and pictures with you in the event report on page 20.
World Bunkering Summer 2018
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