Blaine Collins News

The United States Coast Guard (USCG) and DNV GL signed a memorandum of agreement (MOA) authorizing DNV GL to participate in the Alternate Compliance Program (ACP) and delegated certain survey and certification services for U.S. flagged vessels. The MOA was signed by Rear Adm. Paul Thomas, assistant commandant for prevention policy, and Captain Blaine Collins, DNV GL vice president of group government & public affairs for the U.S. “We greatly value the ongoing relationship we have with the Coast Guard,” said Collins. “We appreciate their trust and confidence in DNV GL to provide statutory services on behalf of the U.S. The ACP is an alternative to complying with vessel certification and inspection standards contained in Title 46…

The U.S. Coast Guard and DNV GL have signed a memorandum of agreement (MOA) authorizing DNV GL to participate in the Alternate Compliance Program (ACP) and delegated certain survey and certification services for U.S. flagged vessels. This delegation and MOA, signed by Rear Adm. Paul Thomas, assistant commandant for prevention policy, and Captain Blaine Collins, DNV GL vice president of group government and public affairs for the U.S., supersedes the agreements previously executed by DNV and the Coast Guard on August 4, 2006, and GL and the Coast Guard on September 7, 2011.

Examining areas of change and growth in shipping is the focus of the 20th annual Hellenic-American and Norwegian-American Chambers of Commerce conference, often called the New York Shipping Conference. Entitled “Today’s Vision- Tomorrow’s Reality”, the conference will present a Macro Shipping and Economic Overview, a look at Shipping 2020, the challenges of balancing safety, regulatory compliance and costs, the current outlook and sources of dry bulk demand and supply, sourcing ship finance, and the commercial impacts of decisions regarding trade routes, chartering and futures.

Examining key industry drivers is the focus of the 17th annual Hellenic-American and Norwegian-American Chambers of Commerce annual conference, often called the New York Shipping Conference. Entitled “Challenges & Opportunities for the Shipping Industry: Is There a New Normal?” the conference will present the macro shipping and economic overview, the impact of increasing environmental regulation on the shipping market, the availability of capital and its many forms, the growing influence of China and India on Shipping, and shipowners’ points of view. The event will be held on Tuesday, February 8th at the Waldorf-Astoria (a new venue for this event) starting at 0815 with conference registration and coffee.

Founding Chairman of NAMEPA (North American Marine Environment Protection Association Clay Maitland unveiled plans to debut NAMEPA’s 2010 Seminar Series in San Francisco on March 9 at the Marines Memorial Club. The title of the seminar is “Environmental Intelligence in Shipping”. The seminar will kick off at 0800 with coffee and registration and end with a luncheon featuring an address by VADM Jody Breckenridge, USCG Commander Pacific Area. “The purpose of NAMEPA’s Seminar Series is to bring together stakeholders in the marine community to discuss concerns and actions that address marine environment protection” stated Mr. Maitland. Kevin Krick, Director of Environmental Affairs Global for APL Ltd. will lead the proceedings with an overview of industry best practices.

DNV is now fully authorized to act as an autonomous certification body on behalf of the U.S. Coast Guard (USCG). Today, DNV, as the first non-US classification society, signed the Alternate Compliance Program agreement with the USCG. The Coast Guard delegation to DNV is the authority to act on behalf of the U.S. Coast Guard under the Alternate Compliance Program – ACP. ACP is a significant delegation granted to a class society after it has attained authorization for the issuance of a broad range of international convention certificates and demonstrated its professional plan review and survey capabilities to the satisfaction of the USCG. Most of these authorizations to issue statutory certificates on behalf of the USCG were granted in the summer of 2000.