Sturla Henriksen News

The seafarer home nations of the Philippines and Indonesia are working to equip their maritime workers with the skill sets needed to deliver a low and zero-carbon maritime sector.Speaking at the ‘Seizing opportunities for green shipping in Asia and the Pacific’ conference organized by the Philippines' Maritime Industry Authority (MARINA), on May 15, Philippine Transmarine Carriers CEO Gerardo A. Borromeo said: “There is no doubt that the skill set for a career at sea is evolving.

Key figures from Maersk Group, Statoil and the Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development have signed up to discuss future ocean business opportunities, demands and strategies at Opening Oceans Conference 2018 (OOC). The event, Nor-Shipping’s first outside its Norwegian home, will see c-level executives gather in Copenhagen on May 2nd and 3rd  to examine how to responsibly realise the huge potential of the ocean, gaining the understanding, partners and tools to equip businesses for the way ahead.

Access to capital for cash-hungry Norwegian offshore shipowners is expected to tighten further as lower activity and falling profits continue in 2016, the Norwegian Shipowners' Association said in its yearly outlook report on Tuesday. Since mid-2014, the price of crude has tumbled 66 percent, leading oil firms to cut investments to preserve cash and hence rent fewer drilling rigs, supply vessels, seismic ships and other equipment used in the search for oil and gas. In 2016, only 15 percent of the firms questioned by the association consider the access to capital as good…

Norwegian companies that provide supply ships and drilling rigs to the global oil industry face a bleak year ahead as contracts disappear and financing options dwindle in the face of weak global crude prices. They could increasingly be forced to sell or write down the value of assets, cut jobs and tap shareholders for cash to weather the downturn, according to industry experts. This would herald more pain for Norway, where the overall oil sector accounts for about a fifth of the economy and unemployment is rising, especially in the oil capital Stavanger and its environs on the west coast. Oil firms like Statoil, which offshore shipping companies rely on for business, have slashed costs and projects to cope with a 60-percent plunge in crude prices since June last year.

Close to 1,000 maritime exhibitors showed off the breadth and diversity of the shipping industry at this week’s Nor-Shipping, the bi-annual event that opened in Oslo on 1 June. About 35,000 delegates from 70 countries are expected to attend more than 100 events during the weeklong event that celebrates its 50th anniversary this year. The speakers said that innovation and investment are key to boosting the maritime industry to new levels. A mix of geopolitics, regulatory pressure, innovation and business issues were discussed at the NorShipping. They also discussed important issues for shipping now and in the near future. Engineering experts at Nor-Shipping have called for more open-source systems to be used on vessels if shipping is to realize the efficiency goals for which it is striving.

Falling oil prices, heightened geopolitical tensions and sluggish, uncertain growth in the global economy are directly impacting the maritime industry, causing Norwegian shipowners to be less optimistic than last year regarding both turnover and profitability, as the Norwegian Shipowners’ Association Outlook report for 2015 shows. “We have seen a marked negative shift in just a short time. 2015 will be a challenging year for Norwegian maritime companies, but we must be prepared for 2016 to be even more challenging,” stated Sturla Henriksen, CEO of the Norwegian Shipowners’ Association. Shipowners are far less optimistic than last year, anticipating growth in turnover of only 2.3 percent in 2015, up to NOK 268 billion, compared to 6 percent anticipated growth last year.

Conference organizers have announced the speaker lineup for the 21st annual Hellenic-American and Norwegian-American Chambers of Commerce conference, often called the New York Shipping Conference. Entitled “The Life of a Ship”, the conference will feature luminaries including Steinar Nerbovik of Aker Philadelphia Shipyard, Ben Ognibene of Heidmar, Craig Stevenson Jr., Joseph Hughes of Shipowners Claims Bureau, Paal Johansen of DNV GL, and Angela Chao of Foremost Group . The event will be held on Wednesday, February 11 at the Waldorf-Astoria starting at 8:15 a.m. with conference registration and continental breakfast sponsored by DNB Bank ASA. The luncheon keynote speaker will be Sturla Henriksen, CEO of the Norwegian Shipowners’ Association, organizers said.

Shipping services that support Russia's attempts to extract oil from remote parts of the Arctic will run into difficulties as banks scale back energy financing due to Western sanctions, increasing transport costs for the frontier sector. Sanctions imposed on Russia by the United States and European Union over Ukraine have targeted the delivery of oil technology, goods and services, aiming to make it impossible for Moscow to access new oil sources. The world's largest energy exporter, Russia relies on oil and gas exports for about half its federal budget.

Despite high hopes for Arctic business from mining to shipping as the ice melts rapidly and temperatures rise twice as fast as the global average, few firms say the sums still make sense. An oil price slump and cheaper commodities, including iron ore, together with tensions between the West and Russia over Ukraine, are adding new disincentives. Examples of extra outlay abound. Ice-breaking tankers able to carry gas from Siberia cost $100 million, or 50 percent, more than normal vessels and hundreds of millions of dollars are needed to upgrade railways serving Arctic ports. Added to that, for many companies, winter darkness, ice and vast distances mean that Arctic investments are a non-starter.

Rolls-Royce has been awarded the maritime Heyerdahl Award 2014. The award was presented by His Majesty King Harald at the Norwegian Shipowners’ Associations Annual Conference in Oslo March 31. The award goes to the Environship Concept, an innovative ship design which integrates a highly efficient gas-based power and propulsion system with an innovative hull design to provide significant reductions in emissions. The expert committee, chaired by Secretary General of the International Chamber of Shipping (ICS) Peter Hincliffe…

Solstad Offshore ASA, Rolls Royce Marine, Norled AS and Maersk Line have been shortlisted for the prestigious Thor Heyerdahl International Maritime Environmental Award 2014. The prize recognizes candidates from the shipping industry that have made an outstanding contribution to the environment. The award is presented to the winner by H.M. King Harald at the Norwegian Shipowners’ Annual Conference on March 31. The Thor Heyerdahl International Maritime Environmental Award was established in 1999 by Thor Heyerdahl (1914 – 2002) and the Norwegian Shipowners’ Association.

Nor-Shipping 2013 'Agenda Offshore' hear the Director General of the Norwegian Shipowners’ Association pronounce the marriage of maritime and offshore oil and gas industries interests a success. The offshore industry is “a legitimate child” of the marriage between oil and gas as well as maritime companies. “It is maybe a relationship driven more by cooperation and innovation than by love or passion – a bit of an arranged marriage maybe – but today the offspring of this relationship are the specialized vessels…

Minister Trond Giske, Secretary General Koji Sekimizu, Chairman Masamichi Morooka and Director General Sturla Henriksen will meet the press at on Wednesday, June 5 at 2 p.m. to discuss at a major Summit in Oslo, where the Board of the International Chamber of Shipping (ICS) will meet with political leaders from major shipping nations and the Secretary General of the United Nations’ International Maritime Organization (IMO) to discuss sustainability and shipping in the Arctic. The objective is to create a dynamic arena for dialogue between policy makers and the shipping industry.

The piracy issue, reducing shipboard emissions, and tackling the worsening crisis of crew competency and complacency onboard today’s ships will be just some of the hard hitting subjects covered at the ICS/ISF International Shipping Conference to be held at IET London, 2 Savoy Place, London from September 14th to 15th. Rear Admiral Duncan Potts, the newly-appointed Operation Commander at EUNAVFOR, will be a guest speaker at the conference and will give his views on tackling the scourge of piracy from a military perspective. He will be joined on the first day’s piracy session by Stephen Askins, Partner at Ince & Co, who will discuss the intricate and often tricky issue of ransom negotiations. Reducing shipboard emissions is one of the shipping industry’s hot topics.