Risk Management News

The airline industry has long employed flight data to monitor navigational and operational practices for evaluation and feedback to pilots using a system called Flight Operations Quality Assurance (FOQA). Now a similar concept is coming into the shipping industry. Danelec Marine, a well-known manufacturer of VDRs and ECDIS products, this month unveiled a new Bridge Operational Quality Assurance (BOQA) system. To learn more, we talked with Hans Ottosen, CEO of Danelec, a Danish…

Genscape Maritime’s Vessel Coverage of U.S. Inland Waterways offers new perspectives and a leg up on the competition. In today’s transportation markets, information is everything.It was back in 2016 that Genscape announced the complete integration of more than 400 terrestrial AIS antennas in North America, providing an impressive level of data accuracy and visibility into ship movements in the U.S. today, Genscape’s proprietary antenna network offers customers insights into ship movements…

Singapore-based LNG company Pavilion Energy said its wholly owned subsidiary Pavilion Energy Trading & Supply has agreed to buy Spanish energy company Iberdrola's portfolio of liquefied natural gas (LNG) assets.The portfolio comprises about 4 million tonnes per annum (mtpa) of Iberdrola's long-term LNG sale and supply contracts.It also includes long-term regasification of approximately 2 mtpa at the Grain LNG terminal (UK), regasification access in Spain and the Spanish-France border pipeline capacity, as well as the time-charter of a newbuild MEGI LNG vessel.

The IMO January 2021 deadline for shipping interests to incorporate cyber risk management into their existing Safety Management Systems is fast approaching. It is critical that stakeholders understand their vulnerabilities. The IMO has issued MSC-FAL.1/Circ.3 guidelines on maritime cyber risk management that does a good job of outlining the many vulnerable systems within marine operations, including:1.Bridge systems;2. Cargo handling and management systems;3.Propulsion and machinery management and power control systems;4.

The international shipping industry is responsible for around 90% of world trade. There are around 60,000 merchant ships, transporting every kind of cargo.The world fleet is registered in over 150 nations, and manned by over a million seafarers, meaning the safety of vessels is critical. The maritime industry saw the number of total shipping losses of vessels over 100GT plummet during 2018 to 46 – the lowest total this century. To put this into context there were 207 total losses…

Classification society ClassNK has released its Guidelines for Software Security which target software developers, system integrators and more.As part of its Cyber Security Series, ClassNK regularly releases guidelines and standards that outline cyber security measures based on the recently-released ClassNK Cyber Security Approach outlining the group’s basic approach to ensuring onboard cyber security for ships.The new guidelines, released as the third and latest part of the series, aim to assist with risk management focused on software used on board vessels.

Ship management company OSM Maritime has launched a portfolio of ‘industry first services’ with the introduction of OSM ON. The new product will be offered to a customer base that not only includes owners, but also insurance companies, financial institutions and brokers. It utilizes the company’s recently opened Maritime Operations Center in Singapore – which digitally connects all vessels under OSM management, and all activities with real-time visibility and transparency – to provide 24/7 response and risk management support services.

The Vessel Technology Assessment System Project (VTAS Project) has finished its development stage and is set to go live.The UK-based design, engineering and risk management consultancy firm BMT, in collaboration with Black & Veatch, created VTAS for the Energy Technologies Institute (ETI) in the UK. Watson Farley & Williams (WFW) is the advisor of the project.The VTAS Project ran from 1 January 2018 to 31 March 2019 and brought together the combined maritime and engineering consultancy…

Japanese shipping giant Mitsui O.S.K. Lines (MOL) announced that it will participate in the Task Force on Climate-related Financial Disclosures (TCFD) Consortium, which was established to provide a forum for discussions among corporations and financial institutions that agree with "TCFD recommendations"."This aims to ensure that companies factor in climate change-related risks and opportunities when they disclose their strategies to investors," said a press note from MOL.The final report…

The global quality assurance and risk management company DNV GL and Nanyang Technological University (NTU), Singapore (NTU) are supporting academic advances in additive manufacturing – the process of 3D printing – for the maritime, oil and gas and other industries, through a four-year research collaboration agreement.Two new doctoral student (PhD) positions are being created through the Industrial Postgraduate Programme, supported by the Singapore Economic Development Board (EDB) and DNV GL.

The subchapter M towboat rules, safety management systems, and an emerging culture shift on the inland waterways brings with it a fresh look at how to manage risk. Is it time for P&I clubs to return to brown water? And should inland operators welcome them home?A mass exodus from the inland marine sector by P&I clubs in the mid-1990’s was precipitated by many things. Today, these very same vessels have been put under the subchapter M regime, and most are adapting SMS as a culture in the process.

HudsonAnalytix, announced that Admiral Thad Allen, U.S. Coast Guard retired, has joined their operation as a Senior Executive Advisor.Admiral Allen served as the 23rd Commandant of the Coast Guard from 2006 to 2010. He will be focusing on risk management for the global maritime transportation sector served by Hudson. Focus areas include regulatory and policy issues, crisis response and disaster management, environmental compliance, and cyber risk to shipping, ports, and supply chains.

Mjølner Shipping Holdings LLC and MID-SHIP Capital LLC has announced the expansion of their joint venture with the launch of their second fund, Mjølner Product Solutions LLC.Mjølner Shipping Holdings LLC (“Mjølner”) and MID-SHIP Capital LLC (“MID-SHIP”) has announced the successful closing of a product tanker-focused investment fund, Mjølner Product Solutions LLC (“Product Solutions”), a Marshall Islands company.Product Solutions was formed to provide investors with efficient access to vessel trading exposure in the product tanker market and follows the crude tanker fund launched by the joint venture in 2017. Mjølner and MID-SHIP will provide all services pertaining to Product Solutions, including commercial management, risk management, finance and investor relations.

NAPA, a leading maritime software, services and data analysis provider and ChartWorld, a leading digital chart agent, has announced their partnership to provide revolutionary artificial intelligence-driven voyage planning and optimization.Oliver Schwarz, ChartWorld’s Business Development Director, commented, “In today’s era of constant regulatory change and cost volatility, vessel efficiency and safety are more important than ever. Through the integration of ChartWorld’s industry-leading voyage planning with NAPA Fleet Intelligence…

Aon and HudsonCyber are joining forces to provide enterprise-level cyber security capability assessment, integrated cyber breach response, and mitigation support to the global marine industry.“We see a real need for collaborative thinking in respect of an enterprise level cyber security methodology for our clients," said Lee Meyrick, CEO of Global Marine at Aon. "It is important to understand cyber risk exposures, mitigation strategies and maximizing the effectiveness of their programs.”Bringing together Hudson’s HACyberLogix cyber security assessment program and Aon’s cyber risk transfer…

Minerva Bunkering, formerly Aegean Marine Bunkering Network now a fully-owned subsidiary of Mercuria Energy Group, appointed Tyler Baron as the Chief Executive Officer (CEO).Baron will be based in Geneva, and will oversee Minerva’s global business operations across Europe, the Americas and Asia, said a press note from the physical supplier of marine fuels.“Given Tyler’s history with and dedication to the company, as well as his breadth of experience in financial markets and capital allocation…

Marine fuel logistics company Aegean Marine Petroleum Network  announced  that its plan of reorganization became effective and it has emerged from the voluntary Chapter 11 restructuring commenced on November 6, 2018.The company will now operate under the name of 'Minerva Bunkering', a fully-owned subsidiary of Mercuria Energy Group Limited, a major privately-held energy and commodities group with an annual turnover in excess of $100 billion.“We are pleased that Aegean has completed its restructuring…

Stephen Wang is counting the costs of President Donald Trump's trade war. He had to put down 12 times more cash as a guarantee to U.S. customs that he would pay the bill for tariffs on the Chinese-made pumps, valves and motors he imports.The cost of the guarantee - a U.S. customs bond - has shot up, an additional hit to importers already facing steep customs bills adding up to tens of billions of dollars for tariffs imposed by the Trump administration on incoming Chinese goods…

Carver Pump, a manufacturer of American-made pumps, has obtained DNV GL certification for their line of GH end-suction centrifugal pumps.DNV GL (Det Norske Veritas and Germanischer Lloyd) is a global quality assurance and risk management company that provides classification, technical assurance, and certification to the maritime, oil & gas, power and renewables industries. This certification verifies that the GH line from Carver Pump can be used reliably in marine vessels, such as offshore drilling units…

Houston-based subsea engineering company Oceaneering International has secured a contract renewal from Equinor, the Norwegian multinational energy company, covering the provision of maintenance, reliability and integrity management.The oilfield provider of engineered services and products, primarily to the offshore oil and gas said in a press note that the contract, which was originally awarded to Oceaneering’s integrity business in 2005 and competitively tendered again in December 2013…

In a new report, marine and social scientists are urging a precautionary approach towards these techniques which involve deliberate large-scale manipulation of the environment.Adding iron or other nutrients into the oceans to enhance natural processes to draw carbon from the atmosphere and creating foams which float on the surface of the sea to reflect sunlight back into the atmosphere are among a wide range of geoengineering practices which have been put forward as potential tools for countering climate change.But the report…

ABS Advanced Solutions has announced a partnership with SecurityGate to provide enhanced cyber risk analysis to the maritime market.The effort integrates the ABS proprietary FCI Cyber Risk Methodology into the award-winning SecurityGate SaaS platform, further solidifying the ABS maritime cyber security leadership. The resulting dashboard provides an instant shared view, illustrating the degree of cyber risk across assets, operations and critical suppliers. “ABS is the global leader in marine and offshore cyber security.

Danish product tanker operator Torm has joined Glencore subsidiary Inatech on an app to tackle the anticipated complex bunkering landscape in shipping post-2020.Inatech, which specialises in energy trading risk management systems, has built the ‘Smart Trader’ app to enable companies to map their entire fleet of ships and visualise best routes given sea and port conditions to achieve lowest prices for the desired quality of fuel.The toolkit leverages bunker alerts and pricing data from S&P Global Platts…