Bureau Veritas Marine Technical Committee addresses 2020 technical and regulatory challenges.
The 30th Marine Technical Committee Meeting of Bureau Veritas Piraeus was held on the 11th of June 2019 at the Ecali Club. The meeting was hosted by Mr. George Andreadis, Marine Chief Executive of Bureau Veritas, Greece and was chaired by the Committee Chairman, Mr. George Sarris of Enterprises Shipping & Trading.
Over 45 members, primarily the Technical Directors of Greek Shipping Companies along with senior members of the Bureau Veritas office in Greece, were present at the first Bureau Veritas Hellenic Marine Technical Committee for 2019, that this year marks its twenty-year anniversary.
The meeting commenced with the introduction of four new members, Mr Nikos Lambroukos Technical Manager of Eastern Mediterranean Maritime Ltd, Mr Loukas Kaniaros, Technical Manager of Maran Dry Management, Mr Antonis Alexiou, Technical Manager of Product Shipping & Trading S.A. and Mr Panos Kourkountis, Technical manager of Sea Traders S.A.
George Andreadis welcomed all the members and subsequently the presentations followed.
The round of presentations opened with Dr John Kokarakis, Technology & Business Development Director of Hellenic, Black Sea and Adriatic Zone Bureau Veritas. His presentation titled “Is slow steaming the silver bullet to decarbonize shipping?” dealt with the technical requirements and the challenges to apply reduction of speed as a drastic measure to reduce GHG emissions. Effects from the expected increase of the number of ships trading and impact on SOx emissions due to moderate speed reductions were also included.
Mr Vassilis Dimoulas, Technology and Innovation Manager Greece, Cyprus & Malta Bureau Veritas, addressed the subject “Inventory of Hazardous Materials” followed by Mr George Andreadis who closed the first part of the meeting with a brief update on IMO MEPC 74.
The second part of the meeting was dedicated to fuels. Mr Nikolaos Kakalis, Business Development Manager of Bureau Veritas made an insightful presentation on the VeriFuel insight on 2020 fuels.
Consequently, Mr Vasilis Panagopoulos, Commercial Director Fuels & Lubricants at EKO – Hellenic Petroleum elaborated on the supplier’s perspective for 2020 fuels, followed by Mr Dimoulas who presented the Ship Implementation Plan.
Finally, Dr Kokarakis closed the meeting with yet another strong technical presentation entitled: “Environmental challenges and ship rating initiatives” that raised the interest of the participants. The specifics behind the critical rating of bulk carriers by Rightship were deciphered and methods were analyzed on how to improve the ratings under the constraint of IACS minimum power guidelines. Furthermore, the problem in Select Catalytic Reactors at start-up or low engine loads was described along with ways to tackle it.
The meeting concluded with a lengthy and lively discussion which continued during the traditional dinner that followed. Commenting, Mr. Andreadis repeated that ‘The committee is always a great opportunity for industry leaders and its members to exchange views, share their experience and expertise. We are very grateful for the opportunity our committee members provide us to support them in the best possible way. Greece has a significantly important shipowning and shipmanagement community. The exchange of expertise and opinions has proved to be remarkably important in the evolution of our cooperation.’
Bureau Veritas is a world leader in laboratory testing, inspection and certification services. Created in 1828, the Group has around 74,000 employees in more than 1,400 offices and laboratories located all across the globe. Bureau Veritas helps its clients to improve their performance by offering services and innovative solutions in order to ensure that their assets, products, infrastructure and processes meet standards and regulations in terms of quality, health and safety, environmental protection and social responsibility. Bureau Veritas is listed on Euronext Paris and belongs to the Next 20 index.
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