"I also enjoyed visiting member companies and many of the people and organisations based in the Asia Pacific Region that work closely with OCIMF on a wide variety of interests."
Director’s Log
OCIMF was among a small number of industry organisations consulted as Chairmanship of the United Nations Contact Group for the Prevention of Piracy off the Coast of Somalia was passed from the United States to the European Union. Reforming the working structure and to be more focused, efficient and cost effective is welcomed.
The OCIMF General Purposes Committee (GPC) met for the first time this year in Singapore on 18-19 March followed by the inaugural meeting of the Asia Pacific Regional Panel (full report below), I will take this opportunity to thank the members and secretariat staff attending for their enthusiastic participation and support, we had super engagement and it was great to see so many members from the Asia Pacific Region in attendance. I also enjoyed visiting member companies and many of the people and organisations based in the Asia Pacific Region that work closely with OCIMF on a wide variety of interests.
Ian Shields and Raj Shetty travelled on to Shanghai to the China Focus Group meeting and to support another workshop for domestic ship-owners in China with the objective of promoting OCIMF best practice and the strategic goal of continuous improvement in standards of safety and operations. Oliver Pointon and Sean Nicholson used the opportunity of travel to Singapore to hold an OVID Inspector refresher course and user workshops which proved popular as the events were very well attended.
In Ghana, the MTISC watch-keeping team from six countries assembled and commenced training at the regional maritime university in Accra on 17 April in preparation for the Maritime Trade Information Sharing Centre commencement of operations in early April – more on that to follow next month!
Today, the final day of March saw the IMO Marine Environmental Committee open its first meeting of the year with a varied agenda in which OCIMF is widely engaged. It is very encouraging to see interest and support from a number of members and this greatly assists the secretariat in participating in working and draft groups. Today also saw commencement of a training course for new SIRE inspectors being held here in our offices at 29 Queen Anne’s Gate.
I hope you enjoy this edition of the newsletter and we look forward to continuing to receive member’s articles, pictures and feedback.
Asia Pacific Regional Panel
Around 70 delegates attended the first Asia Pacific Regional Panel in Singapore on the 20 March. The event was held at the four Seasons hotel with delegates from member companies and invited industry guests in the Asia Pacific region.
The day was split into two sections, the two morning sessions were open to OCIMF members and invited industry guests, and the afternoon section that was members only.
The morning opened with OCIMF’s Director David Cotterell explaining the objectives and expectations of the regional panel to delegates. This was followed by an update on OCIMF milestones, activities and priorities, with Pierre Decarpigny, Chairman of the General Purposes Committee (GPC), giving an overview of GPC priorities in the region.
The second morning session was led off by Regional Champion Clive Blackmore, Regional Marine Manager at Shell. He spoke about the issues and challenges that the Asia Pacific region faced and set the stage for the question and answer session for regional issues to be debated by the panel.
OCIMF would like to thank everyone who helped make the day a success – both those on the panel and those in attendance.
The next Regional Panel will be held in Houston on 17 April.
Offshore work group
The Offshore work stream elected Stephen Foong of ConocoPhillips as Chairman, and Richard Bounds of Shell as Vice Chairman. Discussions revolved around regional issues in South East Asia affecting offshore operations. Discussions included manning, training, and equipment, inspections, Dynamic Positioning and cabotage issues.
The outcome of the meeting was to add a member to the Offshore Marine Operations Group (OMOG) dynamic positioning work group in order to assist with issues in Asia, and in turn to provide feedback from the dynamic positioning work group to the regional panel.
The group have also asked, as a first regional work group item, to be focused on building a competency matrix for members to use when vetting vessels crew for experience on different types of vessels. This will be taken to the OMC for approval in Houston.
Shipping work group
The Shipping work stream elected Julien Guienne (Total) as Chairman and Capt. Prashant S. Dighe (IMT) as Vice Chairman.
The groups’ discussion was wide ranging, with topics under discussion including:
- Safety of navigation in Singapore and Malacca Straits.
- Coastal tankers and barges used for cabotage.
- Engagement with Regional Navigational Safety Organisations (Marine Electrical Highway).
- Manning and fatigue issues related with harbour rules (supervisory matter).
- Unauthorised boarding and security related issues
- Ports of refuge.
- STS operations (engagement with respective stakeholders and safety bodies).
Terminals work group
The Terminals work stream elected Rakesh Dhir (ConocoPhillips) as Chairman and Teerapol Phaparkhorn (PTT) as Vice Chairman.
A wide variety of items were discussed ranging from pressure surges in pipelines, Emergency Shut Down Systems (ESDS) for oil tankers at terminals, and a lack of take-up of the Marine Terminal Information System (MTIS) in the region.
These issues will be forwarded to the work streams parent Port and Terminals Committee for further discussion and feedback to the next Asia Pacific Terminal work stream meeting in October.
A word from our regional champion
"I believe the new regional panel format was well received with some real energy to bring the regional issues to the fore in the morning session."
"It was also pleasing to see the working groups in the afternoon roll up their sleeves to debate those issues and give clarity to what they wanted to address as a team in the coming months."
"The challenge now for Asia is to maintain that passion and momentum which was started in this meeting when the work starts at some time in the future to really make a difference and drive change as OCIMFs voice for safety in this region."
Clive Blackmore, regional champion
The Maritime Trade Information Sharing Centre within the Gulf of Guinea region
The Maritime Trade Information Sharing Centre within the Gulf of Guinea region (MTISC-GoG) opened its doors in March. The MTISC-GoG team, made up of Lieutenant Commander David Kpetigo of the Ghanaian Navy, Captain Marc McShane of Shell, who adds his recent experience as Merchant Navy Liaison Office in UKMTO Dubai and six watchkeepers (including watchkeepers from Togo, Sierra Leone, Liberia and Ghana, including mariners from OCIMF member companies who are active in the region), assembled in Ghana on 14 March to commence training at the Regional Maritime University, where the Centre is based.
The Centre is now working towards achieving its initial operating capability. The maritime security chart for the Gulf of Guinea, which will provide contact details for MTISC-GoG will be published by UK Hydrographic Office in mid April. We will have a full report in the April edition of the newsletter.
MTIS news
The Marine Terminal Information System (MTIS) now has more than 400 registered terminals in the system. That's over 10% of the marine terminals we have identified globally.
Over the coming months, we expect to see this rise as OCIMF, and our member organisations, work to raise awareness of the MTIS programme.
Are you a SIRE operator?
Ship Inspection Report Programme (SIRE) Operators now have access to the MTIS system. You can login with your SIRE username and password to access the MTIS reports.
The newsletter is one!
The newsletter is one year old this month. Our members wanted to hear more from the secretariat, and from each other. One year in - how are we doing?
We would love to hear your thoughts on the newsletter, but even more than that we would love to hear your news - so why not drop us a line (or send us a picture)? Send your news to
