Shipping A New Era - aegean marine petroleum network inc.

companies and will be a deterrent for
the correct maintenance of older ships.
There is a risk that ships will be
driven out of the Greek register, contrary
to the wishes of the Greek government,
which wants to keep capable
administrators, enterprises, and seamen
within its borders.
“The EU directive (417 / 2002) that roused strong opposition
among the international shipping community calls for
the withdrawal of single-hulled tankers starting from 2005
instead of 2010, as was stated in a previous directive.”
shipping organizations, and even individual
shipowners will resort to European
Courts for hefty compensations.
Repercussions for Greek Shipping
and Reactions
With respect to Greece, by 2010 the
revised EU directive will send 439
Greek-owned single-hulled tankers
into "retirement," 88 sailing under
Greek flag and 351 under foreign flag.
For this reason, representatives of the
Greek shipping community are putting
together a strong case against the directive
in question. Their argument:
If it is put into effect by 2005, it
will lead to the premature withdrawal
of relatively young ships. These ships
were constructed after the Marpol
agreement and, although they are single-hulled,
have higher safety specifications.
Most of them are under 15
years old, and have not yet made the
returns on investment expected since
their construction.
The accumulation of cargo that will
not have means of transportation because
of a shortage of ships, and the
compulsory use of double-hulled ships
will push up the price of transporting
oil, a price increase that will be borne
by the European consumer.
The proposals will have a negative
impact on the balance sheets of many
What the Opposition Says
The other side argues that in recent
years, huge investments were made to
construct a modern fleet of doublehulled
ships that remain to a large extent
underutilized because they cost
more to use than single-hulled tankers.
With respect to applying a stricter
institutional framework on an international
level, experts in shipping criticize
the slow decision-making processes
of the IMO.
They point out that IMO procedures
allow for extensive dialogue between
member-states, which precede
any shipping measures taken of an international
scope, and in the past, they
have lasted up to two years.
They believe that, even if talks did
reach a conclusion between the countries
in question, an 18-month margin
would have been granted to the shipping
community to adapt to new regulations.
According to statistics by Clarkson, in
2002, the international tanker fleet
comprised 7,320 tankers, 5,243 of them
single-hulled. Of the remaining 2,077,
575 had capacities below 10,000 tons.
18
7
29
84
10
6
23
119
11 26
17
256
Fleet size: 5-8 vessels | No of Companies: 138
% of total of Greek Companies: 18.92%
Fleet size: 3-4 vessels | No of Companies: 158
% of total of Greek Companies: 21.66%
Fleet size: 1-2 vessels | No of Companies: 308
% of total of Greek Companies: 42.24%
Based on the Greek Shipping Directory | May 2003
AUTUMN 2003 AEGEAN NEWS 11