Shipping A New Era - aegean marine petroleum network inc.

AEGEAN SHIPPING
Captain Petros Paleokrassas
Heads Aegean Shipping
When he was 16, Petros Paleokrassas began his career at sea, joining his father on board a
Liberty Ship, who was master of the vessel, and his brother, who was first mate—both became
his mentors and first teachers.
The Paleokrassas family hails from Andros, an island
with a strong seafaring tradition, and for five generations
the family has been active in shipping. Petros
Paleokrassas served at sea until 1977, on tankers and dry
cargo ships, and was master for seven of those years. He
studied nautical science at the Cardiff College of Advanced
Technology in Wales, and has worked for a variety of companies
throughout his career. Mr. Paleokrassas was operations,
chartering, and general manager at Augustus Polemis
Group of Companies; fleet manager at Troodos Shipping,
operations manager at Blue Flag Navigation, and operations,
chartering, and commercial manager at Merryville Maritime
before joining Aegean Shipping as General Manager
in June 2003.
What are your priorities at Aegean Shipping
What I am now doing is trying to create a more efficient,
more flexible, and more cohesive company. Aegean Shipping,
like all shipping companies, must adhere to the ISM
Code and we need to be fully prepared. One of the most
important tasks is to train our staff and ensure that we are
all trained properly so that we can conform to the Code,
serve our customers better, and grow as a company.
The personnel that must be fully trained include office staff
as well as the crews aboard the ships. I am confident that we
will have all systems ready and will be fully upgraded in a
short period of time so that we can then focus on other projects
and long-term plans.
What are the current activities of Aegean Shipping
At the present, we have two Afromax ships that carry crude.
We also have vessels that carry clean petroleum products,
fuel oil, and edibles. We have ships for home trade, that carry
for dedicated customers such as PPC and Hellenic Petroleum.
Finally, we have the bunkering vessels that serve our
customers in Greece as well as in Gibraltar, Venezuela, and
Fujairah in the Emirates.
Has Aegean purchased new vessels
Yes, we have recently purchased two vessels, which are being
restored and converted to double-hull carriers. By the end
of October, the 30,000 DWT Theopisti should be ready and
soon after we will convert the 32,000 DWT Captain Takis
which we will put into service after it is fully renovated. After
that we plan to purchase modern Aframaxes so that we
may expand our oceangoing fleet.
16 AEGEAN NEWS AUTUMN 2003