The Maritime Standard defied the odds to successfully hold not just one, but two major events in Dubai, whilst maintaining high levels of safety and security for guests. A huge amount of effort was put into staging The Maritime Standard Awards and Tanker Conference, while still adhering to the UAE government health and safety guidelines, and it fully paid off.

Trevor Pereira, TMS Managing Director, said, “These events were all about doing the right thing at the right time. The industry has been starved of the opportunity to get together and we have proved to be the only ones locally and internationally capable to have held such maritime industry events, which are so needed, with attendees accepting the guidelines and trusting us to look after their safety.”

The seventh annual The Maritime Standard Awards were held on Monday 23rd November at The World Trade Centre, Dubai, with over 400 people in the ballroom, and others joining online. Many VIP guests were present to attend the Awards in person, including H.E. Sheikh Saeed bin Ahmed bin Khalifa Al Maktoum, Executive Director, Dubai Maritime City Authority who graced the occasion with his presence and praised The Maritime Standard for their tenacity in staging the Awards. While Mr Mohamed Al Muallem, CEO and Managing Director DP World, delivered the keynote address.

The Awards were also held once again under the patronage of His Highness, Sheikh Ahmed Bin Saeed Al Maktoum, President, Dubai Civil Aviation Authority and Chairman and Chief Executive, Emirates Airline, demonstrating the esteem in which they are held at the highest level.

The Maritime Standard Awards founder and managing director, Trevor Pereira, said: “The event showed just how special a place Dubai is. Thanks to the assistance of the authorities we were able to hold the Awards face to face in a really safety conscious environment. In other places these events have had to be postponed; but we were able to showcase the tremendous contribution of the industry in a way that could only have been possible in Dubai due to the ‘can-do’ mentality that exists here.”

In total 21 awards were presented to individuals and companies following the deliberations of the judging panel. In addition to the awards determined by the judges, there were a number of special awards presented by the TMS team for particularly impressive levels of performance. The Maritime Standard Lifetime Achievement Award was presented to Saadi Al Rais, head of the Ras Hassan Saadi group; The Personality of the Year Award was given to Abdullah Bin Damithan, Chief Operating Officer, DP World; The Maritime Standard Excellence Award went to Mr Abdulaziz Sabri, President, Bahri Shipmanagement; while the Outstanding Achievement Award was presented to Captain SR Patnaik, CEO of International Shipping & Logistics.

Other awards selected by The Maritime Standard included Dr Noura Al Dhaheri, CEO of Maqta Gateway, who was the recipient of the Woman in Shipping award, and Ramee Rashid of Seamaster Maritime who was named Young Person in Shipping. The winner of the Deal of the Year was ADNOC Logistics & Services, while Jesper Kjaedegaard was presented with the Editor’s Choice Award. A further special TMS Hall of Fame Award was presented to Eng. Ahmed Shareef Al Khoori, Director General of the Federal Transport Agency (FTA)- Land & Maritime.

The following day, The Maritime Standard held a highly successful fifth annual Tanker Conference, as a ground-breaking hybrid event, with some speakers and attendees taking part in person in Dubai. The conference, which also took place at the Dubai World Trade Centre following stringent guidelines, was different to past events, but there was no drop in the high quality of speakers and the excellence of their presentations for which the event is world renowned. Attendance in the ballroom was also high with over 150 guests in the audience.

The Maritime Standard was warmly praised by many participants for its ingenuity and courage in holding the conference at a time when many such events have had to be cancelled or postponed. Keynote speaker, HE Eng Ahmed Mohammed Shareef Ali Al Khoori, Director General, FTA-Land & Maritime, said, “I must applaud The Maritime Standard for their hard work and innovation in finding a way to bring this sector together despite the Covid-19 pandemic. We will all have to get used to hybrid ways of working and this conference shows what is possible.”

The theme of this year’s Conference was, ‘The 2020s:An Opportunity to Capitalise on a Decade of Innovation and Recovery’, reflecting the underlying optimism within the tanker industry that, despite the setbacks of the past year, this decade is still one the industry can look forward to with some confidence. Conference editor, Clive Woodbridge, said, “While the pandemic has changed everyone’s perceptions, and the tanker market is shrouded in uncertainty, there is still a strong belief that there are real opportunities in the tanker shipping business for growth and development if players can be agile and flexible enough in adapting. That was a common theme of many presentations, along with the universal agreement that credit must go to seafarers for their contribution. The need to find long term solutions to crew change issues was raised a number of times.”

Other keynote addresses were given by Capt. Abdulkareem Al Masabi, CEO of ADNOC Logistics & Services and Shehab Al Rahma, Manager, DP World Oil Terminal, and these set the scene by giving perspectives from different industry sectors. The opening session then assessed the longer term picture for the tanker trades in the ‘new normal’. The audience heard from several experienced and influential business leaders including Ali Shehab, CEO, Kuwait Oil Tanker Company; Mrs HK Joshi, Chairperson and Managing Director of the Shipping Corporation of India; Khamis Juma Buamim, Chairman, KBI-UAE; Khalid Alhammad, Director, Fleet Management, Bahri Ship Management; Ibrahim Al Nadhairi, Acting CEO, Oman Shipping Company and Oman Drydock Company ; Petros Doukas, Mayor of Sparta and former Deputy Minister of Finance of Greece; Jesper Kjaedegaard, Senior Advisor and Board Member, Marcura Group; and Chris Peters, CEO, Emirates Ship Investment Company.

A broad range of issues were covered in this session, including the fact that human issues were becoming more pressing with tanker crews and shore staff operating beyond their limits; the impending commercial pressures caused by tanker supply exceeding demand; the opportunities created by downstream petrochemical investments; and the challenges of the three ‘Ds” – Decarbonisation, Digitalisation and Debt. The possible need for industry consolidation to meet future challenges was also raised.

Other speakers who made a strong impact in the second session, discussing how to best create support structures and services to support long term market growth and development, included Capt. Mohamed Al Ali, Senior Vice President, Ship Management, ADNOC L&S; Fazel Fazelbhoy, CEO, Synoff Synergy Offshore; Hans-Christian Mordhorst, Chief Operating Officer, Marcura Group, and Andrew Baird, Partner, WFW. The session was ably chaired by Jesper Kjaedegaard. Panellists discussed the pathway to smart ship management; the contribution of OSVs to the tanker supply chain; ship recycling; digital solutions in the tanker industry and the specific challenges relating to handling damaged vessels in a pandemic.

The tanker industry has a need to embrace and accommodate a host of technical, legal and regulatory challenges and the third session proved as transfixing as the two that went before, by showcasing the diverse skill sets needed post-pandemic. Expertly moderated by Vanessa Welch, from EMAC, speakers in this session included Julian Panter, Vice President Business Development, International Maritime Industries; Nijoe Joseph, Partner, Stephenson Harwood; Pawan Sahni, Business Development Director, Middle East & Africa, DNV GL; Rashid Isa Rishi Al Heddi, Group Managing Director, Seamaster Maritime; Roger Harfouch, Regional Director, Marlink Communications and Capt. Zarir Irani, Managing Director, Constellation Marine Services. This was a wide ranging session, with speakers discussing digitalisation and environmental regulatory challenges; shipyard investment strategies; green ship financing; the acceleration of digital classification as a result of the pandemic; alternative fuels; and claims management issues.

Reflecting on the ground-breaking hybrid conference, Clive Woodbridge added, “The tanker shipping business is crucial to the region and its fortunes are inextricably linked with those of the regional economies they serve. That is why it was so important that we held the TMS Tanker Conference in 2020, despite all the challenges, to give leading players in different sectors the chance to exchange ideas and discuss solutions to the key issues ahead. While this conference was structured in a novel way, the clear consensus was that it was equally valuable and thought-provoking to the previous in-person only TMS Tanker events.”

* The full list of winners from The Maritime Standard Awards 2020: