Many thanks to IBIA for inviting Cockett Group to be involved in this successful event. The IBIA Annual Convention 2021 ran smoothly throughout, and included many informative, interesting panels and presentations.

As for Cockett Group’s involvement, both Cem Saral and Colin Holloway contributed heavily during their respective panels. During the Leadership Briefing involving Cem, he helped discuss many aspects surrounding the Marine Fuels industry, with one of the main focuses being what the future holds, and how regulation may hold the key to decarbonisation, as well as remarking that when it comes to ‘future or alternative fuels’, there likely will not be a clear market leader but a mixture of several solutions, which will depend on the location and availability.

Colin spoke about the Middle East region in his panel, with several key issues discussed, such as the feeling that demand is recovering in all of the 5 regions globally but still below pre-COVID levels. The consensus seemed to be that demand will be back by the first or second quarter of 2022. The containers sector is faring the best with Tankers and Bulker sluggish, and the Cruise sector thankfully on the way back.

Regarding scrubbers, the panellists felt the HSFO sales peak had probably been reached with most retrofits now being completed and HSFO’s sales in some regions, such as Fujairah, as high as 25%. When discussing alternative future fuels, Colin remarked that LNG bunkering is moving forward but not much movement seen on the ground for the other alternative fuels such as Methanol, Ammonia and Hydrogen.