A record number of oil and lubes providers and fuel analysts are present at this week’s Posidonia Exhibition which opened for business yesterday at the Athens Metropolitan Expo. They are among the 1,850 exhibitors at the world’s biggest and most prestigious maritime biennial occasion as the European and global greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions debate takes centre stage in the global shipping agenda, the event organizer Posidonia Exhibitions said Wednesday.
Emissions from the international maritime transport sector today account for 3% of global greenhouse gas emissions and 4% of EU GHG emissions. They are expected to increase significantly in the future if no action is taken.
Theodore Vokos, Executive Director of Posidonia Exhibitions S.A, the organisers of the event, explains: “The European Commission has proposed legislation which will require owners of large ships using EU ports to monitor and report the ships' annual carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions. It is proposed that the rules apply from 1 January 2018 and is hoped that they will support a staged approach towards setting global energy efficiency standards for existing ships.
“These developments are closely watched by oil majors and alternative energy providers who vie for a slice in the lucrative clean energy market and Posidonia is the ideal forum for them to showcase their offering of new technologies and products that help reduce carbon emissions,” said Vokos.
Chevron is one of those companies. The world’s leading integrated energy company is a regular participant of Posidonia as it maintains an important business base in Greece and the Mediterranean from where it serves the shipping industry with its lubes products.
“We are seeing signs of rebounding over the past year or two and customers are investing back to their business through the purchase of top notch equipment which requires top notch supplies and what we sell is a high quality consumable that feeds their engines”, said Rafael Teodoro, Marketing Manager, Chevron Marine Lubricants.
“Many of our products are designed for extended life meaning they don’t have to be replaced and disposed off as often as conventional products. Chevron creates products that offer the longest service life in our industry, three times the average standard. That means that ship operators can reduce the number of times they dispose of our lubricants helping them in this way to meet regulatory requirements and further contribute to environmental sustainability.
“The total capital Chevron invests annually to find and produce new and alternative energy is in the many tens of billions of dollars and this is of course reflected in our marine offering as well”.
Another Posidonia exhibitor, Gulf Oil Marine, a main and auxiliary lubricants maker and marketeer from Hong Kong is another sector specialist that heavily invests in research and development for environmentally friendly products. Kwok Yew Meng, Global Marketing and Business Development Manager, said: “During the last five years we invest in R&D as we need to go where the industry is heading and keep providing solutions that our partners want. We have EALs (environmental acceptable lubricants) and are among the first to provide them with real availability. A lot of new customers join Gulf Oil Marine, because we have such products available to them when they need it.
“Our products comply with the new requirements driven by the new engine designs and manufacturers’ recommendations for higher base number lubricants (BN).”
First-time Posidonia exhibitor, Lukoil Marine Lubricants, operates out of 56 supply hubs serving more than 900 ports globally and its offering also includes two categories of environmentally friendly products; the 100 tbn (total base number), which is oil that can reduce consumption by almost 30% and also the new EAL- Generation lubricants, which they need change every 7 ½ years with an industry average of 2-5 years.
“Our main competitors count more than 100 years in the market but we have only been active in this sector since 2009. Lukoil is a new company at Marine Lubricants but we are already the second biggest company in base oils worldwide”, said Dimitris Pappas, the company’s representative in Greece.
Posidonia 2014 is sponsored by the Greek Ministry of Shipping, Maritime Affairs and the Aegean, the Municipality of Piraeus, the Hellenic Chamber of Shipping, the Union of Greek Shipowners, the Greek Shipping Co-operation Committee, the Hellenic Shortsea Shipowners’ Association and the Association of Passenger Shipping Companies.
Piraeus, Greece headquartered Posidonia Exhibitions SA is a leading organiser of trade fairs in Greece. Posidonia Exhibitions is the organiser of the international shipping exhibition Posidonia and has specialised in trade fairs regarding the international shipping industry.
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