The annual “Hydra Shipping Conference” was successfully held on the island of Hydra on September 6 and attracted a record number of delegates (approx.150) attending in person. This year’s theme focused on geopolitics and their impact on shipping and included a number of relevant sessions, such as geopolitics and shipping, marine fuels of the future, current and future energy trends, using AI to improve ship performance and youth challenges in shipping.
The Chairman and Executive Director of IENE Mr. Costis Stambolis represented the Institute and contributed a presentation on “Energy Commodities, Shipping and Geopolitics” which you may see (here). The underlying theme of the presentation was the examination of the challenges posed to shipping by currently pursued energy transition policies by many countries which foresee a sharp decrease in fossil fuel use in the context of the so called NetZero50 goal. The presentation explores current and future trends in produced and shipped volumes of oil, coal and LNG.
One of the important conclusions reached by Costis and highlighted in his presentation was that mid to long-term prospects for transportable, via sea, energy related products looked positive with increased volumes over the coming years requiring transportation. Hence, business was assured for years to come. But, compared to last year today we are facing a different geopolitical reality with efforts under way to reconfigure economic and defence alliances (e.g. see USA-Russia rapprochement, strengthening of China’s position) with important geoeconomic shifts under way such as the rise of the global South.
Costis concluded by remarking that, “shipowners are well placed to take advantage of the new geopolitical global order. By constantly modernising their fleets and adopting environmentally responsible ship management practices and versatility in operations, Greek shipowners and operators will continue to compete in a most challenging global environment”.
A number of IENE members and associates actively participated in this year’s event including Mrs. Alexandra Psyrri and Marie-Athena Papathanasiou. In this context Marie-Athena made a short intervention informing delegates of the work she is currently engaged in, and is relevant to efforts now in progress worldwide, related to nuclear ship propulsion. An announcement will shortly be made by IENE on this topic following announcement of the project undertaken by Marie-Athena.
