John was recently invited to moderate one panel and participate on another at the recent (27/28 April 2021) Global Bunkering Summit 2021 hosted by Bunkerspot/Petrospot. His panel on Transparency in Bunkering included credit and finance sector specialists in Makis Tzeis, Managing Director, Atradius, Greece; Kieran Michael Brown, Group Credit Manager, Island Oil (Holding) Ltd, Netherlands; Sven Braur, Co-Founder and COO, Modifi, Germany; and Roger Dekkers, Group Trade Finance Director, Monjasa. The focus was squarely on how to reignite support from the financial sector for Bunkering after a series of market failures, what Credit Insurers and Banks want and what alternative sources of funding may develop.
He then joined other panellists on the Industry Consolidation & Co-operation panel which included Kingsley Khoo, Managing Director of Marin Selatan, Malaysia; Irene Notias, Managing Director, Prime’s BunkerPlus, Greece; Anthony Mollet, Business Development Manager, International Fuel Suppliers, Malta and Robert Thompson, Managing Director, Propeller Fuels, UK. The result was that there remained no substitute for service, that smaller independents needed additional support, and that a trade alliance was needed. Such an alliance could create a framework for best practice adoption and to at least inform SMEs of the services that are needed, if not actually provide a platform for the delivery of those services. This culminated in the announcement of the launch of the Marine Fuels Alliance website going live.
