Nick Fistes, INTERTANKO Chairman

Our people and our ships are part of a service industry that ensures safe and secure, efficient and reliable, environmentally responsible delivery of resources and goods across the planet. The shipping industry enables world trade to operate on the massive scale that it does today to satisfy the ever-increasing demands of this planet’s growing population. How we go about our jobs ultimately has a huge impact on society and on our environment.

The vital role played by oil tanker transportation in keeping today’s energy-hungry world satisfied is well recognised. Every single day our people and our ships are safely delivering energy to all parts of the world – performing over 8,500 billion tonne miles a year, often in extreme weather conditions. Moreover our performance is continuously under the spot light.

We are proud of our people and the way that they react to these challenges. We are investing to attract and retain the best. Our people should be respected as an asset and not treated as a cost.

The shipping industry enables world trade to operate on the massive scale that it does today... How we go about our jobs ultimately has a huge impact on society and on our environment
 

We are proud of our tankers. We have a record of continuous improvement over many years and we are leading by example, through investment in new ships, through reducing accidental oil pollution, through increasing our operating effciency.

We are proud of our performance – but we are not complacent. We are striving towards zero fatalities, zero pollution, zero detentions. These targets are the foundation of the Poseidon Challenge, an initiative whose vision is to encourage and inspire all sectors, companies and people in shipping to work individually and together not only to set new goals of excellence but also actually to achieve them through continuous improvement.

I am pleased to report that the Association goes from strength to strength with INTERTANKO’s members now representing 80% of the world’s independent tanker fleet. We all benefit from the wide participation of the membership in our committees, our regional panels and our events and I thank you for that. I also want to thank our Secretariat for its continuing hard work and dedication.

Nick Fistes
INTERTANKO Chairman
February 2008