Dimitrios Dalaklis

Mexico’s Reorganisation of Maritime Security Regime: A New Role for the Navy and Emphasis on Energy Related Infrastructures

The International Maritime Organization’s (IMO) member-States have a strong and invested interest in securing their energy supply routes and interrelated ports; preventing incidents in relation to this type of infrastructure is essential for commerce and requires careful planning and action. Apart from ensuring the optimal use of energy resources through energy efficiency initiatives and policies, eliminating (or, at least reducing) losses that are related to theft and/or subversive actions associated with terrorism is essential for national security reasons. The legal framework used by the United Mexican States government to shift the National Maritime Authority from a civil institution (Ministry of Communications and Transport, MCT) toward a military one (Ministry of Marine, MMAR) provides the starting point of the analysis at hand. Previous failures of the country’s Maritime Designated Authority are associated with an extended number of security incidents and various accidents. In an attempt to improve the country’s maritime safety and security regimes, a relevant Presidential Decree—approved in December 2016—transferred the oversight of all Masters of Harbours from MCT to MMAR. Research activities on the field testify that this initiative achieved high acceptance rates between the four pillars of representatives of authorities/institutions directly related to duties and operations within these two important domains, a prerequisite for success. Apart from the recent Decree, extensive reforms to several laws are still necessary to ensure an improved maritime security apparatus. The National Congress has focused heavily on port security and has rather neglected to consider that part of the International Ship and Port Facility Security Code (ISPS Code) regarding Ship Security Plans and all its contents related to vessels since the previous reform in 2014. It is also noteworthy that the Decree is unnecessarily complicating the tasks of the Maritime Authority; while it designates the MMAR as the National Maritime Authority, it provides the tasks of Port Authority (including port-state’s privileges and obligations) to MCT. This could potentially impact negatively on the conduct of operations in the future and indicates a need for improvement in the implementation process of IMO’s instruments into national legislation. Amendments to regulations concerning security of Mobile Offshore Drilling Units (MODUs) and other offshore installations should also be considered for inclusion in the types of vessels obliged to comply with the ISPS Code, since a poor security situation in that category would also strongly affect the Mexican oil energy market.

Real Time Awareness for MRV Data

The European Union (EU) has recently proposed a system for monitoring, reporting and verifying (MRV) of CO2 emissions in relation to large ships that are using its ports. These ships would thereby be obliged to monitor four parameters on a voyage basis: fuel consumption, distance travelled, time spent at sea and cargo carried. The monitored parameters would need to be verified; different indicators based on these parameters would have to be reported on an annual basis. In the current analysis, a real time system based on complex event processing for early detection of the risks associated with this MRV framework is put forward. Stream reasoning is an approach that can be used if information (in the form of assertions) arrives as a stream of (time stamped) inputs. The specific architecture considers events from a finite time window and not only at a single instant. This approach has two distinctive features that could improve the overall performance of the system, as well as the quality of data handling: the associated knowledge base can be continuously updated and the reasoning goals are continuously re-evaluated as new assertions arrive. A conceptual framework to facilitate MRV anomaly detection in order to help ships to early identify and correct arising risks is presented. In order to ensure resilience, techniques associated with airport electronic data real time risk assessment provide the underlying foundation.

Developing a Strategy for Liquefied Natural Gas Powered Transport Corridors in the Baltic Sea Region

An extended number of international and/or national policies/regulations call for major improvements in contemporary energy consumption patterns (energy efficiency). A faster transition to sustainable energy production, as well as the introduction of various measures to improve the maritime industry’s environmental performance is also included in similar high level policy initiatives, with the establishment of Sulphur Emission Control Areas (SECAs) by the International Maritime Organization (IMO). One of the most prominent ways forward to achieve a more “environmental-friendly footprint” for those vessels engaged in maritime transport activities is to expand the use of Liquefied Natural Gas (LNG). Despite being of fossil origin, LNG is considered to be an important step toward cleaner shipping, given the better properties of the related exhaust gases when it is used as a marine fuel of internal combustion engines. The analysis at hand will discuss the development of a strategy for smoother and more efficient use of LNG as a fuel for transport needs in the Baltic Sea Region (BSR), with the aim of enabling “blue transport corridors”. This will be accomplished by investigating the related transport flows and LNG infrastructure developments; the creation of a wider in scope value chain that incorporates all transport modalities and industries that use natural gas today is also envisioned as the next step of research. This activity is a deliverable of the “Go LNG project”. Another important task within the same project is to provide stakeholders and other interested parties with a knowledge base of the most influential policies/regulations and technological standards in relation to LNG applications, including the cataloguing and short description of well-functioning business models and solutions already available.

Command of Vessels in the Era of Digitalization

Recent discussions on digitalization, and autonomous ships provide a disruptive picture of how the maritime industry may be transformed in this process. The magnitude of this digitalization trend is very different from the one of implementing e-Navigation initiated by the International Maritime Organization (IMO) in 2006 to harmonize, integrate, exchange, present and analyze marine information on board and ashore by electronic means. A rapid speed of digitalization of ship operation is causing controversy. For example, the maritime industry has not yet come to a consensus about agreed definitions of “autonomous ship”, “unmanned ship” and a “remote-controlled vessel”. Some pioneering industry developers, invest in the digitalization of ship operation to make the maritime transport more reliable, safe and efficient. Whilst such technological developments promise safe and efficient business models to a greater extent, it has not been much discussed how people on board will be affected by digitalization with a particular attention to the notion of leadership. Command of vessels has been traditionally considered as a human domain. The ways in which leadership is displayed on board and how each task is dedicated to the members of a shipboard organization will be radically different in the era of digitalization. Based on the qualitative data obtained from semi-structured interviews, group interviews and participant observation with maritime experts in Norway, the paper discusses the impact of digitalization on organized work in ship operation, implications of digitalization for leadership, and leadership required in the era of digitalization. It concludes that human-automation coordination as well as human-human coordination are the key to support the future operation of ships.

Safety and Security in Shipping Operations

Through the very intensive efforts of the International Maritime Organization (IMO), a rather extended number of Conventions and Regulations stipulate the operational environment and the associated training requirements for maritime professionals, both on-board vessels and ashore. The influence of International Conventions that are regularly updated/improved, such as the one related to the Prevention of Pollution from Ships (MARPOL), the one dealing with Standards of Training, Certification and Watch-keeping (STCW) and the extremely important Safety of Life at Sea (SOLAS) are all very well known within the members of the maritime community and many outsiders. It is true that maritime accidents have always occurred throughout human history. However, all those involved with activities at sea (and especially with the conduct of navigation) need to exert every effort in order to ensure the safe voyage of the ship, as well as the provision of optimized shipping operations; more importantly, to reduce/eliminate incidents that could result into loss of human life and/or cargo. Standardization of shipboard equipment and ensuring services to support mariners in case of need through SOLAS is essential for the maritime industry. The SOLAS Convention, which is the focus of analysis within the current chapter, also includes the International Safety Management Code (ISM) and the International Ship and Port Facility Security Code (ISPS); with the first one dealing with risk mitigation in relation to the safety domain and ISPS dealing with the various contemporary security threats, a very effective regulatory framework to avoid safety and security incidents during shipping operations is created.

Maritime Transport in the Arctic After the Introduction of the Polar Code: A Discussion of the New Training Needs

Considering that the Arctic’s ice-coverage maintains a downward trend, maritime routes that were previously covered with ice-pacts are—slowly, but steadily—becoming more available for shipping. Additionally, great interest is now openly expressed for the extraction of the natural resources available in the wider region and especially its seabed, another possible task for maritime transport. The International Maritime Organization (IMO) has already taken a very significant step to ensure a safer and cleaner shipping industry in the region under discussion through the adoption of the International Code for Ships Operating in Polar Waters, which strongly promotes maritime safety in these challenging waters. Issues such as uncharted areas, ice that is drifting and harsh environmental conditions are just a few examples of challenges for Arctic shipping. Strengthening the necessary technical infrastructure in order to support the expected increase of maritime traffic in the Arctic routes, with emphasis on facilitating timely response to emergencies and search and rescue (SAR) activities should be added to the equation. Even though there is encouraging institutional progress when it comes to ship building standards and the STCW provisions are continuously improved, due to the current occasional-limited use of polar waters for seaborne trade, there is obviously a lack of crews with the necessary experience. New preparatory training courses, some type of “field” activities, improved simulator capabilities and a new more proactive emergency response procedure that involves cooperation of all Arctic countries are needed to mitigate the high risks.