SMW 2024: How insurers are responding to the brave new world of future fuels
- Published
by Admin
The article ‘How insurers are responding to the brave new world of future fuels’ was first published on Issue 5 of the Singapore Maritime Week 2024 Show Dallies; it has been reproduced in its entirety on Singapore bunkering publication Manifold Times with permission from The Nutgraf and the Maritime and Port Authority of Singapore:
By Charlene Wang
The maritime world is moving towards a greener future with new fuels, but this comes with risks that the insurance sector is assessing so that stakeholders have greater clarity.
“The role of insurance is to take the unknown away from shipowners,” said Mr Matt Cannock, Managing Director of marine insurance broker Latitude Brokers, at the In Conversation With: Risk Management for New Asset Classes panel on Thursday.
While technical risks of new fuels can be addressed with training, dispute resolution process risks are harder to tackle, said fellow panellist Mr Diego Cosulich, Regional Director and Chemist Consultant at maritime consultancy CMC Marine.
Currently, processes for disputes that arise from bunkering are quite clear, but this process is “about to change a lot, and it is not very clear how it will play out”, he added.
“The key thing to emphasise is that the insurance industry has always adapted,” said Mr Cannock. “Every risk that is insured today was once insured for the first time.”
Yet, it is a process that will take time, with new regulations still being discussed, said Mr Nick Shaw, Chief Executive Officer of the International Group of P&I Clubs, an association which provides marine liability cover for around 90 per cent of the world’s ocean-going tonnage.
Despite the obstacles, there was optimism that risks would not deter the industry’s drive to decarbonise. Shipowners are still motivated to integrate these new fuels into their systems despite high costs, concluded the panel, which was moderated by Ms Lesley Tan, Specialist Counsel at law firm Wikborg Rein Singapore.
Singapore Maritime Week 2024 was organised by Maritime and Port Authority of Singapore from 15 to 19 April.
Photo credit: Maritime and Port Authority of Singapore
Article credit: The Nutgraf/ Maritime and Port Authority of Singapore
Published: 29 April 2024
