Partnerships are the way forward at Nor-Shipping 2023

In early June, maritime sector stakeholders congregated in Oslo, Norway, to participate in the 2023 edition of Nor-Shipping. This year’s theme was “PartnerShip,” highlighting the growing awareness that collaboration is going to be the key driver of the maritime industry’s future progress.

Ocean leadership promotes maritime partnerships

The event opened with the Ocean Leadership Conference, including speakers such as John F. Kerry, the United States Special Presidential Envoy for Climate and IMO secretary-general Kitack Lim. The panel assessed if partnerships between the maritime sector and external players could unlock the decarbonization and energy transition of shipping.

The overall consensus of this opening event was that the increasing pressure to decarbonize is a good thing, as it drives action. The maritime industry is in a full systemic transition, with each player moving in the same direction. This provides fertile ground for partnerships within and beyond the industry to form and flourish.

Business leaders, ocean experts and key stakeholders then continued these conversations throughout Nor-Shipping in the Blue Talks.

Recognizing fruitful collaborations

In step with the event’s theme, Bureau Veritas (BV) marked a milestone in a successful partnership with the awarding of an Approval in Principle (AiP) to HHI, TotalEnergies and MOL. The AiP is for wind assisted ship propulsion (WASP) on both very large crude carriers (VLCC) and liquefied natural gas (LNG) carriers.

The handover marks the conclusion of a Joint Development Project (JDP) between BV and these three partners, which has shed light on the acceptability of wing and rotor sail systems on these ship types. This partnership has laid the foundation and Rule framework for more detailed future projects to use WASP to cut emissions.

Opening up the maritime world

At our Unexpected BV event, we also took the opportunity to emphasize the social aspects of maritime ESG. Our focus for the two sessions was “People to People,” with two panels of industry experts discussing how maritime stakeholders can embrace people power. Discussions touched on how diversity and inclusion must be championed to make maritime careers more appealing, and the need for human intervention and interaction in autonomous shipping.

What can we take away from Nor-Shipping 2023?

“I have several takeaways from this year’s Nor-Shipping,” said Benjamin Lechaptois, Sustainability Strategy Leader, BV Marine & Offshore. “Decarbonization features in every conversation, of course. But I also noticed that the scope and ambition of maritime climate action is changing – I participated in exciting exchanges on the life cycle analysis of both ships and fuels. And, encouragingly, diversity, equity and inclusion are increasingly part of the discourse. It is great to see the social angle of sustainability being more widely discussed.”