Efthimios Mitropoulos to Present Peter Swift with Lifetime Achievement Award

Awards Ceremony to Take Place at Riviera Maritime Media’s Tanker Safety Conference

What: Tanker Safety Conference 2010

When: 11-12 November 2010

Where: London, UK

Organizer: Riviera Maritime Media

Information & registration: www.rivieramm.com/events

IMO Secretary-General Efthimios Mitropoulos will present Dr Peter Swift, managing director, INTERTANKO, with a special Tanker Shipping & Trade Lifetime Achievement Award at the Riviera Maritime Media Tanker Safety Conference, November 11 – November 12, London.

Dr Swift was appointed in February 2001 as Managing Director of INTERTANKO (The International Association of Independent Tanker Owners), which represents the interests of more than 250 oil/chemical tanker owners and a further 300 associate members from the broader shipping industry.

Previously he had worked for 24 years for the Royal Dutch/Shell Group where he held a series of senior positions including: general manager for Shell International Trading and Shipping Company; general manager of the Australian LNG Ship Operating Company; group naval architect responsible for oil, gas, coal and offshore shipping. Immediately prior to joining INTERTANKO he was a director of projects and business development with leading London shipbroker Seascope.

Peter Swift graduated as a naval architect in the UK and after a brief spell in the shipbuilding industry obtained a doctorate from the University of Michigan where he was a visiting lecturer and assistant director for marine transport economics. He is a chartered engineer, a Fellow of the Royal Institution of Naval Architects and a Member of the Society of Naval Architects and Marine Engineers. He is also a member of the Committee (Advisory Board) of the Green Award, chairman of the European committee of the Korean Register and a director of the Maritime Industry Foundation

As managing director of INTERTANKO he was very much involved in the aftermath of the Erika and the Prestige incidents and all their political and regulatory consequences, as well as in the effects on the tanker industry of single-hull phase-out, both of which meant working with the effects of growing EU influence on the IMO.
In particular, he was instrumental in establishing the now highly successful annual Tripartite talks between ship owners, shipbuilders and class, which provided inter alia a unique forum for the initial discussion of the IACS Common Structural Rules. These rules had themselves emanated from the drive which Swift and others in INTERTANKO and OCIMF led to produce higher uniform design and construction standards for tanker structures. He has also been at the forefront of the fight against unilateral regulation of shipping and for uniformity at a consistently high level across all of the industry’s governance structures, from regulation to port state control, flag administration and classification.

He has championed a number of uniquely important causes including in particular the fight against the criminalization of seafarers across the globe and concern for seafarer welfare issues ranging from shore access to fit-for-purpose equipment. He and INTERTANKO’s Technical Director Dragos Rauta delivered with vigor and unswerving conviction INTERTANKO’s ‘distillates option’ position which provided the catalyst that changed the general mindset as the majority saw the practical common sense of moving to cleaner fuels, and the impracticality, high cost and high exposure to risk of the alternatives. Dr Swift has also ensured that INTERTANKO has been at the fore on all the important environmental issues, where INTERTANKO’s members and committees have been pro-active leaders in the efforts to reduce tanker shipping’s impact on the marine and atmospheric environment.

Under his tireless leadership, the organization broadened its international reach, gaining ever- increasing strength and respect in Asia as well as in the U.S., Europe and the rest of the world; and relationships with key industry players such as the IMO, OCIMF, the Round Table of international shipping associations, the Asian Shipowners’ Forum, IACS and the IG P&I deepened at the same time as the combined forces became more active and influential.

“It is a great honor to receive this award after nearly 50 years in the shipping business, almost entirely built around oil, chemical and gas tankers,” says Dr Swift. “It is also pleasing to note that the tanker industry over the last decade has been able to restore its credibility and reputation that were seriously dented following the high profile Erika and Prestige, and that this sector routinely champions best practice and respect for our seafarers.”
The Tanker Safety Conference is an annual event held in London that exclusively focuses on safety and security issues facing the tanker segment. In 2009, 137 industry professionals attended, including more than 40 ship owners from all over the world.

The two-day event will see seven technical sessions take place across two days as well as a full social and networking program. There is also a supporting exhibition.