Adapting to the commercial and regulatory changes

In its ninth year, the Middle East Bunkering Convention (MEBC) returns to Dubai in February to offer expert comment and informed debate about the issues and challenges impacting the global marine fuel sector and, as always, to provide a sharp focus on the evolving Middle East bunker market.

From the vantage point of early 2024, MEBC will consider the commercial outlook for the industry in light of the ongoing Ukraine crisis and a tough and complicated sanctions landscape. Speakers at the conference will consider whether stringent counterparty risk assessments and more rigorous due diligence processes are now a fact of life for all companies who operate in the marine fuels value chain or if is there more work to be done.

Other geopolitical tensions also continue to impact the shipping industry and MEBC will consider how vessel trading patterns may be changing in response to a volatile economic climate, on a global scale and regionally. Is ‘deglobalisation’ set to become a future trend and how might this affect various vessel segments?

Environmental regulation

Environmental regulation will be one of the key topics at this year’s MEBC. Speakers and delegates will consider the impact of CII and EEXI a year since their implementation by the International Maritime Organization (IMO), as well as the new ambitions in the IMO’s revised greenhouse gas strategy which was hammered out at MEPC.

A raft of legislation will come into play in Europe in 2024 as part of the European Commission’s ‘Fit for 55’ measures. These regulations, such as the inclusion of shipping in the EU’s emissions trading system (ETS), will impact all vessels that call at European ports. MEBC will consider the possible ramifications of such regulations on shipping and bunkering companies, and also discuss the possibility that other market-based measures, such as a carbon levy, could also be introduced in other regions and on a global basis.