Exmar will remain a logistics provider and should not stray into the product whether it is LPG or LNG, chairman and managing director Nicolas Saverys believes.
The exception might be, for example, a move to deliver floating power, but only at a customer’s request, he says. “We are bringing added value to the product. But we stay in logistics.”
He is concerned about shipping’s reputation, even for vessels lifting or fuelled by a cleaner fossil fuel like LNG.
“We have a perception problem on gas,” he said, and while he “loves renewables” they cannot provide a baseload. “That’s why gas is fantastic."
What concerns him most about today’s LNG industry is: “That we will have a big accident,” he replies instantly. “The industry is allowing certain shortcuts and that is dangerous.”
Fuelling risks
He speaks of how the rise of LNG-fuelling risks bringing non-trained operatives into contact with LNG and the different code used for vessels using LNG as a fuel.
Exmar has come close to a move into LNG bunkering and Saverys says the company is monitoring this business area closely.
But he cautions: “If the owners of the molecules expect owners to take the risk on the hire of a bunker barge — no thank you. That has to be a cost that has to be absorbed by the guy who is selling the molecules.
“You cannot cut that cost out and make the poor shipowner a sitting duck and waiting for a containership to be passing by.”
He puts great trust in Exmar’s inhouse engineers but admits that when some of the long-standing ones first retired he was worried he would not find quality replacements.
“At that time, I was driving with Rolls-Royces. I wasn’t scared of anything,” he says. “And I have found that again. We have plenty of small Rolls-Royces here. These are my future.”
