When Lars Pedersen joined Frontline Management as chief technical officer in September 2018, the setup of in-house shipmanagement for Flex LNG was one of the key items on his "to do" list.
He now has a dual role as managing director of Flex Fleet Management while also being responsible for the technical operations of all deepsea vessels under the umbrella of John Fredriksen-controlled companies, whom Flex LNG chief executive Oystein Kallaklev jokingly described as “the boss of bosses”.
Frontline Management is running 250 ships out of its Oslo headquarters, with an additional 35 under construction.
“We want to scale the systems and get the best economies of scale, so rather than having six CTOs [chief technical officers] we managed to convince Lars to do that job for six people,” Kalleklev said.
Bucking tradition
Traditionally all shipmanagement has been outsourced with specialists in the companies liaising with the shipmanager, Pedersen explained.
Pedersen said Frontline Management has built a structure that is not only capable of handling its large number of ships but will be compliant with upcoming regulations and the greater transparency of ship operation that technology has brought.
To make sure the company gets what it has paid for, it has set up a structure with some shared functions that leverage its economies of scale.
Dry bulk and containerships are handled by a team in Singapore with a backup team in Norway, with the reverse in place for tankers.
Newbuildings for the group companies, which are currently under construction at six shipyards, from concept to execution, are looked after out of Norway and an execution team in Shanghai, along with personnel at the shipbuilders.
Pedersen’s philosophy is to keep it lean, efficient, simple and focused, and take off-the-shelf solutions where possible — but people and the environment are always priorities.
“We need to keep the propeller turning and make sure the cargo is delivered on time and without any noise,” he said. “It is reliability that will make us.”
