The Maersk Mc-Kinney Moller Center for Zero Carbon Shipping, an independent research outfit formed to speed up shipping's decarbonisation, has signed up its first Greek member.
Minerva Gas announced it has joined the expanding not-for-profit initiative, which already includes several top shipping names, such as NYK Line, Seaspan Corp, Stolt Tankers and the V.Group.
“Decarbonisation is a significant challenge for shipping and requires cooperation and cross-sector collaboration,” Minerva Gas chief operating officer Sokratis Dimakopoulos said.
Depending on the extent and nature of members' involvement, the Copenhagen-based centre classes them as “strategic” or “knowledge” partners.
Strategic partners “set the agenda by influencing the strategic direction of the centre and commit with ideas, knowledge, experience, people, network, financial resources and access to test facilities, if relevant”, according to its website.
The website lists 18 strategic partners, including the three shipping companies mentioned above, classification society ABS, oil majors BP and TotalEnergies, charterer Cargill, engine maker MAN Energy Solutions and Japanese conglomerate Sumitomo.
The centre's seven knowledge partners, which include the Global Maritime Forum, consultant McKinsey & Co and the UK's Maritime & Coastguard Agency, are there to “strengthen the knowledge base of the centre and commit with knowledge, experience and people”.
Minerva Gas, however, joins the initiative as “mission partner” .
Eagle has a new mission
According to a Maersk Mc-Kinney Moller Center spokesperson, this new type of partnership was introduced “for companies and organisations across the shipping value chain that would like to support and be closely connected to [its] work as part of the centre's formalised network and information flow”.
“Mission partners demonstrate a strategic alignment towards the centre's mission to decarbonise the maritime industry by 2050.”
The Minerva Gas statement suggests that mission partners' primary role will be to provide practical knowledge and insight from the field.
“We look forward to … sharing our shipping experience and knowledge towards exploring together new technologies and solutions,” said Dimakopoulos, whose company is part of a wider shipping group that spans 70 tankers, gas carriers and bulkers.
New York-listed bulker owner Eagle Bulk described its status as mission partner in similar terms when announcing that it joined the initiative on 14 December.
“Eagle has resources, assets and capabilities relevant to the centre's projects,” the company said.
“Through this collaboration, Eagle will provide support to the centre's work and commit to the centre's mission and vision of building a significant cross-disciplinary driving force in the decarbonisation of the maritime industry.”
The centre chalked up another addition last month when V.Group announced that it was joining as a strategic partner, as TradeWinds reported.
The centre was set up with a donation of DKK 400m ($60.6m at current exchange rates) from the AP Moller Foundation — the Moller family institution that has a controlling stake in AP Moller-Maersk.
