About the Course
Just like cars need gas, vessels need fuel. Learn about the bunker inquiry process. Having to source for compliant fuels has made bunker procurement the heart of shipping companies’ strategies and managing energy procurement, a top priority for now and in the future. With the onset of Covid-19, strategic supply chain planning and management has become an imperative for bunker players, with the focus of buyers being not only on fuel price, quality, and availability but also, on credit.
MCF Training Grant is available for eligible course participants. Please refer to www.mpa.gov.sg/mcf for information on the MCF Training Grant.
Course Objectives
Designed for new entrants as well as those seeking a refresher, this virtual training course focuses on examining effective and efficient fuel procurement strategies to deliver a vessel with the fuel it needs to run itself. The course will examine the entire fuel procurement process including transitions and shifts in the last 5 years covering and future fuels:
- Procedures of the inquiry, purchase order, sales contract, delivery method, sampling and testing methods.
- Current issues and challenges to payment and claim examples, including claims prevention for both the seller and buyer and the relevance of bunker brokers.
Course Methodology
The course will be taught via a video conferencing platform, covering a combination of theoretical and practical applications. The course instructor will adopt an interactive approach which will encourage active participation, delegate engagement and contribution through live sharing of views and experiences. A role play will simulate real life scenario challenges and expose delegates to operations, logistics and crude prices in real time.
Key Issues and Trends to Be Covered
- Understanding the Changing Bunker Market Structure (Present vs Past Dynamics)
- Roles & Responsibilities of Players in the Bunker Fuel Supply Chain and the Effect of Seller & Supplier in the Buying Process
- Learning Where To Source and How To Buy Fuel
- Sales Contracts & Best Purchasing Practices
- International Standardization Post IMO 2020
- Review Quality, Sampling and Testing Methods
- Availability of Credit in the Market
- Examining Issues and Challenges in Payments and Claims
- Variables that Control Pricing Mechanisms
Key Learning Outcomes
- Make smart purchasing decisions in a volatile market
- Source compatible & cost efficient bunkers in a timely manner
- Optimise the bunkering process and mitigate challenges & rising costs associated with IMO’s 2020 sulphur cap regulations
- Actionable tips to help improve fuel purchasing and elevate your business’ bottom line
- Review procurement best practices, pricing models and the supplier landscape
- Incorporate increased transparency & higher governance standards across the industry
- Handling shortfalls in credit availability
Course Director
Ms. Irene Notias
Managing Director, Founder/Sr. Bunker Broker, Prime’s Bunkersplus Services
Irene Notias is a businesswoman who has been working in the Marine fuels (Bunker) Industry since 1999, as a bunker fuels broker. Her mission has been to help her clients sustain their businesses through efficient cost savings by strategy and consultation, training and educating via seminars and presentations. Irene’s interest has always been on improvement. Hence, she has spent numerous years creating systems and procedures for her business besides producing educational presentations to train personnel and newcomers. She has authored several trade articles for Petrospot, World Bunkering, Ship & Bunker, besides numerous Greek Shipping trade journals. One of the most recent one being “The Achilles Heel of Shipping” published in the Maritime Executive, April 14, 2019.
A broker business of her own emerged in February 2002. Till today, Irene runs this company out of Greece and enjoys servicing Greece’s finest shipowners and educating all stakeholders in the dynamics of bunker pricing, financing, and the supply value chain and how it affects the end user’s interests, as well as the sellers.
She has organized and spoken in several forums, latest for Posidonia 2020 web series.
Prior to a career in bunkering, she worked in executive administration posts in a ship owning company and multi-national corporations like IBM & Nichiman America in NYC where she also created a startup business in wholesale and retail sales, lasting a decade. Later in Greece, she became a Systems Analyst for Ceres Hellenic Hydrofoils.
Irene is a graduate of Pace University, NYC, with a Bachelors in Business Administration (BBA) degree in International Management (minors Marketing & Political Science). She has also studied Human Relations at Brooklyn College’s Master’s Program in Psychology.
She is an active member of IBIA and has sat on several boards of trade associations such as WISTA Hellas and is a Governor of the US Propeller Club Port of Piraeus.
She founded the NPO, Project Connect, in 2015, to enhance youth employability in shipping companies and prevent brain drain in Greece – a common phenomenon in the Mediterranean. This same NPO is responsible for introducing and implementing the Adopt a Ship maritime educational program in Greek elementary schools which is now running in its 3rd school year. Like her favorite painting by Artist, Eva Divari, The Surfer, Irene has learned to ride the waves.
Who Should Attend
- Bunker Buyers, Managers & Assistants
- Shipowners, Operators & Charterers
- Shipmanagers & Fleet Managers
- P&I Clubs
- Insurance & Claim Managers
- In-House Lawyers & Legal Departments
- Accountants, Credit & Finance Managers
- Shipping Agents, Port Authorities & Customs Managers
- Policy Makers
Course Outline
+ − Module 1
The ABC’s of Bunker Fuel Buying
- Introduction to fuelling up a vessel
- Definitions & terminology
- Who’s who in the supply chain
- Pricing bunkers
- The purchase order and sales contract
- Delivery methods
- Basic commercial ethics
+ − Module 2
Buying Efficiently for Cost Savings
- Variables dictating the price mechanisms
- Understanding the processes and the roles of the players
- How to buy and where to source
- Credit & product availability
- Seller’s terms and conditions
- Quality, sampling, testing issues
+ − Module 3
The Bunker Game
- Review of Modules 1 & 2
- Bunker Game based on a scenario of a bunker inquiry
- Learning about the supply chain players’ perspectives through role playing
- Get a better understanding for better decision making
- Buyer’s ultimate objective – How to win the best price
- Seller’s ultimate objective – Winning the business
Testimonials
Contact us for queries, registration and more information:
+65 6338 0064
BUYINGBUNKERS@CCACADEMY.CO