As part of its commitment to becoming ‘the first-choice provider in the oil transportation industry’, Teekay Shipping is continuously strengthening its best practices.
Teekay has made significant strides into the global shipping industry in the past decade. Unlike most companies undergoing a period of rapid expansion, Teekay has been able to cultivate a personal approach to its customers. This strategy is opening new doors and further increasing the market potential for the company and its investors.
Teekay is intent on expanding its activities and being available locally to customers around the world. Our Marine Managers act as a service station, able to advise on all matters nautical, whether generic or specific to a vessel or voyage, says Graham Westgarth, senior vice president of Teekays marine operations.
A maritime service station
The service-station concept is part of Teekays global vision to be the first-choice service provider in the oil transportation industry but more important, it is a statement to the customer that Teekay is an international shipping specialist fully capable of providing turnkey/all-round services locally.
A listed company on the New York Stock Exchange, Teekay moved its head office from Long Beach, California to Vancouver in 1991. Today, the company has 15 offices, including one in Oslo, and a network of Marine Managers in Houston, London, Singapore, Tokyo and Sydney.
As a publicly-listed company, Teekay has a strong desire to position itself and build up local competence in regions with concentrated shipping activity.
Says Westgarth, In todays challenging shipping environment, ready access to marine expertise can provide Teekay customers with significant benefit. Some customers may not have in-house marine expertise, and even if they do, an exchange of ideas can often be beneficial.
Business is going well for Teekay. A good foundation for the business was created by the companys success in the early 1980s. Over the past three years, the company has gone from being an owner operating 43 ships to an organisation now operating over 100 ships and managing another 20 or so. In this process, the company has acquired and merged with other shipping companies and taken them into the Teekay fold.
Investing in ships and people
As well as significant growth through the Bona and Ugland Nordic Shipping acquisitions in 1999 and 2001, Teekay has made substantial investments in qualified personnel and procedural areas.
Explains Westgarth: At Teekay, we are proud of our achievements in these areas, but we are continually striving to improve. With our ongoing investment in maintaining a large, modern, high-quality tanker fleet, the equipment side is well in hand. Weve been active regarding personnel initiatives. The operational procedures area is also important to us and we have, over the past few years, strengthened our best practices through several initiatives, including a new safety-management system, shipboard training and refined ship safety-performance measures.
More recently, Teekay began a risk-management project with Det Norske Veritas. According to Westgarth, Teekays ability to professionally and transparently manage risk is the key success criterion for the company in maintaining its position as a preferred provider of transportation services.
Three areas of focus
The project focuses on three areas:
" Risk Management where the operational risks to Teekays fleet are addressed. Relevant risk-management processes will be developed, supported by a quantitative risk-assessment tool enabling Teekay management to make decisions and implement measures based on quantitative evaluation of their financial benefits.
" Hull Integrity where a risk-based hull integrity scheme is to be piloted for two Teekay vessels. This will enable Teekay to carry out more effective hull maintenance and inspection based on a life-cycle risk/cost perspective. Prototype Hull PMS software will also be developed.
" Condition-Based Maintenance where a new machinery-maintenance philosophy will be piloted on three Teekay vessels. This will provide more reliable and efficient machinery maintenance at optimised costs.
Sam Behramfram, head of DNV District Pacific in Region Maritime North & South America, says: This is an excellent example of the value creation Maritime Solutions DNVs consulting services for the maritime industries is aiming to provide to its customers. This project took its starting point from issues of strategic importance to Teekay management, and the project was defined based on a common diagnosis of these. DNV will help Teekay through innovation and the transfer of knowledge.
As one of the worlds leading shipping companies, Teekay has gained a reputation of having a better knowledge of the shipping business than many others. This has placed greater demands on the company, but has also given Teekay a competitive edge.
Seizing opportunities
Westgarth describes the competition as tough, but emphasises that Teekay is committed to maintaining its market position and has a defined strategy to meet its customers on common ground and to assist them technically wherever possible.
Teekay views the increased emphasis on environmental protection, personnel safety and improved operational practices in the shipping industry as an opportunity to continually improve the overall integrity of its operations. Ultimately, we also believe that our customer-oriented approach will differentiate us from our competitors, he says.
This approach is being made easier through our work with DNV. We are developing mutually beneficial business models focusing on the application of practical, user-friendly tools. Based on our experience so far, were confident that the project work with DNV will help us achieve our goal of becoming the premier tanker shipping company while continuing to provide our customers with the best possible services.