As a child I would sit for hours on beaches of the western French coast, where the Loire river flows into the Atlantic Ocean, looking out to the horizon. I must’ve been 6 years old when I spotted my first tanker, rubbing the salt out of my eyes and squinting to understand what I was looking at. I know today that some of them were carrying crude oil to the Donges refinery in Saint-Nazaire whilst others came to pick cargoes of refined products on the other end. At the time I would only watch in amazement, structures the size of a football field sailing away. No soul could be seen on board hence with the distance, the ships looked animated by their own will, never changing course, certain of their destination.
This continuing fascination guided my education and career choices, and even though my day-to-day life involves studying them in detail, catching sight of
a tanker in the distance fills me with that same sense of wonder even now. So when the team at James Fisher Tankships invited me to join the crew on one of their vessels for a short voyage, how could I resist? Together with a videographer, I left the sunny streets of London behind and travelled up to Scotland to board the Superiority and took a closer look at the individuals, processes and stories behind the mammoth task that is moving energy around the world. From life at sea and the challenges involved in planning the logistics of a voyage, to the innovations shaping energy and freight and looking forward to see what the future holds, we cover it all.
The Voyage opened my eyes to the inner workings of the industry, and has enriched my day to day understanding of the trends and insights I see every day on Vortexa. I hope you enjoy it.
Arthur Richier is the Head of Strategic Partnerships at Vortexa. Prior to this he was on the freight pricing desk at S&P Global Platts, covering dirty and clean tanker markets.
As part of the conversation around freight markets, and their impact from energy markets to our everyday lives, he has contributed to Bloomberg, TradeWinds, Tanker Shipping & Trade (as part of Riviera Maritime Media), Ship & Bunker, The Business Times (Singapore), The Houston Chronicle and Gulf News among others.
Arthur holds an MSc in Energy Management from ESCP Europe and a Foundation Diploma in Tanker Chartering from the Institute of Chartered Shipbrokers.
Watch the trailer for Energy Stories: The Voyage series
James Fisher and Sons plc is a leading provider of specialised services to the marine, oil and gas and other high assurance industries worldwide.
James Fisher’s Maritime Transport Division operates a fleet of product tankers from 3,000 to 35,000 metric tons capacity, providing competitive, flexible maritime transportation of liquid products and high-quality ship management solutions. Building on its successful heritage, the James Fisher Group aims to lead the energy transition through safe, environmentally friendly shipping solutions, and has committed to lower carbon shipping with the addition of two LNG dual-fuel IMO II tankers.
