ACCEPTABLE RISK IN THE MARITIME INDUSTRY

A significant part of Aeger’s risk management portfolio concerns the maritime industry. To best manage risk, we must first develop a thorough understanding of maritime risk.

Risk is present everywhere and at all times, and we encounter it in our everyday lives and wherever we go. When we cross the street, we put ourselves at risk, but we mitigate the risk by obeying the rules of the road and looking right and left before crossing.

The risk in the maritime industry is generally higher than in other spheres of life. The sources of risk are varied, including pirate attacks, fire, crime, and adverse weather conditions, and the consequences are proportionally higher. Elements that risks may impact include damaged assets, while the number of personnel on board vessels susceptible to injury or loss of life is often high.

Maritime operators are often faced with a dilemma when trying to mitigate risk, as they are not specialists in risk management. They are specialists in their particular field of expertise. Still, it is impractical for them to divert energy, resources, and time to manage risks, and they need help understanding. For this reason, they call on experts such as Aeger to manage the risks for them.

Organisations such as Aeger can effectively manage risk and have a doubly positive effect on maritime operators. Mitigated risks allow operations to continue, allowing the operator to complete operations without undue worry or financial or resource impact. Secondly, the presence of risks may result in operators deciding not to go ahead with operations, and the successful mitigation of such risks presents an opportunity for them to undertake operations that would be otherwise unattractive.

Aeger’s expertise thus enables us to convert risks into opportunities by reducing risk to an acceptable level, allowing responsible risk-taking, implementing contingency systems, and improving preparedness. This provides the maritime operator with greater certainty and peace of mind.

Threats in the maritime world are constantly changing, and it is essential to understand and manage them. Several existing or ‘traditional’ threats, such as piracy, violent crime, theft, and kidnapping, are compounded by ‘new’ or evolving threats, including sabotage, environmental impact, corruption, or logistical threats.

There are several qualities that maritime operators seek in a security management organisation. These include versatility, global experience and expertise, physical presence, permanent availability and coordination, having a single point of contact, provision of good communications and emergency support, an ability to adapt as well as the ability to track friendly and unfriendly vessels, ability to innovate and develop, and the use of specialised partners for specific skills.

Aeger uses fully integrated solutions to manage risk for maritime operators. This includes the development of threat and risk evaluations, security and threat updates, contingency and emergency action plans, training and drills for crews, advice and consulting, installation of physical barriers, and providing highly competent Maritime Security Officers and armed Security Escort Vessels. This bouquet of services is complemented by the Aeger Security Operations Center (ASOC), which maintains 24/7 contact with the vessel, provides regular intelligence and security information, and acts as a liaison and contact point in the event of a crisis.

Effective maritime risk management is not a static, one-off affair. Aeger continuously adapts solutions to remain effective against changing threats, geographical positioning, and general conditions. This is achieved through continuous information gathering, continuous reassessment of the risk profile, persistent updates and reporting, daily security briefings, review and analysis, and re-design to reflect the changing conditions and environment.

In the highly competitive world of maritime operations, vessel owners need a partner who can reduce threats to an acceptable level, manage them effectively, and allow the vessels to conduct operations without worrying about risks or worrying about massive financial impacts or delays which can result from unmitigated risks occurring. Aeger provides that peace of mind.