It was at the 1992 SIBCON that the idea of a bunker industry association was informally discussed. The lead in developing this idea was taken by Doug Barrow, who decided that a small group of industry professionals representing each sector of the industry should progress that idea to see if there was an appetite to create an association.

If I remember correctly, we met initially at the Churchill Hotel in London and this group (the steering group) had representatives from fuel suppliers, traders, brokers, deliverers, ship operators, fuel analysis laboratories, P&I clubs, marine law firms and credit reporting agencies. From the start it was clear that we wanted an industry-wide association rather than a trade body. Two of us worked for oil majors (one on the ship operation side and the other on technical support for bunker sales) and our employers were happy for us to engage with certain provisos – the use of an anti-trust statement read out before each meeting and that neither of us could be responsible for any portfolio covering technical or commercial issues. That is how Bob Thornton got the Environment working group and I got Safety!

The group created a proposed structure where the association would be run by a council of management elected by the members. The members could be individuals or commercial companies, and any specific issues raised would be dealt with by working groups of interested members reporting back to the Council of Management who in turn reported to the membership. Our first (unpaid) administrator was David Barnet and we operated out of an office in Kingston upon Thames.

We decided to formally launch at a convention which was held at the Disney World resort in Orlando – using the facilities of the Swan and Dolphin hotels. Much of the credit for the arrangements should go to Llewellyn Bankes-Hughes (who attended the steering group on behalf of his boss, Stuart Kenner of MRC who was not well enough to attend at the time). Was it his idea to launch a serious maritime association at Disneyland? You will have to ask him. In any event, it worked!

Doug Barrow wore a big badge saying I.B.I.A. and told us all that the letters stood for “I Believe In Action”. We had a couple of hundred attendees, a tremendous programme, good discussions and a grand time – I still have memories of Bob Thornton (then with Exxon) and Pat Studdert (Buffalo Marine) singing “All my Exes live in Texas”. We ended up with a membership of hundreds and the start of the first truly international bunker industry association.

Doug, elected as Chairman (because when the group members were asked to step forward if they wanted to be considered, we all took one pace back except Doug who was not concentrating) decreed that each of the initial working groups had to produce one “deliverable” item each year. My Safety group chose to produce a simple bunkering safety card which could be handed to the receiving ship by the deliverer at each bunkering – this was produced, well received and issued in English with a Spanish version contributed by Alejandro Risler of Risler Argentina. The group were great and covered all five continents, I could not have asked for more.

The safety working group demonstrated the need for education and training, so I was encouraged to form an Education working group and out of this grew the IBIA one day basic bunkering course which (much updated) is still in use.

The Council of Management expanded from16 up to an eventual 25 members from whom we had the four officers of the Association: Chairman, Vice Chairman, Immediate Past Chairman and Hon Treasurer. In 2009, the Council of Management was replaced by a Board and the administrator (General Secretary) was replaced by a Chief Executive who became an ex officio member of that board. Our first General Secretary was Peter Goodman and he was succeeded in 2001 by Ian Adams who was a marine engineer and ex seafarer. The early days of volunteers transitioned to a secretariat who dealt with the day to day running of the Association. Special mention should be made of Robert Hough who produced our monthly newsletter which he and his wife valiantly stuffed into envelopes and posted to the membership. Ian actively lobbied for IBIA to have Consultative status at the IMO, which was granted in November 2005 and since that time we have had IBIA representatives at all of the committees, sub-committees and correspondence groups where bunkering related issues are being discussed.

The IBIA Annual Conventions have been the rallying point for members to meet, debate, discuss and party since our first in 1993. Our policy was to move the venue around the globe to maximise the number of members able to attend. We have been to Europe, the Middle East, Asia, Africa, the Caribbean and to both North and South America.

I remember our 1995 Annual Convention in New Orleans, the trip on a real paddle steamer (where Mike Ball and I spent most of the trip in the engine room), the debates in the conference hall (would you let your son or daughter join our industry? – only one panellist said no) and the jolly time at the Royal Sonesta bar late evening where we were asked by a local about the “bunker industry”. We told him about the bunker supplier from Hartlepool (David Peart) who supplied the best sand for bunkers in the world, the bunker buyer (Ivar Tonnesen) who sourced sand for golf course bunkers around the world, the bunker tester (Chris Fisher) who analysed the sand and the dimensions of each bunker. We kept it up for about 15 minutes and when our friend realised that we might not be telling the truth, he said he wanted to join IBIA as we obviously had much more fun in our association than he had in the Coin Operated Laundromat Operators association!

In 2014 we went to Hamburg for our Annual Convention and had a splendid time, only to see our speaker line-up change very suddenly when some speakers had to leave very quickly to return to Copenhagen and other delegates spent two days on mobile phones dealing with the sudden collapse of OW Bunkers. This did not detract from the discussions or the enjoyment of seeing the IBIA Chairman at the time, Jens Maul Jorgensen, dancing in lederhosen.

The 2019 Convention took place in Istanbul at the magnificent Ciragan Palace Kempinski and was attended by 260 delegates. Apart from the usual mix of session topics, we had a private visit to the Hagia Sophia and a wonderful boat trip on the Bosphorus. The only question was: were we in Europe or in Asia? Well, because of a dinner held near Uskudar, we were in both!