World Bunkering > News > Spring 2011 > Get involved!

Bob Lintott

It would be difficult to imagine anybody better prepared than Bob Lintott to take on the role of IBIA chairman. Of the past 43 years Bob has spent only a couple not selling bunkers, and then he was marketing marine lubricants.

A Brit, he lived in several countries as a boy. His father worked for NAAFI, which runs leisure centres, shops and canteens for the UK Armed Forces, and he attended several schools for children of British military folk. Opportunity and a keen sense of selfpreservation, he told World Bunkering, meant he could imitate the regional accents of a good number of county regiments.

On leaving school, Bob joined NAAFI for a brief period and then applied to BP for a position. He joined the marine industry in 1968, working for BP Marine in London. “It was, though, a very different industry back then,” he says. “Selling bunkers for a major in those days was a matter of going to the customers once a year and renewing annual contracts.”

After BP, he became a broker for Seamal Oil for a time and then worked for First Steamship in London, setting up companies to sell BP lubricants in Hong Kong and Taiwan. After that a stint with Harris Marine Services also in London, representing Ceylon Petroleum and Saudi-based Elhawi Shipping, took Bob through to the early eighties.

In 1984 he joined Anglo Soviet Shipping, soon to become Bominflot Ltd, the UK office of the Bominflot Group. Two years later Bob moved to Houston as the company’s US-based VP. In 1995 he moved to New Orleans, still with Bominflot, but in 2003 he left them and set up his own New Orleans-based business, in association with ISObunkers. “The business did fine for a couple of years,” Bob says, “and then along came hurricane Katrina, effectively killing shipping on the Mississippi River for a year and with it, the local bunker industry.” In late 2006, following Katrina, Bob moved to Norfolk, Virginia, to become managing director-trading for ISObunkers, a position he still holds.

So, after 43 years in bunkering, what sort of industry does he see? “An industry often deeply divided between buyers and sellers. When anything goes wrong the two sides can adopt entrenched positions and brickbats can start flying,” Bob replies. As an illustration, he says: “A sample analysis saying, perhaps, viscosity is somewhat greater than ordered may be regarded by a buyer as ‘off spec’ even in spite of the analysis notes explaining how the fuel may be used without difficulty. It would likely be in everybody’s interests – including the ship operator’s – to consult with his lab and the seller, and use the fuel rather than resorting to confrontation. It might even, perish the thought, prove more thermally efficient! Reputable suppliers don’t deliberately set out to supply off spec fuel.”

Bob says he hopes IBIA will be able to encourage greater understanding and change attitudes. To help achieve this there needs to be greater representation of shipowners and operators in the association. So, is this a realistic aspiration? “I hope so,” he says. “Owners have always had members in IBIA. Indeed, Mike Ball my predecessor is from the owners’ side as were at least two other former chairmen. It is the chartering side where we lack members. I hope more charterers can be persuaded to become involved and contribute towards IBIA’s representation at various international forums. We are the industry’s mouthpiece and I hope charterers and operators will see value in that.”

Bob says that IBIA has worked hard to raise bunkering’s profile, especially through its observer status at IMO. “IBIA’s opinions are listened to these these days and are less likely to be ridden over roughshod,” he says. But he adds: “There is plenty still to be achieved.”

Encouraging members to participate more will be, Bob hopes, the main theme of his time as chairman. He says it was encouraging to see movement on this front at the Connecticut Convention and he hopes there will be more opportunity to poll members’ opinions on a variety of issues. “Participation is key and members who don’t participate needn’t complain if they don’t like the resulting IBIA policy decisions.”

Looking at the state of the industry now, Bob says: “Bunkering is fine, even if the current economy has altered some of the dynamics. It’s shipping that presently is challenged, with too many ships chasing too little cargo.”

And what about the prospect of being IBIA chairman? “Well, it’s different. I think it will be a challenge and I’m quite looking forward to it.”