Middle East Maritime Professionals Flock to North's P&I Course

A wide variety of shipowners, operators and other senior maritime professionals from throughout the Middle East region have attended North P&I club’s residential course in P&I insurance and loss prevention held in Dubai this week.

A total of 46 delegates from 21 organisations signed up for the ‘A’ rated, 170 million GT club’s four-day course at the Dubai Marine Beach and Resort Spa, which concluded yesterday (13 September 2012). They included representatives of many of North’s Middle East members - including Adnatco, Bakri Navigation, E Ships, Mideast Ship Management, MUR Shipping, Oman Shipping, Stellar Ocean Transport, United Arab Chemical Carriers and United Arab Shipping Company. Several regional senior executives also dropped in during the week to address delegates and lend their support. .

North regional director and head of underwriting Savraj Mehta thanked all who attended, saying, ‘North remains committed to the Middle-East region and its shipping fraternity. The industry is going through difficult times and all of us can contribute by operating more professionally and cost-effectively. We are thus very grateful for the time and effort all of you have put in this week.’

Mehta said North was pleased the course has proved so popular with regional members and intermediaries. ‘It mirrors the enduring popularity of North’s residential course in P&I insurance and loss prevention in the UK, which has now been running for 20 years, as well as the Asia-Pacific version we launched in Singapore last October,’ he said.

Course leader Andrew Kirkham, risk management executive at North, said, ‘The Dubai course was designed to provide a comprehensive introduction to P&I liabilities in respect of ships, people and cargo as well as claims management and the all-important aspects of loss prevention. Formal lectures by specialists from North and other organisations were complemented by a series of practical workshops on topics such as pollution, collisions and charterparties.’

In addition to Mehta and Kirkham, lecturers from North included associate director Michael Hope, manager Graham Anderson, underwriter Sanchit Dutta and senior P&I claims executive Sachin Shanbhag. External lecturers included marine consultant Sanjeev Bhandari, Hugh Brown and Simon Cartwright from Holman Fenwick & Willan, Graham Crane from Ince & Co, Alan Jones from E Ships, Meena Mathews from Gulf Agency Company and Erik Muthow from Hadef & Partners.

Further details of North’s full range of residential, distance learning and in-office courses can be found on the education and training pages of the club’s website at www.nepia.com/loss-prevention/education-and-training.