If there was one word that dominated discussion at the tanker panel during this year’s Maritime CEO Forum at the Monaco Yacht Club, it was uncertainty — from the IMO’s fractured net-zero process to the unintended consequences of Western sanctions and the rise of the shadow fleet. Moderator Tim Wilkins, managing director of INTERTANKO, set the tone from the outset. “We’ll talk about regulatory certainty and then political certainty — if we can find any,” he said, only half-jokingly. “Whether we can get regulatory certainty, I’m not sure. But that’s the challenge we’re all living through.” The forum brought together senior figures from across the tanker spectrum — from VLCC operators to product carriers — for what became a strikingly frank exchange on the state of global regulation, market alignment and enforcement. The IMO’s failed attempt earlier this month to finalise its Net Zero Framework was the natural starting point. The collapse of consensus, driven in part by a US rejection of carbon levies, loomed over every conversation. Svein Moxnes Harfjeld, president and CEO of DHT Holdings, said bluntly that the proposals on the table “didn’t really look at the industry” as it exists today. “We all tend to talk about maritime as a homogeneous industry — and it’s not,” he said. “There are lots of different ships, trades, cargos, short haul, long haul, scheduled and tramp. The proposal didn’t reflect that.” Harfjeld noted that Washington’s opposition underscored who ultimately bears the cost of decarbonisation. “The US has the world’s biggest economy, the world’s biggest oil company, huge agriculture. They said they didn’t want to tax their consumers. And that’s their argument — they don’t want to pay for what others want to do.” Wilkins agreed that smaller owners had been underrepresented in the IMO debate. “What was on the table two weeks ago was probably skewed to a particular sector within the industry,” he said. “The IMO now needs to open its doors again to the wider voice — the practical realities of the tanker sector.” Marco Fiori, CEO of Premuda, spoke passionately about the contradictions in global policy. “Everybody talks a great game and then plays a very poor one,” he said. “Governments say they want decarbonisation but then load bureaucracy and taxation on us. We’ve overdone it.” Fiori also warned that the conversation has drifted too far from the physical realities of the oil trade. “We’ve been hearing for years that we’ve reached peak oil. Every time, there’s a new peak oil. We’re very far from peak oil. Conventional fuels will be with us for a long time — probably unfortunately.” He added that inflation and rising costs make it nearly impossible to forecast newbuilding deliveries. “How can you predict what will deliver in 2028 or 2029 when inflation is unpredictable? We’re still facing the same shortage of shipyard capacity.” Alexia Inglessis, director of Alberta Shipmanagement, steered the debate toward practical steps. “With alternative fuels still unavailable, we must focus on efficiency — which also makes business sense,” she said. “Over 40% of the world fleet already has energy-saving devices installed. But 70% of the fleet is still of average age or older.” She cautioned that shipping will compete with food production for fuels like ammonia. “Eighty percent of ammonia today is used to fertilize crops. The growing population over the next 40 years will need more food than in the past 8,000 years. Shipping will have to co