Full house on Tuesday 2 November during the fortunately physical IRO Annual General Meeting at Van Oord in Rotterdam! The year 2021 will once again be remembered as a year with many challenges for the IRO members and an association year characterised by some setbacks such as canceled or postponed exhibitions and member meetings. But despite the limitations, we have managed to remain virtually visible and thereby maintain and strengthen the IRO network. In addition, we have fortunately been able to organise a number of physical events from September, such as the sailing trip through the Rotterdam port area, organised in collaboration with Offshore Community Rotterdam and Rotterdam Partners and the members meeting at Rotterdam Offshore Group. We were also able to meet physically again at the Offshore Energy and Europort exhibitions.
The main items on the agenda:
- presentation finances: result 2020 – forecast 2021 – budget 2022
- resignation of board members Edward Heerema (Allseas), Koos-Jan van Brouwershaven, Heerema Fabrication Group & Heerema Marine Contractors
- appointment Pieter Heerema (Allseas), Jan van der Tempel (DOB-Academy), Fred van Beers (Sif-Group)
- reappointment René Peters (TNO), Bruno Jelgerhuis Swildens (EY), Pieter van Oord (Van Oord) until June 2022
- announcement of the resignation of ChairmanPieter van Oord (Van Oord) and appointment of new Chairman Mark Heine (Fugro) as of June 2022
Annual speech IRO Chairman
In his annual speech, IRO Chairman Pieter van Oord looked back on the past period and shed his light on the current situation in the energy markets and the energy transition. “The urgency of climate change and the energy transition is becoming increasingly apparent, driven by increasing ambitions and associated goals and measures. There is an enormous challenge here, in which we must find the right gear together to keep our society liveable and to make the economy more sustainable in a healthy way. For us as companies, this means that we have to make ourselves more resilient in times of uncertainty and change. Through:
1) To focus much more on (mission-driven) innovations for emission reduction and new energy systems in our core business
2) Focus much more on exploring and developing profitable growth options in greening the energy chain
3) Looking at how we can change the structure inside and outside our organisations and make it more attractive, in order to better develop new business and technology
This also requires stronger control and new industrial policy from the government. There is an important task for all of us to work on a future proof sector. A sector, an industry, that creates opportunities for a better future based on complex challenges. I am convinced that we, as one of the strongest offshore clusters in the world, can take this step.”
Sentiments survey IRO members
Bram Kuijpers of EY-Parthenon took over and gave insight into the sentiment survey among IRO members about the future of the industry in his presentation. He concluded that the Oilfield Services (OFS) companies are cautiously optimistic about the current situation, despite (or because of) the rise of renewable energy sources and the challenges this poses.
Download the entire presentation here.
Young IRO
Finally, Ruben de Nie, Vice-Chairman of Young IRO gave a summary about the activities of Young IRO in 2021 and called for more ambassadors within Young IRO. You can register via young@iro.nl. Download the presentation here.
IRO 50th Anniversary
Pieter closed the meeting, calling on all members to register via the online calendar before 12 November for the 50th anniversary on 26 November in the Fokker Terminal in The Hague.