With the demand for methanol as a marine fuel expected to grow rapidly over the coming years, can green methanol production scale enough to help shipowners comply with evolving regulations?

Join us in this episode of Setting Course, an ABS Podcast, as we bring together leaders from across the methanol value chain to discuss the growing methanol-ready fleet, scaling production, reducing fuel costs, and expanding port and bunkering infrastructure.

Featured:

• Greg Dolan, Former Methanol Institute CEO
• Meg Gentle, HIF Global Executive Director
• Sebastian Ebbing, MPC Container Ships Group Sustainability Officer
• Sundeep Shaw, ABS Global Sustainability Manager

Share this episode on social media, leave a review on your favorite podcast platform or send feedback to podcast@eagle.org. Learn more about how ABS is supporting the maritime industry at www.eagle.org.

Footnote: After this episode was recorded, Greg Dolan announced his retirement as CEO of the Methanol Institute. Congratulations, Greg, and thank you for joining this episode of Setting Course.

Key Points

• There are over 1,300 methanol-capable vessels operating or on order.
• Regulatory clarity is essential for shipowners to plan their strategies.
• Industry is working on lowering the cost of green and blue methanol.
• Bunkering infrastructure for methanol is developing but still limited.
• Investment certainty is needed to scale up methanol production.

Guests

Greg Dolan recently retired from the Methanol Institute after holding a variety of senior management positions with MI over the past 29 years, serving as CEO for the past 14 years. He managed MI’s offices in Washington, Singapore, Brussels, Beijing, and Delhi, while directing international governmental relations, media relations, public education, and outreach efforts. He has presented papers on methanol-related topics at more than 200 international conferences and webinars, authored magazine articles, and written book chapters on the methanol industry. He holds a Bachelor of Arts degree in Political Science from Boston University, and did extensive postgraduate work in Political Communication at the State University of New York-Albany.

Meg Gentle is an Executive Director of the Board of HIF Global. She has over 20 years of experience developing large scale energy infrastructure. She has served in numerous senior management positions and boards of directors of publicly traded energy companies in the U.S., including Cheniere, Tellurian, and Ovintiv. She has a B.A. in economics and international affairs from James Madison University and an MBA from Rice University.

Sebastian Ebbing is an expert in green shipping and clean technology with a robust background in regulatory affairs and sustainability. He currently serves as the Group Sustainability Officer at MPC Container Ship ASA, where he spearheads corporate strategies focused on sustainability, decarbonization, and fleet modernization. His academic credentials include a Master of Science in International Maritime Management and ongoing doctoral research on carbon capture and recycling in maritime transport. He is also a university lecturer and a member of the Management Board at the Institute for Innovative Logistics and Environment located at the Jade University of Applied Science.

Sundeep Shaw is a Copenhagen-based maritime sustainability expert helping the shipping industry navigate the transition to net-zero emissions. With deep operational insight and a strategic mindset, he supports ship owners and managers in areas like carbon accounting, retrofit feasibility and alternative fuels. As Manager of the ABS Copenhagen Sustainability Center, Sundeep also leads research and innovation focused on carbon dioxide reduction and green fuel solutions.

Hydrogen’s potential as an alternative energy source reaches well beyond marine fuel applications. It also has potential for on-land commercial energy and in energy-intensive industrial operations. As such, the transportation of hydrogen by ship could play a key role in the emerging hydrogen value chain.

In this episode of Setting Course, an ABS Podcast, Martin Carolan, Managing Director and CEO of Provaris Energy; Stergios Stamopoulos, Director of Global Sustainability for ABS; and Ibrahim Muritala, Senior Sustainability Engineer and Global Hydrogen Lead for ABS, join host Brad Cox, ABS. They discuss the current state of hydrogen production, the bottlenecks in scaling green hydrogen availability, and the technical and operational challenges in transporting hydrogen.

Please share this episode on social media, leave a review on your favorite podcast platform or send feedback to podcast@eagle.org. Learn more about how ABS is supporting the maritime industry at www.eagle.org.

Key Points

• Hydrogen is gaining momentum as a zero-carbon energy source.
• Investment in hydrogen requires major capital and infrastructure.
• Hydrogen production is currently dominated by grey hydrogen.
• Safety and operational standards are critical for hydrogen handling.
• Scaling green hydrogen production faces significant challenges.
• Compressed hydrogen is simpler for short-distance transport.
• The future of hydrogen depends on technological advancements, infrastructure development and industry collaboration.

Guests
Martin Carolan is Managing Director and CEO of Provaris Energy, a developer of integrated compressed hydrogen projects for export to regional markets. Provaris aims to develop green hydrogen supply chains that are simple and efficient to enable the global transport of zero-carbon energy. Martin holds a graduate diploma in applied finance from the Financial Services Institute of Australasia (FINSIA) and a bachelor’s degree in business from the University of Technology, Sydney.

Stergios Stamopoulos is the ABS Director of Global Sustainability for the Western Hemisphere, leading ABS activities in the Americas and Europe regions. Under his leadership, the ABS sustainability centers in Houston, Athens and Copenhagen are assisting ship and offshore owners, operators and other stakeholders with achieving their sustainability goals. He joined ABS in 2007 as an engineer and has worked in Greece, South Korea and the U.S. in a variety of roles.

Dr. Ibrahim Muritala is a distinguished engineer with over 17 years of experience in academia, research and the energy industry, including the oil and gas, maritime, and offshore sectors. He currently serves as the Global Hydrogen Leader at the ABS Global Sustainability Center in Houston, where he provides strategic leadership in hydrogen-related decarbonization initiatives. As a subject matter expert, Dr. Muritala helps the marine and offshore industries navigate new fuels, offering technical assessments, feasibility studies and strategic guidance across the hydrogen value chain.

On this special episode of Setting Course, an ABS Podcast, Jean-Charles Rinaldi, SBM Offshore Group Director of Sales and Marketing, and Miguel Hernandez, ABS Senior Vice President of Global Offshore, joined host Brad Cox, ABS, in the ABS booth at the 2025 Offshore Technology Conference in Houston, Texas, to discuss offshore innovation and the future of the floating production storage and offloading (FPSO) sector.

Share this episode with your friends, leave a review on your favorite podcast platform, or send feedback to podcast@eagle.org. Learn more about how ABS is supporting the offshore industry at www.eagle.org.

Key Points

• The offshore production sector is crucial for meeting global energy demands.
• Digitalization, including artificial intelligence (AI) and digital twins, is transforming FPSO operations and mitigating risk.
• Innovative designs can lead to a 70-80% reduction in emissions for new FPSOs.
• The industry is committed to producing energy responsibly and sustainably.
• Future FPSOs will have lower carbon intensity compared to previous generations.
• Partnerships are vital for addressing challenges and advancing technology in offshore energy.

GUESTS

Jean-Charles Rinaldi is the Sales and Marketing Director for SBM Offshore and is responsible for Product Marketing, Business Development, Commercial and Sales activities across the Company. He joined SBM Offshore in 2008 as Concept Engineer, then took roles in Project Construction, Start-up and Commissioning before moving to Operations Readiness and FPSO Operations Management. He later joined the Commercial team and became FPSO Business Acquisition Director in 2020. Jean-Charles has over 15 years of experience in the Oil and Gas Industry, having held positions for SBM Offshore in Europe, the Middle East, China and Brazil. Jean-Charles is a Graduate in Mechanical Engineering from the Ecole Nationale Superieure d’Arts et Metiers, Paristech.

Miguel Hernandez is the Senior Vice President of Global Offshore at ABS, based in the corporate headquarters in Houston, Texas. In his current role, Miguel leads global strategic planning and client development for the offshore energy and offshore wind market sectors, with a special focus on supporting clients in the energy transition to new, greener energy solutions. Miguel has more than 20 years of experience in the oil and gas industry, including expertise in global strategic account management, offshore sales and business development. Prior to joining ABS, Miguel held numerous senior leadership positions at organizations including MODEC, SBM Offshore, and FMC Technologies where he established long term strategic vision, developed new market entry initiatives, and led worldwide account management strategies that strengthen global client portfolios.