Adrian Tolson (r) and Constantinos Capetanakis (l) at the IBIA Dinner in February 2026. Image Credit: IBIA

• Adrian Tolson takes over as IBIA chairman as of April 1
• Constantinos Capetanakis will remain on the board and lead a new bunker buyers' working group
• IBIA secretariat to expand with two new team members
• Potential fragmentation of emissions regulation systems adds to IBIA's work

On April 1, Constantinos Capetanakis will conclude his two-year term as chairman of the International Bunker Industry Association (IBIA), leaving the association poised to take on a significantly expanded role within the maritime industry. Incoming Chair Adrian Tolson of 2050 Marine Energy believes it will do just that.

That was one of the key messages from both the outgoing and incoming chairs, who recently spoke with Ship & Bunker about the organisation’s evolution and what lies ahead.

Capetanakis, bunker director at shipping firm Star Bulk, has overseen a significant expansion and diversification of IBIA's membership, a fact reflected in record turnout at the organisation's annual dinner in London earlier this year.

He is the organisation's first chairman in its recent history to come to the role from the point of view of a buyer rather than a seller of marine fuels, and bringing in more members from this side of the market, as well as a range of peripherally connected industries, has been a key aim for him.

"There was a parallel effort to diversify the membership and help IBIA become more visible, more vocal, in other words more well-known in circles outside of those which already knew IBIA," Capetanakis said.

"That was a very clear mission statement which I had shared with my colleagues on the board and with the secretariat since the convention in Dubai.

"I think we have set the stage for IBIA to be accepted in any type of room, in any type of discussion anywhere. This is an achievement which one cannot consider as a given."

New Working Group

As well as remaining on IBIA's board, Capetanakis will now lead a new Working Group within the organisation, the Bunker Buyers' Working Group, covering the interests of buyers who are the end-users of marine fuel.

"It's basically for those who procure marine fuels and represent the demand side of the bunker industry," he said.

"It's a collective platform to discuss challenges, to promote transparency, to develop, discuss and debate practical solutions that should support efficient, fair and reliable bunker procurement.

"It sounds like something that is already happening, but if you put yourself on the buyer side, this is not the case.

"The purpose of the working group is to ensure that the interests and perspectives of bunker buyers are clearly reflected in IBIA's work."

The value of the new body will be in providing a space for bunker buyers to discuss the challenges seen at their end of the supply chain, Tolson said.

"It struck me when we were talking about this in the early stages, when Constantinos brought this up, that there has really never been a place for bunker buyers - and we're talking at all levels of authority and seniority - to collectively gather and share their views and concerns," he said.

"This working group provides them with an opportunity to talk."

The organisation is seeking to increase engagement from its members with IBIA's working groups, which also cover bunker licencing, future fuels, digitalisation, technical and legal issues.

"We are soon going to - in the first few weeks or months of Adrian's chairmanship - ask our members to sort of renew their vows in terms of their participation in their working groups," Capetanakis said.

"Even before I joined as Star Bulk as an IBIA member back in 2019, IBIA was very well known for its active work, and we want to keep it that way.

"The problem with IBIA becoming more known and more visible is that you have more and more people wishing to participate, but not necessarily to actively participate but sometimes only to listen."

Equally, some may join working groups primarily as a means of raising their prominence in the industry, while others may do so to hear what these working groups have to say through their members, Capetanakis said.

"That's all fine and we welcome it, but we want to maintain as number one priority the active participation," he said.

What's Next?

For Tolson, stepping into the chairmanship will mean taking the helm at a time both of short-term stress caused by Middle East conflict and long-term uncertainty over how decarbonisation will reshape the industry.

"The association has been primed to take on a much bigger tole, and I think it is going to, particularly as we deal with the energy transition," he said.

"But there's also a lot of other areas where the association can really represent the industry. My concern is to make sure that, as an association, we gear ourselves up to be able to deliver that, and it means strengthening every element."

An increase in both the organisation's membership and the complexity of the world in which it operates means IBIA will need to expand to meet new challenges.

That means not only adding new members, but strengthening the secretariat.

"We're currently in the process of bringing on two new secretariat members," Tolson said.

"As we add IBIA members, we add more financial resources, and that allows us to bring more people and more skillsets into the association. Delivering more to the membership, I think, is key."

Part of that need for expansion is being driven by the possibility of more regulatory complexity around the world as attempts at global regulation through the IMO face delays. The EU already has significant emissions regulations in place for shipping, and more regulations of this kind at the national and regional level may well emerge in the absence of any global agreement.

"If we are dealing with a fractured regulatory world in the next few years, which is potentially possible, then I think it's very important for us as an association to represent the industry at all those different regulatory locations," Tolson said.

"I think you'd expect us to reach out more into the EU, for example.

"The United States is another example. It helps that I'm based there, for us to be engaged with understanding what is happening in the United States regarding our industry, or regarding the progress of alternative fuels."

More work will also need to be done by IBIA's regional boards if regulation becomes fragmented in this way, Capetanakis added.

"We need to focus even more on our regional group boards, because these are the bodies of the association which will be the spearheads of the local or regional focus that we need to have," he said.

Increased engagement with the IMO process is also prompting IBIA to take on more staff.

"As we become more and more known, the demands for regulatory input that our members and other associations and IMO members will be asking for from IBIA will increase," Capetanakis said.

"This is why we are strengthening our secretariat, because it needs support; we cannot only count on voluntary expertise, which is ample, but it wouldn't be fair.

"The number of submissions and co-submissions alone which IBIA is asked to sponsor is increasing by the month."

Other Goals

IBIA is well known for both providing and supporting industry training and events.

While Tolson sees that continuing to be a significant element of what it can offer the industry, he also recognises the industry is undergoing a period of change.

"We always stress education. What that means in today's world, we're not entirely sure, but certainly the association needs to continue to find quality trainers and run better courses, and we're in pursuit of that as we speak," he said.

When it comes to events, IBIA's annual dinner during IE Week remains its largest, with more than 1,200 people attending this year's iteration, while its annual convention is also a key fixture in the industry's calendar.

"It's interesting the association is known for the [IE Week] dinner, which is hugely important to us, and we all love it," Tolson said.

"But I don't think that, at its core, is really what we're about. We're really not an events organisation.

"We will organise events; we will host cocktail hours etc, simply because we want to offer that element to our members who see that as important, and also because we want to build the presence of the association, to build the membership."