The turn now is for Fernando de la Rosa, our veteran port supervisor for tankers in Coveñas and also in Cartagena. Fernando, 65, is retiring this June after being in the shipping industry all his life, mostly in and around Coveñas area. He used to own a small agency which by the end of last century served us as subagents. We did not have many tankers then, and also his operation was limited. A few years later, LBH Group decided to step into the tanker market in earnest and this is when we offered Fernando a formula to purchase his structure on condition that he remained with LBH Colombia (then Eurolatina Shipping) as employee for Coveñas, a promised we kept until way past his legal retirement age.
Fernando and technology were not very good friends but his expertise, watchful eyes and long standing relations with the local Ecopetrol and Ocensa teams, granted us the reliability needed “in situ” and on board to ensure operations run smooth and information flow reached our customers as fast as possible. He reported to three bosses who controlled our operations area 3: first Miguel, who went to Internship, then Orlando, who passed away in 2018, and now Flavio, at least 1,5 generation younger.
We experienced ups and down in our Coveñas activities along these years, with the branch becoming busiest between 2009 and 2013, when we could serve over 90 ships in a year and Colombia was producing close to 1million barrels of crude per day. Market circumstances evolved to new priorities and we lost some ground which we are trying to recover. Production in the country has never reached that level again and reserves are diminishing to a mere 6 year time lapse.
Often Fernando was accompanied by either a local assistant or someone from our Operations dept in Cartagena. We provided him with all the training as safety and other hseq issues evolved and he always responded amicably.
We still see Fernando as a helping hand for us and we shall certainly make use of his service as ships increases for LBH Colombia, but he no longer needs to comply with all the administrative process which sometimes takes much time.
In the meantime, we thank and appreciate very much all his work, his trust, his dedication, his market leads; and wish him all the health and enjoyment he can have in the coming years.
Muchas Gracias FERNANDO!
