More than half a decade ago, Shipsuppliers around the globe created their own worldwide association – the International Shipsupply and Services Association (ISSA), which was founded in 1955. Today, ISSA is a recognised international organisation working closely with the IMO, WCO and the United Nations. To promote the specific interests of Shipsuppliers in the European Union, ISSA created a special European Shipsupply Committee in 1976, which began operations under the name of O.C.E.A.N, short for the French title: “Organisation de la Communauté Européenne des Avitailleurs de Navires”. This was felt necessary in view of the new regulations being formed by the EEC authorities concerning shipsupply. With the exception of Luxemburg, all Member States of the EEC were important maritime nations.   The first task of O.C.E.A.N. was to study and discuss the drafts of an EEC regulation laying down the customs procedure for the supply of stores to vessels, aircraft and international trains. A first revision appeared in 1976, which was followed by further revisions. The OCEAN committee recommended various alterations due to the practicalities on ship supplying. Since that time, OCEAN has followed actively the work of the European institutions, publishing the document “Ship Supply Export Trade moving into 1993”, at the beginning of the Single Market. O.C.E.A.N. was renamed in November 2008 as “OCEAN – European Shipsuppliers Organization” as the voice of the ship supplying industry of Europe towards the European institutions and European governments.

OCEAN Chairperson:
2011 - ongoing: Mr. Alfredo Tosato (IT)
2006 - 2011: Stefan Ericson (SE)
2000 - 2006: Michel Van Hulle (BE)

OCEAN Vice-Chaiperson:
2011 - ongoing: Mr. Dirk Cupido (NL)
2006 - 2011: Alfredo Tosato (IT)