Mr William O’Neil has secured a two-year extension to his contract for the post of International Maritime Organisation secretary-general.

He won with the support of 23 out of 32 member nations on IMO’s council. Three council members spoke against him and six others including the Norway, the UK, Greece and Australia sent a strong signal to O’Neil by not publicly backing him.

Commenting on the reappointment, O’Neil said: “There are a number of things the organisation is engaged in right now which I would like to see through and together we can ensure that the fundamental objectives of the organisation can be pursued.”

Separately, the 86th session is due to hear a formal proposal this week, tabled by the UK as host country, together with Canada, the US, Norway and Cyprus, limiting any future incumbent’s tenure to a four-year term, renewable only once.

O’Neil’s stance has been that the next two years will be critical for the IMO, and that now is not the time for change.

The period will see the final implementation date of the revised STCW Convention, concerned with the training and certification of seafarers, and the extension of the International Safety Management Code to all cargoships of 500 gt and above.

These two measures are the key parts of IMO’s focus on the human element in shipping.

O’Neil’s contract is expected to be formally approved by the IMO Assembly when it meets in November this year.