About
Experience before certainty.
Before the standards, there is the field. Before the procedures, there are the decisions that commit. The best decisions rest first on experience, then on mastery of the rules.
An expertise built on the field.
FSO Thapsus · Deck · 2012 
FSO Thapsus · Control room · 2013 
Car-ferry · Bridge · 2015 01
Seafarer
Maritime Navigation Engineer, First Class Officer of the Merchant Navy, then 54 months of effective seagoing service aboard commercial ships, passenger ships and an FSO unit, up to the Higher Certificate of Master Mariner (STCW II/2, 3,000 GT and above).
This experience makes it possible to understand the ship from the inside, the reality of crews, the constraints of operation and the responsibility that comes with every decision taken at sea.
Seeing the land from the sea.
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Broadening the view
Returning to study after several years at sea is a real change of course.
The Master in International Transport at Paris 1 Panthéon-Sorbonne University brings a new understanding of global trade, management, logistics, law, multimodal transport and project management.
This step complements field experience with a strategic, economic and legal vision.
Seeing the sea from the land.
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Maritime operations
At Louis Dreyfus Armateurs, the experience grows to include the management of maritime operations, the transport of Airbus components, the follow-up of charter parties and the coordination of international stakeholders.
At Noatum, it continues in contact with shipowners, shippers, sellers and port operations.
Understanding a ship is no longer enough. One must now understand the whole logistics chain and the contractual responsibilities that surround it.
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Contributing to the rules
At CEREMA, expertise evolves towards supporting French government services and their partners on projects with strong technical, economic and strategic stakes.
Energy transition, hydrogen, safety of navigation, assistance and guidance, ISO standardisation, national and European projects: this step gradually leads from applying the standards to contributing to their evolution, alongside the competent bodies.
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OCMEF
OCMEF is the natural outcome of this journey.
An independent firm dedicated to shipowners, insurers, banks, industrial companies, professional organisations and operators, to support their projects, expertise, investments and technical decisions.
Working at the desk as on site, from the design to the operation of a sea-going ship or an inland waterway vessel, drawing on a mastery of the main international standards:
SOLAS · STCW · MARPOL · MLC
and the European regulations for inland navigation:
ES-TRIN · ES-RIS · ES-QIN
An expertise between two worlds.
Maritime transport is a universe of exceptional complexity. Every ship concentrates considerable investments, high technical requirements, multiple legal responsibilities and a chain of stakeholders spread across the world.
Everything is larger. Everything is more costly. Everything is more demanding.
One and the same ship may be built in one country, registered in another, financed by a foreign bank, insured elsewhere, classed by an international society, operated under yet another flag and sailed by a crew of several nationalities.
Understanding this reality demands far more than a knowledge of texts: it requires lived experience of the sea, of operations and of regulation.
Inland navigation, by contrast, follows a profoundly different logic. Its vessels, infrastructure, operating constraints, risks, standards and stakeholders are not the same.
Between the maritime and the inland worlds, only one truth remains: Archimedes’ principle.
For the rest, everything changes.
It is precisely at the meeting point of these two worlds that I built my expertise, and founded OCMEF. An approach that lets me support my clients with the same level of requirement, whether it is a ship at sea or an inland waterway vessel, in salt water as in fresh water. One point of contact, from the first call to the signed report.
Hichem Snoussi
Founder, OCMEF
Transparency note
OCMEF maintains a regulatory watch nourished by its founder’s participation in European and international technical work, notably within CESNI, CCNR, AFNOR and ISO/TC 15. This participation contributes to maintaining a high level of technical expertise. OCMEF does not represent any of these institutions and does not act on their behalf.
OCMEF news and technical publications.LinkedIn
Contributing to the work of the reference bodies
Named for identification of the work to which the founder contributes. OCMEF does not represent these institutions and does not act on their behalf.