From his spacious office in the Europort building, John Bassadone, chairman of the Gibunco Group, enjoys a panoramic view of the Bay of Gibraltar and the strait beyond. Against the backdrop of Morocco’s Rif mountains, he can monitor the comings and goings of the world’s merchant fleet, the tens thousands of ships that sail through this vital maritime chokepoint every year. Mr Bassadone is in the business of selling oil to ships, and each vessel he sees from his window represents a potential customer.

At its core, the model is simple. Ships, like cars, run on fuel. Occasionally, they have to stop to fill up. Gibraltar, with minimum deviation from some of the world’s most important east/west and north/south trade routes, offers a geographically strategic point at which to refuel. In industry parlance, the trade is known as bunkering. If the Strait of Gibraltar is a maritime motorway, then the Rock is its prime service station. It is this straightforward equation that lies at the heart of Gibunco’s success. Over the past decade, Gibraltar has become the premier bunkering hub in the western Mediterranean, one of the most important refuelling stops for vessels worldwide.
Last year, the Rock’s handful of bunker operators supplied nearly 5m tonnes of fuel. To understand the growth, barely two decades ago the total market for bunker fuel hardly scratched 200,000 tonnes. It was Mr Bassadone’s entrance into this business that provided the boost to the market, injecting it with aggressive competition that has led to exponential growth since the early ‘90s.
The foundations for Mr Bassadone’s success in this business were laid decades earlier, when he left school at 15 and donned a wetsuit. His father had set up a commercial diving company, specialising in underwater hull cleaning and ship maintenance with John and his brothers Gigi and Jimmy.
The young Mr Bassadone first stepped into the sea as a commercial diver in the harbour basin close to the old port viaduct, not far from where his office is now.  “I went straight from school into a diving suit,” he said. “That was tough. There was no soft landing at all. I learnt the hard way.”
It was physical, demanding work, but it taught Mr Bassadone some valuable lessons. He was one more in a team of seasoned, professional divers – “there were no favours for being the boss’s son” – and he developed close working relationships, learning to trust the people on whom his life depended when he was submerged. He also learnt about the shipping industry from the bottom up, literally.
By the age of 20, a young man starting to think about settling down and raising a family, he was looking for ways to expand the business and, at the same time, introduce greater stability into his life. Diving remained the company’s main business, but there were ventures too into shore-side civil engineering work, mainly for the Ministry of Defence. The company built sea defences and repaired quayside walls inside the naval base. Somewhere along the way it also built the jetty in Camp Bay, which is still there today. There was a landmark moment too, in the shape of a business partnership with an international underwater hull cleaning company called SCAMP, then owned by US oil major Exxon. At first Gibunco was a SCAMP subcontractor, but it was a relationship that deepened quickly. “That got us involved in a much bigger way and allowed us to approach larger customers and do more,” Mr Bassadone said. “It was always a matter of marketing. We would go to all the shipping exhibitions and network, meeting people and making contacts, always trying to work on that basis. Our customers were shipowners and we were always trying to look at what we could do for them.”
The relationship matured and culminated in Mr Bassadone purchasing the SCAMP business from Exxon. Overnight, the Gibraltar-based company had acquired a major international presence with representative offices in ports around the globe. These days SCAMP, which remains    part of the Gibunco Group, operates from some 280 locations around the world. Through this network of agents, Mr Bassadone was able to pitch his services directly to shipowners and their technical staff, in terms that they understood. The agents spoke the language of shipping and knew what shipowners were after. Back in Gibraltar, Mr Bassadone also began to tweak the product, shaping it to meet the demands of his customers. “I decided to do packages, with all the costs included in one price,” he said. “That was a marketing tactic that we started using. It was about making it easier for the customer and making sure there were no hidden costs.” In order to maximise on this strategy, Gibunco obtained a ship agency licence, enabling it to streamline all the elements associated with a port call in Gibraltar. The move represented a seismic shift in a world governed by long-established traditions, where change often came slowly. “The old school way of doing things was to sit around and wait for the phone to ring,” Mr Bassadone said. “I wanted to go out there and sell what Gibraltar had to offer. We couldn’t just sit there and wait for people to come to us. We had to go out and sell.”
Unknowingly, Mr Bassadone was laying the ground work for his future venture into oil. He was working his SCAMP network, building up knowledge of the shipping industry and establishing close working relationships with ship owners around the world. Out of the blue, he received a call from a Spain-based oil company. “I don’t know where this came from, but they came to me because they wanted to set up bunkering in Gibraltar,” he said. That call was followed by another contact from a rival oil company in Spain, Cepsa. The business was appealing. There were tens of thousands of ships sailing through the Strait of Gibraltar, but the Rock’s bunkering market was small. There was obvious room for growth. With two offers on the table, Mr Bassadone had a choice to make. “The second option was the best because they had a refinery next door,” he said, smiling. “It was a very easy decision.”
The meeting led to the formation of Cepsa (Gibraltar), a 50/50 venture between Gibunco and Cepsa. At the time the Spanish company, which is now owned by the French oil major Total and the Abu Dhabi investment company IPIC, had only recently started in the bunker sector. As they found their feet during the first two years in operation, staff at Cepsa (Gibraltar) relied on Madrid for sales. Traders in Madrid would close the contracts and Gibraltar organised the supply of fuel, delivered straight from the Cepsa refinery in the Campo de Gibraltar to ships at anchor in Gibraltar waters. But Mr Bassadone saw an opportunity to capitalise on his knowledge of the shipping industry and his contacts.
“By that point, I was totally focused on this,” he said. “I was thinking that, with all the experience we had with shipowners through SCAMP and all the other areas of business, it seemed a bit limiting to be dependant on this other company. I thought we had a contribution to make to Cepsa (Gibraltar) in terms of marketing.” An agreement was hammered out with Cepsa under which all bunker in Gibraltar would be supplied by Cepsa (Gibraltar) in the port of Gibraltar. It was an arrangement that worked and remains in place to this day.
Mr Bassadone brought new ideas to the bunkering business too. He tailored his all-in package to shipowners calling for bunkers, but he also pioneered a new approach to credit insurance that has since been adopted by many players in the industry. In essence, bunker suppliers act like a bank for shipowners, providing credit on large fuel sales that can run into hundreds of thousands of dollars. “We all know what the shipowner industry is,” he said. “Its got its highs, its got its lows. You’ve got to survive through both of them.” In order to do this, from the outset he negotiated credit insurance for all his company’s sales. “We started early on and we’ve stayed with the same insurer in doing this business, so the cost of covering your credit risk is quite low,” he said. “That gave us a lot of strength.” His team chose carefully who to do business with, but the insurance provided an additional safeguard. “It was important to have that parachute. It was a cost that looked substantial at the time, but I knew it was very critical. It gives comfort to banks when you raise large amounts of cash to move these big volumes.”
By the late ‘90s, Mr Bassadone was on the move again and set up his own wholly-owned bunkering company, Peninsula Petroleum.
He put his son John at the helm of the new business and together they got down to work. Over a decade later, Peninsula is now a major player in the bunkering world with annual sales in excess of six million tonnes. The company is active in the supply of bunkers and lubricants in the ports of Gibraltar, Ceuta, Canary Islands and Panama, and is an active worldwide trader too. It has offices in London, Gibraltar, Geneva, Tønsberg, Athens, Dubai, Singapore, Shanghai, Tokyo and Montevideo. “My son John has managed to build a fantastic team around him,” he said. “It’s all down to people. John is very aggressive and outgoing when it comes to business, but he’s also very affable. Our main asset is teamwork.”
Gibunco and its related companies are involved at all stages in the bunkering chain. The group’s staff buys and sells cargoes of fuel, organises and coordinates delivery to ships, operates a fleet of cutting-edge double-hull bunker tankers able to deliver fuel safely and efficiently. It is about ensuring control and quality throughout the supply chain. Mr Bassadone concedes that his is a hands-on management style, that his company bears his personal hallmark at every level. But he also believes in trusting his staff and allowing them room to manoeuvre and forge their own paths based on their knowledge and experience. “The most important thing about a business is the people that work in that business,” he said. “The guy who knows how to do everything doesn’t exist. You need to know how to delegate and let people do their own thing. But at the same time you need to stay on top of things.” The focus on people is essential to any business but, given its international nature, is perhaps more so in the shipping world. Throughout a two-hour interview, Mr Bassadone refers to this time and again. He uses phrases like “face to face” and “eye to eye” when he describes his business dealings, underscoring the need to press flesh and get to know his customers. “It’s a big industry, but it’s also small in terms of the people you know,” he said. “We’ve had that from the start. We’ve been talking to these guys for years.”
Although shipping has been the mainstay of its business, Gibunco has also been involved in major property deals in Gibraltar over the years, first through Gibraltar Homes and now through the Montagu Group. Mr Bassadone was a driving force in the land reclamation schemes that transformed housing and office capacity in Gibraltar following the opening of the border. He has always worked closely with the government of the day but refuses to discuss politics or his own personal views on social or economic issues. “I don’t talk about politics,” he said. “I’m not a person who talks publicly about this. I’m not political in that way. Sometimes it’s difficult, because occasionally things happen in Gibraltar that you don’t like and you know the background to it. But you suffer that inside.” All he would say was that “tiny Gibraltar”, despite the endless griping and sniping from one side or other, had managed incredible achievements over the years. The Rock and its small population, he said, had an enviable stock of talent in many varied fields. Gibunco, for all its international scope, would always have Gibraltar as its base, he added.
So what has been the secret of Mr Bassadone’s success over the years? He does not hesitate in answering. “You’ve got to start at the bottom level and work your way up, and to do that you need to seek knowledge and learn along the way,” he said. “You need to understand that you’ll depend on people. Who are they? How do they think? What do they need? How can I do this better than my competitor? It’s all about learning, both the good and bad, and trying to keep as much of the good as possible.” He also believes in a cautious approach to growth, one that assesses the potential risks and weighs them against the benefits. Flexibility, too, is a key ingredient. “You’ve got to set a target and go for it, but on the way you must be ready to shift if you have to,” he said. “You’ve got to be brave in decisions, you’ve got to take decisions, but you also have to be cautious. And you’ve got to learn, because nothing ever comes out to be the way you thought it would be. You start on a mission, it changes along the way, but eventually you end up with what you want. You cannot be rigid. You have to have flexibility.” To hammer home that last point, he recounts how his young grandson is a fan of Thomas the Tank Engine, the children’s programme about a blue steam train called Thomas and his adventures on the rail tracks.
“I’m not Thomas the Tank Engine, stuck on a line,” Mr Bassadone said. “My grandson loves Thomas the Tank Engine, but he’ll learn in time”.

As the world’s economies reeled in the midst of the global downturn last year, Gibraltar took a different turn: where other countries were reporting rising deficits, the Rock came back with 5% growth in the financial year ending March 31, 2010. Shipping has played a key part in that economic resilience together with other key sectors including financial services, e-gaming and tourism. The port, Chief Minister Peter Caruana said earlier this year, represents “major engine of our growing economy.”
Gibraltar, the main bunkering port in the western Mediterranean, supplied record volumes of fuel last year, while other areas of maritime business reported good results too. The downturn in the freight markets, for instance, kept Gibraltar’s specialist lawyers busy with admiralty cases, with many owners capitalising on Gibraltar’s reputation for resolving complex cases swiftly and efficiently.
The Gibraltar ship register also continued to improve on its already-enviable reputation as a quality register, and has now set its eye on the market for mega yachts.

In recent years, the Gibraltar Government has targeted significant investment in the maritime sector, reflecting its growing importance in Gibraltar’s economy.
In the port, the shift from a cumbersome government department to a leaner, more flexible and commercially-focused Gibraltar Port Authority was finalised last year with a new staff agreement.  There are still issues to be ironed out – as evidenced by recent labour unrest – but in broad terms, the shift has opened the way for important organisational changes to improve staff prospects and, by extension, the efficient running of the port.
A new vessel traffic monitoring system has been installed and will enable tight control over vessel movements in Gibraltar waters. The port has also raised its tariffs whilst maintaining its competitive advantage. The tariff revision combined with strong performances, accommodating arrested vessels, ship-to-ship transfers and bunkering saw income move from £2m in 2008-09 to £5.1m in 2009-10, with recurrent expenditure at £3.4m.
Bunkering, the mainstay of port business here, proved resilient in the face of the global economic slowdown last year, with suppliers delivering record volumes. Operators in Gibraltar delivered nearly 4.7m tonnes of bunker fuel during 2009, a sharp 12% increase from the 4.2m tonnes delivered in 2008.
Now, with neighbouring ports in Algeciras and Tangier toughening the competition in this region, port managers on the Rock are planning a major change to the sector in order to increase capacity. The Government of Gibraltar has confirmed plans to allow ships to refuel at anchorage on the east side of the Rock, a move that will enable suppliers to further boost volumes. “It is the Government’s intention, subject to the outcome of any Environmental Impact Assessment [EIA] that may be required, to allow operations under strictly-controlled conditions to place at the Eastern anchorage site,” said Joe Holliday, minister for enterprise, development, technology and transport.
Gibraltar currently has 12 vessel slots on the west side of the Rock. Opening up the east side anchorage for bunkering operations will add up to ten more slots, depending on vessel size.
“In simple terms, opening up the east side will allow us to service more ships,” Captain Peter Hall, the Captain of the Port of Gibraltar, told the maritime newspaper Lloyd’s List in October. “We already have a competitive edge in terms of cost. If we can increase capacity and improve the service we can offer, then that will help us to maintain that edge.”
An EIA should be completed by the end of this year, taking into account the ecology of the area and factors such as weather and tidal movements. Initially operations will only be allowed during daylight and under suitable weather conditions. Bunkering operation anywhere in Gibraltar waters can be suspended by the port if weather conditions are bad. Some trials have already been carried out and further ones are planned before routine operations start. Each vessel is equipped with counter-pollution equipment and an oil pollution response vessel is stationed nearby throughout.
The start of bunkering operations on the east side is dependent on the installation of the Gibraltar port’s new vessel traffic monitoring system, which will enable the Gibraltar Port Authority to closely monitor and control all vessel movement in Gibraltar waters. The VTS will enable port managers to better control vessels within Gibraltar waters but also, because of its extended range, to coordinate arrivals to maximise the use of limited bunkering slots.
“It will give us complete coverage around the Rock and also lifts the horizon for arriving vessels,” Capt Hall said. “That will allow us to plan more efficiently.”
An integrated web-based system will also enable the electronic transfer of vessel data from ships and agents to the port authority itself, further reducing the administrative workload.

Gibraltar’s new tax rules are already starting to attract new business, even before they are fully implemented.

The new taxation regime is designed to ensure the continued international competitiveness of the Rock’s finance centre. The key element of the new Income Tax Act is a reduction in company tax from 22% to 10% as from January, 2011.
The new framework replaces the tax exempt regime, which Gibraltar has phased out following pressure from the European Union. It ends all distinction between “onshore” and “offshore” business.
Together with the tax information exchange agreements being entered into by the government – coupled to Gibraltar’s full integration in the EU and compliance with EU financial services regulation, money laundering and co-operation rules – the new Tax Act completes Gibraltar’s 14-year transition from tax haven to mainstream European financial services centre.
“Thousands of local jobs, much government revenue and thus our public services, depend on Gibraltar having an internationally competitive tax system,” said Chief Minister Peter Caruana. “Many previously tax exempt banks, insurance, investment, gaming and other companies will begin to pay profit tax in Gibraltar for the first time on the same basis as all other companies. These companies are vital to our economy and to the social prosperity of all of us in Gibraltar.”
The new regime comes at a time of global economic downturn, with governments around the world toughening up on taxation in the face of public spending austerity. In practical terms, this means fiscal authorities around the globe are looking at ways to increase tax revenues and ensure citizens pay their fair share. For corporations and wealthy individuals alike, it means they will have to pay closer attention to how their tax affairs are structured.
“It’s people waking up to the fact that they’ve got to take tax seriously,” says Mike Nicholls, managing director of both Chesterton estate agents and MN Associates, a consultancy firm. “Countries around the world are going bust and every chancellor wants money.”
Gibraltar, with its attractive new fiscal regime, is fast becoming a favoured jurisdiction for businesses and fiscal nomads looking for well-regulated, legitimate ways of reducing their tax bills. The appeal is further bolstered by its success in dynamic sectors including funds, insurance and e-gaming. And success in the finance centre has a knock-on impact in town. “All our sales [to individuals] are tax-led sales,” continues Mr Nicholls. “They don’t have a tax address and this is what they’re looking for.”
Mike Nicholls originally came to Gibraltar to work in a senior role on the team that developed Ocean Village. He eventually settled here and saw a gap in the market that would allow him to move on. He bought the local franchise of the well-known UK estate agent Chesterton last year and hasn’t looked back since.
These days, he focuses on finding residential and business properties for the incoming wealthy and corporate markets, working closely with Gibraltar’s law and accountancy firms. Based on anecdotal evidence from the Chesterton database,
Mr Nicholls said Gibraltar’s fiscal regime is proving increasingly attractive in both segments. The 10% corporate tax rate, in particular, holds great promise: “As a headline rate, it is beyond fantastic,” he says. “It’s a really good selling point; for those of us selling Gibraltar as a jurisdiction, it really couldn’t be a better marketing tool.”
For evidence that it works, look no further than the gaming sector. In the past month, a number of major e-gaming companies have announced that they are moving all or part of their operations to Gibraltar.
And where there are new companies arriving, there’s the knock-on demand for office space resulting in opportunities in other areas of the economy – from retail to entertainment.

The winter airline schedules came into force on Sunday 31st October and the three airlines serving Gibraltar have duly introduced changes – albeit limited – to their operations.
British Airways’ (BA) now well established single daily flight operation continues, arriving from London Heathrow just before noon, departing an hour later. The Gib flights, along with those from Málaga use Terminal 3 at Heathrow rather than the perhaps more ‘swanky’ facilities available at the newer Terminal 5. With an arrival time of 2.35pm in London, the BA flight allows connections to a number of medium and long haul destinations.
For its weekday operation, easyJet (EZY) has retimed its single daily flight from London Gatwick (LGW) to arrive in Gib at 10.50am with departure scheduled just 30 minutes later. For those passengers looking to take flights to other destinations from London’s second airport, the much earlier arrival time of 1.10pm makes the task much easier. Saturday’s flight is due on the ground in Gib between 1pm and 1.35pm with Sunday’s a little later – from 3.50pm to 4.35pm.

Citing healthy demand, Monarch Airlines (ZB) introduced some additional flights to its Luton (LTN) and Manchester (MAN) schedules during September and October. With the onset of the new timetable, these extra flights have disappeared. Flights to Manchester will operate three times a week, on Monday, Wednesday and Friday with arrival in the UK at 1.50pm.  Luton will see six flights a week with no service on Saturdays. With the exception of the Sunday flight – which operates into Gibraltar in the early evening – the schedule on all other days is standardised: flights are due to arrive on the Rock at 11.10am and depart just before noon.
To even the casual observer it’s clear that the schedule on Monday, Wednesday and Friday provides the airport terminal with something of a logistical nightmare. On these days, between 10.50am and noon, no fewer than four flights are due to arrive, with three also scheduled to depart within this short time frame. This scheduling headache will provide considerable challenges for airlines, airport staff and passengers alike – not to mention the effect on traffic in town and at the frontier!
At the end of last month easyJet announced that they would be introducing a new service from Liverpool to Gibraltar, operating 3 days a week. This is great news for Gibraltar, as it opens up Gibraltar to a whole new regional market in and around Liverpool, North Wales and the Chester area of the United Kingdom.