SDC Sub-Committee of IMO approves in principle draft mandatory Polar Code - portnews

Posted - February 4, 2014 - portnews

At its first session in London (20 to 24 January 2014), the Sub-Committee on Ship Design and Construction (SDC) of the International Maritime Organization (IMO) agreed in principle to a draft new chapter XIV “Safety measures for ships operating in polar waters”, of the International Convention for the Safety of Life at Sea (SOLAS), to make the Code (Introduction and part I-A) mandatory, for forwarding to the Maritime Safety Committee (MSC), which next meets in May 2014, for consideration, press center of RF Ministry of Transport informs.

Also, the Sub-Committee proposed draft amendments to the International Convention for the Prevention of Pollution from Ships (MARPOL), to make the Polar Code (Introduction and part II-A) mandatory under Annexes I (prevention of pollution by oil), II (noxious liquid substances), IV (sewage) and V (garbage) were also agreed, in principle, for forwarding to the Marine Environment Protection Committee (MEPC), which next meets end of March/beginning of April.

The draft chapter of the Polar Code relating to training and manning will be referred to the Sub-Committee on Human Element Training and Watchkeeping (HTW), which meets in February 2014, for further review, while the draft chapters on fire protection/safety and life-saving appliances will be referred to the Sub-Committee on Ship Systems and Equipment (SSE), which meets in March.  The draft chapters on Safety of navigation and Communication will be referred to the Sub-Committee on Navigation, Communication and Search and Rescue (NCSR) in June/July.  All three Sub-Committees will report on their work to the MSC and MEPC. 
In particular, MEPC will consider the proposal of Russia to permit discharge into the sea of oil or oily mixtures from ships equipped with the oil filtering equipment with alarm arrangements and automatic stopping arrangements. Besides, the Committee will decide if it is reasonable to include the requirements for port facilities collecting oil wastes into the Polar Code.

The delegation of Russia has forwarded a proposal to exclude the northern part of the Bering Sea from the Arctic Polar waters as it is free of ice in summer-autumn period and classified not as Arctic Sea but as freezing seas like the Sea of Okhotsk, Baltic or Caspian Seas partly freezing in winter periods. The proposal will be considered at MEPC-66 and MSC-93.

The next session of the Sub-Committee is scheduled for February 16-20, 2015
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NGOs Publish 2013 List of Toxic Ship Dumpers: German and Hellenic Shipping Companies Amongst the World’s Worst - Hellenic Shipping News Worldwide

Posted - February 4, 2014 -  Hellenic Shipping News Worldwide

The NGO Shipbreaking Platform, a global coalition of organisations seeking to prevent dirty and dangerous shipbreaking practices worldwide, published the complete list of ships that were dismantled around in the world in 2013. Of the 1213 large ocean-going vessels that were scrapped in 2013, 645 were sold to substandard beaching facilities in India, Pakistan and Bangladesh [1]. Approximately 40% of these ships were EU-owned. The new EU regulation on ship recycling entered into force on 30 December 2013. However, unless an economic incentive is added to it, the registration of European ships under flags of convenience will allow ship owners to sail around the new regulation and continue dumping their toxic ships in substandard facilities.

End-of-life vessels contain toxic materials such as asbestos, heavy metals, PCBs and organic waste within their structures. South Asia has become a preferred dumping ground as environmental, safety and labour rights standards are poorly enforced there. Ship owners are able to sell their ships to the beach breakers for considerably greater profit than if they were sold to clean and safe recycling facilities.

“Whereas the number of dismantled ships remained nearly as high as in 2012, the number of beached ships dropped from 850 to 645 in 2013, representing a reduction of 24% from the previous year. More ship owners have opted for cleaner and safer solutions in 2013 compared to previous years – this is good news for the environment and the workers, and also for those ship recycling yards globally that have invested in better practices”, says Patrizia Heidegger, Executive Director of the NGO Shipbreaking Platform. “Still, the majority of ship owners uphold their dirty practices and European owners are amongst the worst.”

European ship owners sold a total of 372 large commercial vessels for breaking last year, of which 238, almost two thirds, ended up on a South Asian beach. Greece remains the worst European toxic ship dumper, closely followed by Germany. Owners in these countries disposed a record-high 80 percent of their end-of-life ships in India, Bangladesh and Pakistan, and included well-known companies such as Danaos and Euroseas (Greece), and Conti, Hapag-Lloyd and Leonhardt & Blumberg (Germany). Comparatively, Japanese owners sent 43% of their ships to South Asia, whilst Chinese owners in vast majority opted for nationally available ship recycling capacity [2]. Other European companies that have recurrently topped the lists of worst dumpers include Switzerland-based Mediterranean Shipping Company (MSC), with 9 ships dumped in India in 2013, and the Monaco-based Sammy Ofer Group, with 13 ships dumped in Bangladesh, Pakistan and India.

Once applicable, the new EU ship recycling regulation will ban the breaking of ships registered under the flag of an EU Member State in beaching yards and demand proper recycling in facilities that meet the requirements set out in the Regulation. However, the Regulation runs the risk of becoming a paper tiger: more than two thirds of the European ships dismantled in 2013 did not sail under the flag of an EU Member State when heading for a dismantling yard and would therefore not have been covered by the new Regulation. In addition to the ships already sailing under non-European flags during operational use, another 55 ships were flagged out from European registries just before scrapping outside the EU. Flags of convenience such as Comoros, Tuvalu, Saint Kitts and Nevis, Togo and Sierra Leone, that are less favoured during operational use, were excessively popular flags for the end-of-life vessels broken on beaches in 2013.

“Reflagging has always been a convenient way for ship owners to circumvent rules enforced by the flag states. The Platform and its members have been calling upon the EU to introduce an economic incentive to promote clean and safe ship recycling, because a Regulation based only on the voluntary registration under a European flag will not have the promised impact”, says Patrizia Heidegger.

Responsible European ship owners have meanwhile developed ship recycling policies. The Danish Maersk group, the world’s largest containership owner, was amongst the first to have an ambitious ship recycling policy and has so far lived up to it for those ships registered under its name. However, Maersk sold off three ships to Greek owner Diana Shipping and chartered the vessels back: all three were beached in 2013. The sale of old ships to a new owner while continuing to be the operator is a common way of avoiding responsibility at end-of-life, and it weakens Maersk’s efforts to be a global leader in green ship recycling. Best practice examples are Norwegian ship owners Grieg and Höegh Autoliners, who have proven to be serious about their environmental policies and have not beached vessels in 2013. Canada Steamship Lines (CSL) and Royal Dutch Boskalis went one step further and had their ships recycled within OECD countries only. Dutch company Van Oord, active in the dredging and offshore industry, has recently stated they will no longer beach any of their ships.

Source: NGO Shipbreaking Platform
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South Korea Continues Oil Spill Cleanup - Maritime Executive

Posted - February 4, 2014 - Maritime Executive

Teams of workers, aided by ships and aircraft, will complete on Monday the sea cleanup of 164,000 liters of oil that leaked off South Korea's southern coast, the coast guard said, after a pipeline run by GS Caltex Corp cracked at the weekend.

A cleanup of shore areas will take up to two weeks.

The crack and subsequent leak occurred on Friday at a quay off Yeosu, more than 300 km (185 miles) south of Seoul, while the 318,445 deadweight ton Very Large Crude Carrier Wu Yi San was preparing to berth and offload crude.

Oil remaining in the pipeline leaked, but none spilled from the tanker, which did not hit refinery production at GS Caltex, according to the refiner and the Korea Coast guard.

"A clean up would be completed within today, while a clean up of the seashore would take one or two weeks," a senior official at the Yeosu Coast Guard of Korea told a press briefing broadcast live on television.

The prime minister's office, in a statement issued on Sunday, said an oil boom to control the spillage would be expanded to a diameter of 9.5 km from 5 km, and 201 vessels and five planes would work on the clean up.

The coast guard official said the tanker was suspected of approaching the quay at a higher than recommended speed, but the exact cause of the accident was under investigation.

He added that crude oil, naphtha and other oil compounds leaked from three cracked pipelines at the quay.

The tanker is operated and managed by Singapore's Ocean Tankers, which said the vessel was under the control of two port pilots and assisted by five harbor tugs when it struck the shore jetty and pipeline.

Surveyors from ship safety classification society ABS and the ship's insurer, the North of England P&I Association, are helping the investigation and assessing damage to the ship, said Ng Kwang Chiau, senior vice president at Ocean Tankers' fleet management division.

He said the ship's voyage data recorder, or "black box", would be analyzed as part of the investigation.

NO SPILL FROM SHIP

There were no injuries to the crew, Ng said. The front of the ship sustained minor damage, but the vessel was safely anchored.

The ship was chartered to Shell, Ng said and talks would take place with the oil major about unloading options, he told Reuters.

A spokesman at GS Caltex said: "The tanker needs to go through safety tests before unloading the crude and unloading might be done through a jetty nearby or ship-to-ship, which the shipper is in charge of."

He declined to comment on the type of the crude in the tanker.

South Korea's second-largest refiner, with a 775,000-barrels-per-day (bpd) capacity, GS Caltex is equally owned by Chevron Corp, the second-largest U.S. oil company, and South Korea's GS Energy, owned by GS Holdings .

In 2007, South Korea's worst oil spill occurred off the coast of Taean, when 10,500 metric tonnes spilled from a Hong Kong-registered tanker whose hull was punctured in a collision.

In November 2013, a small amount of oil leaked into the sea east of South Korea from a cracked pipeline run by the country's top refiner, SK Energy, owned by SK Innovation.

By Meeyoung Cho and Keith Wallis (C) Reuters 2014.

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Two Collisions, Two Spills in Singapore - gCaptain

Posted - By Mike Schuler On January 30, 2014 - gCaptain

The Maritime and Port Authority of Singapore is coordinating the containment and clean-up of two oil spills following two separate collisions south of Jurong Island and off Marina South on January 29 and 30, respectively.
MPA reports that the first collision occurred on Wednesday between the departing Hong Kong-flagged chemical tanker, “Lime Galaxy”, and the arriving Chinese-flagged containership, “Feihe”, about 1.6 miles south of Jurong Island. Feihe reported that one of her bunker tanks sustained damage, resulting in some spillage. An update from the MPA said that total of 10 craft from MPA and oil spill response companies responded following the incident. The MPA said that the Port Operations Control Centre attempted to alert the two vessels of their converging courses prior to the collision.
The second collision occurred Thursday when the Panama-flagged containership, “NYK Themis”, collided with a barge being towed by the tug “AZ Carnation” about 2.5 south of Marina South. NYK Themis reported that one of her bunker tanks sustained damage, resulting in some spillage of bunker fuel. The MPA said that prior to the incident, the Port Operations Control Centre informed NYK Themis of the presence of AZ Fuzhou in the fairway.
A combined total of 20 craft from MPA and oil spill response companies have been deployed for the two clean-up efforts.
The four vessels are currently safely anchored and in stable condition and there is no report of injury.

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White House Releases Plan to Make Arctic Shipping Safer - gCaptain

Posted - January 30, 2014 - By Timothy Gardner and Andrea Shalal-Esa - Ruters - gCaptain

As Arctic ice melts away, opening the way for greater oil development and mining, the White House outlined a plan on Thursday to promote safety and security in the region by building ports, improving forecasts of sea ice, and developing shipping rules.
With warmer temperatures leaving Arctic sea passages open for longer periods of the year, billions of barrels of oil could be tapped beyond what is already being produced in the region. A loss of seasonal ice could also allow greater exploitation of precious minerals considered abundant in the Arctic.
Extreme weather conditions, however, make the region a challenge to navigate and develop.
The White House plan was released on the same day that Royal Dutch Shell canceled drilling this year off Alaska, after a series of costly mishaps in the harsh conditions, as part of efforts to cut spending.
The U.S. Defense Department will lead an interagency effort to forecast icy conditions by launching a satellite and improving analytic methods to forecast icy conditions.
The Department of Commerce, meanwhile, will lead coordination on surveying and charting of U.S. Arctic waters to ease shipping and improve adaptation to climate change in coastal communities.
“Our highest priority is to protect the American people, our sovereign territory and rights and the natural resources and other interests of the United States,” said the plan, which is part of President Barack Obama’s National Strategy for the Arctic Region he announced last May. The plan can be seen at:
In addition, the State Department will attempt to reach an agreement with Canada on the Beaufort Sea maritime boundary, and the Department of Homeland Security will lead work on developing an international code for ships operating in polar waters.
The U.S. military had been working on strategy in the Arctic before the plan was announced on Thursday.
The U.S. Navy is nearing completion of a new Arctic “road map” that lays out its approach to future engagements in the region, given increasingly open waterways. The updated document is based on the Navy’s first comprehensive assessment of the near-term, mid-term and long-term availability of sea passages, due to the loss of seasonal ice.
In a recent blog written for the Navy’s website, Navy Oceanographer Rear Admiral Jon White said an inter-agency team made the assessment after a comprehensive review of current Arctic sea-ice projections.
He said current trends were expected to continue in the near-term, with the Bering Strait expected to see open conditions about 160 days a year by 2020. The mid-term period would see increasing levels of ice melt, White said.
In the long-term, beyond 2030, environmental conditions are expected to leave waterways open for longer periods, driving a significant increase in traffic in the summer months.
Earlier this month, Chief of Naval Operations Admiral Jonathan Greenert told a conference that Arctic ice was melting faster than predicted four years ago when the Navy published its first road map.
“We need to understand, we need to take a look at it and decide what does it mean to us for security, maritime security, freedom of navigation, and global force management,” Greenert told a conference hosted by the Surface Navy Association.

© 2014 Thomson Reuters. All rights reserved.
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Ballast Water experts wrestle with sampling clauses - Hellenic Shipping News Worldwide

Posted - January 30, 2014 - Hellenic Shipping News Worldwide

With US regulations already in force and the Ballast Water Management Convention 2004 likely to enter into force in the near future, owners and charterers need to give some thought to how sampling should be dealt with in their charter parties in order to avoid later disputes. To assist the industry BIMCO has formed a sub-committee with representatives from A.P. Moller Maersk, Wilhelmsen Maritime Services and Thomas Miller, the Managers of the UK P&I Club.

A first meeting took place on Tuesday 28 January at BIMCO house to discuss the legal and contractual implications of sampling to demonstrate compliance with ballast water performance standards. According to BIMCO’s Legal and Contractual Affairs Officer, Mrs Anna Wollin Ellevsen, “the focus of the project is to develop voyage and time charter party clauses that allocate responsibility for costs and delays resulting from sampling procedures”. Two first drafts have been produced by the Sub-committee and these will be refined over the coming months. It is hoped that this project will be finalised during the first half of 2014.

Source: BIMCO
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