A set of SOLAS amendments designed to prevent the supply of fuels in breach of the 60°C SOLAS limit have been approved by the 105th session of Maritime Safety Committee (MSC 105), and are expected to be formally adopted in November this year at MSC 106, says an article published in their article.
Working on amendments
IBIA has worked hard to ensure the amendments are pragmatic and workable, after a majority of Member States and other NGOs with consultative status at the IMO decided to add a range of new requirements under SOLAS.
Work on these amendments have been going on for years under an agenda item called “Development of Further Measures to Enhance the Safety of Ships Relating to the Use of Fuel Oil”. IBIA has taken active part in this work, including in the Correspondence Group on Oil Fuel Safety working between MSC meetings.
The SOLAS amendments will make it mandatory for all cases where “oil fuel suppliers have failed to meet the requirements specified in SOLAS regulation II-2/4.2.1” and for the appropriate authorities to “take action as appropriate against oil fuel suppliers” that have been found to deliver non-compliant fuel.
Confirmed cases
While these SOLAS amendments are straightforward, discussions have centred on the difficulties associated with defining “confirmed cases” and new requirements on suppliers for documentation and assurances regarding flashpoint.
During MSC 105, a working group was tasked with finalising the relevant SOLAS amendments, taking into account the report of the Correspondence Group and two other submissions; one from IBIA (MSC 105/5/1) and one from China (MSC 105/5/2) as well as the outcome of MEPC 77.
Mandatory requirement
Many interested parties have been calling for a mandatory requirement for suppliers to document the actual flashpoint on the bunker delivery note (BDN) regardless of temperature.
IBIA has said throughout that a supplier declaration of compliance would be sufficient as part of the SOLAS amendments. Recognising that a majority was seeking a requirement for a specific flashpoint value to be recorded on the BDN, IBIA strongly recommend requiring only values below 70°C to be specifically documented.
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Source: IBIA
