The International Maritime Organisation (IMO) has agreed to consider introducing measures to improve controls of bunkers delivered to ships, a move congratulated by industry body INTERTANKO.
"After six submissions to the IMO over four years, to which INTERTANKO made a contribution, persistence with another submission has resulted in progress to assure the quality of fuel delivered to ships," commented INTERTANKO.
"A correspondence group will develop guidelines for states to ensure fuel quality compliance with MARPOL Annex VI. It will also consider the adequacy of the current legal framework for assuring the quality of fuel."
INTERTANKO Managing Director Katharina Stanzel welcomed the decision, but said it should only represent the beginning.
"Control of compliance should be transparent along the entire supply chain. Our members and all shipowners should be able to have confidence, and documented proof, that fuels they receive are at or above the mandated standards," said Ms Stanzel.
In order to control whether bunkers delivered and used by ships are compliant, most parties to MARPOL Annex VI control fuels used by ships (i.e. sampling fuel in the engine room). INTERTANKO has been arguing that there should be given first clear evidence of the quality of fuel supplied to the ship is compliant.
From January 2015, tighter SOx emissions limits will mean increased control on ships arriving in port. Thus, port authorities such as the EU Member States will have a challenge in demonstrating non-compliance by testing fuels used by ships when ships may hold test results demonstrating that the fuel delivered to them was not compliant, said INTERTANKO Technical Director Dragos Rauta.
In order to protect their ships, INTERTANKO has advised members to issue a Note of Protest to the Flag Administration, bunkering Port Authority and to Port State Control at the next port whenever bunker suppliers do not use IMO Guidelines to take the MARPOL sample and the crew does not witness the sampling take place.
The latest submission, co-sponsored by INTERTANKO, Marshall Islands, Liberia and other industry representatives, found widespread recognition and support for amendments to the current rules to increase the control on fuels delivered to ships, arguing that there is ample evidence that the current regime is falling short.
However, arguments that regulatory changes aimed at improving control with bunker suppliers would be too burdensome for many countries and would fundamentally change the supplier/customer relationship.
This led to a successful United States-backed proposal to develop non-mandatory guidelines to ensure that bunker suppliers provide fuels that comply with the quality requirements in MARPOL Annex VI.
