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Major decisions made at MEPC 70 session in London

SEVERAL major decisions were taken by the International Maritime Organisation (IMO), not least about the fuel sulphur cap and ballast water convention, at its 70th session of the Marine Environment Protection Committee (MEPC 70) held last week in London.

Amendments to Chapter 4 of MARPOL Annex VI were adopted, which establish a new requirement for all ships of 5,000 gross tonnage and over on international voyages to collect data related to fuel consumption, London's Tanker Operator reported.

Starting January 1, 2019, the information to be collected during the calendar year are fuel consumption data for each type of fuel used on board; the distance travelled while the ship is underway and the hours while the ship is underway.

After the end of each calendar year, the data is required to be aggregated into annual values and reported by the shipowner to the ship's flag administration or Recognised Organisation for subsequent transmission to a central database managed by the IMO.

Amendments were adopted that remove obsolete sections from the supplement to the International Oil Pollution Prevention Certificate (IOPPC). Items referring to dedicated clean ballast tanks, which were applied to oil tankers delivered before 1982, were deleted and other sections renumbered. The amendments will come into force on March 1, 2018, and apply to oil tankers.

It was agreed to establish both the North Sea area (including the English Channel) and the Baltic Sea as new ECAs for nitrogen oxides, and approved draft amendments to regulation 13 of MARPOL Annex VI, with a view towards adoption at MEPC 71.

Under the provisions of MARPOL Annex VI, Regulation 14, the availability of fuel oil to meet the global 0.5 per cent sulphur limit in 2020 or 2025 is to be determined by the Committee by 2018. A Steering Committee reviewed the study carried out for the IMO by CE Delft and funded by Australia, the UK and the US.

The Committee also agreed to a new work programme to amend regulation 14 of MARPOL Annex VI so as to require all ships to be provided with designated sulphur sampling point(s) in order to ensure that a representative sample of fuel oil in-use can be drawn from ships' fuel oil systems in a safe manner.

A significant discussion point focused on whether or not a roadmap with a timetable to define the international maritime transport sector's fair share on GHG reductions should start to be developed in parallel with the IMO's three-phase approach on further technical and operational measures for enhancing the energy efficiency of international shipping.

The Committee approved a draft roadmap for developing a comprehensive IMO strategy on reduction of GHG emissions from ships, which is expected to be adopted at MEPC 72 in 2018. It is understood the initial IMO strategy may be further developed subject to review based on fuel oil consumption data collected during the period 2019-2021.

It was also agreed that a 4th IMO GHG Study should be carried out to cover the period from 2012 to 2018, thereby bridging the gap between the 3rd IMO GHG Study and the results of the analysis of the initial period of the fuel oil data collection system scheduled to be completed in 2020.