
Wole Olufunwa Director (Partner)
IMO 2020: Impending Carriage Ban - “Legitimate” de-bunker/disposal practices
The International Maritime Organisation’s (“IMO”) “carriage ban” rule makes it an offence, as of 1 March 2020, for ships to carry fuel oils that contain sulphur content higher than 0.5%, unless the vessel has a scrubber or the fuel is carried as cargo.
We have been advised by bunker traders in Singapore of some risky, and perhaps unethical practices that have arisen since the beginning of 2020:
GUIDANCE FOR PORT STATE CONTROL ON CONTINGENCY MEASURES FOR
ADDRESSING NON-COMPLIANT FUEL OIL
In the case of non-compliant fuel oil, communication between the ship and the port State should occur. The ship and the port State should consider the following as possible contingency measures:
actions predetermined in the Ship implementation plan, if available, for consistent implementation of the 0.50% sulphur limit under MARPOL Annex VI (MEPC.1/Circ.878);
discharging non-compliant fuel oil to another ship to be carried as cargo or to an appropriate shipboard or land-based facility, if practicable and available;
managing the non-compliant fuel oil in accordance with a method acceptable to the port State; and
operational actions, such as modifying sailing or bunkering schedules and/or retention of non-compliant fuel oil on board the ship. The port State and the ship should consider any safety issues and avoid possible undue delays.
Having considered all of the options in paragraph 1 above, the non-compliant fuel oil may be discharged to the port or retained on board, as acceptable to the port State. Port State consideration may include environmental, safety, operational and logistical implications of allowing or disallowing the carriage of non-compliant fuel oil. The carriage of non-compliant fuel oil is subject to any conditions of the port State.
...
[1] The ban does not apply to non-compliant fuel carried on board as cargo Paragraph I of Annex VI of MARPOL provides “The Sulphur content of fuel oil used or carried for use on board a ship shall not exceed 0.50% m/m.”
[2] This query is underscored by the IMO Guidance for Port State Control on Contingency Measurers for Addressing Non-Compliant Fuel Oil (MEPC.1/Circ.881) recommends as a contingency measure discharging non-compliant fuel oil to another ship to be carried as cargo.
[3] According to various maritime media sources, it is interesting to note that:
4,000 plus scrubbers were expected to be installed by the end of January 2020, which is approximately 11% of the global fleet by tonnage and
4.5% by vessel count. This unintentionally may provide a significant commercial advantage to scrubber fitted vessels as we aware of some diligent credit control departments of certain physical suppliers insisting on checking whether the receiving vessel is scrubber fitted – whereby if it is found not to be, the supplier will not agree to supply it with non-compliant fuel.
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