Amendments To The Annex Of The Protocol Of 1978 Relating To The International Convention For The Prevention Of Pollution From Ships, 1973
Source: http://www.austlii.edu.au/au/other/dfat/seldoc/1997/4518.html, downloaded on 20070420
THE MARINE ENVIRONMENT PROTECTION COMMITTEE,
RECALLING Article 38(a) of the Convention on the International Maritime Organization concerning the function of the Committee conferred upon it by international conventions for the prevention and control of marine pollution,
NOTING Article 16 of the International Convention for the Prevention of Pollution from Ships, 1973 (hereinafter referred to as the "1973 Convention") and Article VI of the Protocol of 1978 relating to the 1973 Convention (hereinafter referred to as the "1978 Protocol") which together specify the amendment procedure of the 1978 Protocol and confers upon the appropriate body of the Organization the function of considering and adopting amendments to the 1973 Convention, as modified by the 1978 Protocol (MARPOL 73/78),
CONSIDERING the proposal of the littoral States to make North West European waters a special area under Annex I of MARPOL 73/78,
RECOGNIZING that there is a need to specify intact stability criteria for double hull tankers by adding an appropriate regulation to Annex I of MARPOL 73/78,
HAVING CONSIDERED the proposed amendments to regulation 10 and new regulation 25A of Annex I of MARPOL 73/78, which were approved by the thirty-ninth session of the Committee and circulated in accordance with Article 16(2)(a) of the 1973 Convention,
1. ADOPTS, in accordance with Article 16(2)(d) of the 1973 Convention, amendments to Annex I of MARPOL 78/78, the text of which is set out in the Annex to the present resolution;
2. DETERMINES , in accordance with Article 16(2)(f)(iii) of the 1973 Convention, that the amendments shall be deemed to have been accepted on 1 August 1998, unless prior to that date, not less than one-third of the Parties or the Parties, the combined merchant fleets of which constitute not less than fifty percent of the gross tonnage of the world's merchant fleet, have communicated to the Organization their objections to the amendments;
3. INVITES the Parties to note that, in accordance with Article 16(2)(g)(ii) of the 1973 Convention, the amendments shall enter into force on 1 February 1999 upon their acceptance in accordance with paragraph 2 above;
4. REQUESTS the Secretary-General, in conformity with Article 16(2)(e) of the 1973 Convention, to transmit to all Parties to MARPOL 73/78 certified copies of the present resolution and the text of the amendments contained in the Annex;
5. REQUESTS further the Secretary-General to transmit to the Members of the Organization which are not Parties to MARPOL 78/78 copies of the resolution and its Annex.
ANNEX
AMENDMENTS TO REGULATION 10 AND NEW REGULATION 25A OF
ANNEX I OF MARPOL 73/78
1 The existing text of Regulation 10 is amended as follows:
Regulation 10
Methods for the prevention of oil pollution from ships while operating in special areas
.1 The introductory part of paragraph (1) is replaced by the following:
"(1) For the purpose of this Annex, the special areas are the Mediterranean Sea area, the Baltic Sea area, the Black Sea area, the Red Sea area, the "Gulfs area", the Gulf of Aden area, the Antarctic area and the North West European waters, which are defined as follows:".
.2 The following new paragraph (1)(h) is added after existing paragraph (1)(g):
"(h) The North West European waters include the North Sea and its approaches, the Irish Sea and its approaches, the Celtic Sea, the English Channel and its approaches and part of the North East Atlantic immediately to the west of Ireland. The area is bounded by lines joining the following points:
(i) 48deg.27'N on the French Coast
(ii) 48deg.27'N; 6deg.25'W
(iii) 49deg.52'N; 7deg.44'W
(iv) 50deg.30'N; 12deg.W
(v) 56deg.30'N; 12deg.W
(vi) 62deg.N; 3deg.W
(vii) 62deg.N on the Norwegian coast
(viii) 57deg.44.8'N on the Danish and Swedish coasts"
.3 The introductory part of paragraph (7)(b) is replaced by the following:
"(b) Red Sea area, Gulfs area, Gulf of Aden area and North West European waters:".
2 The following new Regulation 25A is added after existing Regulation 25:
"Regulation 25A
Intact stability
(1) This regulation shall apply to oil tankers of 5,000 tons deadweight and above:
(a) for which the building contract is placed on or after 1 February 1999, or
(b) in the absence of a building contract, the keels of which are laid or which are at a similar stage of construction on or after 1 August 1999, or
(c) the delivery of which is on or after 1 February 2002, or
(d) which have undergone a major conversion:
(i) for which the contract is placed after 1 February 1999; or
(ii) in the absence of a contract, the construction work of which is begun after 1 August 1999; or
(iii) which is completed after 1 February 2002.
(2) Every oil tanker shall comply with the intact stability criteria specified in subparagraphs (a) and (b) of this paragraph, as appropriate, for any operating draught under the worst possible conditions of cargo and ballast loading, consistent with good operational practice, including intermediate stages of liquid transfer operations. Under all conditions the ballast tanks shall be assumed slack.
(a) In port, the initial metacentric height GMo, corrected for free surface measured at 0deg. heel, shall be not less than 0.15 m;
(b) At sea, the following criteria shall be applicable:
(i) the sea under the righting lever curve (GZ curve) shall be not less than 0.055 m. rad up to = 30deg. angle of heel and not less than 0.09 m. rad up to = 40deg. or other angle of flooding f if this angle is less than 40deg.. Additionally, the area under the righting lever curve (GZ curve) between the angles of heel of 30deg. and 40deg. or between 30deg. and f , if this angle is less than 40deg., shall be not less than 0.03 m. rad;
(ii) the righting lever GZ shall be at least 0.20 m at an angle of heel equal to or greater than 30deg.;
(iii) the maximum righting arm shall occur at an angle of heel preferably exceeding 30deg. but not less than 25deg.; and
(iv) the initial metacentric height GMo, corrected for free surface measured at 0deg. heel, shall be not less than 0.15 m.
(3) The requirements of paragraph (2) shall be met through design measures. For combination carriers simple supplementary operational procedures may be allowed.
(4) Simple supplementary operational procedures for liquid transfer operations referred to in paragraph (3) shall mean written procedures made available to the master which:
(a) are approved by the Administration;
(b) indicate those cargo and ballast tanks which may, under any specific condition of liquid transfer and possible range of cargo densities, be slack and still allow the stability criteria to be met. The slack tanks may vary during the liquid transfer operations and be of any combination provided they satisfy the criteria;
(c) will be readily understandable to the officer-in-charge of liquid transfer operations;
(d) provide for planned sequences of cargo/ballast transfer operations;
(e) allow comparisons of attained and required stability using stability performance criteria in graphical or tabular form;
(f) require no extensive mathematical calculations by the officer-in-charge;
(g) provide for corrective actions to be taken by the officer-in-charge in case departure from recommended values and in case of emergency situations; and
(h) are prominently displayed in the approved trim and stability booklet and at the cargo/ballast transfer control station and in any computer software by which stability calculations are performed."
