Anchoring at Malaysian Waters

The Swedish P&I Club has issued alert to highlight important issues when anchoring at Malaysian Waters. Based on Club’s experience, it is quite a common occurrence for vessels to erroneously drop anchor in areas where the Masters believe to be international waters when they are, in actual fact, in Malaysian territorial waters

A case in point would come in the form of vessels anchoring outside the port limits (OPL) in the area around Singapore. Vessels usually anchor at OPL Singapore for purposes of bunkering, ship to ship transfer operations, tank cleaning exercises and so on. It must therefore be highlighted that as soon as the vessel leaves Singapore port limits, she is entering either Malaysian territorial waters or Indonesian territorial waters.

Owners should be cautious when dropping anchor at OPL Singapore and at Malaysian territorial waters, given that the Malaysian authorities have specific requirements / regulations in that regard.

According to the Malaysia Shipping Notice 5/201, if a vessel is anchoring in a non-anchorage area in Malaysian waters or intends to carry out any activities in the said Shipping Notice, notification should be given to the Malaysia Director of Marine at the nearest port office using the prescribed form and such notification shall be made during normal working hours via email, facsimile or in person not later than 24 hours before the activity is scheduled to commence.

If notification is not given to the Malaysia Director of Marine in accordance with the Malaysia Shipping Notice 5/2014, the owner or agent of the ship shall be guilty of an offence and shall, on conviction, be liable to a fine not exceeding one hundred thousand ringgit or to imprisonment for a term not exceeding 2 years or to both.

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In addition, the Malaysia Marine Department (together with the Maritime Enforcement Agency of Malaysia) has the power to detain any vessel that fails to give notification under the Malaysia Shipping Notice 5/2014.
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Out of prudence, and as a matter of good practice, once a vessel is within Malaysian territorial waters and if the Master is not sure whether the location which he intends to drop anchor is a designated anchorage area, he should, as a matter of priority, liaise with the local shipping agent to contact the Malaysia Marine Department to ascertain this point.

Source: The Swedish P&I Club