Effective from 1st March 2020, China’s Maritime Safety Agency (MSA) has published new measures on Agreement for Ship Pollution Response Regime and a Directory of Hazardous Bulk Liquid Cargo Apt to Cause Pollution, for which oil booms need to be deployed during cargo operations or an Agreement with a SPRO needs to be concluded.
Meanwhile, IG Clubs has checked this effective date with the China MSA, confirming that this date will remain as 1st March 2020 and will not be postponed due to the COVID-19 outbreak.
This forms an update to a 2015 requirement that owners/operators of
- any ship carrying polluting and hazardous cargoes in bulk or
- any other ship above 10,000 GT
enter into a pollution clean-up contract with a Ship Pollution Response Organisation (SPRO) before the ship enters a PRC port or engages in loading, discharge or ship-to-ship transfers outside of the port but within 20 nm offshore.
As a result of the update, there is no material change to the SPRO requirements, according to data provided by the Shipowners’ Club.
However, from 1st March 2020, no SPRO Agreements will be needed for any of the following:
- Any ship under 10,000 GT either in ballast or carrying a liquid cargo in bulk not listed in the Directory; or
- Any ship of any size that is driven by clean fuels and either
(i) carrying a liquid cargo not in bulk (even if that liquid is listed in the Directory) or;
(ii) carrying a liquid in bulk that is not listed in the Directory or;
(iii) carrying a non-liquid (i.e. solid) cargo.
Oil booming is only required, inter alia, for ships loading, discharging, transferring over 300mt of cargoes listed in the Directory.
Under the the new Measures, the MSA no longer publishes its own recommended SPRO Agreement wording and the parties are free to negotiate all terms.
In addition, a new Committee has been established under the auspices of the China Diving and Salvage Association (CDSA) which is due to take responsibility for training and assessing the capabilities of SPROs, establishing a central database for information as to SPRO capabilities and negotiating contract terms.
However, this Committee is in its infancy such that for the time-being the position remains unchanged from that advised in the previous circular dated June 2015, and Owners are advised to check with local agents, MSAs and the Club for the purposes of identifying SPROs in individual Chinese ports,
…the Club advised.
Owners should also note the following:
- Where the port which the ship is entering, leaving or operating from does not have a SPRO with the required level of response capability, the Owner is not required to enter into an Agreement with a SPRO;
- Owners are required to report to the MSA any SPRO that does not fulfil its emergency standby obligations, and
- Owners are required to continue to report to the local MSA any cases of ship sourced pollution in Chinese waters.
