UK P&I Club informed that vessels that are transiting through Western Alaska waters en-route to or from a US port need to follow Alternative Planning Criteria (APC) in order to comply with US federal requirements.
Approved APCs for Western Alaska were:
- Network;
- 1-Call;
- Alaska Response Corp (ARC).
All three APC schemes expired on June 30, 2018.
The US Coast Guard has now extended both the Network’s and the 1-Call’s non-tank vessels’ APCs until 2021. The Network’s tanker APC approval was only extended through 31 December 2018.
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Operators should be aware that the US Coast Guard has not approved the renewal of Alaska Response Corp (ARC) APC, which expired on June 30, 2018.
Thus operators naming ARC in their NTVRP will have a gap in coverage and will not be in compliance if transiting Western Alaska. The Club called operators to submit amendments to their VRPs with proposed APCs accepted for the Western Alaska Captain of the Port Zone as soon as possible.
Meanwhile, the Western Alaska Captain of the Port will issue one-time waivers to avoid delays in transits and arrivals, but the waivers may only be used once.
