Issues arising from non-compliance

Under MARPOL Regulation 18, if a ship is found not to be in compliance with the standards for compliant fuel oils, the ship may be required to:

1 present a record of the actions taken to attempt to achieve compliance; and
"2 provide evidence that it attempted to purchase compliant fuel oil in accordance with its voyage plan and, if it was not made available where planned, that attempts were made to locate alternative sources for such fuel oil and that despite best efforts to obtain compliant fuel oil, no such fuel oil was made available for purchase.”

Note that Regulation 18.2 also provides that: “The ship should not be required to deviate from its intended voyage or to delay unduly the voyage in order to achieve compliance.”

Documentation here is key! The crew should ensure that they document all steps taken to source compliant fuel, such as the vessel’s voyage plan/s, daily noon reports regarding the quantity of bunkers on board and the vessel’s daily consumption, emails to bunker suppliers requesting additional compliant fuel, bunker suppliers’ responses and voyage reports sent by the crew to owners’ head office.  It is also suggested that owners consult the GISIS database referred to above in order to investigate the availability of compliant fuel at the intended bunkering port/s.

Owners should also notify Flag state and the port authority where compliant fuel is not available. This non-availability should then appear on the GISIS database referred to above.

Also see the points made in Q1(iv) above.

 

It remains to be seen how strictly port state control authorities around the world will interpret and apply the 2020 MARPOL Annex VI Regulation. However, some ports are reported to use drones and other devices to detect vessels which may be burning non compliant fuel. See an example Pollution Police: How are ship emissions monitored?

Deliberate non compliance is not an option!