IMO to look at stability verification

The International Maritime Organisation’s (IMO) Sub-Committee on Stability and Load Lines and on Fishing Vessels’ Safety (SLF) last month determined that there should be a mandatory requirement for tankers to be equipped with onboard stability instruments. It also agreed that these should cover verification of damage stability requirements and that there should be associated performance standards. These decisions have now been forwarded to the Maritime Safety Committee (MSC) for adoption.

The subject has been under discussion at SLF for about six years, despite there being little support from the tanker industry for action. SLF notes that there are issues and problems with vessels’ ability to demonstrate compliance with existing mandatory instruments and that a concentrated inspection campaign on tanker damage stability in 2010 identified a lack of verification with those instruments. Only by making the carriage of stability instruments mandatory can the guidelines for verification of damage stability requirements be met, SLF believes.

Moreover, the proposal meets output 2.0.1.3 of IMO’s High-Level Action Plan, as laid down in resolution A.1038(27). 

There are a number of commonly accepted standards currently in use, including a specific standard from the International Association of Classification Societies (IACS) and an ISO standard, but these are not controlled by any IMO instrument. SLF is also eager to achieve some uniformity in the requirements on an international basis and to be able to obtain greater assurance that those standards are delivering the desired outcome. It is, therefore, appealing to MSC to assign the proposal a high priority with the aim of completing the work next year.

SLF’s proposals would apply to all tankers subject to Annex I of the International Convention for the prevention of pollution by ships (Marpol) – i.e. oil tankers – as well as chemical tankers subject to the International Bulk Chemical (IBC) Code and gas tankers subject to the International Gas Carrier (IGC) Code.

SLF says that there would be benefits for tanker operators, by improving the flexibility in vessels’ trading and by easing the burden on the master in verifying stability compliance during vessel operations. The additional cost of providing mandatory stability instruments will, it says, outweigh the benefits brought about by easing limitations on loading.