The Merchant Shipping (Prevention of Oil Pollution) (Amendment) Regulations 1993

Regulation 14

4.  For regulation 14 there shall be substituted the following regulation—

“Oil filtering equipment and oil discharge monitoring and control system

14.— (1) Subject to paragraphs (3) and (7) of this regulation, every ship to which these Regulations apply and which is of 400 GRT and above but less than 10,000 GRT shall be fitted with oil filtering equipment complying with paragraph (5) of this regulation; and any such ship which carries ballast water in its bunker fuel tanks shall, in addition, either—

(a) comply with the following requirements, that is to say—

(i) that it be provided also with arrangements complying with paragraph (6) of this regulation for an alarm and for automatically stopping any discharge of oily mixture when the oil content in the effluent exceeds 15 ppm; and

(ii) that, in accordance with paragraph (2) of regulation 24 (and notwithstanding that the ship may not be a ship referred to in paragraph (1) of that regulation)—

(A) it does not discharge such ballast water into the sea unless using that equipment and those arrangements; and

(B) an entry of such discharge is made in the Oil Record Book; or

(b) in accordance with the said paragraph (2) of regulation 24 (and notwithstanding as stated in sub—paragraph (a)(ii) above), discharge the ballast water to reception facilities.

(2) Subject to paragraphs (3) and (7) of this regulation, every ship to which these Regulations apply and which is of 10,000 GRT and above shall be provided with—

(a) oil filtering equipment complying with paragraph (5) of this regulation; and

(b) oil content measuring equipment fitted with an alarm device for 15 ppm and with arrangements for automatically stopping any discharge of oily mixture when the oil content in the effluent exceeds 15 ppm, all complying with paragraph (6) of this regulation.

(3) A ship engaged exclusively on voyages within special areas need not comply with the requirements of paragraph (1) or (2) of this regulation if the Secretary of State has waived those requirements for that ship, provided that all the following conditions are complied with—

(a) that the ship is fitted with a holding tank having a volume adequate, to the satisfaction of the Secretary of State, for the total retention on board of oily bilge water;

(b) that all oily bilge water is retained on board for subsequent discharge to reception facilities;

(c) that the Secretary of State has determined that adequate reception facilities are available to receive such oily bilge water in a sufficient number of ports or terminals that the ship calls at;

(d) that the IOPP Certificate, when required, is endorsed to the effect that the ship is exclusively engaged on voyages within special areas;

(e) that the quantity, time, and port of the discharge of oily bilge water are recorded in the Oil Record Book.

(4) Subject to paragraph (7) of this regulation, every ship to which these Regulations apply and which is of less than 400 GRT shall, so far as reasonably practicable and (if the ship is a United Kingdom ship) to the satisfaction of the Secretary of State, be equipped with installations to ensure that oil or oily mixtures are either retained on board and discharged to reception facilities or, if discharged into the sea, are so discharged in accordance with the conditions stated in regulation 12(2).

(5) In order to comply with this paragraph, the oil filtering equipment shall be of an approved design which is in accordance with the specification for such equipment set out in Schedule 3 hereto.

(6) In order to comply with this paragraph, the oil content measuring equipment and alarm device shall be of an approved design which is in accordance with the specification for such equipment set out in Schedule 3 hereto, and the arrangements for automatically stopping any discharge shall be of an approved design.

(7) A ship delivered before 6th July 1993 need not comply with the foregoing requirements of this regulation before 6th July 1998; but, if the ship does not so comply before that date, it shall be fitted with oily—water separating equipment which is such as to ensure that any oily mixture discharged into the sea after passing through the equipment has an oil content not exceeding 100 ppm.”.