Loophole Discovered in Ballast Water Convention

By Jad Mouawad

While making fleet plans for ship owners for retrofitting of ballast water management system, we came by this interesting dilemma regarding the implementation dates of the D-2 standard, following Assembly Resolution A.1088 (28) dated January 28, 2014.

In the case where the Ballast Water Management Convention enters into force on November 24, 2016, paragraph 2.2 of the Assembly Resolution states the following:

a ship subject to regulations B-3.1.1, B-3.1.2 or B-3.4 will not be required to comply with regulation D-2 until its first renewal survey following the anniversary date of delivery of the ship in the year of compliance with the standard applicable to the ship

Paragraph 2.6 of the Assembly Resolution clarifies that the renewal survey refers to the IOPP Renewal.

The interesting part to look at here is B-3.1.2 and B-3.4. Regulations B-3.1.2 and B-3.4 require ships with ballast capacity larger than 5000 cu.m./hr. or smaller than 1500 cu.m./hr. to either comply with the D-2 standard (practically install a Ballast Water Treatment System) immediately at the entry into force date (B-3.4) or at their first renewal survey following the anniversary date of delivery of the ships in 2016.

So if we take the example of a ship built in 2010 with a ballast water capacity larger than 5000 cu.m./hr., and has an anniversary date on 3rd March, the resolution above means that the ship must install a treatment system at the first IOPP Renewal Survey after March 3, 2016, even if this renewal is scheduled, say, in April 2016, prior to Entry into Force of the Ballast Water Management Convention!

Of course, the ship won´t face issues if it did not install a treatment system by then, but will do so on November 24, 2016 when the Ballast Water Management Convention actually (or rather potentially) might enter into force.

The Assembly Resolution seems to have missed that this in fact means that it is enforcing an IMO Convention on ships prior to the Convention´s entry into force date.

While I doubt that this was the intent of the regulators when they made the Assembly Resolution A.1088 (28), urgent action is required by the IMO to clarify this issue, prior or concurrent with announcements on potential entry into force dates of the Ballast Water Management Convention on November 24, 2016.