Applicability: shipowners, ship operators, ship managers, ship masters and manufacturers.
The Liberian Administration has released an advisory is to inform interested parties how to comply with the recent focused trend of inspection of machinery spaces by various Port State Control (PSC) regimes.
The implementation timeline for shipping
The EU’s legislative bodies have adopted a revision of the EU ETS directive to include shipping from 2024.
This entails a three-year phase-in period, increasing in scope from 40% of emissions in 2024 to 70% in 2025 and 100% in 2026. It applies to cargo and passenger ships above 5000 GT from 2024 and offshore ships above 5000 GT from 2027. The EU ETS will initially cover carbon dioxide emissions and be widened to include methane and nitrous oxide from 2026. Offshore ship and general cargo ships between 400 and 5000 GT will also be required to report emissions and may be included in the EU ETS at a later stage.
Overview
During December 2020, IMO issued the MSC.1/Circ.1619, including new revised guidelines on the design of mooring arrangements and the selection of appropriate mooring equipment and fittings for safe mooring, Further to this circular, the MSC.1 Circ. 1620 Guidelines for inspection and maintenance of mooring equipment including lines, and MSc.1 Circ. 1175/Rev.1, have been issued/renewed in order to support the new requirements. The above changes are applicable to ships built after 1-1-2024. However, tankers have already complied with these requirements since July 2018, when the revised OCIMF MEG-4 guidelines became effective.
It is important to note that for ships built prior 1-1-2024, the previous version of MSC.1 Circ.1175 remains as the applicable standard for construction items (MBL,SWL etc). However, these ships should also conform with inspection /maintenance requirements as per Circ. 1620.