1 Reference is made to MEPC/Circ.429, of 9 February 2005, on communication of information to the
Organization in compliance with the requirements of regulations 13G
and 13H of MARPOL Annex I (now regulations
20 and 21) concerning
continued operation allowances or exemptions that may be granted by
Administrations to oil tankers flying their flags; and on denial of
entry into ports of other States to those oil tankers that have been
granted those allowances or exemptions.
2 In accordance with the provisions of the mentioned
regulations, the Secretariat has issued to date a total of 73 circulars
disseminating information on the policies adopted by MARPOL Member
States, as communicated to the Organization, which can be found, in
numerical order, on the IMO website: www.imo.org, tab “MARINE
ENVIRONMENT”, Right hand menu “Oil tankers
– regulations 20/21 implementation”.
3 With a view to facilitating consultation of
the information contained in the circulars, the Secretariat has prepared
the table set out in annex 1 with a summary of the communications
received from Member States concerning application of the said regulations.
An X entered in a particular box indicates that the Member State concerned
has taken action as authorized under the relevant regulation, either
by allowing continued operation, or granting exemptions, to oil tankers
flying its flag, or by making use of the entitlement to deny entry
into its ports or terminal to foreign oil tankers operating under
such allowances or exemptions. Whilst a dash – indicates that
the Member State concerned has not reported any action taken, or has
communicated that it does not intend to apply the provisions under
the relevant regulation.
4 The information summarized in annex 1 has been
prepared with utmost care by the Secretariat. However, in some cases,
the policies implemented by Governments may be complex, establish
exceptions which are difficult to summarize, or apply on a case-by-case
basis. It is therefore strongly advised to refer to the texts of specific
notifications, as set out in the circulars themselves. To facilitate
this task, annex 2 provides an alphabetical list of those MARPOL Parties
which have communicated information to IMO and the reference number,
or numbers, of those MEPC circulars issued as a result. It should
be noted, though, that there may be MARPOL Parties which have not
notified IMO of their implementation policies and, therefore, the
information provided in the annexes cannot be considered as exhaustive.
5 Member States which may wish to update the information
provided in the past are invited to do so at their earliest convenience;
and those which may spot any omission or incorrect information as
shown in previous circulars, or as summarized in the annexes, are
requested to inform the Secretariat for corrective action as appropriate.