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Asian Regional Panel Report Apr 2016 Shanghai
21 April 2016
Click here to download the Asian Regional Panel Report Apr 2016 Shanghai
Draft Report
Asian Panel Meeting
held on
Wednesday 6th April 2016
0930-1230hrs
Continuing with a dialogue with the China MSA
1330-1700hrs
at the
Jing An Shangri-La
Shanghai
- INTERTANKO’s Anti-Trust/Competition law Compliance Statement
Prior to the commencement of the meeting, the Secretary advised all participants that the meeting would be held in accordance with INTERTANKO’s Anti-trust Guidelines as follows:
INTERTANKO’s policy is to be firmly committed to maintaining a fair and competitive environment in the world tanker trade, and to adhering to all applicable laws which regulate INTERTANKO’s and its members’ activities in these markets. These laws include the anti-trust/competition laws which the United States, the European Union and many nations of the world have adopted to preserve the free enterprise system, promote competition and protect the public from monopolistic and other restrictive trade practices. INTERTANKO’s activities will be conducted in compliance with its Anti-trust/Competition Law Guidelines.
- Welcome and introductory remarks
INTERTANKO’s Asian Panel Chairman, Mr. Kenneth Koo, welcomed the members of the Asian Panel to Shanghai and thanked the members in China for taking the time to attend and participate in the meeting.
Mr. Koo set out his intention to ensure the Panel meeting agendas going forward will be inspirational and motivational, adding that the focus would be to collaborate with the Asian members to establish an “Asian Voice” within the tanker industry. In strengthening the Asian voice within INTERTANKO itself will facilitate the advice, guidance and recommendations to INTERTANKO’s Council on “Asian perspectives” of various commercial and regulatory issues impacting the tanker industry.
Mr. Koo advised that the Panel was to establish a new format which would facilitate engagement between INTERTANKO and important external bodies in Asia such as the region’s regulators, oil companies and ship yards. This new format would see the Panel meeting in the morning and continuing in the form of a dialogue in the afternoon with external bodies. This first meeting would see the afternoon’s dialogue with senior MSA officials which was a first for INTERTANKO and would be the spring board for building a collaborative, robust and long term dialogue with the China MSA. Mr. Koo encouraged the Panel members to leverage the opportunity to raise issues with the China MSA. Mr. Koo envisages INTERTANKO being a go-to organisation for the China MSA when it sought advice, guidance and comments on future maritime legislation.
Similar dialogues will be established with regulatory authorities such as Coast Guard in Japan and Korea. Together with INTERTANKO’s strong relationship with MPA in Singapore, Mr. Koo advised the Panel of his confidence in building a strong network of collaboration and dialogue in the region.
- Administrative Items
3.1 Minutes
Mr. Wilkins summarised the key points from the draft Minutes of the Panel’s previous meeting held in Tokyo in October 2015 advising the Panel that the full draft was included in the Agenda Notes. The Panel supported the proposal to set aside a separate action plan for the Minutes in order to follow the items between meetings.
The Panel subsequently approved the draft Minutes as included in the Agenda Notes.
3.2 Membership
For the benefit of members that had not previously attended a Panel meeting, Mr. Wilkins advised that the Panel was established to assist the INTERTANKO Council in its work by providing an Asian perspective on INTERTANKO key work items. It was also an opportunity to share views on regional issues impacting members.
Mr. Wilkins continued by explaining that to ensure the Panel maintained momentum on issues and could direct its views to the Council, the Chairman had introduced the concept of an informal Steering Committee for the Panel. This proposal had been approved by the Council when it met in November 2015. The first meeting of the Steering Committee had therefore taken place on the evening prior to the Panel meeting.
The Chairman summarised some of the subjects considered by the informal Steering Committee which included the engagement and strengthening of membership in Asia as well as the representation of Asian members on the Council. Mr. Wilkins added that the Steering Committee had also shared views on a range of pertinent issues including ballast water management, ECDIS and ship design and construction.
The Panel took note of the outcome of the Steering Committee’s meeting.
The Panel also noted Mr. Ersin’s information on a number of regional seminars being held by Bureau Veritas in Asia.
- INTERTANKO Update: Managing Director’s Report
INTERTANKO’s Deputy Managing Director, Mr. Joe Angelo, provided an update on the administration of the Association, membership status and key issues being worked on by the Council. Before commencing his presentation, Mr. Angelo also reminded the Panel members that INTERTANKO had five Panels, each working differently with only the Hellenic Mediterranean Panel (HMP) that had also established the informal Steering Committee. Mr. Angelo added that the Asian Panel Steering Committee was therefore a positive step based on the success of the HMP Steering Committee. Overall however, all the panels were there to serve the Council, providing knowledge and feedback from a regional perspective.
Mr. Angelo’s presentation is available here:
Capt. Choudhury enquired about the USCG’s voluntary fuel sampling requirements and INTERTANKO’s involvement. Mr. Angelo advised that RDML Paul Thomas gave a presentation and explanation of the USCG Voluntary Fuel Oil Sampling Program at the previous INTERTANKO North American Panel meeting. Mr. Angelo advised that there were a number of questions they needed to be addressed by the USCG, mostly focused on enforcement consequences. In responding to questions at the North American Panel, RDML Thomas said that the CG officer would provide the Master with a signed statement that no penalties or fines would be imposed if the fuel was found to not be in compliance, but if the fuel was not in compliance then it could not be used while in the US port.
In a separate meeting between INTERTANKO and the USCG, RDML Thomas acknowledged that further clarification of the program was necessary and it was agreed that FAQs could be used to provide that clarification. Capt. Choudhury and the Panel members noted that RDML Thomas had asked that INTERTANKO send him Questions with proposed Answers which the CG will consider to be included in the FAQs.
In addition, during the meeting with INTERTANKO, RDML Thomas also said he would consider, for the purposes on this program only, whether he could allow no enforcement action to be taken if the sample taken indicated that the sulphur content results were within the acceptable range of the testing protocol.
With regard to 2 above, one question was whether the fuel oil sampling testing protocol is the same testing protocol used throughout the world. It was acknowledged that there was an ISO standard on this issue, but no one could say with any authority as to whether the same testing protocol was used by all the worldwide testing laboratories.
The Chairman commented that there was a need to strengthen Asian members participation in the working Committees of the Association. He also commented on the positive involvement that INTERTANKO had in collaborating and working with other organisations such as Tripartite and that the members of the Panel should take note of this engagement in order to contribute to the discussion through INTERTANKO.
Mr. Wilkins proceeded to build on the introduction to the ballast water management issue raised by Mr. Angelo and delivered a detailed update on the state of affairs at the IMO and in the US. Mr. Wilkins’ presentation slides are provided below:
One member had advised of difficulties in clarifying the reasons provided by the USCG for certain extension dates. Mr. Angelo agreed to assist the member with the enquiry using his contacts at the USCG.
Several members opined that the retrofit of ballast water management systems remains a significant technical challenge. The Chairman, noting that the Environmental Committee was seeking information on these challenges, encouraged members of the Panel to contribute to the collection of date using their own experience of installing systems on both existing tankers and new buildings.
- Regional Issues
The Chairman invited the Panel members to review each of the 5 regional items as they impacted the dialogue with the China MSA scheduled for the afternoon.
The Panel noted that several position papers had been issued since the last Asian Panel meeting in Tokyo. Two of these papers focused on safety of navigation in China and Japan (available here). The former had previously been translated and submitted to the China MSA and would be the subject of discussion in the dialogue with senior MSA officials. The Japan Safety of Navigation paper was currently being translated and it is hoped that a meeting between the Japan Coast Guard and INTERTANKO Asian Panel members could be arranged for its next meeting in Tokyo in October.
A third position paper focused on the concerns raised by INTERTANKO members regarding the swift entry into force of the China Domestic Emission Control Area in the Yangtze River Delta (YRD). Panel members were supportive of the position taken in the paper and echoed the concerns relating to vessels that had not previously traded into one of the world’s ECA regions, noting that this would require modifications to fuel systems and possibly storage tanks if three grades of fuel were carried. Further concern was raised about the availability in Asia and China of hybrid HFO.
Finally, the Panel noted INTERTANKO’s contribution to the development of the Regional Guide to Counter Piracy and Armed Robbery Against Ships in Asia in which INTERTANKO had collaborated with regional Governmental authorities (ReCAAP and the IFC) as well as the oil majors through the OCIMF and national ship owners’ associations (Singapore Shipping Association and the Asian Shipowners’ Forum).
The Chairman advised that the Panel members would need to expand on the topics and concerns raised in these two papers as well as those issues raised with regards to China PSC and the implementation of the China Oil Pollution Regulation when the MSA guests were present.
- INTERTANKO Annual Event 2016
The Panel members noted that the next Annual General Meeting and Tanker Event was due to take place in Singapore between 25-27 May. The schedule for the event was available on the INTERTANKO website.
- Date and Place of Next Meeting
The next meeting will be held on either 11th or 12th October in Tokyo.
- Any other business
Capt. Choudhury advised the Panel members of the problems with the draft of the new ISO 8217 fuel quality standard and that VPS together with INTERTANKO had issued a joint press release with the objective of having the problem areas resolved by the ISO working group. The Panel thanked Capt. Choudhury for drawing attention to this important issue and requested that the Secretariat circulate a copy of the press release and any further updates as necessary.