Amendments to MARPOL Annex VI Reg.13 effective from September

A new amendment to Regulation 13 of MARPOL Annex VI regarding the operational compliance with NOx Tier III emissions control areas will come into force on 1 September 2017.

According to IMO Resolution MEPC.271(69), the Regulation will now include a new paragraph clarifying the following:

“13. 5.3 The tier and on/off status of marine diesel engines installed onboard a ship to which paragraph 5.1 of this regulation applies which are certified to both Tier II and Tier III or which are certified to Tier II only shall be recorded in such log books as prescribed by the Administration at entry into and exit from an emission control area designated under paragraph 6 of this regulation, or when the on/off status changes within such an area, together with the date, time and position of the ship.’’

Therefore, from this September, all ships entering ECAs that are required to meet Tier III standard, they need to record any engine status changes properly in the logbook as per the onboard procedure requires. The ships that meet the Tier III standard are those constructed on or after 1st of January 2016.

Ships entering ECAs that have a combination of Tier II engines and Tier III engines but operate solely on Tier III, they need to record and confirm the status of the status of the Tier II engines also.

LR has issued a statutory alert advising ships visiting North American and US Caribbean Sea NOx ECAs, to include this new requirement into their on board procedure as soon as possible and to take into consideration that same will apply to the NOx ECA in the Baltic Sea and the North Sea once it is adopted and enters into force in 2021.