IMO to review ballast management system guidelines

Heavy lobbying by INTERTANKO and other shipping interests compels the UN body to hold off on penalties for existing systems.    The International Maritime Organization will review its ballast water management system guidelines and will hold off on penalizing owners that have already installed BWMS that are approved in accordance with the current approval guidelines, according to INTERTANKO, an association of independent tanker owners and operators of oil and chemical tankers.
   The agreement by IMO comes after efforts by INTERTANKO and other industry advocates to address key challenges associated with the implementation of the IMO’s Ballast Water Management Convention.
   “The agreement to review and eventually revise the approval guidelines should mean that future BWMS brought onto the market and approved by a more robust approval procedure will give owners greater confidence that once purchased and installed, a type approved BWMS will meet the ballast discharge standard,” INTERTANKO said in a statement. “It is also important that the agreement to revise the type approval guidelines was taken together with the agreement to not penalize those owners that have already installed approved BWMS.”
   INTERTANKO, however, said there is continued uncertainty about how the protection for those that have already installed such systems will actually be devised.
   The ballast water convention is nearing the point at which it will be brought into force — the convention must be approved by countries representing 35 percent of the world’s tonnage to do so. Currently 43 countries, representing roughly 32.5 percent of global tonnage, have approved the convention, with Argentina and Italy close to ratifying it. Their participation would bring the tonnage level to 34.2 percent.