Inert gas for smaller chemical tanker a step closer

The prospect of installing inert gas systems on smaller chemical tankers has come that bit closer.
A working group dealing with the issue at the recent IMO FP 53 sub-committee meeting concluded to the principle of requiring new oil tankers of below 20,000 dwt and new chemical tankers to apply inert gas systems.
The IMO had previously decided that the proposals regarding inert gas should be dealt with first in relation to new vessels and depending on the outcome of those talks, the possibility of requirements for existing vessels might be discussed.
At the meeting, Norway made it clear that they wished to pursue what it referred to as the "product-based approach", in other words that inert gas systems should be applied to all vessels carrying low flash cargoes regardless of age or size, reported Janet Strode of the International Parcel Tankers’ Association (IPTA).
Vocal support was given to this approach in the Plenary by a number of other delegations, including Bahamas, Sweden, OCIMF and Intertanko.
While it was clear that no reference could be made to existing vessels, the proponents of this "product-based approach" tried to get at least one principle of it enshrined, by pushing for there to be no lower size limit for the fitting of inert gas equipment, in other words that the requirement should apply to all new SOLAS tankers (that is from 500 gt).
This was strongly opposed by a number of delegations, most notably Japan. Formal Safety Assessment (FSA) studies were carried out into the inert gas issue by both Japan and Norway and while on most issues these two studies reached completely different conclusions, both demonstrated that according to the principles of FSA there was no justification for requiring inert gas to be applied to vessels of less than 8,000 dwt.
Norway disagreed, claiming that it had only been reached as a result of under-reporting of casualties and continued to press for inert gas to be applied to smaller vessels. Japan, however, argued that there should be a lower limit of 8,000 dwt. No agreement was reached on this and discussions will continue at the next session of the sub-committee.
The sub-committee report also recognised that it may not be appropriate simply to transpose the current regulations for oil tankers over to chemical tankers and it might be necessary to develop a separate SOLAS regulation.
This was opposed by the Bahamas, Norway, Intertanko and OCIMF, who supported the same carriage requirements for both oil and chemical tankers.
As there was still a lot more work to be done in hammering out the details, it was agreed that two more sessions of the FP sub-committee would be needed to complete this work.
This issue is on the programme for the IPTA/Navigate conference being held on 10-11th March where we would expect to see a lively debate.