European Council Backs Ban on Single Hull Tankers

BRUSSELS, Belgium, March 27, 2003 (ENS) - No single hull oil tanker will be allowed to carry heavy fuel oil in the European Union after today's agreement in the Council on the proposal presented by the European Commission. The new rule makes it compulsory to transport the most polluting petroleum products in the safest ships, and brings the European Union up to standards as strict as those in the United States for the phaseout of single hull tankers.

The new rule will enter into force after it is approved by the European Parliament. "I know that the European Parliament will support this approach, and I expect this new regulation to enter into force very quickly," Loyola de Palacio, EU vice president for transport and energy, said today. The Council is Europe’s legislative body, exercising that power in co-decision with the European Parliament.

Oil tankers docked at Fawley, UK (Photo courtesy FreeFoto)

The new rule was approved in response to the loss of the oil tanker Erika off the Brittany coast of France in late 1999, and the sinking of the Prestige off the Galician coast of Spain last November. Both incidents resulted in the contamination of hundreds of miles of coastline and marine wildlife habitat and the disruption of the local economies.

In addition, all single hull oil tankers of the Erika and Prestige type older than 23 years will be immediately banned from the European Union, five years earlier than under current rules.

Elimination of more modern single hull tankers also will take place earlier, between 2005 and 2010, according to a stricter calendar than provided for by current rules which call for their elimination by 2015.

During the phaseout period, those tankers that have not yet reached the age limit will be subject to stricter safety inspections.

All single hull tankers, including the smallest which were formerly excluded, will now have to comply with the Condition Assessment Scheme (CAS) from 15 years of age. The CAS is an additional reinforced inspection system specifically developed to detect structural weaknesses of single hull tankers. Tankers, even relatively young ones, which do not pass the test may not be allowed in EU ports or to be operated under an EU flag.

"This is a spectacular step ahead, only some months following the Prestige disaster, which allows the full ban in EU waters of the most dangerous tankers. Europe answers positively to our citizens' concerns," said de Palacio.

Carrying heavy fuel oil, the tanker Prestige wallows in heavy seas before sinking off the coast of Spain last November. (Two photos courtesy Galician Regional Environmental Authority)

Intertanko, the International Association of Independent Tanker Owners, supports the stricter new rules as long as they are applied woldwide through the IMO. After the Spanish government's unilateral ban on single hull tankers carrying heavy fuel oil, tar, asphaltic bitumen and heavy crude announced in December, Intertanko declared itself "deeply concerned with the ill conceived measures." The Spanish ban took effect January 1.

Intertanko says single country or regional rules governing oil tankers may conflict with one another or with international rules set by the IMO, leading to confusion about requirements for compliance.

"It is almost certain that the initiating cause of the damage to the Prestige will never be definitively identified," said Robert Somerville, American Bureau of Shipping (ABS), one of the world's oldest and largest classifiers of ships, which classified the Prestige less than a year before it sank, releasing millions of gallons of oil into the Atlantic Ocean.

Wildlife bears the brunt of oil spills at sea. A total of nearly 44,000 oiled birds of 100 species have been picked up from Europe’s North Atlantic coasts and beaches in Spain, Portugal, France, Belgium and the Netherlands since the sinking of the Prestige oil tanker in November 2002 and the Tricolor cargo carrier in December 2002, according to BirdLife International partner organizations in these countries.

A ABS comprehensive report on "Technical Analyses Related to the Prestige Casualty" released March 4 raises the issue that if a place of refuge had been open to the damaged Prestige before she sank, the giant oil spill might have been prevented.

The ABS analysis confirms that, if the vessel had been afforded the protection of a sheltered area, "the hull structure had substantial reserve strength against the total vertical bending moment at the time and would not have broken in two."

"The sustained dynamic wave loading for the period while the Prestige was under tow, subsequent to the initial casualty, was the direct cause of the ultimate disintegration of the hull structure and subsequent sinking of the vessel," the report states.

The tanker Prestige in distress

In the period since the loss of the tanker Erika off the Brittany coast in late 1999, said Somerville, improvements in maritime safety standards have been advanced by the European Union in the Erika I and Erika II packages and more rigorous survey requirements have been implemented by all ship classification societies that are members of the International Association of Classification Societies.

Over the last three years, the share of safer double hull tonnage in the world fleet has gone up from 30 to 50 percent with another 60 million metric tons of double hull capacity in shipyards' orderbooks. The European tanker industry, which had anticipated the single hull phaseout, is presently undergoing the largest modernization program in its history.