52nd Paris MoU Meet in Saint-Petersburg

The Paris Memorandum of Understanding (Paris MoU) on Port State Control held its 52nd Committee meeting in St. Petersburg, the Russian Federation, from 13-17 May 2019, chaired by Brian Hogan.

The meeting was opened by Yuri Kostin, Director of Department on State Policy on Maritime and River Transport, Ministry of Transport of the Russian Federation.

The Committee reviewed the work of the Paris MoU of the last year, also taking into account the declaration of the 3rd Joint Ministerial Conference, and took decisions for the period ahead.

The Committee considered the report of the Concentrated Inspection Campaign (CIC) on MARPOL Annex VI. The CIC was carried out from September to November 2018. The general conclusion was that the overall compliance with MARPOL Annex VI was satisfactory.

The Committee reminds the industry to ensure that a fuel change-over procedure is provided on board and used as required and that bunker delivery notes are kept on board for a minimum of three years.

The Committee approved the questionnaire for the CIC on Emergency Systems and Procedures to be carried out jointly with the Tokyo Memorandum of Understanding on port state control.

The CIC aims at ensuring compliance with the requirements for the preparation of emergency equipment and the crew’s ability to respond to emergency situations. The CIC will be carried out from September to November 2019 and the questionnaire will be published in August.

The Committee discussed the issue of access to PSC data by third parties and agreed this would require further consideration at the next Committee meeting.  

The Committee adopted the 2018 Annual Report, including the White, Grey and Black List and the performance list of recognised organizations. The lists will be published in early June and used for targeting purposes from 1 July 2019.

The Annual Report will be published in July this year. The Committee took note of a considerable decrease in the number of ships which have been detained in the Paris MoU region, reducing the detention percentage from 3.87% in 2017 to 3.15% in 2018.

Decisions were taken on a new methodology to calculate flag state performance based on the average detention rate and recognised organization (RO) fleet performance based on detainable deficiencies. When the new methodology is implemented, performance tables will be listed alphabetically and categorized as high, medium and low performance.