Marine Regulations & Guides

The official IMO release - International Grain Code. The provisions of the present Code are intended to replace the Chapter VI of SOLAS containing the regulations concerning the transportation of the grain in bulk form. The reason for such substitution was the growing need for implementation of the broader technical regulations to transportation of the goods posing the hazards to the vessels or their crews.

As a result, the decision was made by the IMO MSC to establish a new Code providing more general requirements and placing more detailed provisions on grain carriage. This volume consists of the IMO Res. MSC.23(59) followed by the Annex containing the Code itself and arranged in two parts addressing the specific requirements, general assumptions and calculation of the assumed heeling moments. The Appendix to the document contains the above mentioned Chapter VI of the SOLAS Convention which has been replaced by this Code.

Needless to say, one of the most important publication for the crew of any vessel involved in the sea transportation of the grain in bulk. The regulatory information provided in the volume will be very useful and shall be used as necessary also by the people conducting the inspections of such vessels, i.e. marine surveyors, port state authorities etc.

A very small but very important and useful publication officially released by IMO. In fact, it is primarily aimed at seafarers. The booklet provides the necessary information which will be very helpful to the crew members or any other humans if they fall into the cold water or face the necessity to enter cold water in case of emergency situation.

The book also gives some required guidance to help the fist-aid providers to treat the people who have just been rescued from cold water. The booklet is examining all hazards associated with the exposure of a human to the cold. Such exposure may easily endanger life. In addition, this volume  gives some valuable advice basing on the very latest scientific and medical developments in the field of prevention or minimization of such dangers. Unfortunately, people still die at sea, and one of the reasons is a lack of this knowledge. Go through the information in this book and who knows, maybe the proper understanding of the content of the publication may someday save your (or someone else's) life.

The most important thing to understand and realize is that you shall not feel helpless to affect your survival when exposed to cold water condition. The book provides a good and detailed explanations of cold water hazards and effects they may have, and also lists the actions to take prior to abandoning the vessel, that may improve your chances to survive...

   The very latest consolidated edition of the most important IMO Convention. The main purpose of the Convention is, traditionally, to provide the maritime industry with a broad range of measures that have been specifically designed with the intention to improve the safety of human life at sea. Note that the SOLAS Convention is also the oldest one, with its initial released officially adopted more than a century ago, namely in 1914, following the famous tragedy - the sinking of the Titanic resulting in the loss of more than 1500 human lives.

   Since that time, the Convention has been re-issued four times in order to be in line with the technological developments happening in the shipping industry. The present volume contains the consolidated text of the Convention and it was prepared to provide readers with an easy and user-friendly reference to all requirements of this Convention that become applicable since July 2014. All amendments to the requirements that are in effect from July 2014 have also been covered in this volume.

   Again, there are twelve main chapters in the publication providing the general technical provisions, addressing the structure of the ship, it's subdivision and stability issues, machinery and shipboard electrical installations, fire protection, prevention and firefighting systems, equipment and arrangements, LSA, radio and navigation equipment, transportation of various types of cargoes including dangerous cargo, nuclear ships, safety management, certificates issues to the ships fully complying with the applicable requirements of the Convention, relevant documentation, list of the IMO resolutions and a wealth of other valuable regulatory information.

The main purpose of the present volume is to provide necessary guidance to the vetting/chartering groups and improve safety of tanker operations in geographical regions normally affected by such thing as the seasonal first-year ice - subject regions would include Barents, White and Baltic Seas, Sakhalin Island, Eastern Canada and Cook Inlet.

This guidebook should be primarily applied to the tankers with low or no ice class and having deadweight of fifty thousand tones or more. Note that the content of this document does not cover specialized or established ice trades utilizing high tonnage.

The charterers are recommended to limit the use of vessels with low or no ice class at all in the above stated areas as well as not to us the non-winterized vessels during sub-zero conditions defines as forecasted DMT, i.e. daily mean temperature of below fifteen degrees Celsius.

The opening section of the guide provides the information about risk assessment and vetting, professional commentary on the notations, engine power and winterization of vessels, navigation of large tankers in iced conditions, response to the oil spills and proficiency of the crew members of such ships. Some additional information is contained in the appendices, for example useful references.

And here is the tenth official release of the popular and recognized guide to the vetting process that has already proven to be highly effective and really invaluable tool providing both crew members and the supporting staff working ashore, together with the oil majors and ship charterers with a better and more clear understanding of this process necessary to ensure that the vetting goes in a smooth and effective manner.

The Secretariat of the Intertanko organization receives numerous requests for the updated information on the requirements that would apply to the vessel inspection and vetting for oil/chemical companies, underwriters, insurers and other involved parties - serving as a good supplement to the info that pertains to the various PSC requirements.

The present volume was compiled with the contribution and help of the vetting departments of several oil companies, PSC inspectors and other representatives of the authorities, marine surveyors, who provided valuable information satisfying all concerns. The present volume is highly recommended by the Intertanko organization to put a copy of the present volume onboard each ship plus in every office ashore in order to assist the crews of the oil tankers plus the personnel who are working in the shore offices for due preparation for the vetting inspections...

This official publication is the Chemicals Supplement to the IMGS published by the WHO and shall be considered a medical first aid guide (MFAG) to be used in case of accidents involving dangerous goods; the book was released to cover the substances as well as materials and articles that are addressed by the IMDG Code plus the materials that are covered by the Appendix B of the BC Code.

The intention was to provide the necessary technical advice for the initial management of potential poisoning by chemicals and diagnosis within the limits of the marine facilities. It shall be used together with the info that is provided in the BC Code, IMDG Code, EmS, IBC Code, and IGC Code. The treatment that is recommended in the pages of this document is particularly specified in the appropriate data tables and is more comprehensively presented in the Appendices.

Subject treatment cater for the possible consequences of the transportation of the dangerous cargo on board marine vessels. Please take into account that this paper is not intended to cover intentional ingestion; it is understood that the accidental ingestions of the toxic substances during the sea voyage are obviously very rare. This is a really useful and practical must-have book to be held on board of every ship involved in the transportation of the dangerous cargoes by sea.

The present Guide was developed by INTERTANKO with the intention to make all ship operators aware of the errors that could be made in the process of logging the information in the ORB. It was noted that erroneous logging of the relevant information into the oil record books was considered one of the main reasons for the growing number of vessels being detained and subsequently seriously fined in the United States.

This document contains the instructions and official interpretations on how all related operations shall be recorded in the ORB, i.e. oil record book, in order to be fully compliant with the appropriate provisions of MARPOL Convention; the list of the operations that shall be duly recorded in also included. In addition to that, the authors of the publication have also addressed numerous frequently found mistakes and errors, together with the detailed and informative examples of all operations. The document has been structured to facilitate the use for integration in the document management system of any member of INTERTANKO organization.

One of the main objective of the paper is to define the controls and associated activities that are required to ensure that all operations are recorded in the ORB in full accordance with the established and approved format and while being in line with the information logged in the other logbooks.​

The present official international guidelines were worked out by a professional cross-industry workgroup, with its secretariat being provided by IMCA, with the intention to provide necessary professional guidance relevant to the dynamic positioning on the offshore support vessels, that would be suitable for the international application.

The volume starts with the introduction where the basis of the present guidelines are outlines - this chapter also explains the scope and purpose of the document, provides the abbreviations, terms and definitions used throughout the text. The next chapter is dedicated to the existing international and regional rules and guidance, including certification and verification of the DP systems, professional training and certification of the personnel involved etc.

The third chapter provides required guidance on procedures, covering the loss of position, VPX, i.e. vessel positioning matrix, operational procedures and alert level responses, incident reporting and operational risk assessment. Then, several appendices are coming to provide reader with some supplementary materials like the list of relevant publications issued by IMCA, FMEA and annual trial programs. capability and footprint plots, sample documents and checklists etc.