Regulations of the People’s Republic of China on the Prevention and Control of Marine Pollution from Ships

Following discussions with SPROs concerning payment periods the International Group issued a revised SPRO agreement wording in December 2014 - see Notice to Members No. 18 2014/2015.

There is only a single SPRO each in the major ports of Ningbo and Zhoushan. Both SPROs have agreed to adopt the International Group's latest sample agreement wording in their contracts, which carry the following footers and can be found below.

Members are reminded that vessels carrying hazardous cargo other than oil in bulk are required to contract with an appropriate level of SPRO depending on vessel size and intended nature of operators (please refer to the Table of Contracting Requirements linked previously.)

The IG has received clarification from the MSA that what constitutes a “hazardous cargo” in this context is by reference to a published list of cargoes (linked below). The MSA’s position is that if a vessel is carrying a cargo in bulk which appears on this list then the owner/operator must contract with an SPRO in accordance with the Table of Contracting Requirements.

The list contains certain liquefied gases and whilst it may appear somewhat counter-intuitive for such cargoes to require clean-up in the event of a spill, the MSA has specifically confirmed to the IG that gas tankers carrying such cargoes must contract with an SPRO.