Americas News
Ship Manager Fined Over $250,000 For Breaking Sulfur Regulations
An unnamed ship management company has been fined $283,500 by the California Air Resources Board (ARB) for breaching low-sulfur fuel switching regulations, the International Transport Intermediaries Club (ITIC) reports.
The ship in question was said to have been stopped by an inspector in July 2011, who found that the vessel had failed to switch the main engine, auxiliary engines, and auxiliary boilers to low-sulfur fuel as per revised 2009 California clean air regulations.
Further inspection also determined that the vessel had called at California ports 17 times between 2009 an 2011 without making the required switchovers.
“In 2009, a fleet circular had been sent to all vessels by the manager, setting out the change in regulations, and asking that it be displayed in a prominent position," the ITIC said.
"The manager therefore initially rejected the claim on the ground that it had resulted from crew negligence, which was excluded under the BIMCO management agreement."
However, the chief engineer at the time maintained that he had been unaware of the 2009 update, having only known the original 2007 legislation, which only required auxiliary engines to use low-sulfur fuel.
"The owners, however, did not accept this rejection, maintaining instead that the manager had failed to update the SMS (safety management system)," the ITIC said.
"As it was considered unlikely that the manager would successfully defend a claim resulting from its failure to update the SMS, the claim was paid in full.”
Early this year, the ARB also fined four other shippers a combined total of $146,719 failing to adhere to the fuel switching regulation.
