International Convention for the Prevention of Pollution of the Sea by Oil

Article I

1. For the purposes of the present Convention, the following
expressions shall (unless the context otherwise requires) have
the meanings hereby respectively assigned to them that is to
say:
‘The Bureau’ has the meaning assigned to it by Article XXI;
‘Discharge’ in relation to oil or to oily mixture means any
discharge or escape howsoever caused;
‘Heavy diesel oil’ means diesel oil, other than those
distillates of which more than 50 per cent by volume distils
at a temperature not exceeding 340 deg C when tested by
A.S.T.M. Standard Method D.86/59;
‘Instantaneous rate of discharge of oil content’ means the
rate of discharge of oil in litres per hour at any instant
divided by the speed of the ship in knots at the same instant;
‘Mile’ means a nautical mile of 6,080 feet or 1,852 metres;
‘Nearest land’. The term ‘from the nearest land’ means ‘from
the baseline from which the territorial sea of the territory
in question is established in accordance with the Geneva
Convention on the Territorial Sea and the Contiguous Zone,
1958’;
‘Oil’ means crude oil, fuel oil, heavy diesel oil and
lubricating oil, and ‘oily’ shall be construed accordingly;
‘Oily mixture’ means a mixture with any oil content;
‘Organization’ means the Inter-Governmental Maritime
Consultative Organization;
‘Ship’ means any sea-going vessel of any type whatsoever,
including floating craft, whether self-propelled or towed by
another vessel, making a sea voyage; and ‘tanker’ means a ship
in which the greater part of the cargo space is constructed or
adapted for the carriage of liquid cargoes in bulk and which
is not, for the time being, carrying a
cargo other than oil in that part of the cargo space.
2. For the purposes of the present Convention the territories
of a Contracting Government means the territory of the country
of which it is the Government and any other territory for the
international relations of which it is responsible and to
which the Convention shall have been extended under Article
XVIII.

Article II

1. The present Convention shall apply to ships registered in
any of the territories of a Contracting Government and to
unregistered ships having the nationality of a Contracting
Party, except:

a) tankers of under 150 tons gross tonnage and other ships of
under 500 tons gross tonnage, provided that each Contracting
Government will take the necessary steps, so far as is
reasonable and practicable, to apply the requirements of the
Convention to such ships also, having regard to their size,
service and the type of fuel used for their propulsion;

b) ships for the time being engaged in the whaling industry
when actually employed on whaling operations;

c) ships for the time being navigating the Great Lakes of
North America and their connecting and tributary waters as far
east as the lower exit of St. Lambert Lock at Montreal in the
Province of Quebec, Canada;

d) naval ships and ships for the time being used as naval
auxiliaries.

2. Each Contracting Government undertakes to adopt appropriate
measures ensuring that requirements equivalent to those of the
present Convention are, so far as is reasonable and
practicable, applied to the ships referred to in subparagraph
(d) of paragraph (1) of this Article.

Article III

Subject to the provisions of Articles IV and V:

a) the discharge from a ship to which the present Convention
applies, other than a tanker, of oil or oily mixture shall be
prohibited except when the following conditions are all
satisfied:

(i) the ship is proceeding en route;

(ii) the instantaneous rate of discharge of oil content
does not exceed 60 litres per mile;

(iii) the oil content of the discharge is less than 100
parts per 1,000,000 parts of the mixture.

(iv) the discharge is made as far as practicable from
land;

b) the discharge from a tanker to which the present Convention
applies of oil or oily mixture shall be prohibited except when
the following conditions are all satisfied:

(i) the tanker is proceeding en route;

(ii) the instantaneous rate of discharge of oil content
does not exceed 60 litres per mile;

(iii) the total quantity of oil discharged on a ballast
voyage does not exceed 1/15,000 of the total cargo-carrying
capacity;

(iv) the tanker is more than 50 miles from the nearest
land;

c) the provisions of sub-paragraph (b) of this Article shall
not apply to:

(i) the discharge of ballast from a cargo tank which,
since the cargo was last carried therein, has been so cleaned
that any effluent therefrom, if it were discharged from a
stationary tanker into clean calm water on a clear day, would
produce no visible traces of oil on the surface of the water;
or

(ii) the discharge of oil or oily mixture from machinery
space bilges, which shall be governed by the provisions of
sub-paragraph (a) of this Article.

Article IV

Article III shall not apply to:

a) the discharge of oil or of oily mixture from a ship for the
purpose of securing the safety of a ship, preventing damage to
a ship or cargo, or saving life at sea;

b) the escape of oil or of oily mixture resulting from damage
to a ship or unavoidable leakage, if all reasonable
precautions have been taken after the occurrence of the damage
or discovery of the leakage for the purpose of preventing or
minimizing the escape.

Author: international

Mentioned in these Entries

Conventions: Chronological Index 1951-1970, Environment and Wildlife conventions, International Convention for the Prevention of Pollution of the Sea by Oil 2, International Convention for the Prevention of Pollution of the Sea by Oil 3, Marine and Coastal conventions, Maritime conventions, country.