Council Member Speaks For Tanker Owners

The overall aims of Intertanko are to promote safety at sea and protect the marine environment while maintaining free competition in tanker shipping, unhindered by protectionist legislation. One of Intertanko's greatest concerns is to safeguard the tanker industry's structural integrity and ensure that tankers are being operated in accordance with internationally accepted rules and standards. Intertanko's goal is to restore the maritime authorities' confidence in tanker owners by showing their best endeavors to comply with international rules and regulations as enforced by flag states. But flag states must have a competent maritime authority to implement ships' safety standards based on IMO's codes, rules and regulations. Intertanko therefore welcomes IMO's efforts to set up criteria in order to ensure that maritime authorities implement administrations and ensure compliance with international conventions. Port state control is seen as an effective means of policing the performance of flag states and classification societies, as well as an instrument for detecting substandard tankers. Intertanko follows and believes that initiatives like the U.S. Coast Guard Port State Inspection Targeting Scheme or the U.K. Targeting Scheme might eliminate ships who underperform on safety standards by imposing severe prohibitive sanctions against them.

The preceding was excerpted from a precis of John R. Lean's speech, Cleaner Seas Program — The Need for an International Solution, given at the Maritime Technology Exhibition Conference. Mr. Lean is a council member of the International Association of Independent Tanker Owners (Intertanko).