The Merchant Shipping (Prevention of Oil Pollution) Regulations 1996

Oil Tankers

13.—(1) Subject to regulation 11 this regulation applies to—

(a) every United Kingdom oil tanker; and

(b) subject to regulation 38, every other oil tanker wherever it may be.

(2) Subject to paragraph (3) an oil tanker to which this regulation applies shall not discharge any oil or oily mixture (except those for which provision is made in regulation 12) into any part of the sea unless all the following conditions are satisfied—

(a) the tanker is proceeding on a voyage;

(b) the tanker is not within a special area;

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

(d) the instantaneous rate of discharge of oil content does not exceed 30 litres per mile;

(e) the total quantity of oil discharged into the sea does not exceed ¹/₃,₀₀⁰₀₀ of the total quantity of the particular cargo of which the residue formed a part, or, in the case of existing tankers, the total quantity of oil discharged does not exceed ¹/₁,₅₀₀ of the total quantity of the particular cargo of which the residue formed a part; and

(f) the tanker has in operation an oil discharge monitoring and control system and a slop tank arrangement as required by regulation 15.

(3) The provisions of paragraph (2) shall not apply to the discharge of clean or segregated ballast or unprocessed oily mixture which without dilution has an oil content not exceeding 15 ppm and which does not originate from cargo pump room bilges and is not mixed with oil cargo residues.

(4) No discharge into the sea shall contain chemicals or other substances in quantities or concentrations which are hazardous to the marine environment or contain chemicals or other substances introduced for the purposes of circumventing the conditions of discharge prescribed by this regulation.

(5) Insofar as any oil or oily mixture has not been unloaded as cargo and may not be discharged into the sea in compliance with paragraph (2), it shall be retained on board and shall be discharged into reception facilities.

(6) Subject to paragraph (7), this regulation does not apply to discharges which occur landward of the line which for the time being is the baseline for measuring the breadth of the territorial waters of the United Kingdom.

(7) Notwithstanding paragraph (6), discharges prohibited by paragraph (4) shall continue to be prohibited when made in the sea on the landward side of the line referred to in paragraph (6).