A New Regime in China:
the Agreement on Ship Pollution
Preparedness and Response between
Shipowners and SPROs
Xudong CONG
China Maritime Safety Administration
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Xudong CONG
Executive Deputy Director
Supervision Department II
Yantai Maritime Safety Administration of China
Tel: +86-535-6683637
Mobile: +86-13791201499
E-mail: congxudong@sina.com
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Outline
1.

Background2.

Legal Basis3.

License of SPROs

4.

Conclusion of Agreement

5.

Implementation of the Agreement

6.

Problems
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1. Background
Current situation:
Heavy marine pollution

Increasing public wishes on marine
environmentIncreasing claims for marine pollution
damage中国海事局

1. BackgroundAims:

To implement the national laws andinternational conventions more effectively

To improve the image of China governmentTo set up private ship pollution responseorganizations (key point)To enhance the capabilities of ship pollution
preparedness and response

To decrease the damage to marine
environment caused by ship pollution

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1. Background
National laws:
Marine Environment Protection Law of thePeople‘s Republic of China (1 Apr. 2000)

Emergency Response Law of the People‘sRepublic of China (1 Nov. 2011)

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1. Background
International conventions:International Convention on Oil Pollution
Preparedness, Response and Co-Operation,1990（OPRC 1990）

Protocol on Preparedness, Response and Cooperation to Pollution Incidents by
Hazardous and Noxious Substances, 2000
(OPRC-HNS protocol)International Convention Relating toIntervention on the High Seas in Cases of Oil
Pollution Casualties, 1969Protocol relating to Intervention on the High
Seas in Cases of Marine Pollution by
Substances other than Oil, 1973
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2. Legal BasisNational laws:
Regulations on Administration of Prevention
and Control of Pollution to the Marine
Environment by Vessels (Decree No.561 ofthe State Counsil of the P.R. China, 1 Mar.
2010)

Regulations of Ministry of Transport:
Regulations on Emergency Preparedness andResponse on Marine Environment Pollution
from Ships (Decree No.4 of the Ministry ofTransport, 2011, 1 Jun. 2011)
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2. Legal Basis
Rules of China MSA:
Detailed Rules of Decree No.4 of the Ministryof Transport, 2011 (1 Jun. 2011)

Guidelines on Assessment of the Response
Capabilities of SPROs (technical document)

The Sample Agreement for Ship Pollution
Preparedness and Response (for reference)

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2. Legal Basis
Decree No. 561 of the State Counsil:
Article 33 The operator of a ship carrying
bulk liquid pollution hazard cargo or theoperator of any other ship with a gross
tonnage of not less than 10,000 shall, before
commencing operations or entering or
leaving a port, conclude a pollution clean-up
agreement with a unit that has obtained thequalifications for pollution clean-up
operation, whereby the rights and obligationsof both parties for pollution clean-up in caseof a ship-source pollution accident are clearlystipulated.

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3. License of SPROs
Decree No.4 of the Ministry of Transport, 2011:
Chapter IV Ship Pollution Resposne
Organizations



Chapter V The Agreement on Ship Pollution
Preparedness and Response

Chapter VI Emergency Response (in part)中国海事局

3. License of SPROs
Decree No.4 of the Ministry of Transport, 2011:
Article 17 A ship Pollution Response
Organization is a company that acquires thelicense to conclude agreements with ships,
and provides ship pollution preparedness andresponse for the ship.
(Definition of SPROs)

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3. License of SPROs

The requirements on the response facilities
that SPROs of each level shall equip with, see
the table in the appendix of Decree No.4 of
the Ministry of Transport, 2011

(Requirements on qualificaton of SPROs)

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3. License of SPROs
Key aspects in the license of SPROs: Level of response capabilitygeographic coverage

Competent authorities:
 China Maritime Safety Administration

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3. License of SPROs
The number of SPROs in each level: Level 1: 88
Level 2: 25

Level 3: 3

Level 4: 2

(Announced by China MSA on 28 Feb. 2012)

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4. Conclusion of Agreement
Decree No.4 of the Ministry of Transport:
Article 17

Based on different response sea area andresponse capacity, SPROs are divided into
four levels and level one is the highest.

Level 1: Oil and HNS spill response within thesea areas under the jurisdiction of thePeople's Republic of China.



Level 2: Oil and HNS spill response within
the 20 nm sea areas from shoreline.

Level 3: Oil spill response in a port.

Level 4: Oil spill response in certain area in a
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port or in an independent wharf.

4. Conclusion of AgreementDecree No.4 of the Ministry of Transport:Article 25 – 28: correspondence of anagreement among sea areas, ships andSPROs of each level

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4. Conclusion of Agreement
Three factors in the correspondence of anagreement among sea areas, ships and
SPROs of each level:
Sea area

Ship type

Gross tonnage of a ship

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4. Conclusion of Agreement
Detailed Rules of Decree No.4 of the Ministry ofTransport (China MSA):
Article 15 – 17: more detailed
correspondence

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The appendix of the Sample Agreement for Ship Pollution
Preparedness and Response

Ships carrying oil in bulk
(Oil tanker)

In port1

Ships carrying liquid
pollution hazardous
cargo in bulk other thanoil(Chemical tanker)

Ships carrying cargo
other than liquid cargo inbulk(Other ships)

entryandleaving
port

Loading,unloading,transferrin
g out ofportentry andleaving
port

Loading,unloading,transferringout of port

entry andleaving
port

Loading,unloading,transferringout of port

GT: over10,000Beyond 20nm

GT: over10,000Beyond 20nm

GT:over
50,000Beyond 20nm

GT:
under
10,000Within 20nmGT: under
10,000Within 20
nm

GT:3000050,000

Within 20nm

2

GT:2,000-10,000

3

GT:6002,000

GT:20,00030,000

4GT:
under600

GT:10,00020,000
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4. Conclusion of Agreement
Notice No. 211 of China MSA, 2011:
SPROs with a high level can conclude theagreement of the low levels within theirgeographic coverage.

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4. Conclusion of Agreement
The usual two ways of concluding an agreement:
Single voyage agreement

Fix term agreement by year

Announcement No. 3 of China MSA, 2011:
SPROs shall conclude the agreement withship operetors in accordance with single
voyage or fixed term by month, season oryear, and charge proper fees.

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Sample of Charge Standard
Discount rate
Discount rate
Discount rate
for fixed
for fixed
for fixed
agreement byagreement byagreement byyear
year
year
(11-20 voyages) (21-50 voyages) (>=51 voyages)

Capacitylevel

Fees forsinglevoyage(RMB)

Level one3000

90%80%40%

Level two

2000

90%80%40%

Level
three

1500

90%80%40%

Level
four

900

90%

80%

40%

Yantai Far East Marine Environment Co.
(Valid date：1 Jan. 2012 to 31 Dec. 2012)

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4. Conclusion of Agreement
Two type of fees for the Agreement:
Fees for preparedness

Fees for response to pollution incident

Announcement No. 2 of China MSA, 2011:
SPROs shall announce charge standard offees for the agreement both in Chinese andin English, and submit to MSA for the record.

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4. Conclusion of Agreement
Announcement No. 3 of China MSA, 2011:
The demestic ship operators shall conclude theagreement directly with SPROs.

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4. Conclusion of Agreement
Detailed Rules of Decree No.4 of the Ministry ofTransport, 2011:
The ship operators out of China shallconclude with SPROs and confirmed by its
branch or representative office in China ifany.

For those operator who hasn’t such branch orrepresentative office in China, ships oragents of ship operators may conclude on
behalf of ship operators.

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5. Implementation of the Agreement
Entry into force: 1 Jan. 2012 (not 1 Jun. 2011)
Information announced by China MSA at its
official website (www.msa.gov.cn):


List of SPROs, and

Agents of ship operators for the record, and

Domesticbranches,agenciesandrepresentative offices authorized by the ship
operators out of China to conclude theagreement for the record

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5. Implementation of the Agreement
Detailed Rules of Decree No.4 of the Ministry ofTransport, 2011:
Article 25 Before a ship calling a port or carryingout operation，agreement shall be concluded
and submitted to MSA for verification.
If the agreement has been submitted to MSA forthe record, verification is exempt. (usuallyfixed term agreement)

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5. Implementation of the Agreement
In practice:For some reason, if a ship has not concluded
the agreement before calling a port, it will
not be forbidden to enter the port.

However,theship
shallsubmit theagreement to MSA while leaving the port.
(The agreement shall not cause a ship delay)

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6. Problems
SPROs dostandard

not

have

auniformchargeVicious competition among SPROs with thesame geographic coverageNo charge in some ports in China.

The agreement exerts additional burdon on
ship owners/operators especially under the
global shipping recession

A large number of SPROs, but low response
capacity in reality

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QuestionsComments

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THE END

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