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Showing posts from March, 2013

Power vested with state for preventing or containing oil pollution

MS act 1958 gives power to the state to give notice and to take measures for preventing or containing the oil pollution. Power vested with the state is described in section 356J to 356 O 356 J:- If central government is satisfied that oil is escaping or is likely to escape from a tanker, ship other than tanker or offshore installation and this is causing or threatens to cause pollution of coastal water of India, may for purpose of minimizing the pollution issue notice to owner, agent, master or charterer of the ship.           Notice may contain action for preventing the escape of oil  action for removing oil action for removal of the ship action for removal of the oil slick on surface of sea action to disperse the oil slicks on surface of sea                                    as specified in notice. 356 K:- Where any person fails to comply with the notice served on him in above section, central government may convict the person. Any expenditure or liability incurred b

Prevention & Provision for containment of oil pollution under MS act 1958

With respect to MS act 1958 as amended, prevention and provision for containment of accidental pollution of the sea by oil is given in part XI A. sections 356A to 356I deals with the prevention and provision for containment. 356 A:- Applies only on oil tankers of 150 GT or more and other ships of 400 GT or above and offshore installations. Sections deals with incident of marine casualty or acts relating to such casualty occurring with grave and imminent danger to Indian coastline by deliberate, negligent or accidental release of oil into sea including such incidents occurring on high seas. 356 C:- No Indian oil tankers or other ships shall proceed to sea unless there is in force, in respect to that ship, a certificate issued by central government to be called an IOPP certificate. 356 E:- For the purpose of preventing or reducing discharges of harmful substances or mixtures containing such substances from oil tankers or other ships, the central government may make rules requiring

TRAINING OF E/R PERSONNEL AND EVALUATION OF COMPETENCE

ROLE OF CHIEF ENGINEER TOWARDS SATISFACTORY TRAINING OF E/R PERSONNEL:-           Chief engineer should establish a training program on board a ship. He should: Break down various jobs into duties tasks and sub tasks. Establish priorities of task. Define performance standard for each task. Identify proper mode of learning. Collect data on profile of trained personnel give trainee, independent of doing job and at the same time supervise his job constantly. Identify constraint like language, lack of training etc. If a trainee is found to be lacking in knowledge in some areas, then the chief engineer must discuss his weakness with him and must try to give him a chance to improve upon. EVALUATING COMPETENCE FOR ON BOARD TRAINING:-           The criteria for evaluating competence for on board training of engine room personnel is given in column 4 of tables A-III/1 & III/4. Some of the criteria are:- Identification of important parameter and selection of material

TRAINING PLAN FOR VARIOUS SHIP BOARD EMERGENCIES

The training program developed should be in accordance with chapter VI of STCW code 2010, which deals with standards and minimum requirement regarding familiarizing and basic safety training for emergency and occupational safety along with medical care and survival functions.                 The purpose of such a training should be to provide basic knowledge, increase their proficiency and at the same time enhancing their skill by subjecting them to simulated emergency situation i.e. drills and exercises, so that the personnel identifies the potential hazardous situation that may result in threat to life or the pollution of marine environment.  1) FIRE PREVENTION AND FIRE FIGHTING:-  Training program for this should be complying with chapter VI table A-VI/ 1-2, where by specification of minimum standard of competence in fire prevention and fire fighting are laid down. Competence is in minimizing the risk of fire and maintaining a state of readiness to respond to emergency situation

LOW SULFUR HFO AND TRANSPORTATION COST

According to IMO expert study, the use of HFO will largely have to be abandoned once the sulfur content limit in fuel decreases to less than 1%. A report by IMO states that approximately 0.5% of the fuel currently used by global maritime traffic is HFO with sulphur content of less than 0.5%. A switch to fuel with a maximum sulphur content of 0.1% will in practice will in practice mean that vessel will have to use gas oil (MGO) as fuel, which is lot more expensive than HFO.                             As a result sea freight charges will increase considerably when the stringent regulation on maximum sulphur content takes effect. Fuel cost contributes 30-55% of costs incurred in running of ships. The difference in cost rise of fuel oil can be explained as follows:-                    Let us suppose price of HFO with 1.5% Sulphur be Rs X.                    Price of HFO with 1% sulphur will be Rs Y = 7-22% more than RsX                    Price of HFO with 0.5% sulphur will be Rs Z =

REASONS FOR COMPOUNDING OF MACHINERY VIBRATION

There are primarily 3 excitation sources of vibration on a ship:- a) Wave forces b) Machinery generated vibration:  1) Primary excitation - Which are forces and moments originating from combustion pressure and inertia forces of rotating and reciprocating masses.    2) Secondary excitation -- Stemming from a forced vibratory response in a substructure. c) Propeller induced excitation :  1) As a result of unbalance caused by damage   2) Hydrodynamic excitation due to uneven flow of water to propeller.                          If the forcing frequency of the externally applied vibration coincides with the natural frequency of the hull, resonance occurs and considerable damage can result by the compounding of overlapping excitation amplitudes.        For avoiding resonance either the frequency of the exciting external force or the natural frequency of the hull must be changed.       The vibration characteristic of low speed 2 stroke engines can be split into 4 categories:- 1) E

INSTITUTIONS ESTABLISHED UNDER MS ACT 1958

Institutions established under MS act 1958 of India:- 1) NATIONAL SHIPPING BOARD:-                Under section 4 of MS act 1958 national shipping board is established. It is the highest advisory body on matters related to Indian shipping fraternity including its expansion, liberalization policies, development etc. The total number of members should not exceed 16. Out of 16 members 6 will be Member of Parliament. Out of 6 4 will be from LOK SABHA and 2 will be from RAJYA SABHA. Other members will be to represent government, owner, seaman etc. The tenure of the board is of 2 years. At present the chairman of the board is Capt. P.V.K.Mohan. 2) NATIONAL WELFARE BOARD FOR SEAFARER:-                Under section 218 of MS act 1958 National board for seafarer is established. The function of welfare board is as follows:- Establishment of sailor home, boarding, lodging homes. Establishment of libraries, recreation rooms, cafeteria and club houses Establishment of hospitals, nurseri

FREIGHT FIXING

Have we ever thought how shipping freights are being fixed? The shipping services are divided in two. One is Tramp shipping and another is Liner shipping. 1) TRAMP SHIPPING:-               Dry bulk, Oil and refined product, Chemical and Gas carriers freights are fixed under Tramp shipping. Pricing is fully governed by law of supply and demand. Ships are chartered under different terms and conditions including single voyage or consecutive voyage charter, COA, time charter, trip charter or bare boat charter. Charter rates are quoted on a competitive basis through brokers in various exchanges through out the world. Major elements which influence the fixing of specific rate are:- Ship specification Trade and route General market condition Terms of charter party i.e. distribution of cost between owner and charterer. Urgency of charter Duration of charter A special situation applies to tanker chartering. It is according to world scale. 2) LINER SHIPPING :-             Gen

MEAN PISTON SPEED AFFECTING FUEL CONSUMPTION

MEAN PISTON SPEED:-           It is the average speed of the piston in a reciprocating engine.  MPS  = 2LN/ 60  For constant stroke length  MPS          is proportional to               N ............................(1) Now,     Power = PLAN/ 60 For constant L and A     Power     is proportional to            PN .............................(2)                                                                               2/3                      3  But, Power    is proportional to       (displacement)        (Speed) For constant displacement,                                                                   3   Power        is proportional to         (speed)  ........................(3)  But speed,    V        is proportional to             Pitch * N,      So for constant pitch,     V       is proportional to              N ...................................(4) From (1), (2), (3) and (4)                                                             3     Power    is

DUTIES OF OFFICE DURING EMERGENCY ON BOARD

Element 8 of ISM code deals with the emergency preparedness. Element 8.1 says that company should establish procedure to identify, describe and respond to potential emergency ship board situation. So it is the responsibility of office to identify possible ship board emergency situation specific to the type of ship and accordingly contingency plans to be made.        The office should be prepared at all times to efficiently handle an emergency situation which might occur on any of the company's vessel. The contingency plan made by the company for specific type of ship should contain:- Procedures to be followed in response to different types of emergency situation. Procedure for establishing and maintaining contact between ship and shore. Checklist appropriate to the type of emergency, so that no step in emergency response procedure is omitted. List of all names and contact details of pertinent organizations. Compilation and duties of the persons acting within the contingen

GUIDELINES TO MASTER AND CEO REGARDING ORB

GUIDELINES TO MASTERS AND CHIEF ENGINEERS: ORB must be duly recorded and signed( duty engineer and chief engineer to sign each entry for part 1 and for part 2 by chief officer after each completed entry with master to sign the completed page for both the parts. In some companies chief engineer signs each page countersigned by master) until the day before arrival at port. If vessel arrives in port with a partially filled page, master has to sign at the end of last entry in that page.  The ORB part 1 should be shown to PSC ( or any authorized person) in the presence of the chief engineer and all the questions related to the entries made, must be answered directly by him. Part 2 may be shown by master. Photocopies of the ORB may be provided to the PSC inspector, only if requested. The ORB part 1 have to be kept in the personal custody of the chief engineer and part 2 with master(or chief officer as delegated). and they are responsible for the proper upkeep of the oil record book.

HOW TO FILL ORB?

RULES FOR COMPLETING ORB:- All operations should be executed as per MARPOL 73/78- Annex 1 regulation 17 and should be recorded in the oil record book.  Anything other than what is to be recorded by rule; does not have to be recorded. ORB should clearly and correctly record all operations related to cargo/ ballast operations on oil tanker. When making entries in the ORB the date, operational code and item number shall be inserted in the appropriate columns chronologically. All officers and crew on board need to recognize that recording of ORB is required by the rules and that the records are critical. Tank nomenclature should be recorded as per the format noted within the IOPPC. Immediately upon completion of each operation/ job, the proper entries shall be completed; in the way errors and omissions are avoided. All entries in the ORB have to be recorded with indelible ink. Entries recorded in pencil are not acceptable. In case a wrong entry has been recorded in the ORB, it