Prevention of Pollution of the Sea by Oil

Amendments adopted by the Conference of Contracting Governments to the Convention of 1954, held at London, April 411, 1962;

Ratification advised by the Senate of the United States of America February 25, 1964;

Ratified by the President of the United States of America September 9, 1966;

Acceptance by the United States of America deposited with the Intergovernmental Maritime Consultative Organization September 21, 1966;

Proclaimed by the President of the United States of America October 7, 1966;

Dates of entry into force:

May 18, 1967 for amendments to Articles I-X, XVI, and XVIII and Annexes A and B;

June 28, 1967, for amendment to Article XIV.

BY THE PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICAN

A PROCLAMATION

WHEREAS a series of amendments to the International Convention for the Prevention of Pollution of the Sea by Oil, 1954, [1] adopted by a Conference of Contracting Governments which convened at London from April 4 to April 11, 1962, was communicated to all Contracting Governments for their acceptance in accordance with paragraph (3) of Article XVI of that Convention;

WHEREAS the text of those amendments, in the English and French languages, as certified by the Secretary-General of the Inter-Governmental Maritime Connsultative Organization, is word for word as follows:

ANNEX 1

The following are the amendments to the International Convention for the Prevention of Pollution of the Sea by Oil, 1954:

1. The existing text of Article I of the Convention is replaced by the following:

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:

1 The text of the amendments constituted the Annex to the Final Act of the Conference of Contracting Governments.

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"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 marine diesel oil, other than those distillates of which more than 50 percent by volume distils at a temperature not exceeding 340° C. when tested by A.S.T.M. Standard Method D.86/59;

"Mile" means a nautical mile of 6,080 feet or 1,852 metres;

"Oil" means crude oil, fuel oil, heavy diesel oil and lubricating oil, and 'oily' shall be construed accordingly;

"Oily mixture" means a mixture with an oil content of 100 parts or more in 1,000,000 parts of the mixture;

"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 its cargo space.

(2) For the purposes of the present Convention, the territories of a Contracting Government mean 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.

2. The existing text of Article II of the Convention is replaced by the following:

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.

3. The existing text of Article III of the Convention is replaced by the following:

ARTICLE III

Subject to the provisions of Articles IV and V:

(a) the discharge from a tanker to which the present Convention applies, within any of the prohibited zones referred to in Annex A to the Convention, of oil or oily mixture shall be prohibited;

(b) the discharge from a ship to which the present Convention applies, other than a tanker, of oil or oily mixture shall be made as far as practicable from land. As from a date three years after that on which the Convention comes into force for the relevant territory in respect of the ship in accordance with paragraph (1) of Article II, subparagraph (a) of this Article shall apply to a ship other than a tanker, except that the discharge of oil or of oily mixture from such a ship shall not be prohibited when the ship is proceeding to a port not provided with such facilities for ships other than tankers as are referred to in Article VIII;

(c) the discharge from a ship of 20,000 tons gross tonnage or more, to which the present Convention applies and for which the building contract is placed on or after the date on which this provision comes into force, of oil or oily mixture shall be prohibited. However, if, in the opinion of the master, special circumstances make it neither reasonable nor practicable to retain the oil or oily mixture on board, it may be discharged outside the prohibited zones referred to in Annex A to the Convention. The reasons for such discharge shall be reported to the Contracting Government of the relevant territory in respect of the ship in accordance with paragraph (1) of Article II. Full details of such discharges shall be reported to the Organization at least every twelve months by Contracting Governments.

4. The existing text of Article IV of the Convention is replaced by the following:

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 of 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;

(c) the discharge of residue arising from the purification or clarification of fuel oil or lubricating oil, provided that such discharge is made as far from land as is practicable.

5. The existing text of Article V of the Convention is replaced by the following:

ARTICLE V

Article III shall not apply to the discharge from the bilges of a ship:

(a) during the period of twelve months following the date on which the present Convention comes into force for the relevant territory in respect of the ship in accordance with paragraph (1) of Article II, of oily mixture;

(b) after the expiration of such period, of oily mixture containing no oil other than lubricating oil which has drained or leaked from machinery spaces.

6. The existing text of Article VI of the Convention is replaced by the following:

ARTICLE VI

(1) Any contravention of Articles III and IX shall be an offence punishable under the law of the relevant territory in respect of the ship in accordance with paragraph (1) of Article II.

(2) The penalties which may be imposed under the law of any of the territories of a Contracting Government in respect of the unlawful discharge from a ship of oil or oily mixture outside the territorial sea of that territory shall be adequate in severity to discourage any such unlawful discharge and shall not be less than the penalties which may be imposed under the law of that territory in respect of the same infringements within the territorial sea.

(3) Each Contracting Government shall report to the Organization the penalties actually imposed for each infringement.

7. The existing text of Article VII of the Convention is replaced by the following:

ARTICLE VII

(1) As from a date twelve months after the present Convention comes into force for the relevant territory in respect of a ship in accordance with paragraph (1) of Article II, such a ship shall be required to be so fitted as to prevent, so far as reasonable and practicable, the escape of fuel oil or heavy diesel oil into bilges, unless effective means are provided to ensure that the oil in the bilges is not discharged in contravention of this Convention.

(2) Carrying water ballast in oil fuel tanks shall be avoided if possible.

8. The existing text of Article VIII of the Convention is replaced by the following:

ARTICLE VIII

(1) Each Contracting Government shall take all appropriate steps to promote the provision of facilities as follows:

(a) according to the needs of ships using them, ports shall be provided with facilities adequate for the reception, without causing undue delay to ships, of such residues and oily mixtures as would remain for disposal from ships other than tankers if the bulk of the water had been separated from the mixture;

(b) oil loading terminals shall be provided with facilities adequate for the reception of such residues and oily mixtures as would similarly remain for disposal by tankers;

(c) ship repair ports shall be provided with facilities adequate for the reception of such residues and oily mixtures as would similarly remain for disposal by all ships entering for repairs. (2) Each Contracting Government shall determine which are the ports and oil loading terminals in its territories suitable for the purposes of sub-paragraphs (a), (b) and (c) of paragraph (1) of this Article.

(3) As regards paragraph (1) of this Article, each Contracting Government shall report to the Organization, for transmission to the Contracting Government concerned, all cases where the facilities are alleged to be inadequate.

9. The existing text of Article IX of the Convention is replaced by the following:

ARTICLE IX

(1) Of the ships to which the present Convention applies, every ship which uses oil fuel and every tanker shall be provided with an oil record book, whether as part of the ship's official log book or otherwise, in the form specified in Annex B to the Convention.

(2) The oil record book shall be completed on each occasion, whenever any of the following operations takes place in the ship:

(a) ballasting of and discharge of ballast from cargo tanks of tankers;

(b) cleaning of cargo tanks of tankers;

(c) settling in slop tanks and discharge of water from tankers; (d) disposal from tankers of oily residues from slop tanks or other sources;

(e) ballasting, or cleaning during voyage, of bunker fuel tanks of ships other than tankers;

(f) disposal from ships other than tankers of oily residues from bunker fuel tanks or other sources;

(g) accidental or other exceptional discharges or escapes of oil from tankers or ships other than tankers.

In the event of such discharge or escape of oil or oily mixture as is referred to in sub-paragraph (c) of Article III or in Article IV, a statement shall be made in the oil record book of the circumstances of, and reason for, the discharge or escape.

(3) Each operation described in paragraph (2) of this Article shall be fully recorded without delay in the oil record book so that all the entries in the book appropriate to that operation are completed. Each page of the book shall be signed by the officer or officers in charge of the operations concerned and, when the ship is manned, by the master of the ship. The written entries in the oil record book shall be in an official language of the relevant territory in respect of the ship in accordance with paragraph (1) of Article II, or in English or French. (4) Oil record books shall be kept in such a place as to be readily available for inspection at all reasonable times, and, except in the case of unmanned ships under tow, shall be kept on board the ship. They shall be preserved for a period of two years after the last entry has been made.

(5) The competent authorities of any of the territories of a Contracting Government may inspect on board any ship to which the present Convention applies, while within a port in that territory, the oil record book required to be carried in the ship in compliance with the provisions of this Article, and may make a true copy of any entry in that book and may require the master of the ship to certify that the copy is a true copy of such entry. Any copy so made which purports to have been certified by the master of the ship as a true copy of an entry