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THE
government has extended the implementation of the
double-hull policy for vessels carrying black oil to the
end of the year, but placed stiff conditions before
operators can qualify for such an exemption.
Sources
said the Maritime Industry Authority (Marina), during
its board meeting earlier this week, approved the
extension of the implementation of the double-hull
policy, which will take effect by the end of the month,
but the rules have yet to be made public.
The
extension is up to the end of December 2008.
Marina
administrator Vicente Suazo Jr. in a text message to
BusinessMirror confirmed that there is such an extension
of the implementation but “under certain conditions.”
“There
will be penalties to be imposed for every day of delay,
plus cash bond,” he said, but did not give details.
Marina
has been careful about extending the policy since many
big shipping firms have started investing millions of
pesos on either buying new double-hull tankers or
converting existing vessels.
With the
extension, the government has given in to the request of
operators who earlier said they would not be able to
comply with the ruling of using double-hull vessels to
move black oil, such as crude, anywhere in the country’s
waters, including the
Pasig River,
where the Pandacan oil depot is situated.
Most of
the tankers that carry black oil have been compliant
with the double-hull policy since most of them have
long-term charter contracts with oil companies, which
employ stricter requirements as a result of insurance
and other policies set by international conventions.
The
situation, however, is different with barge operators,
which provide service on a per-voyage basis.
It will
take only two months to convert a barge to double hull,
but they claim there is no available shipyard to do the
conversion.
Many are
also adamant since there is no guarantee they can
recover their investments as a result of the relocation
of Pandacan depot by 2013.
Conversion of a barge to double hull costs about P20
million, depending on the size, while buying a new one
costs between P120 million and P150 million.
Double-hull vessels are less likely to cause oil spills
in case of accidents, according to Marina, since the
bottoms and the sides of the tankers have two complete
watertight layers. The outer layer is the usual hull
and the second layer serves as a backup.
At
present, there are 22 vessels that carry persistent oil.
Of this figure, eight were able to convert to double
hull, but there were six additional double hull vessels
that came into the country since the MT Solar I sunk off
Guimaras Island in 2006, the country’s worst oil spill
in history. |
