Tightening the tanker safety net.

(From Lloyds List)

Byline: In an exclusive interview with Hamburg Messe, International Maritime Organization secretary-general Efthimios Mitropoulos explains the motivation for toughening IMO regulations on the service life of single-hull tankers

Mr Mitropoulos, at the end of 2003 IMO accelerated the phase-out for single-hull tankers. Why was that decision taken?

That decision was taken in the light of particular concerns that some of our member governments had following the sinking of the tanker Prestige off the coast of Spain.

The principle that single-hull tankers should be phased out, due to the additional protection afforded by double hulls in certain types of incident, had already been established and was enshrined in the Marpol Convention, but the membership agreed that this phase-out should be brought forward.

Has everything been done to protect against tanker disasters from 2010? Where do you see room for improvement?

One can never say that everything has been done. However, what we aim to do is gradually to tighten the safety net so that substandard ships and substandard operators find it ...