Intertanko Latin American Panel (Lap) 7Th Meeting

Tuesday, November 06, 2007

Our Ref.: JJ-30345/850002

DRAFT MINUTES

INTERTANKO LATIN AMERICAN PANEL (LAP) 7TH MEETING

OCTOBER 31 – NOVEMBER 1, 2007

HILTON BUENOS AIRES HOTEL

PUERTO MADERO

BUENOS AIRES, ARGENTINA

ATTENDEES:

COMPANY NAME

INTERTANKO US OfficeJosephANGELO (Secretariat)

Odfjell ArgentinaCarlos BUSSOLI

RightShipEric CLARKE

AGEMARJan de KOK

TransmarinePatrick DUNBAR

ABSJose CarlosFERREIRA

PMI ComercioJose Luis HERNANDEZ

PetrobrasLuiz CarlosKUSTER

Teekay Carlos LOZANO

Tradewind Tankers Carlos JuanMADINABEITIA (Chairman)

PetrobrasElizioNETO

Anatares NavieraGustavoPEREYRA

Odfjell BergenHans Erik SAETHER

ABS ArgentinaRuben SAIED

INTERTANKOLondon OfficePeter SWIFT

Prefectura Naval ArgentinaLuis ZECCHIN

APOLOGIES RECEIVED FROM:

Heidmar Jose PERAZA

UltragasMichaelSCHRODER

AGENDA:

1. Anti-trust/competition law compliance

2. Minutes from the last meeting

3. Managing Director’s overview

4. Vina del Mar PSC update

5. Air emissions

6. Recycling of ships

7. Human element

8. INTERTANKO Environmental Committee update

9. Maracaibo Channel

10. Carriage of Ethanol and Vegetable Oils

11. “Blue Sky” Thinking

12. Long range identification and tracking of ships

13. Update on Legal Matters

14. Poseidon Challenge

15. INTERTANKO Annual Tanker event

16. Any other business

17. Next meeting

The Chairman opened the meeting by welcoming all those in attendance and thanking them for coming to Buenos Aires, Argentina. Henoted the increased attendance at this panel meeting and encouraged all members of the panel to continue to pursue growth of the membership of the panel throughout the Latin American region. He pointed out that there were a number of tanker owners and operators in the Latin American region that would benefit by becoming members of INTERTANKO and the Latin American panel and their participation would also be of benefit to INTERTANKO. He recommended that all members of the panel should actively seek these companies out and encourage them to join INTERTANKO and the Latin American panel.

The Secretariat advised the panel of the proposed meeting schedule, logistical arrangements for the meeting and arrangements for the Welcome Dinner.

1.ANTI-TRUST/COMPETITION LAW COMPLIANCE

At the start of the meeting the Secretariat reminded participants of INTERTANKO’s Anti-trust/Competition law Compliance Statement and that the meeting was being conducted in compliance with INTERTANKO’s anti-trust/competition law guidelines.

2.MINUTES FROM THE LAST MEETING

The draft minutes of the panel’s 6th meeting which was held on February 7-8, 2007 at the Sheraton Panama Hotel in Panama City, Panamawere approved as they stand.

3.MANAGING DIRECTOR’S OVERVIEW

The Managing Director of INTERTANKO, Peter Swift, provided the panel with an overview of the latest major issues that involve INTERTANKO. His presentation can be seen in the first section at

His presentation focused on an overview of INTERTANKO which included membership applications, finances, panel structures and the secretariat, European issues, greenhouse gas activities and tanker incident reporting and sharing information.

During the discussion, the panel expressed its views on the current panel structure for the Latin American panel. It was pointed that that it was difficult to achieve a Latin American panel, but now that it was established, the panel agreed that it was useful, productive and functioning well and, therefore, the Latin American panel should remain as currently structured. In addition, as mentioned by the Chairman in his opening remarks, the panel agreed that it should continue its efforts to make the panel stronger by encouraging other tanker owners in the Latin American region to become members of INTERTANKO and the panel.

The panel also discussed how it could have a bigger impact on issues confronting the tanker industry in the Latin American region. It this regard the panel agreed that its best approach was to encourage governments in the Latin American region to become more vocal at IMO to ensure that the Latin American voice was heard at IMO with the overall objective of achieving international solutions at IMO, rather than regional or national unilateral solutions. The panel felt that this approach was particularly important when attempting to reduce greenhouse gas emissions worldwide.

When discussing tanker incident reporting, the panel agreed that a significant tanker incident had the potential for serious consequences for the tanker industry as a whole. The INTERTANKO initiative of sharing information on tanker incidents would be extremely beneficial in helping allowing members to share important incident information with each other and, where possible, lessons learned, thereby contributing to INTERTANKO’s strategic goal of “continuous improvement.” Members of the panel were encouraged to use the confidential platform for reporting incident information at

Eric Clarke of Rightship offered to provide incident data from their database to INTERTANKO in an effort to further enhance reporting. Peter Swift thanked Eric for this offer and said that this was a matter that needed to be discussed with the Executive Committee.

4.VINA DEL MAR PSC UPDATE

CDR Luis Zecchin of the Prefectura Naval Argentina and Secretariat Officer for the Vina del Mar Agreement on Port State Control provided the panel with an excellent update on their port state control program in Latin America. His presentation can be seen at

He provided a general overview of the organization and framework of the agreement and provided statistics on the inspections, deficiencies and detentions of ships in the Latin American region with a comparison of tankers and other types of ships. These statistics showed that the number of port state control inspections on all types of ships has risen from 2004 to 2006, but the number of such inspections on tankers decreased from 2004 to 2005, but then rose from 2005 to 2006. With regard to deficiencies the statistics indicated that for all types of ships there had been an increase in the number of deficiencies found from 2004 to 2006. With regard to detentions from 2004 to 2006, the statistics indicated that there was an increase from 2004 to 2005, but then a decrease from 2005 to 2006 which was a positive development. As might be expected, the majority of ships being detained were 26 years or older. The most common deficiency detected was related to Certificates and Endorsements for the Ship’s Master, officers and ratings and more recently, in crew knowledge of the Ship Security Plan and access to restricted areas.

In concluding, CDR Zecchin said that he saw a common objective behind the goals of the Vin del Mar Agreement and the INTERTANKO Strategic Plan goal of Zero Deaths, Zero Pollution and Zero Detention and the Poseidon Challenge and strongly recommended that INTERTANKO and the Secretariat for the Vina del Mar Agreement explore areas for cooperation based upon these common goals and objectives.

During the discussion of the issue, the panel members raised a number of issues, including:

1. Inconsistencies existed between countries in port state control inspections;
2. There was no appeal process when a ship was detained;
3. There appears to be a “quota” of inspections that must be conducted irrespective of the condition of the ship or when its last inspection was conducted;
4. If a ship is inspected by the US Coast Guard or one of the other regional MOUs within the pas 6 months, is there a need to have the ship inspected again;
5. There appeared to be inconsistencies in when a code 17 deficiency is recorded and when a code 30 deficiency is recorded;
6. INTERTANKO could assist in providing knowledge and experience on tankers to port state control inspectors.

In view of the above discussion and the desire of both organizations to cooperate in areas of mutual interest, the panel requested the Secretariat to further explore these matters with the Vina del Mar secretariat at a follow-up meeting. CDR Zecchin welcomed this request from the panel and agreed to discuss with the Secretariat the most appropriate time to meet, including the possibility of INTERTANKO attending the next meeting of the Vina del Mar Agreement Committee.

The Chairmanthanked CDR Zecchin for his excellent presentation, his suggestion for improved cooperation between INTERTANKO and the Vina del Mar Secretariat and his open willingness to conduct further dialogue with the INTERTANKO Secretariat on these issues.

5.AIR EMISSIONS

Peter Swift provided the panel with a presentation on the latest developments on air emissions from ships. His presentation can be seen in the third section at

This presentation addressed provided an overview of the developments at IMO on the revision of Annex VI of MARPOL (Regulations for the Prevention of Air Pollution from Ships), developments that have taken place nationally and regionally to reduce air emissions from ships, scrubber developments, the INTERTANKO proposal to use marine diesel oil (MDO) and the other options under consideration for the revision of Annex VI and emission trading.

In discussing this issue, panel members made the following comments:

1. The concern is that IMO will agree on the middle ground which may not be the best solution for the ship operator;
2. There is no cohesion on this issue within the marine industry and this hurts our efforts;
3. Shipowners are not united on this issue;
4. The solution should be solved ashore not on the ship;
5. If the solution is forced to take place on the ship, there are going to be a significant increase in maintenance problems on the ship.

In general, there was support for the INTERTANKO position and the panel urged the Secretariat to continue advocating the distillate solution.

6. RECYCLING OF SHIPS

The Secretariat provided the panel with an update on the developments at IMO of a new draft convention on the recycling of ships and industry initiatives to address this matter. His presentation can be seen at

The presentation informed the panel about the progress being made at IMO in drafting a new international convention on the recycling of ships, the major elements of the draft new treaty that would apply to the ship and to the recycling facility and the current schedule for adoption of the new treaty at IMO. The presentation also addressed the five elements of the INTERTANKO interim strategy that had been approved by the INTERTANKO Council and which included many of the comments provided by this panel at its last meeting, the shipping industry coalition (which included INTERTANKO) agreed interim measures which were very similar to the five elements of the INTERTANKO interim strategy and the challenges facing the shipping industry when this new convention enters into force.

In discussing this subject, the Chairman informed the panel of the discussion that took place within the INTERTANKO Environmental Committee on this matter. In particular, the Chairman pointed out that the Environmental Committee had raised two major points – the first related to the frequency of surveys of the ship to verify compliance with the new treaty and the second related to documentation for the Inventory of Hazardous Material. With regard to the survey, the committee came to the conclusion that the survey should not be more frequently than every 5 years. The panel agreed with this conclusion and further agreed that surveys at 5 year intervals may assist the ship owner in ensuring that the Inventory of Hazardous Materials is up to date. With regard to the documentation for the inventory, the committee urged the Secretariat to bring the issue to the attention of the Documentary Committee for their action. The clause would relate to the maintenance of the Inventory of Hazardous Materials as specified in the draft IMO Convention and ensure that the IHM is up to date on the sale of the ship. The panel agreed with this recommendation.

7. THE HUMAN ELEMENT

Peter Swift provided the panel with a presentation which was an overview of developments by the INTERTANKO Human Element Committee and the Industry Maritime Foundation. His presentation can be seen in the second section at

His presentation addressed cadet berthing and shipboard training, ILO 180 Convention guidelines, safe manning, officer retention, the Tanker Officer Training Standard (TOTS), human factor in tanker accidents, fair treatment of seafarers, accommodation standards and the Industry Maritime Foundation. The Secretariat informed the panel about the Indian proposal at MSC 83 to require cadet berthing and training on all ships which has been forwarded to the IMO Subcommittee on Standards for Training and Watchkeeping for further consideration.

In discussing the issue the panel offered the following comments to assist the INTERTANKO Human Element Committee in its deliberations:

1. Language communication between the ship’s crew and the charterers/terminals has been a growing problem and perhaps a language requirement should be developed under TOTS;
2. Treatment of seafarers is extremely important;
3. A positive environment must be created within the company, encouraging teamwork;
4. Proper training of the ships’ officers is crucial to producing good results shipboard;
5. Proper treatment by terminals, especially with regard to shore leave, is essential;
6. Time in rank is another problem that needs to be resolved;
7. With the Latin American region, there is a growing qualified officer shortage problem for their national flags.
8. In certain Latin American countries, the members are competing with the offshore industry which provides better work conditions and work hours.

The Chairman invited panel members to provide the Secretariat with their experiences so they could be shared with the Human Element Committee.

With regard to the IMF, Peter Swift briefed the panel of its intent and encouraged all panel members to become participants in the IMF.

8.INTERTANKO ENVIRONMENTAL COMMITTEE UPDATE

The Chairman, who is a member of the INTERTANKO Environmental Committee, gave the panel a brief overview of the issues discussed at the last Environmental Committee meeting using, as talking points, the draft minutes of the meeting which where issued only three days before the panel meeting. These issues included recycling of ships (which was discussed under agenda item 6), reception facilities, ballast water management, biofouling, greenhouse gas emissions, anti-fouling systems, training and awareness, liaison with environmental groups, marine noise pollution, whale strikes and the Green Marine Industry Environmental Initiative in Canada. Members of the panel asked specific questions about a number of these issues which the Chairman answered. In view of the interest expressed by the panel in this matter, the Chairman suggested that the Secretariat for the Environment Committee attend the next meeting of the panel and provide a thorough overview of all the issues being discussed by this Committee. The panel fully agreed with this suggestion and requested the Secretariat to make the necessary arrangements.

The Chairman requested the Secretariat to forward to all members of the panel the draft minutes of the Environmental Committee and Green Marine Initiative which was done by the Secretariat on November 5.

9. MARACAIBO CHANNEL

The Secretariat informed that panel that as requested at its last meeting, INTERTANKO had sent another letter to the President of the Instituto Nacional de los Espacios Acuaticos (INEA) on March 22, 2007 suggesting a meeting to discuss the safety issues related to transiting the Maracaibo Channel and to explore areas of cooperation. To date, we have not received a response.

The panel discussed whether it should collect information on the problems ships were having in transporting the channel and then bring this to the attention of INEA. However, the panel felt that INEA knew about the problems and were doing their best to address them. In addition, it was felt that such an approach to INEA could be viewed as confrontational which may not be in the best interest of INTERTANKO members that transit the Channel. On this matter it was agreed that the Secretariat and all panel members should look for opportunities for further communication and cooperation with INEA in an effort to find a solution to this problems.

It was suggested that if the charterer wants the ship to enter the channel at night, they should be encouraged to contact INTERTANKO to be made aware of the problems of night transit through the channel. The Secretariat was requested to raise this matter with OCIMF.

The Chairman then invited CAPT Jan de Kok of AGEMAR to provide the panel with an update on this issue. CAPT de Kok provided the panel with general information on the Maracaibo Channel,the most recent buoy status report as of October 29, 2007, dredging work that has taken place within the channel and the plans for future dredging, navigational restrictions, permitted sailing drafts, channel closures, special instructions from the channel Harbor Master and recent groundings in the Channel.