EVOLUTION OF THE LEGISLATION AND PRACTICE SURROUNDING THE MOVEMENT OF OIL BY SHIPS AND SPILLAGE THROUGH
... A significant amount of pollution is caused by shipping and maritime activities generally, in tonnage terms, the most important pollutant resulting from shipping operations is oil (IMO, 1998a). The best estimate for the total input of oil to the marine environment from all sources is some 3. ... Accidental spills from ships, together with offshore exploration and production activities, account for about 0. ... According to this table, it can be understood that although the cause of oil pollution from tanker accidents only contributes a relatively small percentage with a 12% of the total oil entering into the sea, but the impact against the marine environment can be disastrous to the immediate area, particularly when the accident happens close to the coast. Furthermore, a much greater quantity of oil enters the sea as a result of normal vessel operations (particularly the tanker operations), usually associated with the cleaning of cargo residues. Other causes of pollution include terminal operations, during which most common pollution incidents occur when oil is being loaded and discharged. ... Vessel operations became the second largest pollutant of the major inputs of petroleum to the marine environment, which has contributed some 33% of the total oil entering into the sea. ... 1 Impacts of oil movement by ships and oil spillage through the operational procedure Generally, oil movement is made up of two kinds, movement as cargo or as bunker fuel oil. Cargo oil for export is usually transported by tanker from the oilfield to its destination where it is off-loaded into another bulk terminal. It¡¯s comprehensible that bunker fuel oil has been used as the most important energy source considering no other mature technologies regarding replacement energy are as developed. Provided the oil supply and demand among the countries is not fairly balanced, oil movement by sea is thus inevitably a practical solution. As to the oil spillage through operational procedures, it occurs on most of the vessels. For crude oil tanker: after the tanker has discharged its cargo, a proportion of it still remains in the tanks. ... Exactly the same problems arose with those tanks filled with ballast, thus the oil spillage is through the process of exchange of ballast water. Furthermore, the oil leak from pumps, tanks and machinery is also available on board (Abecassis, 1978). In conclusion, wherever the oil pollution comes from, legislation regarding ship safety, environmental legislation for ships and ports, at the local, regional, national and international level has been set to increase since middle of 20 century(Chao, 1996). Some environmental legislation deals directly with environmental protection e. ... VARIOUS STAGES AND EVOLUTION OF LEGISLATION AND PRACTICE AS THEY AFFECTS OIL BY SHIPPING AND OPERATION As Pritchard (1987) mentioned that the record of oil pollution control dates back to the early 1920s, when oil replaces coal as the main source of fuel for technological progress. The pollution story starts with The Oil in Navigable Waters Act of 1922, which became the first national law against oil pollution. From international point of view, the legislation relating to marine pollution is contained almost wholly in treaties: general multilateral treaties, regional treaties, bilateral treaties and the Law of the Sea Convention. The treaties concerned with pollution from ships were all adopted under the auspices of the International Maritime Organization(Churchill & Lowe, 1999). ... 1 Development of OILPOL 54 Prevention being more desirable than post facto measures, resultful improvements have since been made to legislation on maritime pollution control. The first international conference concerned with oil pollution control of the sea was held in Washington in 1926. ... proposal for a total prohibition of oil discharges from ships was defeated. It was not until 1954 that a convention was finally concluded¡ªThe international Convention for the Prevention of the Sea by Oil 1954 (OILPOL), as amended, was the first real step towards the international legislation of maritime affairs so as to reduce the pollution of the sea by oil discharged from ships and served as a basis for establishing the succeeding conventions. ... Nations other than the flag state could inspect the vessel oil record book (mandated by the Convention) only when it called at their ports and, if discrepancies were discovered, they would have to request the flag state to take enforcement action. ... The discharge standards and prohibited zones were made more stringent in 1962 followed by 1969 amendments to the 1954 OILPOL did away with zones altogether and limited the rate of discharge of oil even further.