Regulations of the People’s Republic of China (PRC) on the Prevention and Control of Marine Pollution from Ships and the requirement that Owners/Operators of any vessel carrying polluting and hazardous cargoes in bulk or any other vessel above 10,000 GT enter into a pollution clean-up contract with a Ship Pollution Response Organization (SPRO) before vessel enters to a PRC port or engages in loading, discharge or ship-to-ship transfers outside of the port but within 20 nautical miles off shore.

Additionally, the PRC Maritime Safety Agency (MSA) has also published a Directory of Hazardous Bulk Liquid Cargo Apt to Cause Pollution (the “Directory”) for which oil booms need to be deployed during cargo operations or an Agreement with a SPRO needs to be concluded.

No SPRO Agreements will be needed for the following:   

-Any vessel under 10,000 GT either in ballast or carrying a liquid cargo in bulk not listed in the Directory

-Any ship driven by clean fuels and carrying a liquid cargo not in bulk

Oil booming is only required, inter alia, for ships loading, discharging, transferring over 300mt of cargoes listed in the Directory.

Source: http://en.msa.gov.cn

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