Bunker delivery note and fuel sample retention periods and custody (MARPOL Annex VI Regulation 18)

Say the ship bunkers in Singapore and calls in Europe on the next voyage. There are three things a port State inspector can look at. The bunker delivery note, the representative sample sealed at the end of the bunkering, and, if compliant fuel oil could not be obtained, the record that backs that up.

The three are not the same kind of thing. They stay for different lengths of time, the clock starts on different days, and different parties have to be holding them. MARPOL Annex VI Regulation 18 sets each of them out in a separate paragraph. What survives, for how long, and in whose hands is the question this article answers.

The three years on the delivery note run from the bunkering date

A ship subject to regulations 5 and 6 records the details of the fuel it takes for combustion by means of a bunker delivery note (paragraph 5). The floor for what has to be written on it is set by appendix V to Annex VI.

6 The bunker delivery note shall be kept on board the ship in such a place as to be readily available for inspection at all reasonable times. It shall be retained for a period of three years after the fuel oil has been delivered on board.

The day the clock starts on is after the fuel oil has been delivered on board. Not the day the fuel was burned off, the day the ship received it. A note for fuel burned off within a month still has to sit out its three years from the bunkering date. The stack of notes on board grows independently of what is left in the tanks.

The placement condition sits in the same paragraph. The note has to be somewhere on board where it can be found for inspection at any reasonable time. Nothing may have been thrown away, but if nobody knows where the note is, that sentence is still not met.

A second copy of the same note stays with the supplier

Paragraph 9 puts duties on the authorities a Party designates. They maintain a register of local suppliers (paragraph 9.1), they require suppliers to provide the note and the sample (paragraph 9.2), and they require a copy to be retained.

.3 require local suppliers to retain a copy of the bunker delivery note for at least three years for inspection and verification by the port State as necessary;

The ship side reads three years and the supplier side reads at least three years. For one bunkering there are two copies that can be set against each other. The port State does not have to judge on the single sheet the ship hands over.

7.1 The competent authority of a Party may inspect the bunker delivery notes on board any ship to which this Annex applies while the ship is in its port or offshore terminal, may make a copy of each delivery note, and may require the master or person in charge of the ship to certify that each copy is a true copy of such bunker delivery note.

The authority may copy the note and may require the master or the person in charge to certify that the copy is a true one. The next sentence of the same paragraph lets it verify the contents with the port where the note was issued. Paragraph 7.2 requires all of this to be done as expeditiously as possible without delaying the ship unduly.

The sample cannot be discarded before the fuel is burned

8.1 The bunker delivery note shall be accompanied by a representative sample of the fuel oil delivered taking into account the guidelines developed by the Organization. The sample is to be sealed and signed by the supplier’s representative and the master or officer in charge of the bunker operation on completion of bunkering operations and retained under the ship’s control until the fuel oil is substantially consumed, but in any case for a period of not less than 12 months from the time of delivery.

Three things sit inside that one sentence.

• Sealing and signing. The supplier’s representative signs together with the master or the officer in charge of the bunker operation. The moment is the completion of the bunkering.
• Custody. It is under the ship's control. The ship keeps it under its own control.
• Period. Until the fuel oil is substantially consumed. In no case shorter than 12 months from the time of delivery.

Two conditions run at once, so the shorter one does not end it. If that fuel is still in the tank after 12 months, the sample stays too. If it is burned off in two months, the sample still sits out its 12 months. Unlike the three years on the delivery note, the period on the sample moves with how fast the ship burns the fuel.

Analysis starts when a Party requires it. The verification procedure in appendix VI to Annex VI then applies (paragraph 8.2).

The record for fuel that could not be found has no period at all

Paragraph 2.1 lists two things an authority may require from a ship that did not use compliant fuel oil. A record of the actions taken to try to comply, and evidence of the attempt to buy.

.2 provide evidence that it attempted to purchase compliant fuel oil in accordance with its voyage plan and, if it was not made available where planned, that attempts were made to locate alternative sources for such fuel oil and that despite best efforts to obtain compliant fuel oil, no such fuel oil was made available for purchase.

The content of the evidence is tied to the voyage plan. Whether the ship tried to buy as planned, and whether it looked for alternative sources when the fuel was not available where it was planned. The chain has to run all the way to none being available despite those efforts.

The provision attaches no retention period to this record. It attaches a notification instead.

2.4 A ship shall notify its Administration and the competent authority of the relevant port of destination when it cannot purchase compliant fuel oil.

Two addressees: the Administration and the competent authority of the relevant port of destination. shall notify leaves no choice. The Party in turn notifies the Organization that the ship presented evidence of non-availability (paragraph 2.5).

Paragraph 2.2 says the ship should not be required to deviate from its intended voyage or to delay the voyage unduly in order to comply. Paragraph 2.3 has the Party take all relevant circumstances and the evidence presented into account when it decides what to do, and not taking control measures is one of the options on that list.

Alternative documentation opens for only one of the three

11 For every ship of 400 gross tonnage and above on scheduled services with frequent and regular port calls, an Administration may decide after application and consultation with affected States that compliance with paragraph 6 of this regulation may be documented in an alternative manner that gives similar certainty of compliance with regulations 14 and 18 of this Annex.

Three conditions: 400 gross tonnage and above, scheduled services, frequent and regular port calls. Two steps in the procedure: an application has to be made, and the Administration decides after consulting the affected States.

What splits here is scope. The only thing that may be documented in another manner is paragraph 6. That covers keeping the note on board and retaining it for three years, and nothing else. The sample in paragraph 8.1 is not in that sentence. A ship holding the approval still seals the sample and keeps it under the ship’s control.

What is kept	Clock starts	Period	Who holds it
Bunker delivery note	Day of delivery on board	Three years	The ship
Copy of the note	Not stated	At least three years	The local supplier
Representative sample	Time of delivery	Until substantially consumed, at least 12 months	Under the ship’s control
Evidence of the attempt to buy	Not stated	Not stated	The ship, produced on request

Worth confirming

The passages above come from printed pages 32 to 34 of the consolidated MARPOL Annex VI (resolution MEPC.328(76)). Regulation 18 fixes the periods and the custodians and hands the rest on. What goes on the note is set by appendix V, how the sample is drawn is set by the guidelines developed by the Organization, and the analysis procedure is set by appendix VI. Which ships carry the duty at all is set by regulations 5 and 6. The alternative documentation in paragraph 11 is decided by the Administration on application, so the first thing to confirm is whether the flag State has a procedure for it.