The three layers that decide what goes in a SEEMP and the deadline after a D or E rating (MARPOL Annex VI Regulation 26)

The ships that have to carry a SEEMP and the ships that have to put something specific inside it are not the same set. The 2021 revised MARPOL Annex VI Regulation 26 stacks the requirement in three layers. Each layer adds a condition, and at the end operating results come back into this same document.

The first layer is every ship

1 Each ship shall keep on board a ship specific Ship Energy Efficiency Management Plan (SEEMP). This may form part of the ship’s Safety Management System (SMS).

Two things are written in: the plan is ship specific, and it may form part of the Safety Management System. Whether it sits as a separate document or inside the SMS is left open. Developing and reviewing it takes into account the guidelines adopted by the Organization.

The second layer is 5,000 gross tonnage and above

For a ship of 5,000 gross tonnage and above, the SEEMP has to include a description of the methodology used to collect the data required by regulation 27.1 and the processes used to report that data to the ship’s Administration.

The character of the SEEMP shifts once here. If the first layer is a plan of what will be done, the second is a method statement of how things will be counted and reported.

The third layer is where tonnage and ship type apply together

Where a ship is 5,000 gross tonnage and above and falls into one of the categories the Annex lists, four more items had to be in the SEEMP on or before 1 January 2023.

What has to be included	Content
Methodology and reporting process	How the attained annual operational CII required by regulation 28 will be calculated and reported
The required CII for the next three years	The value set by regulation 28
An implementation plan	Documenting how the required CII will be achieved over those three years
A self-evaluation and improvement procedure	A procedure for assessing and correcting itself

That three years have to be written down in advance shows what this layer is. It is not a document reporting one year’s result after the fact but one carrying a plan forward.

A poor rating reopens the document

Regulation 28 documents the attained CII against the required CII to produce a rating from A to E. The middle point of rating C equals the required CII. And a poor rating comes back to the SEEMP.

A ship rated D for three consecutive years or rated E has to develop a plan of corrective actions to achieve the required CII. Revising the SEEMP to carry that plan is the next step, and a deadline attaches.

8 The SEEMP shall be reviewed to include the plan of corrective actions accordingly, taking into account the guidelines to be developed by the Organization. The revised SEEMP shall be submitted to the Administration or any organization duly authorized by it for verification, preferably together with, but in no case later than 1 month after reporting the attained annual operational CII in accordance with paragraph 2 of this regulation.

preferably together with is the recommendation and in no case later than 1 month is the ceiling. It counts from reporting the attained CII. And regulation 28 has that report made within three months after the end of the calendar year. The two deadlines run into each other.

There is more after the plan is filed. A ship rated D for three consecutive years or rated E has to duly undertake the planned corrective actions in accordance with the revised SEEMP. Filing the document does not close it out.

This document is subject to verification and company audits

.3 The SEEMP shall be subject to verification and company audits taking into account the guidelines to be developed by the Organization.

Verification and company audits are written in together. Having the document on board and the document actually being used are two separate things to confirm.

Worth confirming

The passages above come from pages 42 and 45 of the 2021 revised MARPOL Annex VI (MEPC.328(76)). The reduction factor and reference value that produce the required CII, and the detail of the rating calculation, are set by guidelines developed by the Organization. Whether that ship falls into a third layer category, what the ratings of the last three years were, and whether the three-year implementation plan in the SEEMP still matches current performance are where the actual judgement starts.