At the 28th session of the IMO Assembly (25 November to 4 December 2013), the IMO plenary approved without comment the resolution for the Ballast Water Management Convention 2004 under which ships constructed before the entry into force of the Convention will not be required to comply with regulation D-2 (Ballast Water Performance Standard) until their first renewal survey following the date of entry into force of the Convention. Previously, the Convention would have required such ships to comply after a fixed date. The Convention will come into effect 12 months after ratification by 30 countries representing 35 per cent of global tonnage. Currently there are 38 Contracting States covering 30.38 per cent of global tonnage.

The revised MARPOL Annex III applies to all ships carrying harmful substances in packaged form and came into force internationally on 1 January 2014. Regulation 3 on “Marking and labelling”, Regulation 4 on “Documentation” and Regulation 8 on “Port State control on operational requirements” relating to stopover loading and unloading operations have been amended.

Regulation 5-2 in Chapter VI, prohibiting the blending of bulk liquid cargoes and production processes during sea voyages, entered into force on 1 January 2014. The new regulation was adopted in May 2012 pursuant to Resolution MSC.325(90). “Blending” means the process whereby the ship’s cargo pumps and pipelines are used internally to