EC POP&C project improves tanker safety

Set up in January 2004, the three year collaborative project funded by the EC and entitled “Pollution Prevention and Control ? Safe Transportation of Hazardous Goods by Tankers” (POP&C) has been researching the development of a rational methodology for the assessment of pollution risk from oil tankers. Managed by Intertanko and Strathclyde University, it has brought together 15 organisations from the European maritime sector with expertise in maritime safety covering design, construction, classification, and operational aspects. The IMO also participates as an observer.

To mark the half-way point of the project and its already promising interim results, a newsletter from Intertanko has been produced describing the project?s objectives and its participants, and providing short articles on the work that has been completed or which is currently in progress.

The most notable finding from a historic analysis of Aframax tanker casualties reveals that the average frequency rates for all categories of accidents for the period between 1978 and 1990 were reduced to about one eighth in the last five-year period 1999-2003. And whereas it can be argued that the frequency of casualties was too high in the 1970s and 1980s, the improvement that has taken place since must be recognised as remarkable. The brief article in the Newsletter examines the regulatory background which led to the decline in accident rates, while an extensive article on this subject is planned to appear in the press in the near future.