e-Bunker delivery notes confirmed as acceptable

It follows a proposal made to the 10th session of the sub-committee on Pollution Prevention and Response by the UK, International Association of Classification Societies and IBIA.

The 80th session of the Marine Environment Protection Committee (MEPC 80) last week approved the sub-committee’s interpretations and instructed the IMO Secretariat to revise MEPC.1/Circ.795/Rev.7, for dissemination as MEPC.1/Circ.795/Rev.8 – Unified interpretations to Regulations 18.5 and 18.6 of MARPOL Annex VI.

The unified interpretation agreed is as follows:

Applicability of the requirements for a bunker delivery note

Regulation 18

Fuel oil availability and quality

2 In the annex to circular MEPC.1/Circ.795/Rev.7, it is proposed to add a new interpretation after paragraph 12.1 as follows:

“12.2 The Bunker Delivery Note (BDN) required by regulation 18.5 is acceptable in either hard copy or electronic format provided it contains at least the information specified in appendix V to MARPOL Annex VI and is retained and made available on board in accordance with regulation 18.6.

In addition, an electronic BDN should be protected from edits, modifications or revisions and authentication be possible by a verification method such as a tracking number, watermark, date and time stamp, QR code, GPS coordinates or other verification methods.”