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What is Ship Oil Pollution Emergency Plan
(SOPEP)?
ByMI News NetworkJanuary 30, 2019Maritime Law
If you are a maritime professional working on ships, SOPEP
locker (room) is one of the important places which you would
be asked to familiarise with in the first few days of joining a
ship. Let’s understand the importance of knowing SOPEP-
Ship Oil Pollution Emergency Plan for a maritime professional.
Related reading: Procedure for ship familiarisation for new
crew members on ship
When an oil spill occurs at sea, it tends to spread over the
surface of the sea water, leaving a deadly impact on marine
mammals, birds, the shoreline, and most importantly the
ocean and the environment.
The cost to clean up an oil spill depends on the quantity and
quality of oil discharged in the sea and is calculated on the
basis of factors such as legal claims, money paid as
penalties, loss of oil, repairs and cleanups, and the most
important – loss of marine life and the effects on human
health which cannot be measured against any amount.
Representation image
Related reading: How to avoid oil pollution at sea from
ships?
As prevention is better than cure, in order to avoid the above
mentioned monitory losses and primarily to avoid marine
pollution and losses of marine species, a prevention plan is
carried on board by almost all cruise and cargo vessels. This
plan is known as SOPEP or ship oil pollution emergency plan.
What is SOPEP ?
As mentioned earlier, Sopep stands for Ship oil pollution
emergency plan and as per the MARPOL 73/78 requirement
under Annex I, all ships with 400 GT and above must carry an
oil prevention plan as per the norms and guidelines laid down
by International Maritime Organization under MEPC (Marine
Environmental Protection Committee) act.
The Gross tonnage requirement for an oil tanker, according to
SOPEP, reduces to 150 GT as oil itself is a kind of cargo which
doubles the risk of oil pollution.
Related Reading: Solas And Marpol Convention: A General
Overview
Master of the ship is the overall in charge of the SOPEP, along
with the chief officer as subordinate in charge for
implementation of SOPEP on board. SOPEP also describes the
plan for the master, officer and the crew of the ship regarding
ways to tackle various oil spill scenarios that can occur on a
ship. For oil tankers, action plan differs according to the cargo
handling and cargo tanks containing huge quantities of oil.
The essential SOPEP requirements for a ship
are:
1. The Ship Oil Pollution Emergency Plan must be written
following the provisions of regulation 37 of Annex I of
MARPOL
2. The approved plan guides the Master and officers on board
the ship concerning the steps to be taken when an oil
pollution incident has occurred or a ship is at risk of one.
3. It is a requirement under MEPC circular no. 256 that the
SOPEP contains all the information and operational
instructions related to the emergency procedure and SOPEP
equipment provided in the SOPEP kit.
Related Reading: 10 Methods For Oil Spill Clean-up At Sea
4. The plan must contain important telephone, telex
numbers, names etc., of all the important contacts to be
contacted in the event of an oil pollution
5. A recognised authority has approved the SOPEP, and there
are no changes or revisions made without the prior approval
of the Administration.
6. If there are any changes in the plan which is non-
mandatory, it generally does not require approval from the
administration. The owner and ship manager must update
the appendices about the non-mandatory changes done in
the plan
Contents of SOPEP – Equipment List
SOPEP contains the following things:
The action plan contains the duty of each crew member
at the time of the spill, including emergency muster and
actions.
SOPEP contains the general information about the ship
and the owner of the ship etc.
Steps and procedure to contain the discharge of oil into
the sea using SOPEP equipment
It contains the inventory of the SOPEP material provided
for pollution prevention such as oil absorbent pads,
sawdust bags, booms etc.
Onboard reporting procedure and requirement in case of
an oil spill is described
Authorities to contact and reporting requirements in
case of an oil spill are listed in SOPEP. Authorities like
port state control, oil clean up team etc are to be
notified
Authorities to contact and reporting requirements in
case of an oil spill are listed in SOPEP. Authorities like
port state control, oil clean up team etc. are to be
notified.
SOPEP includes drawing of various fuel lines, along with
other oil lines on board vessel with the positioning of
vents, save all trays etc.
The general arrangement of the ship is also listed in
SOPEP, which includes the location of all the oil tanks
with capacity, content etc.
The location of the SOPEP locker and contents of the
locker with a list of inventory
Guidance to keep the records of the pollution incident
(for liability, compensation and insurance purpose)
Material for Reference from essential organisations
(guidelines issued by ICS, OCIMF, SIGTTO, INTERTANKO,
etc.)
Procedures for testing various plan described in the
SOPEP
Procedure to maintain the record as required by the
authorities
Details of when and how to review the plan
General duties of ship’s crew under SOPEP:
MASTER: He/she is overall in charge of any incident related
to the oil spill and should informing the authorities about it.
He/she needs to ensure all crew members are complying with
the plan and records are maintained for the incident
Chief Engineer: He/she will be the in charge of
the bunkering operation and will instruct the subordinates to
prepare SOPEP KIT prior to any oil related operation (Sludge
transfer, lube oil bunkering, fuel oil bunkering etc.)
Chief engineer should keep the Master informed and updated
on the situation, and the results from action taken to limit oil
outflow.
Related reading: Responsibility of chief engineer under
SOLAS
Chief Officer: He/she will be the in charge of complete deck
operation to prevent any oil spill or in the event of a spill,
the Chief officer must keep the master in the loop at all times
and update the situation and action taken to stop or reduce
an oil outflow.
Related Reading: How to become an effective chief officer on
board ships?
Deck Duty Officer: To Assist the chief officer in deck watch
and
Alert and inform Chief Officer/ Chief Engineer on any potential
oil spill situation.
Related reading: 23 important points for vetting checklist for
ships third officer
Duty Engineer: To assist Chief Engineer for any oil transfer
operation which includes preparation of SOPEP material and
readiness of firefighting equipment.
Duty Rating(s): To assist and alert the duty officer and
engineer for detection of potential oil leakage and to
immediately assist by all possible means to restrict and clean
an ongoing spill. He/she should bring the additional SOPEP
material to the location for preventing oil from reaching the
ship’s railing.
SOPEP does not only provide details for preventing and
fighting an oil spill, but it also acts similar to any other
regulation of SOLAS as it also has the details to save the ship
and crew in the event of mishap such as fire, collision, listing
etc. and other related incident related to oil.
Disclaimer: The authors’ views expressed in this article do
not necessarily reflect the views of Marine Insight. Data and
charts, if used, in the article have been sourced from
available information and have not been authenticated by
any statutory authority. The author and Marine Insight do not
claim it to be accurate nor accept any responsibility for the
same. The views constitute only the opinions and do not
constitute any guidelines or recommendation on any course
of action to be followed by the reader.
The article or images cannot be reproduced, copied,
shared or used in any form without the permission of
the author and Marine Insight.
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9 Comments
1. Fessy Amukwaya says:
January 31, 2014 at 3:59 pm
It will be appreciated to receive a copy on SOPEP and
any other Oil pollution related materilas since I am
working closily in a Marine Environment with Maritime
Affairs Directorate under the Ministry of Works and
Transport – Namibia.
2. bayugaming says:
January 27, 2016 at 11:18 am
Hays!
I need your help.
Duplicate comment detected; it looks as though you’ve
already said that!
3. Foroud(master mariner) says:
October 12, 2016 at 4:50 pm
on AFRA MAX oil tanker double hull-GRT 53000,DW-
97000 in SOPEP manual the quantity of required anti
pollution items is not mentioned(annex VI,only sufficient)
,could any one advise the required quantity or where to
refer to..
thanks
4. S P Saxena says:
August 9, 2019 at 4:43 pm
Please tell me the conditions when SOPEP should not be
used during an oil pollution emergency
5. capt.randall lawrence
forbes says:
February 26, 2020 at 8:57 am
Good day .
Whats the minimum requirement to carry on board ships
>500grt Oil spill dispersant
OSD . Any regulations in force.
6. md jubayer alam says:
December 31, 2020 at 8:34 am
sir, please describe opa90kit
7. Capt Marc Van der Voort says:
January 13, 2021 at 3:42 pm
Does SOPEP applies for Yachts crossing oceans?
8. wilfred maglinte says:
February 2, 2021 at 9:08 am
does crew boat of 65 grt compulsory to have SOPEP and
so with monthly safety drill with only 3 crew on board?
9. Anish says:
February 2, 2021 at 9:43 am
No.
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