DYNAMARINe explained that the ‘base line criteria’ would be in line with OCIMF and also with marine environmental safety and the quality assurance criteria (MESQAC) for seagoing vessels engaged in ExxonMobil affiliated services.
MESQAC will require tanker operators to assess specific operational and location aspects prior to an STS operation from 1st January next year.
This audit process has already been tested and is ready to be implemented thanks to the support of a number of tanker operators, DYNAMARINe claimed.
Currently, service provider audits are only conducted by some oil companies and traders, as part of an internal procedure, which is non-transparent, the company said.
DYNAMARINe said that a lack of transparency neither helped to improve a safety culture nor healthy competition. “Transparency is the key to assisting an improved safety culture, which is the common interest of all parties in STS operations,” the company said in a discussion paper.
Not surprisingly, the service providers in the audience, who included SafeSTS’ Yvonne Mason and Bob Gilchrist, plus Fendercare’s Mohinder Rattan, among others, were not happy with this, claiming that they were already well audited by the industry and that client information was confidential by law.
However, DYNAMARINe’s directors, Alex Glykas and Stelios Perissakis, were at pains to point out that the company had identified more than 60 service providers worldwide and not all could be considered as good operators.
With the increase in STS operations worldwide, due diligence needed to be exercised by all the stakeholders in an STS operation, TMS Tankers’ Capt Apostolos Mavrives stressed.
He called on all stakeholders to support best practices in STS - “an application of common sense- full stop,” he said. “All stakeholders should sit down and audit service providers,” he added.
Clyde & Co’s Stephen Mackin urged everyone to get the quality right to start with. “There are still people out there who cut corners,” he warned.
Glykas explained that the concept was put together to avoid sub-standard practices. ”The Master is the key to closing any gaps in an operation,” he said.
He also stressed that the initiative to audit STS service providers should come from the tanker operators themselves. He said that a single tanker operator could not undertake this and he saw the move as a collaborative effort to set a baseline.