MMA defend safety of Malta-flagged ships

The Malta Maritime Authority yesterday defended the safety record of Maltese registered tankers kept out of a number of European countries' waters over the past week.

It also insisted that action affecting international trade and transport should be taken internationally and not unilaterally.

The authority said it was referring to several reports in the media about six Maltese registered tankers that "were or could have been" denied the freedom of trade and navigation, even though they were all trading legally and none of them posed any threat to safety.

The authority said the tankers Byzantio (built 1976), Enalios Titan (1978), Express (1980), Gudermes (1976), Moskovskiy Festival (1985) and Yevgeniy Titov (1986) were classed with top classification societies, in these cases, the American Bureau of Shipping, Det Norske Veritas and Lloyd's Register of Shipping.

All six carried valid certificates issued by the classification societies as required by international conventions on behalf of the government of Malta.

"Moreover, five of these tankers, at least in recent years, have not been involved in any casualty. Even more, these same ships had all been inspected several times by flag state control or under the port state control regime and the outcome of these inspections was always positive with none of these ships ever being detained."

The authority said that in particular, the Moskovskiy Festival (ordered out of Spanish and Portugese waters) had successfully passed a port state control inspection in Santa Cruz Teneriffe, Spain, as recently as one month ago.

The ship was also inspected in Gibraltar only four days ago and was described by the port state control inspector as a fine ship.

Although the tanker Byzantio (a target of protests by Greenpeace activists) was said to have been involved in a casualty last April, this was only a contact while at anchor with a bunkering ship.

Neither of the two vessels suffered any serious damage and there were no injuries or oil spillage. The Byzantio had also been detained in Ireland last August for deficiencies related to fire appliances and crew certification, which had nothing to do with the structure of the ship.

Since then it had successfully passed port state control inspections in Rotterdam and in Tallinn, Estonia, a class inspection in Tallinn and a flag state control inspection in Rotterdam.

"It is pertinent to point out that all these six tankers form part of an international fleet of more than 5,000 single hull tankers registered in several jurisdictions and operating worldwide.

"Following a decision taken at an international conference convened by the International Maritime Organisation in April 2001 single hull tankers will be phased out, according to their age, starting in 2003 with ships delivered in 1973 or earlier, and continuing up to 2015 for ships delivered in 1989 or later.

"Malta was one of the states that had supported this accelerated phasing out of single hull tankers. Malta also believes that if the need is felt to accelerate even further the phasing out of these ships, this decision should be taken internationally after taking into consideration the impact of such a decision.

"Shipping being by its very nature an international industry, action affecting international trade and transport should be taken internationally. Unilateral and arbitrary action should be avoided as much as possible."

The authority said that Malta, sitting astride one of the major shipping arteries, had always supported and would continue to support international action aimed at minimising as much possible any threats to the marine environment and to the livelihood and quality of life of the people who could be affected by any catastrophe.

"The Malta Maritime Authority, in the execution of its functions, shall continue to strive towards ensuring safety of life at sea and the protection of the marine environment," the authority said.