Tankers for Sale

Confirm the hull. MARPOL Annex I (regulation 19) requires a double hull, or an IMO-approved alternative design, on oil tankers of 5,000 dwt and above ordered after 6 July 1993; single-hull tankers were phased out by age under regulation 20, and the Condition Assessment Scheme applied to single-hull tankers of 15 years and older. Ask for the IOPP certificate with its supplement and check what it records about the hull.^[1]

Bulk carriers and oil tankers are surveyed under the enhanced programme of inspections, made mandatory by SOLAS regulation XI-1/2 and set out in the 2011 ESP Code. Its renewal survey covers a dry-dock survey, the extent of overall and close-up surveys, thickness measurements and tank pressure testing; the intermediate survey widens with age (5–10, 10–15 and over 15 years); a survey report file and supporting documents are kept on board; and thickness measurements are taken by a certified company. Ask for the survey report file and the latest thickness measurement report, and check when the next renewal survey falls due — it is a dry-docking the buyer will pay for.^[2]

Start with class. When a ship moves between IACS member societies, the gaining society obtains the ship’s current status directly from the losing one under the transfer-of-class agreement, and the class entry survey it then carries out is set by the ship’s age and the losing society’s class status — from an annual survey for a ship under five years old up to a special survey at 20 years and over. A ship coming from a domestic register (ZC, China’s, is common in this list) is not a transfer between IACS members; ask the society you intend to class with what its entry survey will cover before you make an offer.^[3]

Ask for the records the class societies themselves review on a transfer: damages, major repairs, hull conversions and machinery alterations with their dates, the condition evaluation or hull summary report where one exists, the history of conditions of class, thickness measurements from the last special survey (including areas of substantial corrosion), the report of that survey and the periodical reports since, the coating condition of the water ballast tanks, and any restriction on the navigation area.^[4]

Check the ship on Equasis, which publishes safety-related information on ships and companies free of charge to registered users, against the particulars in the listing.^[5]

A tanker that has carried chemicals falls under MARPOL Annex II and the IBC Code as well — see the chemical tankers page.^[6]

The Ballast Water Management Convention has been in force since 8 September 2017: every ship implements a Ballast Water Management Plan and carries a Ballast Water Record Book, and the regulation D-2 standard limits the organisms a ship may discharge with its ballast water. Ask whether a treatment system is fitted and approved, or what fitting one would involve.^[7]