MEPC 80 confirms acceptance for electronic BDNs
IBIA is happy to report that the IMO has formally confirmed that bunker delivery notes (BDNs) are acceptable in either hard copy or digital form providing they meet the relevant requirements of MARPOL Annex VI.
It follows a proposal made to the 10th session of the Sub-Committee on Pollution Prevention and Response by the UK, IACS and IBIA. PPR 10 discussed the proposal at length before agreeing to the exact text of unified interpretation to regulations 18.5 and 18.6 of MARPOL Annex VI concerning electronic bunker delivery notes. IBIA was deeply involved in the process.
The 80th session of the Marine Environment Protection Committee (MEPC 80) last week
approved these unified interpretations and instructed the IMO Secretariat to revise MEPC.1/Circ.795/Rev.7 accordingly, 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.”