A new tanker vetting regime will begin in September, the Oil Companies International Marine Forum (OCIMF) says.
The charterers’ organisation said on Tuesday that it was putting shipowners on notice that Ship Inspection Report Programme 2.0 (Sire 2.0) will come into force on 2 September.
The industry had been awaiting a start date from the scheme administrator for the fully digitalised system.
Sire 2.0 will introduce new elements to assess a crew’s readiness to tackle pollution and safety threats at sea, TradeWinds has reported.
There were 4,160 ships from 254 operators registered under the Sire programme in 2022 and they were inspected on average twice a year.
“There will be more than one rude awakening in the tanker industry in the coming months when Sire goes fully live — not with all, of course, but some will not be able to continue their past track record of very good performance,” Fabian Fussek, chief executive of Berlin shipping software company Kaiko Systems, told TradeWinds last month.
The decision to go live was approved by OCIMF’s vessel inspection programme steering group, as well as the programmes and executive committees.
“This move to Sire 2.0 will mark the end of the phased transition to the updated, enhanced and digitalised tanker inspection programme, which is expected to transform how the marine industry assesses the safety and operational condition of tankers and their crew on an ongoing basis,” OCIMF said.
Programmes director Aaron Cooper explained that a “multiphase roll-out programme” ensured the industry had the opportunity to engage with the new system.
“This has worked very well as programmes users have been able to prepare and test their readiness under real-life test inspection conditions,” he said.
Confidence in new regime
“As a result of this phased approach and robust testing, we’re confident we can now proceed with implementing Sire 2.0 as the standard inspection tool for industry.”
The digital scheme will be tailored to the individual vessel and its risk profile and will require operators and crew to be prepared to respond to any potential inspection question from the Sire 2.0 question library.
“I cannot emphasise enough how important it is that all programme users use the next 60 days to ensure they are prepared to move permanently to Sire 2.0,” Cooper said.
