Decision ID: 001159

In July 2000 the 1992 Fund Executive Committee considered the question as to whether the Slops, which had been converted from a ship to a floating oily waste receiving and processing facility, fell within the definition of ‘ship’ under the 1992 Civil Liability Convention and the 1992 Fund Convention. The Committee recalled that the 1992 Fund Assembly had decided at its 4th session that offshore craft, namely floating storage units (FSUs) and floating production, storage and offloading units (FPSOs) should be regarded as ships only when they were carrying oil as cargo on a voyage to or from a port or terminal outside the oil field in which they normally operated. The Committee noted that although the decision had been made in the context of craft in the offshore oil industry, there was, in the Director’s view, no significant difference between the storage and processing of crude oil and the storage and processing of waste oils derived from shipping. The point was made that since the Slops was not engaged in the carriage of oil in bulk as cargo it could not be regarded as a ‘ship’ for the purpose of the 1992 Conventions, which was supported by the fact that the Greek authorities had exempted the craft from the need to carry liability insurance in accordance with the 1992 Civil Liability Convention. The Committee decided that for these reasons the Slops should not be considered as a ‘ship’ for the purpose of the 1992 Civil Liability and Fund Conventions and that therefore these Conventions did not apply to this incident.