Resolution MEPC.130(53)

Guidelines for on-board exhaust gas-SOx cleaning systems

adopted on 22 July 2005

THE MARINE ENVIRONMENT PROTECTION COMMITTEE,

RECALLING Article 38(a) of the Convention on the International Maritime Organization concerning the functions of the Marine Environment Protection Committee (the Committee) conferred upon it by international conventions for the prevention and control of marine pollution,

RECALLING ALSO that the Conference of Parties to the International Convention for the Prevention of Pollution from Ships, 1973, as modified by the Protocol of 1978 relating thereto (MARPOL 73/78), held in September 1997, adopted the Protocol of 1997 to amend MARPOL 73/78 with a new Annex VI on the Prevention of Air Pollution from Ships,

NOTING that the 1997 Conference, by regulation 14(4)(b) of Annex VI, agreed that ships within a SOx emission control area are permitted to operate with an exhaust gas cleaning system approved by the Administration and taking into account guidelines to be developed by the Organization,

BEING AWARE that the Protocol of 1997 entered into force on 19 May 2005 and that exemptions from the requirements for SOx emission control areas will cease on 18 May 2006,

HAVING CONSIDERED the recommendation made by the Sub-Committee on Ship Design and Equipment at its forty-eighth session,

1. ADOPTS the Guidelines for exhaust gas-SOx cleaning systems, as set out in the annex to this resolution;

2. INVITES Governments to apply the Guidelines from the date of their adoption.

Click here for Annex