S.L. 499.12 Art. 76General operational requirements and resources.

An operator of a marine terminal/facility shall bind himself and all his servants, jointly and severally, to comply with all the requirements of the Relevant Instruments with special emphasis to the following:

(a) an operator shall ensure that when undertaking operations involving ship-to-terminal, terminal-to-ship or ship-to-ship transfer at a terminal’s facilities of dangerous cargoes or bunkers supplied by or permitted by the operator to be supplied by third parties at facilities controlled by that operator or ship’s COW or tank-cleaning operations, the requirements of regulation 33(5) to (8) are fully complied with;

(b) the terminal/facility checklist copies as provided in paragraph (a) shall be retained by the operator for at least twelve months and shall be kept readily available for inspection by the Authority as required;

(c) ship/shore bonding cables shall never be used;

(d) the operational practices conducted with hoses and other appliances, including jetty pipelines where applicable, for operations referred to in paragraph (a) and the certification required for them shall be in strict accordance with the requirements of regulation 35;

(e) at a minimum biannually, all flexible underwater lines used for the operations referred to in paragraph (a) shall be subjected to an underwater inspection, whilst being maintained under the maximum pressure for which these lines are certified;

(f) at least once every twelve months, all jetty pipelines and rigid underwater lines used for the operations referred to in paragraph (a) shall be examined whilst being maintained under the maximum pressure for which these lines are certified;

(g) inspections, as specified in paragraphs (e) and (f), shall only be carried out by independent contractors recognised by the Authority and a certificate attesting to and stating the results of each such test shall be obtained by the operator;

(h) prior to every operation, referred to in paragraph (a), all surge or over-pressure protection arrangements and devices for both underwater and surface product lines being used, shall be tested;

(i) during any operation, as referred to in paragraph (a), all the requirements of regulation 65(1)(a) to (k) shall be made applicable to and strictly complied with by marine terminal/facility operators;

(j) prior to commencement of handling liquid bulk cargoes, marine terminal/facility operators shall ensure that all drain holes and pipes and all other drains of any kind on their jetties, wharfs or quays, where liquid bulk cargoes might escape in case of an accident, are effectively closed and so remain, to prevent such possibility;

(k) during an operation, referred to in paragraph (a), operator’s personnel, in conjunction with ship’s personnel, shall inspect at intervals, ship’s mooring lines and arrangements to ensure they are being safely and adequately tended and maintained by the ship;

(l) in addition to the primary communication system used between the marine terminal/facility and the ship during all operations, specified in paragraph (a), there shall also be provided by such operator for immediate use an adequate 'secondary communications' system in the event of the normal communications system failing. Such system may consist of an intrinsically-safe portable V.H.F. with a dedicated channel provided to the ship by the operator or any other means acceptable to the Authority.