The Association has been advised that low sulphur fuel (0.1% or less) will be mandatory for all cruise ships berthing in Sydney Harbour after 1 October 2015 and in all New South Wales (NSW) ports after 1 July 2016.

The proposed regulations have been introduced following ongoing concerns of local residents of the White Bay Cruise Terminal in relation to noise and air pollution arising from the relocation of part of Sydney's overseas cruise passenger operations to White Bay some years ago.

The draft regulations introduce an offence if any of the engines of a ship use fuel other than low sulphur fuel during berthing operations, for which the Master and Owner are held liable and may be penalised up to $22,000 in the case of the Master and $44,000 in the case of Owners. Limited exemptions to the use of low sulphur fuel are provided. However, they do not accommodate ordinary commercial operational constraints and will only apply in exceptional and unexpected circumstances.

The full article can be found

here

.

Source of Information

Nathan Cecil

Partner

Holding Redlich

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