MOL Tanker Crew Conference, Manila

Members Mitsui O.S.K. Lines Ltd recently organised a full day safety conference in Manila for crew members serving within the fleet tanker division. The conference was attended by MOL senior management from Japan, London and Singapore as well as by a large number of deck and engineer officers of all ranks. Presentations were given on a range of topical subjects, including technical innovations, navigational safety, fleet performance, ship vetting and crew health and safety issues.

UK Club risk assessor, David Nichol, was invited to give a presentation on (non MOL) P&I incidents and lessons learned, which included case studies of actual claims and casualties, namely an enclosed space casualty, engine room fire, a mooring incident fatality, a tanker cargo contamination claim and bunker spill. It was interesting to note that despite the wide variety of incidents examined, common threads of causation could be identified, particularly the failure to observe documented procedures as well as inadequate training, familiarisation and emergency preparedness.