ClassNK Technical Information No. TEC-0834 already provides information about the requirements for STS Operations Plan with approval procedure. In this connection, the Republic of the Marshall Islands Maritime Administrator issued Marine Notice No.2-013-10 for STS Operations Plan provided on Marshall Islands flag ships, summarized as below.

- The STS Operations Plan is to be developed taking into account the information contained in the following guidelines instead of IMO's "Manual on Oil Pollution, Section I, Prevention" and, ICS and OCIMF "Ship-to-ship Transfer Guide, Petroleum" fourth edition, 2005 identified in regulation 8 of MARPOL Annex I:

IMO's "Manual on Oil Pollution, Section I, Prevention", and
CDI/ICS/OCIMF/SIGTTO "Ship-to-Ship Transfer Guide for Petroleum, Chemicals, and Liquefied Gases", first edition 2013*

* Updated version of the ICS and OCIMF "Ship-to-ship Transfer Guide, Petroleum" fourth edition, 2005

- The presence of an up-to-date approved STS Operations Plan is to be verified by the RO responsible for issuing the IOPP certificate. In addition, updates are to be implemented by the date of the first annual, intermediate or renewal survey on and after 1 July 2015.

In line with the above Marine Notice, the STS Operations Plan updated based on above guidelines is to be provided onboard by the date of the first annual, intermediate or renewal survey carried out on and after 1 July 2015.

ClassNK will approve updated STS Operations Plans on behalf of the Administration and verify the presence of the approved STS Operations Plan at the first annual, intermediate or renewal survey carried out on and after 1 July 2015.

The ship owners or managers or builders of tankers are kindly requested to submit at least three copies of the updated STS Operations Plan for each applicable ship in their fleet for approval with a completed application form (see Attachment 2).

(To be continued)