DISEÑO

Apart from the global chemical fleet, there are other major players in this industry, which significantly influence the development of global chemical shipping. These international and industry associations play key roles in formulating international maritime standards and industrial guidelines, which are crucial for the healthy and sustainable development of the industry.

The IMO is a specialised agency of the UN. Founded in 1948, The IMO’s major task is to develop and maintain a comprehensive regulatory framework for shipping which covers safety, environmental concerns, legal matters, technical co-operation, maritime security and efficiency of shipping (IMO, 2008a). The IMO plays a leading role in contributing to the adoption of various international safety standards, typically, the adoption of the ISM Code described in section 2.6.1. The ISM Code is essential for officially ensuring the safety of life at sea and for preventing marine environment pollution.

To be able to sail legally and globally, a ship needs to register with a particular country. The country becomes the Flag State of the ship. A Flag State is responsible for implementation of international standards adopted by the IMO and national maritime laws and regulations among all of its ships. Thus, the maritime administration of the State needs to make regular

vi Clean Petroleum Products

vii Double Hull

safety inspections of its ships to verify that ships are in compliance with various standards, rules and regulations. It is called Flag State Control (FSC).

In some cases a Flag State might fail to fulfil its commitment to strict implementation, as a result of which some ships degrade to substandard ships sailing in an unsafe condition. This problem is addressed by the Port State Control (PSC). A PSC is a scheme organised on a regional basis for surveillance of ships calling at a country's port. The maritime administration of that country is entitled to conduct safety inspections on those ships, since an unseaworthy ship sailing through coastal waters of any country can pose dangers to life, property and the marine ecological environment. The purpose of PSC is to verify that ships meet various international conventions or agreements and that ship conditions are not hazardous to crew’s health and safety (see Cariou et al., 2008).

Apart from official organisations, the review of the literature showed that supply chains also have significant influences on OHSM. Research from the UK food processing industry shows both direct and indirect supply chain pressures can impact on health and safety regimes within each factory, and supply chains play contradictory (both positive and negative) roles in relation to health and safety (Lloyd and James, 2008, p.726). Supply chains are hierarchical with uneven distributions of power within them. On the one hand, they provide potential for dominant actors to influence the behaviour of others in the business relationships (Walters, Bhattacharya and Xue, 2011, p.68). On the other hand, they are powerful and growing influences on the nature of working conditions and the work environment (ibid, p.71). The role of the major actors in the supply chains should not be neglected. In this study, the supply chains involve the following organisations that are of significant influence in terms of the health and safety management of this industry: the International Association of Independent Tanker Owners (INTERTANKO); the International Parcel Tankers Association (IPTA); the Chemical Distribution Institute (CDI);

and the Oil Companies International Marine Forum (OCIMF). In this sub-section, the CDI and the OCIMF are introduced, since they are the major industrial actors and have direct impact on chemical shipping and were often mentioned by the interviewees during my fieldwork.

The CDI was founded in 1994 and is an independent, non-profit organisation funded by the chemical industry. Its aim is to ensure the development and the preservation of an

inspection system for risk assessment concerning transport and storage of chemical cargoes (CDI, 2008). The CDI-Marine Scheme was particularly designed to improve the safety and quality performance of chemical shipping. The Scheme provides reports on the world chemical fleet and more than 600 ship owners and 3,000 chemical tankers participate (ibid, 2008). If a ship has a CDI-Marine Scheme report, it will be entered into the database of the European Quality Shipping Information System (EQUASIS). PSC authorities and shippers can also access the database to verify previous inspection records on CDI enrolled ships.

Although the CDI is not an official organisation, passing its inspections is increasingly acknowledged as a mark of a ship’s self-identity symbolising both good OHSM in the company as well as onboard their ships. In this sense passing CDI’s inspections has become more and more attractive for many shipping companies, particularly for middle- or small-sized firms.

The OCIMF also has a significant impact on chemical shipping. Founded in 1970 in London, the OCIMF is an oil/chemical industry’s voluntary organisation set up in response to public concern over tanker quality and safety standards. As of May 2010, there were 81 members that covered major international petrochemical corporations. The Ship Inspection Report Programme (SIRE) was one of the most significant initiatives introduced to improve safe operation. The Programme is featured by the following inspection protocols: 1) Vessel Inspection Questionnaire (VIQ); 2) Barges Inspection Questionnaire (BIQ); 3) Uniform SIRE Inspection Report; 4) Vessels Particulars Questionnaire (VPQ); 5) Barge Particulars Questionnaire (BPQ); 6) SIRE Enhanced Report Manager (WebSERM) (OCIMF, 2010).

Based on the inspection standards listed above, the system has created a large database in which the latest information about oil/chemical tanker inspections is recorded. In 2009, the database stored over 22,500 reports on over 8,000 vessels that received inspections. The data is of significant value for members of the Forum as well as other interested parties in this industry. SIRE information is available to maritime administrations of port/flag states.

This system is unique in its contribution to providing a high level of transparency in terms of the status of ship’s management and maintenance.

As the major actors in the supply chains in the chemical shipping industry, the inspections and audits conducted by CDI and OCIMF have significant impacts on the OHSM practices of trading companies. For example, if a company fails an oil major inspection, the oil major will not allow the ships of the company to transport its cargo. The consequences are that, on

the one hand, this could potentially improve the OHSM of the companies and play a constructive role in delivering best practices in safety standards to achieve safer shipping.

On the other hand, it could also lead to a coalition of interest between managers and employees to disguise health and safety issues because of the threat of loss of contracts from major customers such as the oil majors in this study.

The relevance of these organisations for the ship operators and crews in the present study will be discussed in the following data chapters and discussion chapter.