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The American Bureau of Shipping (ABS) has announced that it will be hosting a live webinar in November which will cover the major topics covered and decisions made during next month's 73rd meeting of the Marine Environment Protection Committee (MEPC 73).

The webinar is scheduled to take place on November 7 at 10:00am Central Time (CT) - 12 days after the completion of MEPC 73 on October 26.

ABS has also released its September 2018 Regulatory News Update in which it reports on the key issues covered during the IMO's 72nd meeting of the Marine Environment Protection Committee (MEPC 72), held in April.

The update provides additional information to that reported in the ABS's MEPC 72 Brief, issued on April 13.

Sulphur cap 2020

ABS notes that during MEPC 72, draft amendments to MARPOL Annex VI, Regulation 14, with regard to the global 0.5 percent cap on fuel sulphur content by 2020, were approved by the Committee with a view to adoption at MEPC 73 in October 2018.

The draft amendments prohibit the carriage of non-compliant fuel oil for propulsion or operation on board a ship.

MEPC also adopted a best practice guidance for fuel oil purchasers/users for assuring the quality of fuel oil used on board ships. The move is designed to support the effective implementation of the new 2020 standard.

Fuel consumption reporting

The September ABS update explains that amendments to Chapter 4 of MARPOL Annex VI have recently come into force, requiring that all ships of 5,000 gross tonnes and above collect and report fuel consumption data from January 1, 2019.

A new Part II of the Ship Energy Efficiency Management Plan (SEEMP) requires ships to document the methodologies to be used to collect and report the required data to the Flag Administration by the end of 2018.

MEPC 72 webinar

An ABS webinar entitled 'MEPC 72 Outcomes & Impact' is available on the classification society's website. Presented by Joseph Gardemal and Stamatis Fradelos, who both attended MEPC 72, it provides an overview of the outcomes from the meeting and outlines key implications for shipowners and operators.