Ballast water management

Control risks through our approved procedure

Many administrations have introduced regulations that prohibit ships arriving in their waters from discharging ballast water that could have an impact on the local environment. Under these regulations, a ship's master is expected to prove he has taken steps to manage ballast water exchanges in line with the national and IMO regulations.

Lloyds Register ballast water management services help shipowners to develop a safe, practical strategy to reduce the risks associated with ballast waste management and meet environmental responsibilities. By adopting our custommade, well-structured systematic procedures, you can be confident of meeting national regulations and the International Maritime Organization's (IMO) Ballast Water Convention and its associated guidelines while effectively managing the operational risks to your ship.

• Management of risks during ballast water operations means compliance with national and international environmental regulations can be achieved without compromising safety.
• Helps prevent loss of hull integrity resulting from unplanned loads during ballast water transfer.
• Enables your company to demonstrate its vision for health, safety, quality and environmental issues.
• Reduces possible interruption of operations due to visits on board by port state officers for ballast water management inspections.
• Helps demonstrate to flag states that responsible actions have been taken.
• Demonstrates a ship's ballast water management capability to charterers.
• Helps enhance your reputation.

How does Lloyds Register help?

Tailored solutions
Our ballast water management plans are specific to each ship, comply with the IMO guidelines, and draw on our wide experience and research. Your plan will address and account for all key ballast water issues while helping to ensure that overall structural integrity and operational safety of the ship is not compromised.

Alternatively, if you have a ballast water management plan in place already, we can review and approve it against the Lloyd's Register Group assessment procedure and the IMO guidelines. Wherever we find that a satisfactory plan is in operation, we issue a ballast water management plan certificate, accompanied by the appropriate descriptive note, demonstrating to relevant authorities and organisations that the ship has a documented, verified procedure for ballast water management.

Maintaining operational safety
You need to be confident that hull integrity is not compromised during ballast water management operations. Using our experience, expertise and proprietary classification processes and tools, we assess the risks to your operations by identifying the possible loads and stresses caused by different ballast water management scenarios, and suggest safe operating boundaries for each ship. We then provide or approve a straightforward and easy-to-follow plan for specific ship operations, giving you confidence that your sea-going practices will not affect the integrity of your hull.

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