Please be informed that the Maritime and Port Authority of Singapore has recently issued shipping circulars related to the commissioning testing of ballast water management systems (BWMS) and the incorporation of contingency measures into ballast water management plans (BWMP).

1. Commissioning Testing of Ballast Water Management Systems (Shipping Circular No. 09 of 2019)

Commissioning testing to verify the proper operation of equipment shall be carried out at the installation of any BWMS in accordance with paragraph 8 of the Guidelines for Approval of Ballast Water Management Systems (G8) (MEPC.174(58) or MEPC.279(70)). MEPC 74 has approved a draft amendment to the Ballast Water Management Convention (BWMC) to conduct commissioning testing so as to demonstrate through sampling and analysis that a BWMS is working properly, and this amendment will be adopted at MEPC 75.
Prior to the entering into force of this amendment, all Singapore-flagged ships of 400GT and above that complete the commissioning testing of a BWMS after 8 September 2019 will be required to collect and analyse samples of ballast water during the commissioning testing as described below; compliance this requirement, however, is not mandatory for ships less than 400GT

･ Collect and analyse the samples of ballast water before and after treatment in accordance with BWM.2/Circ.70.
･ The treated samples of ballast water should be analysed for all size classes included in the D-2 standard.
･ Methods of analysis should be at least the indicative analysis methods listed in Table 3 of BWM.2/Circ.42/rev.1 or detailed analysis methods which bring samples to testing laboratories.
･ A written report, including adopted methods and detailed results which indicate the treated ballast water does not exceed the D-2 standard, should be provided to the attending Society surveyor for verification purposes.

(To be continued)