201905 Oil spill while disconnecting cargo arms

A tanker had finished discharging a cargo of crude oil. The duty officer and three other crew members were on deck, but the line clearing and disconnection of the cargo arms was done by shore personnel, one on the vessel and one on the berth. Typically, a terminal representative on the ship arranges the breath valves to be opened for draining. Then they signal to the person standing on the controls when the time is right to disconnect the cargo arms. The distance between the two people is around 10 metres.

Line clearing typically takes about five minutes but on this occasion the operation appears to have been rushed. The cargo arms were disconnected without checking with ship’s personnel and about 70 litres of crude was spilled on deck and in the drip tray. The oil spilled on deck was immediately contained and cleaned by the ship’s crew.

 

Lessons learned

• In terminals where the cargo arms are fully controlled by the shore side, the hazard of a pollution incident resulting from miscommunication is amplified. This should be considered during the planning stage.
• During the ship-shore meeting, the disconnection operation should be considered a critical stage of the operation and details on supervision and authorisations need to be clarified.