Philippines oil tankers given conversion deadline
October 21, 2007Agence France-Presse (via Inquirer)
Oct. 18, 2007
MANILA — All Philippine-registered ships carrying oil in local waters must have double hulls by next year or face bans, regulators ruled Thursday.
The April 23, 2008 deadline would allow the Philippines to comply with an International Maritime Organization convention and prevent maritime pollution, Maritime Industry Authority administrator Vicente Suazo said in a written order.
Failure to comply would earn operators a daily fine of P50,000 ($1,136) and a two-month suspension.
The vessels would eventually be de-listed from the Philippine registry and their operators would lose their operating license.
The Philippine Petroleum Sea Transport Association, an industry group, estimates that converting single-hull tankers with a gross weight of 5,000 tons to double-hulls would cost $12-15 million each.
The move follows last year’s sinking of a tanker in the central Philippines carrying 2.27 million liters (500,000 gallons) of oil, causing the country’s worst-ever environmental disaster.
GUIMARAS OIL SPILL 
conversion is a process very difficult to manage, and is not policy corect it is make with no control of any kind of rules.