On Thursday May 11th Lloyd’s Register (LR) held at its premises in Piraeus a Ballast Water Management Systems (BWMS) Workshop.

During the last meeting of the LR Hellenic Technical Committee and Environmental Sub-Committee in November 2016, when BWMS was at the top of the agenda following the ratification of “The International Convention for the Control and Management of Ships' Ballast Water and Sediments, 2004”, the Committee members endorsed LR’s initiative to facilitate a workshop on the practical experience gained from the use of BWMS on board vessels.

The scope of the workshop was to allow the Committee members and Lloyd’s Register to share their experience on BWMS including any issues faced during installation, commissioning and regular operation of such systems on board vessels. The methodology used to capture feedback involved the completion of a questionnaire by the members, who enthusiastically responded to the request, and further analysis of the findings by LR.

During the workshop Charalampos Anastasakis, LR Senior Specialist at Piraeus Technical Support Office, provided a regulatory update and presented the results of the survey. Furthermore, Stamatis Agelopoulos, LR Lead Specialist at Piraeus Technical Support Office, addressed the LR experience on installation and approval of BWTS. In-depth discussion followed among the members, chaired by Minerva’s Vayia Hatziyianni.

The outcome of this workshop will also be used to identify areas where a technical intervention may be required from the designers, manufacturers, owners and class rules.