The drive to develop common Rules for scantlings for double-hull tankers over 150m in length is nearing completion following the result of a joint effort between the American Bureau of Shipping (ABS), Lloyd's Register and Det Norske Veritas (DNV)

The Joint Tanker Project has its origin in the so-called 'Ten Commandments' issued by ABS, Lloyd's Register and DNV in March 2001. The driving force behind these initiatives was to ensure that classification societies would not compete on standards. A particular emphasis was placed on greater transparency, consistency of approach and the improvement of the overall quality of the world fleet.

In early 2002, the three societies took the decision to develop a new set of common Rules for oil tankers which would not only help to achieve the aim of doing away with competition on standards, but would also represent a deliberate effort to enhance robustness by design. Following a meeting between the three societies in January 2002, a steering group was established which currently comprises Jim Card, Senior Vice President of Technology, ABS; Vaughan Pomeroy, Manager of Research and Development, Lloyd's Register; and Bjorn K. Haugland, Manager of Maritime Development Centre for DNV. In addition, an external review group was nominated to act as a sounding board to provide advice and to comment on the proposed course of action at various stages during the development of the Rules.

Relationship with IACS
Although the Joint Tanker Project was conceived by ABS, Lloyd's Register and DNV independently of the International Association of Classification Societies (IACS), its progress has coincided with the ongoing debate surrounding newbuilding standards within the industry and the decision by the IACS Council to develop common structural Rules. The discussion at the International Maritime Organisation (IMO) about the introduction of goal-based standards has also been influential.

The Joint Tanker Project has been adopted by IACS as a pilot for the ongoing development and implementation of common Rules across the member societies. In fact, IACS currently has two principal pilot projects ongoing - the Joint Tanker Project and the Joint Bulker Project, for the development of common Rules for double-side skin bulk carriers.

Scope of the new Rules
Current classification society Rules have evolved over many years and have been mainly developed on an empirical basis. However, this is not always transparent to the user, and there have been many calls from the maritime industry for classification societies to adopt an approach which would lead to the development of Rules that are more easily understood and based on clearly identifiable scientific principles.

Service history and statistical records have demonstrated that ships constructed to the existing Rules are of a satisfactory standard. The new set of Rules would provide, through transparency, a better understanding of the design principles underpinning them.

In order to satisfy the call by industry for greater 'robustness', it was decided that this quality would principally be defined in terms of safety and longevity, resulting in a special focus on fatigue life and wastage during the development of the new Rules.

Other enhancements include basing the Rule design wave loads on the existing IACS Unified Requirements where possible, or deriving them from wave statistics of the North Atlantic sea area specified in IACS Recommendation 34; and inclusion of a unified, mandatory set of requirements for fatigue assessment based on a 25-year design life which replaces the various approaches developed by the three classification societies.

In the future
The move by ABS, Lloyd's Register and DNV to develop and implement these new Rules has been applauded and welcomed by the industry and is in keeping with the spirit of goal-based standards. Indeed, it is believed by many, not least those within the classification sector, that the Joint Tanker Project will set a standard that will have an enduring and positive impact on the industry and on the quality of the world fleet. The new Rules will be available for hearing to the industry in June 2004, through the technical committees of the three societies, and come into force July 2005.

For further information contact: Bjorn.Haugland@dnv.comor Rune.Torhaug@dnv.com

The above is an edited version of a paper jointly written by Bjorn K. Haugland, Vaughan Pomeroy, and Jim Card. Vaughan Pomeroy presented the paper at the Royal Institution of Naval Architects' Design and Operation of Double-Hull Tankers conference on 25 February 2004.

Date: 2004-06-02