Merchant Shipping (Civil Liability and Compensation for Oil Pollution) Act 1998

Merchant Shipping (Civil
Liability and Compensation for
Oil Pollution) Act 1998

2020 REVISED EDITION

This revised edition incorporates all amendments up to and including 1 December 2021 and comes into operation on 31 December 2021

An Act to give effect to the International Convention on Civil Liability for Oil Pollution Damage 1992 and to the International Convention on the Establishment of an International Fund for Compensation for Oil Pollution Damage 1992 and to make provisions generally for matters connected therewith.

[18 September 1998: Parts I, II and IV ;

31 December 1998: Part III ]

PART 1

PRELIMINARY

Short title

1. This Act is the Merchant Shipping (Civil Liability and Compensation for Oil Pollution) Act 1998.

Interpretation

2.—(1) In this Act, unless the context otherwise requires —

“Authority” means the Maritime and Port Authority of Singapore established under the Maritime and Port Authority of Singapore Act 1996;

“Court” means the General Division of the High Court;

“damage” includes loss;

“Director” means the Director of Marine appointed under section 4 of the Merchant Shipping Act 1995 and includes the Deputy Director of Marine appointed under that section;

“Liability Convention” means the International Convention on Civil Liability for Oil Pollution Damage 1992;

“Liability Convention country” means a country in respect of which the Liability Convention is in force;

“Liability Convention State” means a State which is a party to the Liability Convention;

“master” includes every person, except a pilot, having command or charge of a ship;

“oil” means any persistent hydrocarbon mineral oil such as crude oil, fuel oil, heavy diesel oil and lubricating oil, whether carried on board a ship as cargo or in the bunkers of such a ship;

“owner”, in relation to a ship, means the person registered as the owner of the ship, or, in the absence of registration, the person owning the ship, except that, in relation to a ship owned by a State which is operated by a person registered in that State as the ship’s operator, it means the person registered as its operator;

“port” has the meaning given by the Maritime and Port Authority of Singapore Act 1996;

“ship” means any sea-going vessel and seaborne craft of any type;

“Singapore ship” has the meaning given by the Merchant Shipping Act 1995.

[40/2019]

(2) If the Minister, by order in the Gazette, declares that any State specified in the order is a party to the Liability Convention in respect of any country so specified, the order is, while in force, conclusive evidence that that State is a party to the Liability Convention in respect of that country.

(3) For the purposes of this Act —

(a)	references to the territory of Singapore include the territorial sea and exclusive economic zone of Singapore and references to the territory of any other country include the territorial sea and exclusive economic zone of that country;
(b)	references to the exclusive economic zone of a country are references to the exclusive economic zone of that country established in accordance with international law or, if such a zone has not been established, such area adjacent to the territorial sea of that country and extending not more than 200 nautical miles from the baselines from which the breadth of that sea is measured;
(c)	references to a discharge or escape of oil from a ship are references to such a discharge or escape wherever it may occur and whether it is of oil carried in a cargo tank or of oil carried in a bunker fuel tank;
(d)	where more than one discharge or escape results from the same occurrence or from a series of occurrences having the same origin, they are treated as one; but any measures taken after the first of them are deemed to have been taken after the discharge or escape; and
(e)	where a relevant threat of contamination mentioned in section 3(2) results from a series of occurrences having the same origin, they are treated as a single occurrence.

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