Paris MoU announced new targeting lists

06 June 2011

At its 44th meeting last month, the Paris MoU Committee approved the 2010 inspection results and adopted new performance lists for flag States and Recognized Organizations. These lists will take effect from 1 July 2011.

The “Black, Grey and White (BGW) List” presents the full spectrum, from quality flags to flags with a poor performance that are considered high or very high risk. It is based on the total number of inspections and detentions over a 3-year rolling period for flags with at least 30 inspections in the period. On the “Black, Grey and White list” for 2010 a total number of 84 flags are listed: 18 on the “Black list”, 24 on the “Grey list”, and 42 on the “White list”. In 2009 the number of flags listed totalled 82 flags, namely 24 on the “Black List”, 19 on the “Grey List” and 39 on the “White List”.

Most flags that were categorised as very high risk in previous years remain so in 2010. The poorest performing flags are DPR Korea, Libyan Arab Jamahiriya, Togo, Sierra Leone and Montenegro. New on the “Black List” are the flags of Tanzania United Republic and Azerbaijan (both medium risk).

Flags with an average performance are shown on the “Grey List”. Their appearance on this list may act as an incentive to improve and move to the “White List”. At the same time flags at the lower end of the “Grey List” should be careful not to neglect control over their ships and risk ending up on the “Black List” next year.

On this year’s “Grey List” a total number of 24 flags is recorded. Last year the “Grey List” recorded 19 flags. New on the “Grey List” are Egypt, Viet Nam, Dominica, Slovakia, Jamaica, Honduras, Belize and Mongolia, last year still on the “Black List”.

The “White List” represents quality flags with a consistently low detention record. Compared with last year, the number of flags on the “White List” has increased by 3 flags to a total number of 42 flags.

Bermuda (United Kingdom) has been placed highest on the list in terms of performance. Next in line are Germany, Sweden, the United Kingdom and the Netherlands.

A flag’s ranking is taken into account when targeting ships for inspection and ships flying flags listed on the “Black list” are liable for banning from the region after multiple detentions.

The Paris MoU also agreed on the performance listing of Recognized Organizations (ROs). These organizations have been delegated with statutory responsibilities by flag States. This table uses the same method of calculation as the flag State table but counts only those detentions, which the Paris MoU considers to be directly related to a statutory survey carried out by the recognized organization.

Among the best performing recognized organizations were:
• Registro Italiano Navale – RINA
• American Bureau of Shipping - ABS
• Det Norske Veritas - DNV

The lowest performing organizations were:
• Phoenix Register of Shipping – PHRS (Greece)
• Register of Shipping – RSA (Albania)
• International Register of Shipping – IS (USA)
• Bulgarski Koraben Registar - BKR

On 1 July 2011 the performance lists will be used for calculating the ship risk profile and flags on the “Grey List” and “Black List” are subject to the more stringent banning measures in force since 1 January.

More information can be found in the 2010 Annual Report, which will be released in July 2011.

Paris MoU press release