Oil in Navigable Waters Regulations.

These Regulations concern the prevention of pollution of the sea by oil and include provisions for such prevention in the navigable waters of Nigeria. They consist of 5 Parts, i.e. Short title and interpretation (1); Equipment in ships to prevent pollution by oil (2); Oil discharge records (3); Oil transfer records and Precautions to be taken when loading (4) and the Discharging or bunkering oil (5).
Under section 2 every Nigerian ship of 80 tons or over which uses their bunker fuel tanks for the carriage of ballast water shall be fitted with an oily-water separator. The oily-water separator should be adequate for the purpose of separating oil from a mixture of oil and ballast water from the bunker fuel tanks of the ship. The master of every vessel must retain oil transfer records while it is within the territorial waters of Nigeria. Such records include the name and port of registry, date of transfer and place of transfer (sect. 4). Section 5 specifies the precautions necessary when loading, discharging or bunkering oil. The regulations are completed by a Schedule that is divided into 3 parts; Accidental and other exceptional discharges or escapes of oil (1); Ballasting of and discharge of ballast from cargo tankers (2) and Ballasting during voyage of bunker fuel tanks (3).