Sarawak wants Transport Ministry to allow single hull single bottom tanker ships to operate in state’s rivers, coastal waters

Datuk Lee Kim Shin

KUCHING (Nov 29): The Sarawak Ministry of Transport has appealed to the federal Transport Ministry to allow registered single hull single bottom tanker ships to operate in the rivers and coastal waters of Sarawak.

Transport Minister Datuk Lee Kim Shin in a statement said that the Marine Department has issued a Malaysia Shipping Notice (MSN) 16/2020 on Aug 5 to only allow double hull double bottom tanker ships to operate in the state’s rivers and coastal waters.

This, he added, had affected the operation of the many single hull single bottom tanker ships operators in the state, which have been very essential in transporting fuel to the coastal and interior areas in Sarawak.

Following the notice, Lee said his ministry had a meeting with the Sarawak Association of Maritime Industries (Samin) and the Sarawak and Sabah Shipowners Association (SSSA) on Aug 19, where the two bodies had requested for his ministry to resolve the issue.

He said according to the Marine Department’s Sarawak Region registry, 119 single hull single bottom tanker ships registered to operate in the rivers and coastal waters of the state have been affected by the MSN 16/2020.

“The Ministry of Transport supported the request from Samin and SSSA that they should be exempted from double hull double bottom tanker ships requirement for the following reasons:

“Their tanker ships are deployed for carrying diesel fuel from adjacent towns supplying to the upper river communities for their usage which are mainly for power generators in the longhouses, clinics, government stations or offices, schools and workers’ camps.

“Other usages of diesel fuels are for vehicles and machineries owned by plantations and logging companies,” said Lee.

He said most of their tanker ships were also deployed to carry edible oil such as palm oil from dedicated river wharves to ports and subsequently to industrial areas for processing purposes.

Lee said on Aug 5, the Marine Department issued the MSN 16/2020 to shop owners, ship agents, masters, seafarers, port operators, recognised organisation and the maritime industry on ‘Clarification on the Registration of an Oil Tanker, General Categories of Oil Tankers and Restriction on the Type of Oil Permitted to be Carried as Cargo’.

“Due to the immediate implementation of MSN 16/2020, the operation of these single hull single bottom tanker ships are adversely affected.

“For this purpose, I had personally written a letter on November 20, 2020 to the federal Minister for Transport in Putrajaya to seek the exemption on the use of double hull double bottom tanker ships requirement for Sarawak and to allow single hull single bottom tanker ships to continue to operate in the coastal areas and rivers in the Sarawak,” he said.

Lee hoped that his request would receive a prompt and favourable response from Putrajaya to avoid unnecessary interruption of essential supply of fuel especially to the communities residing in the interior and coastal areas of Sarawak.

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