Important updates have been issued regarding regulations for vessels operating in Egyptian ports and territorial waters. These changes cover fuel standards, emission controls, and waste management practices that all vessels must comply with.
- As of 1 May 2025, The declaration of the Mediterranean Sea as a Sulfur Oxide Emission Control Area (ECA) will be activated, according to the decree of the IMO no. MEPC361 (79) require all vessels sailing into the Mediterranean to use low sulfur fuel “contains sulfur 0.1% “Thus, all the foreign vessels that call the Egyptian Ports in the Mediterranean must abide by the allowed sulfur percentage in fuel according to the above decree as Egypt is considered one of these countries that joined this decree.
- As of 1 January 2025, the declaration of the Red Sea as a special region will be activated according to the first and fifth attachments of the International Convention for preventing the contamination of the MARPOL vessels with the effective date of the decree MEPC.381(80)issued by IMO. Thus, all the ports of the Red Sea must abide by securing reception facilities for the solid and oily wastes according to the above-mentioned attachments.
- The frequent vessels in the Egyptian ports are prohibited from using the open loop scrubbers in the Egyptian territorial waters, and into the range of the Egyptian ports due to concerns about the impact of discharging the exhaust gas cleaning water on the marine environment; only the use of closed-loop scrubbers is allowed.
- According to Regulation 16, article 4 of the sixth attachment of the MAROPL convention, incinerators are prohibited inside ports, harbours, and estuaries, and they are also prohibited in Egyptian ports.
- Discharging the Grey waters, “Sewage water from washing”, into the Egyptian territorial waters is prohibited, but discharging the Black treated waters, “Sewage water from toilets after treatment”, can be discharged in case there are no reception facilities, taking into account the following standards and regulations:
– The vessel must discharge the treated water at no less than four nautical miles from the shore, and the wave’s movements must not be in the shore direction.
– It is prohibited that the vessel discharges the Sewage water wastes “whatever type” one time but must be with reasonable discharging rates, and the vessel must be sailing with a speed not less than 4 Knots /Hour
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