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How confident are you about your

ODMCS ?
Written by Capt Rajeev Jassal on ! January 28, 2015

Before we come to ODMCS tests, it is better to

first do a recap on the requirements of
ODMCS. ODMCS (Oil discharge monitoring
control system), sometimes also called ODME (Oil
discharge monitoring equipment) is an equipment
required under Marpol Annex 1 and is required to
monitor discharge of oily mixture from cargo tanks
of oil tankers.

The Marpol requires following for discharging oily

Mixture

1. The tanker should not be in special area

2. The tanker should be Enroute

3. The tanker must be more than 50 Nautical

miles from the nearest land

4. The instantaneous rate of discharge should

not exceed 30 litres per Nautical mile

5. The total quantity of oil discharged should not

exceed 1/30000 of the total quantity of cargo
of which the residues formed a part.

6. The tanker must have an approved ODMCS

and it should be operational

ODMCS is installed to ensure compliance with the

requirements no 4 and 5 and so the testing of
ODMCS should be based upon to find if

1. The ODMCS would actually stop if

“instantaneous rate of discharge” exceeds 30
litres per nautical mile.

2. The ODMCS should stop when total oil

discharged has reached the allowed limits as
per point 5 above.

It is general practice among many seafarers to

test the ODMCS for only IRD, but as I have
pointed out, the regulation require the ODMCS to
stop when total oil discharged limit exceeds and
thus this is an equally important test too.

Test for Instantaneous rate of Discharge

The formula for IRD is

$
IRD (in litres/Nautical mile)= Oil content(ppm) x
Flow rate (m3/hr) / Speed (Knots) x 1000

For ODMCS discharge valve to open, the IRD

should be less than 30 L/NM and we just play with
oil content, flow rate and speed (enter these
values manually) to get the IRD to say 29.8 L/NM
and discharge valve should open. We then
increase the oil content a bit to make the IRD 30.1
L/NM to see if the discharge valve closes. Pretty
simple. However this is just the simulation test
which just tells us that the computing unit of
ODMCS is working alright.

It does not tell us if in actual operation the oil

content meter and flow meter will give correct
reading of oil content and sample flow
respectively. For this reason, the oil majors
require the annual calibration of oil content meter
and flow meter by an external competent
company. Master and ship staff should ensure that
such annual test has been carried out and
certificate is available onboard.

It is also important in actual operation of ODMCS

that sample is drawn from the discharge line and
fed to oil content meter so that it can measure the
oil content in the oily water. This sample is drawn
and circulated through oil content meter by
Sample pump. This makes the sample pump
extremely important for the functioning of ODMCS
and hence sample pump should be checked
monthly for its free movement by rotating with
hand

Test for Total quantity Discharged

First of all let us understand the rationale behind

this requirement. The first requirement was that
while the ship is moving, you can discharge 30
litres of oil contained in the oily water provided
this 30 litre is spread over one nautical mile. If the
second requirement is not there, one could keep
on diluting the oily mixture to make sure IRD is
always less than 30 L/NM and pump out entire
tank content. This requirement limits the total oil
that a ship can discharge irrespective of
complying with the first requirement.

So if the vessel was carrying 45000 m3 of oil

cargo and oily mixture are formed from washing
or ballasting these tanks, the total oil that can be
discharge through ODMCS is 45000/30000
which is 1.5 m3 or 1500 Ltrs. This figure need to
be entered in the ODMCS before actual run of
ODMCS.

Now how to test if after achieving this limit the

ODMCS will shut the discharge valve and open
re-circulation valve. Test is again pretty simple, set
a lower value and run the ODMCS in simulation
mode with IRD say around 29 L/NM. You would
see the Total oil discharged reading go up. When
you reach the set value of total oil discharged, the
ODMCS should shut the discharge valve.

Even though there may be some other small tests

like power failure test etc. Checking and testing
the ODMCS and associated components as
mentioned above would most likely ensure that
your ODMCS would be ready when you require it.

About Capt Rajeev Jassal

Capt. Rajeev Jassal has sailed for over 19 years mainly
on crude oil, product and chemical tankers. He holds
MBA in shipping & Logistics degree from London. He
has done extensive research on quantitatively
measuring Safety culture onboard and safety climate
ashore which he believes is the most important element
for safer shipping.

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11 Comments

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Arji Shanmukha Sai " Reply

! Apr 16, 2016

Sir, does ODMCS have 2 modes of operation. One

for decanting, I.e, ird not more than 30 ltr per nm
and 15 ppm for clean ballast? Because in the
definition of clean ballast they have mentioned
about the 15 ppm requirement. Awaiting for your
valuable reply.

Rajeev Jassal " Reply

! Apr 22, 2016

Arji, If ship is fitted with clean ballast tanks, 15ppm

device is required. Now it is upto owners how they
wish to satisfy this requirement. There are very few
ODMCS with two mode of operations. Owners can
either fit these or they can have 15ppm unit
installed for clean water ballast tanks and ODMCS
for cargo tanks. But you would hardly see ships
with clean ballast tanks nowdays even when
MARPOL may allows certain size of the ship to
have these. This is because nobody want to do
business with these ships because of
environmental concerns.

Akshay " Reply

! Dec 31, 2018

15ppm mode is to be used when

discharging clean ballast or any heavy
weather ballast carried in washed cargo
tanks.

Emanual " Reply

! Apr 12, 2017

I was in searching of such a device that can tackle

all the oil and gas calculations. Then one of my
friend suggested me Petroleum Calculator , where
i got calculator that is very helpful in my oil and
gas company.

karishma jain " Reply

! Mar 28, 2018

how to test in front of PSCO hat 15 ppm monitor is

working? thank u sir

li " Reply

! Mar 7, 2019

that is very same as 30l per nm,first to set

value 14ppm,then 16ppm,to wacth two
valves.

Marcelo Recio " Reply

! Jul 2, 2019

Sir. I found your explanations very interesting and

simple to understand as usual. Now , I would
highly appreciate if you can help me with this
question: A few days ago, I performed a FSI on a
tanker. The Master exhibited an ODMC calibration
certificate issued more than one year ago, but with
no period of validity. With regard to the IOPP
certificate, it had recently passed the annual
survey by Class with no observations. Res MEPC
108 refers to annual checks and requires a
certificate of calibration to be available to PSC and
other inspectors but doesn´t state clearly if annual
check is just a check by Class or involves also the
equipment´s calibration. So; Should I have
regarded that certifcate as invalid (overdue) or it
may be regarded as still in compliance? Thank you
very much in advance. Kind regards.

Rajeev Jassal " Reply

! Jul 3, 2019

Annual Calibration of ODMCS is not a

statutory requirement. Most of the tankers
have now started to perform annual shore
calibration of ODMCS because of the
requirement by "Exxon Mobil oil major" but
it is still not required by other oil majors
like Shell and BP. So with regard to FSI, it
is OK if they did not have it.

Marcelo Recio " Reply

! Jul 4, 2019

Thank you very much Captain for your

valuable information. Kind regards.

DEEPAK BISHT " Reply

! Aug 17, 2019

Dear sir, How often ODME is tested?

Omkar Samant " Reply

! Sep 8, 2020

Good Day Sir, I work on an oil tanker and found

your article extremely helpful, I have always
referred my Juniors to read this article for better
understanding ODMCS and its testing. A question
that comes to mind is how does the Oil Content
Monitor actually function in measuring the PPM of
the oily water passing into the discharge line. Also
just as we test the IRD computing unit by playing
with the PPM setting, can we also do that by
playing with the flow setting in m3/hr or Speed
setting in kts? Your advice will be much
appreciated.

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