What is Oil Discharge Monitoring

and Control System (ODMCS) on

Ship?
• Oil Tankers carry different types of oil cargo in their cargo
tanks and it often happens that after discharging the oil
cargo in some port, the ship sails without any cargo to
some other destination. In order to do so, it has to take
ballast from the sea to get better draught and stability.
• For this reason, ballast water is taken into cargo tanks
wherein generally oil cargo would have been carried. It is to
note that the ballast water carried in cargo tanks has to be
discharged out at sea before the next cargo loading.
Therefore, Oil Discharge monitoring and control system
(ODMCS) is used to prevent the pollution of ocean by oil
due to the discharge from ballast and bilge spaces
• As per MARPOL 73/78 Annex I, all the oil
tankers of 150 GT and above must have an
approved Oil Discharge Monitoring System.
• The system must have provision to work in
manual operating mode if the auto system is
not working.
•
 .
Main Parts of ODMCS
•
An ODMCS consists essentially of four systems:
• 1. An Oil content meter: The oil content meter is used to analyze
the content of oil in the water that is to be discharged overboard.
This oil is expressed in parts per million (PPM).
• 2. A flow meter: The flow rate of the oily water to be discharged is
measured at the discharge pipe.
• 3. A computing unit: A computing unit calculates the oil discharge
in litres/nautical miles and the total quantity, along with date and
time identification.
• 4. An overboard valve control system: The auto control valve is
installed at the overboard so that it must close and stop the
discharge when permissible limit has been reached.
•
 WORKING
• The oily mixture is pumped out to the sea through
ODMCS by a pump. A sampler probe and a flow meter
sensor is connected at the discharge pipe, before the
overboard valve, to sense the oil content and the flow
of mixture.
• The data provided by the two sensors are fed in a
control unit wherein it is analysed and the discharge
valve is controlled by the same.
• If the control unit senses a rise in the ppm and flow
comparing to the permissible value, it will shut the
overboard valve and open the recirculation valve which
is connected to slop tank of the ship
 Regulatory requirements for oil
mixture discharge from cargo space
• Tanker vessel must be enroute
• The vessel should not be in special areas.
• The tanker must be 50 nautical miles away from land.
• The instantaneous rate of discharge of oil content does
not exceed 30 litres per nautical mile.
• The total quantity of discharge must not
exceed 1/30000 of the total quantity of the residue
formed cargo.
• The tanker must have operational and
approved ODMCS.
•
• As per the regulation, the following inputs must be
recorded by the system

• Discharge rate of the pump which is discharging the

oily water mixture overboard.
• The location of the ship in latitude and longitude.
• Date and time of the discharge.
• The total quantity that has been discharge overboard.
• Oil content of the discharged mixture in PPM.
• All the records of ODMCS must be stored on board
ships for not less than 3 years.