We would wish to remind you that the Ukrainian Port Yuzhny has been and still is an unauthorized zone for P&I surveyors. Independent surveyors working on shipowner’s nomination encounter problems when trying to get passes to the port. As for Major Survey Companies working for cargo interests, they have permanent passes to the port and never encounter problems to obtain port passes.

In the case of independent surveyors, including all the P&I surveyors, they have to apply to the port authorities to obtain the permit allowing entrance to the vessel two working days before the survey. The port authorities do not work on Saturdays and Sundays, therefore in case a shipowner/a Club is induced by an urgent matter to nominate for a job a surveyor on Friday evening, the surveyor applying for a permit to the port authorities with the official letter will be able to get onboard the vessel on Wednesday morning at the earliest. This will be in case if the port issues a pass in due time, i.e. within two working days. There are cases when the port authorities delay the pass issuance (deliberately or due to bureaucracy reasons). Therefore the earliest availability the surveyor can get onboard the vessel is 2 days and the longest availability we are aware of is 10 days.

P&I surveyor’s urgent appointment (nomination) is necessary in many cases, the most frequent of them are:

• Conflict situation between a vessel and port authorities/cargo handling terminal.
• Damage to piers, cranes and other port’s property/facilities.
• Personal injuries and loss of life of crew members and stevedores.

In the stated above and many other cases P&I surveyors are precluded from getting onboard the vessel if required. That implies that P&I Club cannot perform its functions: P&I assistance and defense to the Members at the stated area.

This is not just a verbal Notification about existing there status quo. A while ago the Master of the vessel and later on the Club applied to us with an urgent request to send a surveyor onboard the vessel lying in the Port of Yuzhny. We received their request at 14.00 on Saturday afternoon. We explained our principals that we would be able to submit the official letter to the port on Monday morning at the soonest, after that the port officials would start considering it. Taking into account the fact that the ship was to complete the cargo handling by Monday, the procedure of applying to the port authorities appeared to be senseless.

This situation has existed in this port for several years and so far nothing has changed for the better.

In some cases, the charterers or port administration tried to assert that the problem was contrived and, in any case, one of the survey companies which has yearly passes to the port can be assigned to the inspection. However, all companies whose employees have permanent passes to the port are servants of cargo interests. The results of such inspections will likely be biased.

Member Alert is published by The Swedish Club as a service to members. While the information is believed correct, the Club cannot assume responsibility for completeness or accuracy.