This manual provides information on the full range of shipboard operations, including loading and discharging of cargo, hose clearing, tank cleaning and gas freeing, ballasting, ship-to-ship transfers and mooring.
All cargo operations should be carefully planned and documented well in advance of their execution. The details of the plans should be discussed with all personnel, both on the ship and at the terminal. Plans may need to be modified following consultation with the terminal and following changing circumstances, either on board or ashore. Any changes should be formally recorded and brought to the attention of all personnel involved with the operation.
The responsibility for safe cargo handling operations is shared between the ship and the terminal and rests jointly with the Master and the Terminal Representative. The manner in which the responsibility is shared should therefore be agreed between them to ensure that all aspects of the operations are covered. In order to undertake closed loading and discharging, the vessel should be equipped with ullaging equipment that allows the tank contents to be monitored without opening tank apertures. Before starting to discharge cargo, the Responsible Officer and the Terminal Representative must formally agree that both the tanker and the terminal are ready to do so safely. Shore valves must be fully open to receiving tanks before the tanker’s manifold valves are opened. If there is a possibility that, owing to the elevation of the shore tanks above the level of the ship’s manifold, pressure might exist in the shore line and no non-return (check) valves are fitted in the shore line, the ship must be informed and the tanker’s manifold valves should not be opened until an adequate pressure has been developed by the pumps.
The Ship to Ship (STS) transfer of cargo is a procedure that was initially used in the decade of the 1960s due to the increased draft dimension that limited the access of large ships (VLCCs and ULCCs) at specific oil terminals through shallow rivers in the Gulf of Mexico. During the transfer procedure, the seagoing ships are positioned alongside each other. Both ships are moving with low speed and the objective cause is to bring their manifolds in line to conduct the transfer of the cargo. Ship to ship transfer operation can be conducted either stationary or underway depending on different factors such as the selected area for the transfer (shallow or deep waters, efficient room for maneuvers etc.) or the weather and sea state conditions.
The addition of Chapter 8 to MARPOL (Annex I of the Protocol of 1978 for the Prevention of Pollution from ships) is the first significant action to establish common rules during STS transfer operations. Each phase of the STS operations consists of different procedures to follow and checklists to complete. After the implementation of IMO resolution MEPC 186(59) (2009), tanker vessels take the full operational responsibility of the Ship to Ship transfer operations. In this respect, procedures and policies, associated with safety and environmental protection are reviewed and summarized in the new STS plan, approved by the Flag administrations. The screening process in STS operations is the procedure undertaken from each participating ship and/or their operators, which concludes to the acceptance or rejection of the other ship. During this process, a number of factors are taken into account and due diligence should be exercised.
To complete successfully a STS transfer operation, many parties should cooperate and work together. The parties involved in the operation are the following:
 The vessels including the Masters of each ship, the personnel directly involved in the different phases of the operation and the rest personnel onboard;
 The STS provider, which includes the person overall advisory control (POAC), the STS superintendents and the relevant personnel involved in the procedure;
 The local authorities who participate as an independent observer of the procedure under the condition that the operation is conducted within waters of its jurisdiction. Moreover, other parties that are indirectly involved in an STS operation are the insurers, the charterers, the stakeholders, and the ship and the cargo owners.
Single point mooring (SPM), also known as single buoy mooring (SBM), is a floating jetty/buoy that is anchored offshore to allow liquid cargo handling such as products of petroleum for tanker ships. Single buoy mooring is mostly used in places where dedicated facilities for unloading or loading liquid cargo aren’t available. They are often positioned at a distance of a few miles from the shore-facility (one of the facilities that’s located onshore and used for receiving ships as well as transferring cargo plus people to them).
Single Point Mooring is a complete, self-contained single point offshore terminal facility which provides the means for both mooring and transferring cargo of very large crude oil carriers (VLCC) or floating offshore facilities. Floating Production Storage and Offloading (FPSO) vessels are offshore production facilities that house both processing equipment and storage for produced hydrocarbons. The basic design of most FPSOs encompasses a ship-shaped vessel, with processing equipment, or topsides, aboard the vessel's deck and hydrocarbon storage below in the double hull. After processing, an FPSO stores oil or gas before offloading periodically to shuttle tankers or transmitting processed petroleum via pipelines. Moored in place by various mooring systems, FPSOs are effective development solutions for both deepwater and ultra-deepwater fields. A central mooring system allows the vessel to rotate freely to best respond to weather conditions, or weathervane, while spread-mooring systems anchor the vessel from various locations on the seafloor.
Although these procedures shave been continuously recorded in Bridge Log Book and Oil Record Book, Part 2, nevertheless they remain difficult, and they demand the nonstop attention of the industry. To reduce the adverse effect of a potential accident to human health as well as to the environment, a risk assessment is necessary to be done to evaluate the hazards that derive from such difficult procedures. For that purpose, different analysis techniques and methodologies have been developed, and applied to assess the hazards of an STS procedure.
The STS, SPM and FPSO transfer operation consists of five discrete phases, all in the context of the safe transfer of cargo from one ship to another. In particular, the phases of an STS operation are:
 The preparation, which includes the pre-fixture information;  The beginning of operations;
 The mooring process;
 The transfer of cargo; and finally
 The unmooring procedure. In order to comply with internationally accepted guidelines, this publication shall be read in conjunction with OCIMF STS GUIDE and the International Safety Guide for Oil Tankers and Terminals (ISGOTT).