As detailed in our article of 5 March 2025, available here, draft Regulations were published on 21 February 2025 by South Africa’s Minister of Forestry, Fisheries and the Environment for the environmental management of offshore bunkering (now referred to as ‘offshore ship-to-ship transfers’) under the National Environmental Management: Integrated Coastal Management Act 24 of 2008, as amended.
Following public comment, revised draft Regulations were published on 4 July 2025 for comment within 30 days. A copy of the revised draft regulations is available from the South African Government’s website here.
A list of amendments is detailed in the Government Gazette Notice preceding the revised draft Regulations, available from the link above. The Minister also summarised the changes in an announcement on 27 June 2025, available from the South African Government’s website here.
In particular, it is worth noting the following:
- The scope of the regulations has been extended beyond ‘offshore bunkering’ to cover all ‘ship-to-ship transfers’. This is defined as the transfer at sea of liquid bulk cargo, including chemicals, oil, petroleum products, liquified petroleum gas or liquified natural gas from one vessel to another outside an operational harbour area, and includes bunkering.
- The number of authorised ship-to-ship transfer operators permitted to operate within permitted areas in Algoa Bay has been reduced from five to three (revised draft Regulation 9(2)).
- Ship-to-ship transfer operators are no longer limited to operating one vessel only. Revised draft Regulation 9(3) now permits six authorised ship-to-ship transfer tankers to operate within permitted areas in Algoa Bay at any one time. This clarification appears to deal with the issue Bowmans raised in our article of 5 March 2025 (see link above) in relation to the model contemplated by the South African Revenue Service (SARS) which would require operators to, at the very least, make use of two vessels.
- No operations at Algoa Bay anchorage no. 2 are permitted during the penguin breeding season from 1 April to 31 August (revised draft Regulation 9(4)).
- Night-time ship-to-ship transfers may now take place in accordance with the restrictions detailed in revised draft Regulation 3(2).
- Changes have been made to the description of suitable weather conditions during which ship-to-ship transfers may take place in Algoa Bay (revised draft Regulation 5).
- Further changes have been made to the wildlife monitoring requirements (revised draft Regulation 4), crew training requirements (revised draft Regulation 7), and environmental management plan requirements (revised draft Regulation 9).
On the first page of the Notice of 4 July 2025, the Minster of Forestry, Fisheries and the Environment, mentions that the draft Regulations “seek to create a risk based regulatory framework to ensure that the actual and potential impacts of offshore ship to ship transfer including bunkering, on the coastal environmental [sic] are mitigated and avoided, or where avoidance is not possible, are minimised and remedied”.
As mentioned previously, given their scope of application, the harmonisation and integration of these revised draft Regulations with a host of existing rules and regulations adopted by SARS, the South African Maritime Safety Authority (SAMSA) and the Transnet National Ports Authority (TNPA) remains of critical importance.
The Minister of Forestry, Fisheries and the Environment has since published final Regulations for the environmental management of ship-to-ship transfer, to commence with effect from 28 August 2025. A copy of the published regulations is available from the South African Government’s website here.
