OCIMF

History

The Oil Companies International Marine Forum (OCIMF) was formed in April 1970 in response to the growing public concern about marine pollution, particularly by oil, after the Torrey Canyon incident in 1967.

In the early 1970s, various antipollution initiatives started to emerge nationally, regionally, and internationally, but with little coordination.

Through OCIMF, the oil industry was able to play a stronger coordinating role in response to these initiatives, making its professional expertise widely available through cooperation with governments and intergovernmental bodies.

OCIMF was granted consultative status at the IMO in 1971 and continues to present the views of its members at IMO meetings. Since then, its role has broadened to account for the changing maritime activities of its membership. Its remit now covers safety, health, security, and the environment pertaining to tankers, barges, offshore vessels, and terminal interfaces.

About OCIMF

Today, OCIMF is widely recognized as leading the global marine industry in promoting safe and environmentally responsible transport of crude oil, oil products, petrochemicals, and gas and driving the same values in the management of related offshore marine operations. Membership is expanding and includes every major oil, gas, petrochemical, and energy company in the world, along with the majority of national oil companies and many independent oil and gas companies.

OCIMF has much to be proud of. Not only has it contributed to a substantial quantity of regulation at the IMO aimed at improving the safety of tankers and protecting the environment, but it has also introduced important new guidance on pressing current issues such as cyber security and human factors. With the process of introducing new internationally accepted regulation necessarily slows as it crosses many individual countries and jurisdictions, OCIMF is in the unique position of leveraging its membership’s expertise to press ahead with much-needed guidance on important industry issues. This provides the means to improve practices in the membership and the wider industry and serves as a valuable reference for developing regulation.

In addition to its extensive publications library, OCIMF has a rich portfolio of tools, including its Ship Inspection Report Programme (SIRE), the Tanker Management and Self Assessment (TMSA) tool, the Offshore Vessel Inspection Database (OVID) and the Marine Terminal Information System (MTIS), all of which have gained worldwide recognition and acceptance.