Ship Inspection Report Programme (SIRE) 2.0
27 January 2022 | Capt. Anil Sarvaria
SIRE inspections, commonly known as vetting or Oil Major Inspections, are a reality of modern-day shipping for vessels engaged in carriage of Crude Oil, Petroleum Products, Chemicals and Gases in bulk. Charterers may require ships to
have prior approvals before hiring ships for carrying their cargo or they might carry out their own inspections through approved 3rd party inspectors.
SIRE was introduced in 1983 for tankers and has undergone a few changes since then. At present inspections, whether remote or physical, are carried out using VIQ 7. To keep up with the changing times, Oil Companies International Marine Forum (OCIMF) which regulates these inspections, is introducing SIRE 2.0 to replace VIQ 7.
SIRE 2.0, which will apply to tankers, gas and chemical carriers greater than 150 GRT, will digitise the process of inspections. In preparation of this rollout SIRE 2.0 introduction and Questions have been released by OCIMF. Further guidelines are expected in March 2022 and SIRE 2.0 is expected to go live in Quarter 2 of 2022. Introduction of SIRE 2.0 will also lead to changes to Harmonized Vessel Particulars Questionnaire (HVPQ). The present version of HVPQ is HVPQ 5 which will be replaced by HVPQ 6. HVPQ and SIRE 2.0 data base will also be crosslinked.
According to OCIMF, the new inspection regime will lead to a comprehensive reporting and assessment of a vessel and its complement by improving the quality of data collected during inspections. These inspections will be conducted in a digital format using a tablet like device. The inspectors will be provided a Compiled Vessel Inspection Questionnaire (CVIQ) and the questions will be answered in real time using this tablet. In case of issues with connectivity or terminal requirement prohibiting use of these tablets a paper based back up mechanism will also be provided.
In preparation for the inspection, Managers will have to upload information on the OCIMF SIRE website after an inspection is confirmed. This information will include - Ship’s particulars (some of it obtained from HVPQ 6), required certificates, Pre-Inspection Questionnaire (PIQ), relevant photographs etc. The CVIQ used by inspectors will be based on this information uploaded on the SIRE Website & will be unique unlike the VIQ 7 which has standard questions for each inspection.
The CVIQ will have graded responses to questions instead of just Yes/No/NA. For each negative answer the inspector will be prompted to assign this observation to Hardware i.e. equipment breakdown etc, process or procedures and human factors etc. and then a free text detail.
Only time will tell the response to SIRE 2.0 from the various stakeholder but this appears to be another step towards digitisation and rationalisation of root cause analysis of the observations raised during inspection.
