IBC Code chapter 17: the summary of minimum requirements
The product table at the centre of the IBC Code, its columns a to o, and how a single row fixes the ship type, containment, venting, electrical standard and fire protection for a cargo.
Chapter 17 of the IBC Code is titled the summary of minimum requirements, and it is the part of the Code a chief officer actually opens. Each row is one product, and reading across the row gives every requirement that product imposes on the ship: the pollution category, the ship type, the tank type, the venting arrangement, the tank environmental control, the electrical equipment standard, the gauging standard, the vapour detection, the fire protection medium, the emergency equipment and the special requirements from chapters 15 and 16.
The column definitions live in chapter 21.4 and a reader-facing legend is printed in chapter 17 itself. Columns b, the UN number, and m, materials of construction, were deleted in the 2019 revision adopted by IMO resolutions MSC.460(101) and MEPC.318(74) and in force from 1 January 2021. Column o is cumulative: its chapter 15 and 16 cross-references are additional to everything the other columns require, not a substitute for any of them.
The full article will work through each column with its permitted values, give worked rows for a type 1, a type 2 and a type 3 product, explain how a product moves between ship types when chapter 21 is revised, and set out how the chapter 17 entry becomes the product list on a ship’s Certificate of Fitness.