The principal source of ship oil pollution remains routine operational discharges. The prevention of pollution by oil at sea requires the reduction of oily effluent discharge at sea and the development of port or terminal reception facilities for these residues. The inadequacy of port reception facilities is a significant contributing factor to illegal discharge of oil at sea. It can also lead to pollution on land through improper handling of slops.

Several tools that could be designed and developed to improve transparency would be of preventative nature and would use modern information technology. Three complementary tools are proposed here for discussion: certification, standards and traceability.

Certification would provide shipowners and operators with additional information to assist them to comply with international environmental regulations applied to shipping. The existence of adequate port reception facilities and terminals is a necessary pre-condition for ensuring compliance with MARPOL's Annexes I and II.

The development of an international standard could serve two distinct purposes, namely:
> It could provide norms for ports or terminals wanting to establish reception facilities so that building contractors engaged by the port or the State would have to achieve the requirements of the international standard.
> It could or should provide operational standard so that users of the port or terminal could be satisfied that the facilities are operated in an environmentally sound way in accordance with internationally agreed criteria.

The third complementary tool would comprise a better and more transparent process for following the fate of residues discharged or delivered to port reception facilities and terminals. There is a need to improve the flow of information (using modern electronic tools) among all stakeholders operating at sea and at shore.

Today' s highly competitive trading environment demands a flexible approach to meet the contractual and physical limitations of oil commodities and leads to a search for anticipating and responding efficiently to an increased demand for a variety of gasoline specifications on the world market. Blending capacity becomes critical in order to make the best use of the available stocks on the market to meet a variety of product demand and specifications in a profitable way.