The eighty-second session of the IMO's Maritime Safety Committee, held in December 2006, agreed performance standards for dedicated seawater ballast tanks and an amendment to SOLAS Chapter II-1 which will require ballast tanks in new vessels to be coated according to these standards. The regulation will apply to vessels for which the building contract is placed on or after 1 July 2008, or for which keels are laid on or after 1 January 2009, or the delivery of which is on or after 1 July 2012.
The text of the amendment, together with the performance standards, can be found in the Members' Area.