SOLAS life-saving appliance requirements are among the most detailed and most frequently deficient areas in port state control inspections worldwide. The gap between what operators think they are doing and what the Convention actually requires is wider than most realise.
As offshore projects grow more technically demanding and regulatory oversight tightens across Southeast Asia, the question of who certifies your welders, and to what standard, has become a frontline project risk issue.
Class surveys, flag state surveys, and Port State Control inspections each serve a different authority, follow different rules, and affect a vessel’s licence to trade in distinct ways. Understanding how they interact is fundamental to sound ship management, and to knowing which gaps in compliance carry the most commercial and operational risk.
Drones are now embedded in day-to-day operations across ships, ports, offshore platforms, refineries, and pipelines. The question for maritime and oil and gas organisations is no longer whether to deploy them. It is whether the workforce is trained to do so safely, legally, and to a standard that holds up under regulatory and insurer scrutiny.
Most lifeboat and davit failures are not design flaws. They are the result of deferred maintenance, superficial inspections, and crews unfamiliar with the systems they are expected to operate under the worst possible conditions. Here is how to close those gaps before they matter.
Lifesaving appliances are a fundamental component of maritime safety, providing the means for safe evacuation and survival when fire, collision, grounding, or abandonment occurs. Under SOLAS Chapter III and the LSA Code, every vessel and offshore unit has defined obligations. This guide explains what they are and what maintaining them actually requires.
