BALTIC SEAENVIRONMENT PROCEEDINGS No. 59 - Helcom

3.2 Contributing oil is counted for contribution purposes each time it is received at ports or terminal
installations in a Fund Member State after carriage by sea. The term received refers to receipt
into tankage or storage immediately after carriage by sea. The place of loading is irrelevant
in this context: the oil may be imported from abroad. carried from another port in the same
State or transported by ship from an off-shore production rig. Also, oil received for
transshipment to another port or received for further transport by pipeline is considered as
being received for contribution purposes.
3.3 A Member State is required to communicate every year to the Director of the IOPC Fund the
name and address of any person in that State who is liable to contribute to the IOPC Fund,
as well as the quantity of contributing oil received by any such person. This applies whether
the receiver of oil is a Government authority, a State-owned company or a private company.
Except in the case of associated persons (subsidiaries and commonly controlled entities), only
persons having received more than 150 000 tonnes of contributing oil in the relevant year
should be reported.
3.4 If a State receives no (or only a very small quantity of) contributing oil, it would therefore
be entitled to protection under the Fund Convention at no cost.
Payment of Confribufions
3.5 There are initial contributions and annual contributions.
3.6 Initial contributions are payable by the individual contributors when a State becomes a Member
of the IOPC Fund. The level of initial contributions has been fixed once and for all by the IOPC
Fund Assembly (see paragraph 3.8 below).
3.7 The levy of annual contributions is decided each year by the Assembly at its ordinary session,
which is normally held in October. This decision is based on estimates made by the Director
of the anticipated payments of compensation to be made by the IOPC Fund during the coming
calendar year and of the administrative expenses for that year. Each contributor will pay a
specified amount per tonne of contributing oil received. Immediately after the Assembly’s
decision, the IOPC Fund Secretariat issues an invoice to each contributor. Unless otherwise
decided by the Assembly, annual contributions are due on 1 February of the year following that
in which the Assembly decides to levy contributions.
3.8 The contributions are payable by the individual contributors directly to the IOPC Fund. A State
is not responsible for the contributions levied on contributors in that State, unless it has
voluntarily accepted such responsibility. The State shall communicate every year to the IOPC
Fund the name and address of any person in that State who is liable to contribute, as well as
the quantity of contributing oil received by any such person.
Level of Contributions
3.9 The level of initial contributions was fixed by the Assembly at its 1 st session at 0.04718 (gold)
francs per tonne of contributing oil, which corresponds to 0.003145 Special Drawing Rights
(SDR) per tonne, or, converted at the rate of exchange on 28 June 1993. to fO.0029543 per
tonne (see table below).
3.10 The level of annual contributions depends on the payments to be made by the IOPC Fund and
consequently varies from one year to another. It is not possible, of course, to make any
predictions of the level of contributions in the future. Nevertheless, the records of the
contributions during previous years may give some idea of the financial implications for
contributors. The total contributions levied during the period 1978 - 1992 are set out in the
following table. The table also shows the amounts that would have been paid by a person who
received a total quantity of one million tonnes of contributing oil in the relevant years (extreme
right hand column).
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