FSUs and FPSOs: Could Be Qualified as Ships?

From the prehistoric ones to those of the Vikings, from those used by the ancient Greeks to the most modern vessels, ships have always played a key role in the course of human events during times of peace, with the flour-ishing of trade, as well as in times of war. Over the centuries, ships have been subjected to many changes in de-sign, structure, technical characteristics, and functions performed. In particu-lar, in the last few decades, there has been a big boost in the number of types of vessels operating at sea, which has led to the need of a more in depth study on the concept of “ship”. The issue is of prime importance, as it affects mat-ters related to various areas of law and economics – as insurance regulation, environmental protection, and international trade on a large scale -, involving transverse interests belonging to different stakeholders’ categories. For these reasons this article aims to deepen the issue concerning the delimitation of the concept of “ship”, in particular regarding the possibility of including in that notion also structures which do not fall within the traditional dogmatic categories, such as the so-called Floating Storage Units (FSUs) and Floating Production Storage and Offloading Units (FPSOs). The research, developed mainly on the basis of international sources, focuses especially on the definition of FSU and FPSO. These types of float-ing crafts, as well as being without an express legal regulation, have a peculiar characteristic – i.e. being anchored to the seabed – which greatly enhances the scope of the debate that has developed in Doctrine and Case Law. The given interpretation, in the sense of including FSUs and FPSOs in the definition of “ship”, goes also through the analysis of some of the most important decisions of the Italian and foreign Courts which have addressed the issue. These judgments are undoubtedly a valuable tool to fill what, in fact, seems to be a major legislative gap. The conclusions reached are, to some extent, linked to the need to ap-ply to FSUs and FPSOs the international discipline relating to damages re-sulting from oil pollution and particularly the rules provided by the Interna-tional Convention on Civil Liability for Oil Pollution Damage (CLC 1992).