All Philippine-registered ships carrying oil in local waters must have double hulls by next year or face bans, regulators ruled Thursday.
The April 23, 2008 deadline would allow the Philippines to comply with an International Maritime Organisation convention and prevent maritime pollution, Maritime Industry Authority administrator Vicente Suazo said in a written order.
Failure to comply would earn operators a daily fine of 50,000 pesos (1,136 dollars) and a two-month suspension.
The vessels would eventually be delisted from the Philippine registry and their operators would lose their operating licence.
The Philippine Petroleum Sea Transport Association, an industry group, estimates that converting each single-hull tanker with a gross weight of 5,000 tons to double-hulls would cost 12-15 million dollars.
The move follows last year's sinking of a tanker in the central Philippines carrying 2.27 million litres (500,000 gallons) of oil, causing the country's worst-ever environmental disaster.
