The aim of the Joint Tanker Project is to develop a set of unified Rules and Procedures for the determination of the structural requirements for oil tankers. By employing the combined experience and resources of ABS, DNV and LR to develop a single common standard, competition between class societies with regard to structural requirements will be eliminated. This will benefit the industry by affording greater transparency to the technical background of the Rules, and reducing costs with only one set of Rules to apply.

To ensure that the new Rules and Procedures will be recognised by the industry, they fully embrace the anticipated IMO requirements for goal based new construction standards. The draft Common Structural Rules for Double Hull Oil Tankers has now been made available for consideration and comment by the shipping industry and may be reproduced for this purpose only. The late publication of this set of Rules was due to the need to incorporate industry comments, some of which were received during very recent industry meetings. The copyright for the draft Rules is owned jointly by American Bureau of Shipping, Det Norske Veritas and Lloyd's Register.