Section 7: Keeping record of matters relating to oil.

(1) The Minister may make regulations requiring masters of Nigerian ships (other than tankers) being ships of eighty tons gross tonnage or more which use fuel oil to keep records-
(a) of any occasion on which oil or a mixture containing oil is discharged from any such ship for the purpose of securing the safety of any vessel, or of preventing damage to any vessel or cargo, or of saving life;
(b) of any occasion on which oil or a mixture containing oil is found to be escaping, or to have escaped, from any such ship in consequence of damage to the ship or by reason of leakage;
(c) of the carrying out, on board or in connection with any such ship, of such operations as may be prescribed, being operations relating to-
(i) the ballasting of oil tanks (whether cargo or bunker fuel tanks) and the discharge of ballast from, and cleaning of, such tanks; or
(ii) the separation of oil from water, or from other substances, in any mixture containing oil; or
(iii) the disposal of any, or water, or any other substance arising from operations relating to any of the matters specified in the preceding sub-paragraphs; or
(iv) the disposal of any other oil residues.
(2) The Minister may make regulations requiring the keeping of records relating to the transfer of oil to and from vessels while they are within the seaward limits of the territorial waters of Nigeria and any requirements imposed by virtue of regulations under this section, shall in the case of vessels subject to the requirements made under subsection (1) of this section, be additional thereto.
(3) Any records required by virtue of regulations made under subsection (2) of this section in the case of any vessel, shall be kept by the master of the vessel:
Provided that in the case of a barge, the records, in so far as they relate to the transfer of oil to the barge, shall be kept by the person supplying the oil, and, in so far as they relate to the transfer of oil from the barge, shall be kept by the person to whom the oil is delivered.
(4) Where by any regulations made under this section any records are required to be kept, the regulations, may-
(a) prescribe the form in which the records are to be kept, and the nature of the entries to be made in them;
(b) require the person keeping the records to retain them for a prescribed period;
(c) require that person, at the end of the prescribed period, to transmit the records to a place or person determined by or under the regulations;
(d) provide for the custody or disposal of the records after their transmission to such a place or person,
- and any regulations made under subsection (2) of this section may provide for any of the matters specified in paragraphs (b) to (d) of this subsection in relation to records to be kept.
(5) If any person-
(a) fails to comply with any requirements imposed by or under this section, he shall be liable on summary conviction to a fine not exceeding N1,000;
(b) makes an entry in any records kept under this section which is to his knowledge false or misleading in any material particular, he shall be liable on summary conviction to a fine not exceeding N1,000 or imprisonment for a term not exceeding six months, or to both such fine and imprisonment.
(6) In any proceedings under this Act-
(a) any records kept in pursuance of regulations made under this section shall be admissible as evidence of the facts stated in those records;
(b) any copy of an entry in such records, which is certified by the person by whom the records are required to be kept to be a true copy of the entry, shall be admissible as evidence of the facts stated in the entry;
(c) any document purporting to be records kept in pursuance of regulations made under this section, or purporting to be such a certified copy as is mentioned in paragraph (b) of this subsection, shall, unless the contrary is proved, be presumed to be such records or such a certified copy, as the case may be.