Vetting inspection is a commercial screening process in which oil majors, energy companies, and charterers inspect tankers, gas carriers, and chemical tankers before approving them for charter or use at their terminals. Unlike classification surveys, which assess compliance with technical construction and maintenance standards, vetting inspections evaluate the overall operational quality of a vessel and its management — covering everything from navigation and cargo handling practices to crew competency and safety culture. A vessel that fails vetting may be rejected by the charterer, effectively removing it from the commercial market for that client.
SIRE and CDI Programs
The most widely recognized vetting program is SIRE (Ship Inspection Report Programme), operated by the Oil Companies International Marine Forum (OCIMF). SIRE inspections are conducted by accredited inspectors who use a standardized questionnaire to assess the vessel across key areas including bridge operations, cargo and ballast systems, mooring, engine room management, safety management, and crew training. The resulting report is shared through the SIRE database with all OCIMF member companies. For chemical tankers, the Chemical Distribution Institute (CDI) operates a parallel inspection program. Both programs are continuously evolving — the SIRE 2.0 program introduced a risk-based, focused inspection methodology that replaced the legacy observation-based checklist approach.
Maintaining Vetting Readiness
Poor vetting results have direct commercial consequences — lost chartering opportunities, higher insurance premiums, and reputational damage with major oil companies that can take years to recover. As a result, ship management companies invest heavily in vetting readiness programs. These include regular self-assessments using the SIRE questionnaire, pre-vetting inspections by superintendents, targeted crew training on common observation areas, and systematic tracking of observations with corrective action closure. HSEQ and ship management software platforms support vetting readiness by centralizing observation databases, tracking corrective actions to closure, generating trend analysis reports, and maintaining the documentation that inspectors will review during the inspection.