Hull Thickness Measurement and Piping Inspection in Barcelona

Inspection services for ships at Barcelona

Each service has its own page with the method, the class requirements and what the report contains.

Barcelona gauging locations, from Adossat Quay to the energy quays

On cruise ships, gauging is planned with the ship's technical department around the turnaround: passenger and stores operations take priority, so the team concentrates on machinery spaces, voids, ballast and grey-water tanks prepared by the crew, and on piping runs that can be reached without disturbing hotel areas. Ferries offer a different rhythm, with evening departures and daytime lay-overs at their own berths, which suits a programme spread over several days. Ferry operators usually prepare one group of spaces per lay-over, and the technicians work through them in sequence.

At the container terminals, work stays in spaces away from the cargo, with the terminal's safety rules applied, while the energy quays and the LNG terminal impose stricter permit regimes and limit what can be entered during cargo operations. Superyacht refits give the longest windows of all: weeks or months in a yard with tanks open, which suits complete thickness surveys of steel hulls, decks and tank structure when a yacht's class renewal falls due. Barcelona's anchorage is used mainly by ships waiting for a berth; anchorage work is possible but usually less useful here than gauging alongside, where access is simpler.

• Adossat Quay cruise terminals — gauging of voids, ballast and service tanks and sea-water and scrubber piping during turnaround days
• Ferry berths serving the Balearic Islands and Italy — car-deck, ramp, ballast tank and fire main gauging across lay-overs and winter maintenance
• Hutchison Ports BEST and APM Terminals Barcelona — scrubber pipe and engine-room tank gauging on container ships during cargo operations
• Enagás LNG terminal and the energy quays — hull, ballast tank and deck piping readings on gas carriers and tankers, within terminal permit rules
• Superyacht refit yards in the old harbour, including MB92 — full thickness surveys of steel hulls, decks and tanks during long refit periods
• Vehicle terminal berths — car carriers loading for export, with ramps, hoistable decks and ballast tanks gauged while loading continues

Emissions rules, port state control and Barcelona's cruise debate

Barcelona lies within the Mediterranean SOx ECA, whose limits have bound ships here since 1 May 2025, and the port also sits under strong local pressure to reduce ship emissions, with the city and the port authority pursuing shore power for ferries and cruise ships and limits on cruise activity close to the centre. For technical managers, the result is constant attention to exhaust and fuel systems: scrubber-equipped ships run their systems throughout the stay where permitted, LNG-fuelled ships are increasingly common, and conversions on either type open up structure that rarely gets gauged.

Paris MoU inspections in Barcelona are the responsibility of the Capitanía Marítima, and ro-pax ferries on regular EU services also fall under the EU's own inspection regime for ro-ro passenger ships. Shipping entered EU ETS in 2024 and FuelEU Maritime in 2025, which matters most to the ferry and cruise operators that spend much of their time in EU ports and carry the full weight of those rules on intra-EU legs. Retrofits for efficiency or alternative fuels often lead to gauging requests, because structure around new penetrations, foundations and tank spaces has to be confirmed sound before it is modified.

Since 1 May 2025 the whole Mediterranean has been a sulphur emission control area, so ships calling at Barcelona burn 0.10% sulphur fuel or run a scrubber. Scrubber wash-water piping, the overboard discharge and the hull penetration around it corrode quickly in service and are worth adding to the gauging scope at every docking.

How a thickness measurement job runs at Barcelona

Most of the work on a Barcelona job happens before the team boards: scope, plan and access are settled first, so the time on board goes on measurement.

Technicians fly from India into Barcelona–El Prat Airport, normally through a Gulf or European hub, and reach the port by road. ISPS passes for the cruise, ferry or container terminal come through the ship's agent, and the refit yard handles access for superyacht work. Schengen visas are needed, so the best results come from giving us the ship's call schedule early — for cruise ships and ferries on fixed rotations, the calls are known months ahead and visa timing is easy to manage around them.

• Send the vessel name or IMO number, ship type, class society, the survey due (annual, intermediate, renewal survey number, CAP or owner's condition survey), the port and dates, and the scope you expect.
• We confirm the scope against the class rules for that survey, prepare the thickness measurement plan with frame and section references, and say whether the measurement will be credited to a class survey.
• Mobilisation is planned around visa lead times and the vessel's schedule; the ship's agent arranges port access, and the yard or ship arranges staging, lighting, ventilation and gas-free certificates.
• Gauging with calibrated ultrasonic thickness gauges: through sound coatings only where the gauge's through-coating mode has been verified on a coated reference, otherwise on cleaned bare steel, with every reading tied to its frame, strake and location on the sketch.
• Readings are compared with original thicknesses as work proceeds; substantial and excessive corrosion and any cracks are reported to the attending surveyor and the superintendent the same day.
• The final report is issued on the class thickness-measurement formats with sketches, a summary of locations exceeding the allowable margins, piping tables where piping was in scope, and the gauge calibration and technician certificates.

Related