In Riviera Maritime Media’s ‘Selecting the right cargo containment system,’ webinar, sponsored by developer of the LNT A-Box containment system LNT Marine, the panellists considered the advantages and disadvantages of the different systems
The webinar was the second in Riviera Maritime Media’s Tankers and Terminals: Gas Carriers Webinar Week, part of an ongoing series of webinars.
Bureau Veritas global market leader gas carriers and oil tankers Carlos Guerrero, LNT Marine chief executive officer Kjetil Sjølie Strand, and Liquefied Gas Consultancy principal consultant Chris Clucas gave presentations on the pros and cons of the different containment systems (Type A, Type B and Type C) and fielded questions from webinar attendees.
Mr Guerrero presented the advantages and disadvantages of the different containment systems, highlighting the cross-over between one type and another. He noted that volume efficiency was the key and also the ability and experience of shipyards in constructing vessels around the containment systems. Speaking about the changes in technology for all containment systems, he noted, “The boil off gas rate is much lower today than even five years ago.”
Mr Sjølie Strand presented the company’s A-Box technology, which is particularly suited to the changes taking place in the LNG trades. “There will be more diversity in capacity to serve new trades. Partial discharge and partial loading will be more common. Ship-to-ship operations will be required. Energy efficiency and low levels of carbon footprint will be increasingly important, he said. The LNT Marine A-Box technology is fitted to the mid-scale LNG carrier Saga Dawn.
Mr Clucas’ experience runs from the era of steam turbine LNG carriers through to the modern day. He emphasised there is over 50 years of history in this sector and this should be more widely assessed by the stakeholders in the industry. He noted, “Traditionally, LNG carriers have been designed for quite fast speeds, typically 19.5 knots. Poten & Partners recently assessed the average speed of the LNG fleet over 3.5 years and found that the ships were on average trading somewhere about 13 knots. This has a big implication for the power installed on the ship.”
Polling the delegates attending the event also provided some interesting insight into trends in the market. Asked about the most important factor for selecting cargo containment systems going forward, flexibility and partial loading capability was a clear favourite at 58% with volume utilisation, boil-off gas, and price trailing some way behind.
Asked whether the current system of shipyards adopting specific ’licence agreements’ with cargo system designers limits customer choice, 42% strongly agreed. Another poll referred to the issue of boil-off gas: Are the current industry standards regulating LNG ’boil-off gas’ calculation disputes, inadequate? (48%), adequate? (43%) or robust? (9%). The final poll concerned the body of knowledge the industry has amassed, asking is enough being done to spread that knowledge -- 75% of the attendees replied that more needs to be done.
You can view the webinar, in full, in our webinar library.
And you can sign up to attend one of our many upcoming webinars on our events page.
Panellists of the "Selecting the right cargo containment system" webinar (left to right): Bureau Veritas global market leader gas carriers and oil tankers Carlos Guerrero, Liquefied Gas Consultancy principal consultant Chris Clucas, LNT Marine chief executive officer Kjetil Sjølie Strand
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