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LNG-fuelled ships have now logged more than 130 years of operation in Norway. During this time, Norwegian operators, equipment suppliers and regulators have gained significant experience in all aspects of the operation of this type of ship. Due to the increasing popularity of LNG-fuelled ships and the fact that the global shipping industry is now considering their application worldwide, there is a growing need for international standardisation, primarily to ensure safe operations but also to ensure the use of common equipment and technical solutions.
When the shipping industry started assessing the status of rules and regulations relevant to the operations of LNG-fuelled ships, it quickly established that the maritime aspects were relatively straightforward. What this meant in practice was that everything normally covered by the scope of the International Maritime Organization could be attended to by establishing a code for this specific ship type: the international code for gas-fuelled ships is due to be published in 2014 and in the meantime the IMO has issued a standard covering the same scope.
The challenge, however, was that the IMO’s jurisdiction only covers the ship itself. For the connection to shore, IMO jurisdiction stops at the connection flange for the bunkering hose. Land-based regulations contained several codes and standards that could provide guidance, but there was nothing tailored and directly applicable to bunkering operations involving LNG.
The industry response to a lack of regulations and standards is to take more care in the design and development of each specific application. There is more documentation in general, more technical development work and more risk analysis methodologies are applied, eg, hazard identification sessions and quantitative risk analyses. The first such project was set up in the port of Gothenburg in Sweden and consisted of a group of companies together establishing practices for the bunkering of a passenger/vehicle ferry in this specific port. The project published a report in the summer of 2010 and since then a whole range of similar projects has assessed the feasibility of LNG bunkering in key ports around the world, such as Rotterdam, Hamburg, Zeebrugge, Singapore, Shanghai and Busan.
Foreseen governance of LNG bunkering. DNV’s proposed governing structure for LNG bunkering operations.
Once all this experience relating to different ship types in various ports was being established, it made sense to begin the task of international standardisation. An ISO committee was deemed the best vehicle for this purpose and was appointed in late 2011. The committee brought together the experience and know-how of more than 30 industry professionals and its draft standard was published in June 2013.
The ISO standard defines the overall philosophies of designs and operations relevant to LNG bunkering and contains a list of 24 performance objectives, but it is not very concrete and descriptive about how to achieve these objectives. DNV therefore set out to put its own knowledge and experience of how to meet the requirements of ISO standards into a more practical format. This is now available in the form of a Recommended Practice and will serve as a practical guide for ship operators, harbour operators and regulators on how to undertake LNG bunkering in a safe and efficient manner.
These documents represent significant steps forward in taking operational and technical risk off the table for operators looking at investing in LNG-fuelled ships or LNG bunkering terminals.
Lars Petter Blikom
Segment Director Natural Gas atDNV
This article has been initially published at DNV Maritime Update 2-2013. For more information, please clickhere.
