NEWS ANALYSIS
Inland LNG is an option A
number of companies are considering the use of LNG for inland waterway transportation, including the oil majors who are looking to
LNG as a means of reducing emissions without having to use expensive low sulphur products. Although MOL is not going down this route with its
own newbuilding projects in the LNG sector, Ed Carr, managing director of MOL LNG Transport (Europe), says that the company has been approached by several parties to see if it would be willing to use older vessels as storage units. “Te idea is that these would feed into bunkering barges or ships, which in turn would feed small satellite terminals,” he says. Tere is no doubt, he adds, that the industry sees LNG as a solution to the emissions problem. Engine manufacturers like Wärtsilä and MAN
Diesel & Turbo are stepping up their efforts to supply a range of dual-fuel gas engines for the shipping industry. MAN Diesel & Turbo’s product range for slow steaming vessels includes the G-type two-stroke engine range, which the company says “provides first-class support with its extra-long strokes for slow steaming”. Under its service brand MAN PrimeServ, MAN Diesel & Turbo is also offering retrofit solutions for converting two-stroke engines to slow steaming. A new slow speed engine, under development at
Wärtsilä, features low pressure fuel injection, which the company believes will
facilitate compliance
with the demands of the North American emission control area. MOL has four newbuildings under construction in China, all of which already have long term charters
with ExxonMobil – two of them for the Papua New Guinea PNG LNG project and two for the Austral- ian Gorgon project. Steel cutting has just begun for the new ships, with the first scheduled for delivery in January 2015 a further two for delivery that year and the fourth in 2016. MOL’s policy is only to order LNG vessels against long term contracts, Carr says. While building LNG ships is a relatively new concept
for China, Carr says yards are making maximum efforts, not least because the vessels are for export and not for domestic use. “Tey are even more focused on doing a good job because they really want to develop this business, just like Japan and Korea did. Everything I hear from our site team is that the shipyard is making a really big effort, especially on the quality side”. While one of the big markets for the future of LNG
is China, building an export market for LNG ships makes sense. Optimising the use of vessels is a key issue today.
Carr says that when he started in the LNG business more than 30 years ago it was a “point to point trade and vessels never got mixed up with other business. Tey were dedicated to that particular trade and it was very, very conservative”. In the last 12-13 years operators are realising that
they can optimise their fleet by chartering out vessels, something that was never done in the past. “Both buyers and sellers now understand there is value in shipping. It is not just cost. What you see now is a lot more discussion in gas contracts as to who is going to do the shipping, with each side sometimes wanting to do it”.
The race is on for LNG development, but will smaller ships lead the way
12
The Naval Architect October 2012
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