The approach of LNG is something rather new; it is the chicken and the egg issue. Do we need firstly the terminal, do we need firstly the fuel, do we have the appropriate ships? In order to take the decision, we need both the ships and also the terminals for LNG. I would like to highlight the important factors to be considered; social perception, financial issues, regulatory and authorization aspects, logistics scenario and the technical solutions.
During early March 2013 EMSA released a study on Standards and Rules for Bunkering of Gas-Fuelled Ships with the objective of providing a detailed description of the existing rule framework related to LNG bunkering. Currently about 30 gas-fuelled vessels are operating mostly in the Baltic Sea and Norwegian waters most of them on the authority of the Norwegian administration. Hence, Norway had early on experience with gas as fuel for ships and initiated the development of the IMO’s international ‘Guidelines on Safety for Natural Gas-Fuelled Engine Installations in Ships’ in 2004.
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Officer of the Watch 