LNG CARRIER OPERATIONS

Tanker Operator magazine, in association with LNG Journal, is holding a one day conference about LNG carrier operations, in Hamburg on September 27th, during SMM, one of the world's largest maritime trade shows.

The conference will cover challenges of LNG carrier operations, with shipping company perspectives from BW Gas, and Anglo Eastern. It will include a market overview from LNG Shipping Solutions (Clarksons). Wartsila and Rolls Royce will outline new LNG carrier propulsion technologies,including gas turbine and dual fuel / gas turbine. Hamworthy will explain developments in shipboard gasification plants. Bureau Veritas and ABS will present recent developments in containment systems and partial filling issues, and DNV will talk about recent developments with ice class LNG tankers.

Conference attendance is just Eur 450 / GBP 305. If you want to get up to speed with recent technical and market developments with LNG carrier operations, and plan your operations for the future, then please consider attending. Join delegates from DSME, Bureau Veritas, Saab Rosemount Marine, F S Harris & Associates, Siemens AG, Gard Marine AS (Oslo), and Maxwellan United Kingdom.

Chair: Kirsi Tikka, VP special projects, ABS

Kirsi Tikka is VP special projects with ABS, based in Houston. She has responsibility for developing and implementing new technology initiatives covering a range of topics from the IACS Common Structural Rules for Tankers and Bulk Carriers to ice technology. Her previous assignment was in London as vice president engineering at ABS Europe. Prior to joining ABS in 2001 Kirsi Tikka was Professor of Naval Architecture at Webb Institute in New York. In addition to teaching she carried research on structural strength of tankers and risk analysis and was actively involved in US National Research Council Marine Board studies on double hull tankers. She has also worked for Chevron Shipping in San Francisco and for Wartsila Shipyards in Finland. She has Doctorate in Naval Architecture and Offshore Engineering from University of California, Berkeley and Masters in Mechanical Engineering and Naval Architecture from University of Technology in Helsinki. She is Member of SNAME and Fellow of RINA. www.eagle.org

SHIP OPERATOR's PERSPECTIVE

9.30 Joachim Bakke, superintendent, BW Gas

Joachim Bakke is superintendent with BW Gas, the world’s largest gas shipping company transporting LPG and LNG. It operates 15 Lng tankers, 41 VLGCs, 20 LGCs and 14 MGCs. www.bwgas.com

10.00 Training challenges for Managing Safe Operations on LNG Carriers Sunit Das, QHSE manager, Anglo Eastern (UK) Ltd

Sunit Das, QHSE manager, Anglo Eastern (UK) Ltd, which is part of the Anglo Eastern Group and manages over 200 ships through its various offices. There are 44 ships managed out of this office including 4 LNG carriers, 2 LPG carriers and remaining a mix of heavy lift, dry bulk, containers and car carriers. Having sailed primarily on gas carriers during his sea going career spanning 14 years, he joined the QHSE team of Anglo Eastern in early 2004. Since then, he was initially based at the head office in Hong Kong for a year and later transfered to Glasgow where he took up his present assignment www.aesm.com

10.30 LNG Ship operations market overview. Per Sunden-Cullberg, shipping advisor, LNG Shipping Solutions.
- Propulsion investments to keep your options open (regasification plants, dual fuel engine);
- Future LNG shipping market -
- Evolution of LNGC sale and purchase / spot trading market;
- Opportunities to convert LNGCs to offshore regasification vessels;
- Evolving smaller LNGC market

Per Sunden-Cullberg, shipping advisor, LNG Shipping Solutions, a UK LNG shipping market intelligence company, formed by Clarksons and Barry Rogliano Sales. There are four employees based in London. www.lngship.net

11.00 Break

11.30 Shipboard gasification plants
Tore Lunde, deputy managing director, Hamworthy Gas Systems
- Cost reduction from using diesel propulsion engines together with shipboard gas liquefaction plants, rather than using gas for propulsion
- Installing a regasification plant onboard so a LNG vessel can be connected directly to a gas pipeline network, rather than using a LNG terminal
- Critical economical, environmental, safety and reliability issues related to these systems

Tore Lunde is deputy managing director, Hamworthy Gas Systems, which provides gas handling systems, heaters, vaporisers, reliquefaction and regasification. www.hamworthy.com

12.00 Panel discussion

12.30 LUNCH

TECHNICAL SESSION

1.30 Gas propulsion systems
Bob Watson, chief engineer, new projects and research and technology, Rolls Royce.
Developments with gas turbine engines / appropriateness for LNG vessels

Bob Watson is chief engineer, new projects and research and technology, Rolls Royce, which is leading the way in developing gas turbine engines for LNG vessels. He joined the Industrial Division of Rolls-Royce in 1976 and worked on many gas turbine and combined cycle power station projects. In 1998 he moved to the Marine division and was a founder member of the team which designed the MT30. He currently works as Chief Engineer in the Systems Group and concentrates on merchant marine opportunities including LNG carriers. www.rolls-royce.com

2.00 Financial case for using a dual fuel gas / diesel engine on an LNG carrier.Barend Thijssen, sales manager, Wärtsilä After some 40 years of steam turbine dominance in LNG shipping, dual-fuel-electric machinery starts to establish itself as a new market standard. Engines for forty-nine dual-fuel-electric LNG carriers have been ordered to date, and more orders are expected to follow. 2006 will see the first two dual-fuel-electric LNG carriers take to the sea. The presentation explains dual-fuel engine technology and the dual-fuel-electric machinery concept for LNG carriers, and compares different LNG carrier machinery alternatives technically and commercially.

Barend Thijssen graduated as a Naval Architect M.Sc. from Delft University of Technology in the Netherlands and joined Wärtsilä in 1997. After assignments in Winterthur, Switzerland, and Piraeus, Greece, he now leads the marketing and sales activities of Wärtsilä Ship Power Solutions from Raisio, Finland. Wärtsilä Ship Power Solutions aims to take a holistic approach on machinery installations for ships and offshore structures. Machinery installations for LNG carriers are one of the focus areas of Wärtsilä Ship Power Solutions. www.wartsila.com

2.30 Managing partial filling issues for ships discharging offshore -
Mirella Zalar, senior research engineer and product leader for sloshing, Bureau Veritas

Mirella Zalar is senior research engineer and product leader for sloshing, Bureau Veritas, one of the world's leading class societies for LNG. www.bureauveritas.com

3.00 Developments with ice class LNG tankers. Jan Koren, business manager tankers, DNV
Jan Koren, business manager tankers, DNV, which has been involved in classing LNG vessels since they were first invented. www.dnv.com


3.30 State of the art LNG containment system and pump tower technology. Yung Sup Shin, senior staff consultant, ABS Overview of latest research and development

Yung Sup Shin is senior staff consultant with ABS, one of the world's largest class societies. www.eagle.org

4.00 Close

PRICE

The Conference price is £305 ( approx. €450) per day. Buy four delegate tickets and the fourth is free.

Early bird discount - 30% reduction for bookings before end of August.

These are not easy times to be involved in LNG carrier operations.

The market is demanding increasing numbers of vessels, including ice class carriers to trade in the new frontier of LNG production which will be in Arctic waters off the Barents Sea – there is money to be made, but predicting exactly where is not easy.

Meanwhile qualified and motivated seafarers are getting increasingly hard to find.

Operators have a bewildering array of choices for the best propulsion systems – dual fuel or gas turbine engines.

They also have to choose whether to install shipboard gasification equipment, in case the vessel will need to offload offshore.

There have been problems reported with containment systems and new technology being developed.

Tanker Operator magazine has put together a one day conference to be held in Hamburg during SMM week on Wednesday September to tackle these issues.