LNG Bunkering Will Require a New Level of Sophistication

Raitt said LNG can be dangerous to handle

Douglas Raitt, fuel oil bunker analysis and advisory service (FOBAS) global manager at Lloyd's Register, has said that despite its potential environmental and cost advantages, liquefied natural gas (LNG) bunkering faces some significant technological barriers to adoption in the short- to mid-term, Platts report.

"Don't let blind optimism for LNG overtake the practicalities needed to be resolved for LNG bunkering," Raitt told the Emerging Asia Small and Mid-Scale LNG Forum.

"[LNG] is ultimately a dangerous product to handle...You would have to have a high level of sophistication that we had not seen in the last 50 years for conventional bunkering."

Among the issues hampering rapid adoption, LNG bunkers require cryogenic storage, specialised crew training, and significantly larger space devoted to on-board storage compared with conventional bunkers, and the effects of quality variations for LNG are not yet clear.

Raitt said the industry should consider other options, including scrubbers, and future fuels such as methanol as ways of complying with emissions regulations.

Raitt's presentation suggested LNG-fuelled vessels will be a viable option for deep sea operations, particularly liner trades, more than 10 years from now, but gasoil distillates will most likely be the predominant fuel in 2015

"2015 is only 16 months from now," he said.

"There's not enough time to retrofit the global fleet."

When it comes to the environmental benefits of LNG, he said the benefits of reducing sulfur, nitrogen oxide, carbon dioxide, and particulate matter emissions should be balanced against methane slip, which represents "a potential penalty towards the green credentials that LNG has and negates any carbon dioxide reduction from using LNG as fuel compared to conventional shipping."

LNG expert Mike Corkhill recently wrote that LNG bunkers are poised for a breakthrough, but David Bull, a senior consultant at Royal Haskoning Ocean Shipping Consultants, wrote in January that significant barriers to adoption of the fuel remain.