Feature 2 | gas tankers
Waiting on compressed solutions
A first order commitment is awaited to match the resurgence of interest
in new floating solutions aimed at capturing ‘stranded’ gas reserves around
the world.
A
lthough natural gas is abundant, in Rome that the repertoire of proposed of carrying 1bcf of gas, and is among those
more than one-third of global gas gas transport systems designed to monetise to have received approval in principle for its
reserves are said to be stranded stranded reserves continued to expand. base ship design from ABS. Partners behind
by their location of field size without ‘ABS has now provided its “approval in the venture include Mitsui & Co, Tanker
commercially viable access to world markets. principle” (AIP) to numerous emerging Pacific, K Line, ABB, Lone Star, R S Platou,
Estimates place these stranded gas reserves at proprietary technologies or transport Hyundai Heavy Industries, Nippon Steel
more than 3000 trillion ft
3
. designs that are intended to economically Corp, Amec Paragon, and naval architects
It is for this reason that significant interest develop these remote gas fields,’ he said. Alan C McClure Associates.
has been stimulated by design concepts for ‘The increasingly competitive cost and the In this case, the storage technology itself
compressed natural gas carriers, proposed operational benefits of these gas concepts are envisages the deployment of the VOTRANS
as being able to claim such resources what developers hope will lead to sustained cargo containment system, comprised of many
without recourse to costly shoreside growth in this niche market.’ CNG bottles made from large-diameter steel
handling solutions. To date, despite years in Mr Sember said that nearly a dozen pipe segments. This technology can be seen
the pipeline, no single project has come to CNG projects were ‘on the verge of as a recent iteration of the original conception
fruition, however. commercialisation’ in various parts of the for CNG transportation. CNG tank modules
In fact, the idea of CNG-based marine world. are formed by manifolding groups of bottles
transport dates back to the 1960s, but early ‘ABS has granted approval in principle to together. This arrangement is inherently
attempts at commercialisation foundered, all the leading technical concepts that have scalable and provides segregated gas storage.
due to the expense of pressure vessels and the been developed for this sector… It is only a EnerSea vice president business
lack of effective safety standards. matter of time before the first major contract development, John P Dunlop said that the
Today, new technologies, growing market is finalised.’ company’s technology had reached the point
demand, and new guidelines for CNG EnerSea, based in Houston, and SEA where ‘confirmation of systems is such that we
ships have brought the CNG carrier back to NG, of Calgary, Alberta, have been pushing can move into production. We have cleared all
market. hardest towards turning CNG carrier of the hurdles with ABS that mean we could
ABS Europe president and chief operating concepts into reality. take this project into the detailed engineering
officer, William J Sember, recently told the EnerSea has made available CNG concept and construction phase. Approval in principle
CWC Eighth Annual World LNG Summit designs ranging from barges to ships capable sets out a road map to take plans to the project
sea ng’s compressed natural gas carrier
design features the ‘Coselle’ containment
solution.
60 The Naval Architect February 2008
NA Feb 08 - p60-61.indd 60 05/02/2008 09:44:04
Page 1  |  Page 2  |  Page 3  |  Page 4  |  Page 5  |  Page 6  |  Page 7  |  Page 8  |  Page 9  |  Page 10  |  Page 11  |  Page 12  |  Page 13  |  Page 14  |  Page 15  |  Page 16  |  Page 17  |  Page 18  |  Page 19  |  Page 20  |  Page 21  |  Page 22  |  Page 23  |  Page 24  |  Page 25  |  Page 26  |  Page 27  |  Page 28  |  Page 29  |  Page 30  |  Page 31  |  Page 32  |  Page 33  |  Page 34  |  Page 35  |  Page 36  |  Page 37  |  Page 38  |  Page 39  |  Page 40  |  Page 41  |  Page 42  |  Page 43  |  Page 44  |  Page 45  |  Page 46  |  Page 47  |  Page 48  |  Page 49  |  Page 50  |  Page 51  |  Page 52  |  Page 53  |  Page 54  |  Page 55  |  Page 56  |  Page 57  |  Page 58  |  Page 59  |  Page 60  |  Page 61  |  Page 62  |  Page 63  |  Page 64  |  Page 65  |  Page 66  |  Page 67  |  Page 68  |  Page 69  |  Page 70  |  Page 71  |  Page 72  |  Page 73  |  Page 74  |  Page 75  |  Page 76  |  Page 77  |  Page 78  |  Page 79  |  Page 80  |  Page 81  |  Page 82  |  Page 83  |  Page 84  |  Page 85  |  Page 86  |  Page 87  |  Page 88  |  Page 89  |  Page 90  |  Page 91  |  Page 92  |  Page 93  |  Page 94  |  Page 95  |  Page 96  |  Page 97  |  Page 98  |  Page 99  |  Page 100  |  Page 101  |  Page 102  |  Page 103  |  Page 104  |  Page 105  |  Page 106  |  Page 107  |  Page 108  |  Page 109  |  Page 110  |  Page 111  |  Page 112  |  Page 113  |  Page 114  |  Page 115  |  Page 116  |  Page 117  |  Page 118  |  Page 119  |  Page 120