LNG tankers: general information. Q-max gas carriers. In this case, how long should the tanker's route from Sabetta to Zeebrugge take in winter ice conditions
The world's first ice-class LNG carrier arrived at the Arctic port of Sabetta (located on the western shore of the Ob Bay of the Kara Sea) in the Yamalo-Nenets Autonomous Okrug. The construction of the vessel was completed by Daewoo Shipbuilding Marine Engineering (DSME) in South Korea in November 2016. Less than two months ago, it left the Belgian port of Zeebrugge. On February 12, the tanker Christophe de Margerie (named after the CEO of Total, who died in a plane crash in 2014), filled with a test volume of liquefied natural gas (boiler LNG serves as fuel for the ship), entered the Kola Bay, heading to Murmansk. Two days later, the gas carrier continued its journey east, to the Gulf of Ob, for testing in ice conditions. The vessel will enter the Yamal Trade time charter.
According to Rosmorport, this is the first call at the port of Sabetta for vessels of this type (length - 299 meters, width - 50 meters, draft - 11 meters): “The vessel will undergo sea and mooring trials at the technological berth for a month. It is also planned to perform skiving in ice conditions in the limited space of the turning basin in the water area seaport. In addition, will be processed technological processes loading and unloading of liquefied gas.
Christophe de Margerie is the first of fifteen Arc7 ice class LNG carriers for the Yamal LNG project. Capacity - 172.6 thousand cubic meters. According to Sovcomflot, in terms of the capacity of the power plant, 45 MW, the gas carrier is comparable to nuclear icebreaker. The tanker became the ancestor of a new type of vessel - YAMALMAX, associated with the transportation of large volumes of gas in the shallow Gulf of Ob.
LNG will be delivered from Sabetta to the Asian region by the Northern Sea Route during summer navigation. This will significantly reduce the time compared to traditional routes, as well as reduce fuel consumption by ships and reduce harmful emissions into the atmosphere. Each vessel will cost approximately $350 million. The schedule for commissioning the production capacity of the LNG plant provides for the delivery of vessels from 2017 to 2021.
Let us recall that earlier Yamal LNG held an international tender with the participation of nine leading shipowners who have relevant experience and are qualified as operators of gas carriers. As a result of the competitive selection, the winners were: Sovcomflot (Russia), Teekay (Canada) in partnership with CLNG (China), MOL (Japan) in partnership with CSLNG (China), Dynagas (Greece) in partnership with CLNG and Sinotrans (China) . At the same time, only Russian company- within the Sakhalin-1, Sakhalin-2, Varandey, Prirazlomnoye and Novoportovskoye projects.
The Yamal LNG natural gas liquefaction complex is being implemented by Novatek in partnership with Total (20%), CNPC (20%) and the Silk Road Fund (9.9%). The plant will be built on the resource base of the Yuzhno-Tambeyskoye field (proven and probable gas reserves - 927 billion cubic meters). The plant's capacity is 16.5 million tons of LNG, the total investment is 1.27 trillion rubles. Commissioning is scheduled for 2017. Almost the entire volume has been contracted - 96% of the future volume of LNG. Last November, Novatek CEO Leonid Mikhelson invited Russian President Vladimir Putin to the first LNG filling, which will take place no later than November 2017.
Delivery of gas to consumers is carried out not only through pipelines, but also in liquefied form - for the most part sea transport. At present, the transportation of "blue fuel" through gas pipelines and its transportation in the form of LNG are not competing segments, but only complement each other.
Why do we need LNG supplies?
Transporting LNG is much more expensive than supplying gas through pipelines, and at first glance it may seem that the business niche associated with the transportation of liquefied gas is significantly inferior to pipeline supplies or even looks uncompetitive.
In particular, even at the stage of LNG production, certain production and energy capacities are required, as well as significant costs associated with the purification and cooling of raw materials. For example, only on manufacturing process uses an additional 25% of energy compared to preparing gas for conventional pipeline deliveries. Thus, to compress 1 thousand cubic meters of gas, 250 cubic meters of this fuel will be required. In addition, one should also take into account the need to convert LNG back into a gaseous state at the delivery point, as well as fuel losses both during transportation and storage.
It requires the construction of port terminals, regasification plants, additional gas pipelines to deliver fuel after it has been converted from liquid to gaseous state, and, of course, huge tankers. And yet, despite the obvious cost of transporting LNG in comparison with the traditional delivery of gas through pipes, transportation liquefied fuel necessary. For example, the countries of the Asia-Pacific region are consumers of Qatari gas, and laying a gas pipeline across the ocean is a technically difficult task with enormous costs.
According to experts, the cost of gas delivery by tankers is gradually equalized with the cost of transporting fuel through pipes as the distance from fields to destinations reaches a value of 2.5 thousand kilometers. Moreover, at certain conditions tanker shipments can even be cheaper than pipeline shipments. The dependence of the growth in the cost of LNG transportation on the increase in distance is much less than in cases related to the need to build new gas pipelines.
Also, transportation of liquefied gas is not so strictly tied to specific destinations - ships can call at any port adapted for receiving fuel. This is confirmed by the words of the head of Novatek, Leonid Mikhelson. He notes that although the initial investment in LNG infrastructure is higher than in pipeline transportation, fuel delivery by large tankers is more profitable as a result. The top manager clarifies that this includes, among other things, the lack of a clear linkage of the LNG business to specific buyers and the possibility of changing sales markets.
The history of the development of the fleet of gas carriers
LNG is transported by sea using special gas carriers (LNG carriers). On such ships it is possible to transport not only LNG (natural gas - methane), but also petroleum gases - propane and butane in liquefied form. The first flights of gas carriers date back to 1929, when Shell converted the Megara oil tanker for this purpose. She also built the ship Agnita at the Dutch shipyard, which was capable of transporting oil at the same time, sulfuric acid and liquefied gases. The tanker cruised from the Caribbean to Western Europe.
However, the then tankers cannot be considered full-fledged LNG carriers, since they transported only liquefied hydrocarbon gas and pressurized ammonia, but not low-temperature LNG fractions. The fact is that methane in liquefied form can only be stored at a temperature within minus 162 degrees Celsius. The technologies of that time were unable to provide such a condition for transportation.
Tanker Agnita, built 1931
For the first time, liquefied natural gas was transported in a combined way- under pressure and with cooling - only at the end of the fifties after the launch of the French gas carrier Descartes. And finally, the first full-fledged LNG tanker Bridgestone Maru was built in Japan in 1961. It was designed to transport methane in tanks of an isolated type, at normal pressure, but cooled to boiling point.
To date, a fairly impressive fleet of LNG tankers has been built around the world. It is expected that in 2017 their number will reach 520 units. The pace of increasing the volume of construction of gas carriers is growing. In particular, it took operators more than three decades to commission the first hundred gas tankers, and in the next seven years the fleet grew by 220 tankers at once. Now the average rate of production of gas carriers is about a hundred vessels in three to five years.
Japanese LNG tanker Bridgestone Maru
by the most major manufacturers gas carriers are Asian companies, including Daewoo, Hyundai, Samsung, Mitsubishi, Kawasaki and Mitsui. Two-thirds of the world's LNG carriers have left the South Korean stocks. Demand for tankers is only increasing due to the commissioning of new LNG production capacities and increasing demand for gas. The supply volumes are impressive. For example, Pronedra wrote earlier that in just six years, liquefied gas was shipped from Sakhalin terminals to a thousand tankers.
Q-Max class: giant tankers
The vast majority of methane carriers currently produced have a capacity of 145–155 thousand cubic meters. The volume of natural gas obtained from this amount of LNG through regasification is 89-95 million cubic meters. To a much lesser extent, small class tankers are represented - with tanks designed for 18-19 thousand cubic meters of LNG.
The real giants of the tanker industry deserve more attention - gas carriers of the Q-Max and Q-Flex classes, capable of transporting 210-266 thousand cubic meters of liquefied natural gas. To date, the largest representatives of the fleet of gas carriers are the Q-Max line of vessels, the first of which, the Mozah tanker, was built at Samsung shipyards by order of Qatar Gas Transport Company for LNG supplies by Qatargas and RasGas.
Mozah - Q-Max class tanker
The ship was named after the wife of the Qatari emir. Until Mozah was put into operation (2008), the carrying capacity of LNG tankers did not exceed 140,000 cubic meters. Mozah's capabilities are amazing - its capacity has reached 266 thousand cubic meters of LNG. Liquefied gas is transported in Mozah in five membrane tanks. To roughly understand the scale of loading one such gas carrier, you need to know only one thing - this amount of fuel is enough to provide electricity and heat to the whole of Great Britain continuously for one day.
The dimensions of the ship are also striking. With a length of 345 meters and a width of 50 meters, it has a draft of 12 meters. However, the appearance of tankers with a larger draft is hardly possible, since their size and deadweight are limited by the possibility of passing through the Suez Canal. The uniqueness of the ship's design lies in the fact that it is equipped, among other things, with an installation designed to liquefy evaporating LNG, which, in turn, makes it possible to preserve 100% of the cargo along the route. Mozah was the first, but not the only gas carrier of the project - a total of 14 Q-Max tankers were built in just two years, all by order of the Qataris. The ships of this line were produced not only by Samsung, but also by the South Korean Daewoo.
Features of the design and operation of LNG tankers
A gas carrier of any class designed to transport LNG requires special technical solutions at the design and construction stages. This is due to the fact that liquefied natural gas in its properties is significantly different from any other type of cargo. In particular, in addition to the above mandatory condition observance of ultra-low gas temperature, when creating tankers, the critical explosive and fire hazards of LNG are also taken into account.
The cargo is pumped into thermally insulated tanks. These tanks are surrounded by a double layer of insulation and an additional capital shell to prevent leakage in case of damage to the main body. Surfaces in direct contact with LPG are resistant to low temperatures, as they are made of steel, aluminum or Invar (nickel-iron alloy).
41% of tankers use the Moss system when the tanks are spherical. They are made using aluminum and are attached to the ship's hull along the line of their "equator". In addition, three-membrane systems are used in the construction of 47% of LNG carriers - for example, CS1, Technigaz and GazTransport standards. Row Japanese companies employed in the production of gas carriers prefer to install prismatic tanks.
LNG tanker with spherical tanks (Moss system): 1 - engine room; 2 - felling; 3 - spherical tanks; 4 - ballast
The high cost of production of gas carriers leads to the fact that when designing them, solutions are provided that initially allow the use of vessels with the most efficient work schedule for the fastest payback.
LNG tanker with three-membrane tanks (GazTransport & Technigaz): 1 - engine room; 2 - felling; 3 - membrane-type LNG tanks; 4 - ballast
In particular, design features ships allow full loading or unloading of a large gas carrier in a maximum of 18 hours. In addition, gas carriers are quite fast. Their speed reaches the bar of 20 knots (more than 37 kilometers per hour), despite the fact that conventional oil tankers cannot accelerate faster than 14 knots (26 kilometers per hour).
LNG tankers use directly transported liquefied gas as fuel for power plants. However, LNG acts as a fuel for gas carrier engines only partially, mostly together with traditional fuel oil. Installed on tankers steam turbines, which, despite their insufficiently high efficiency as propulsion systems, are at the same time "omnivorous".
As promising direction the possibility of installing dual-fuel diesel engines with low-pressure gas injection systems is being considered. Such engines operate on both diesel fuel and evaporating liquid gas. They are distinguished by the possibility of flexible use of operating modes, as well as highly efficient and sufficiently safe.
Engine room with dual-fuel engines of the LNG tanker Castillo de Santisteban
In general, the main priority in the design of ships at the present stage of development of shipbuilding is to achieve the maximum level of energy efficiency, which is ensured not only by the competent use of certain solutions related to fuel supply and engines, but also by optimizing the shape of the gas carrier hull to reduce water resistance when it moves with in order to prevent loss of speed and to prevent an increase in fuel costs.
LNG tanker Creole Spirit
Obviously, increasing the efficiency of transporting liquefied gas to regions where laying gas pipelines is unprofitable or impossible is not the business of power engineers at all, but primarily shipbuilders. Their engineering solutions increase the profitability of transportation and, as one of the results, provide an opportunity for suppliers to reduce the cost of gas, making it more affordable for consumers in terms of price.
The key aspect of life support - the generation of electrical and thermal energy in the regions - not only industry, but also household consumers, that is, ordinary citizens, depends on the supply of gas, like coal. Thus, the shipbuilding industry is entrusted, no less than pipeline operators, with the mission of effective transport support for global energy security.
Supertankers gas carriers transport liquefied natural gas equivalent to the energy of 55 atomic bombs. The liquid from these becomes the means for cooking and heating your home, however, the creation of marine transportation of gas was extremely difficult, although these vessels owe their existence to several amazing ideas. Let's consider them.
The transportation of natural gas around the world is big business. Supertankers much larger than the Titanic and built to carry natural gas anywhere in the world. Everything connected with him has a gigantic scale, but in order to realize this, one must be near him. How do these ships move huge volumes of gas around the world.
There are huge tanks inside. There is enough space for 34 million liters of liquefied gas, the same amount of water would be enough for an ordinary family to flush the toilet for 1200 years. And there are four such tanks on the ship, and inside each the temperature is minus 160 degrees Celsius.
Like oil, natural gas is a fossil fuel formed from the decay of ancient organisms. It can be transferred by pipeline, but it is very expensive and not practical when crossing oceans, instead the engineers had to come up with the transportation of gas on ships and the difficulty was that natural gas ignites at any temperature encountered on Earth. A gas leak can be a serious disaster and fortunately there has never been a major accident, and tanker shipping line operators plan to continue in the same spirit.
supertanker tank
There is a very simple solution to turn a gas into a liquid. In this state, it is not able to ignite and, moreover, takes up much less space. If the cargo were in gaseous form, the tanker would have to be unrealistically huge - ten times the length of any existing tanker, or 2,500 meters long.
To turn a gas into a liquid, it is cooled to a temperature of minus 162 degrees Celsius, but it is enough to heat it up, right there, the substance turns into a flammable gas. To this end, there is a second line of defense - nitrogen. It is an inert gas, which is abundant in the air. Under normal conditions, nitrogen does not react with anything and more importantly, it prevents the fuel from combining with oxygen in the presence of any spark. It is impossible to ignite in one scrap if there is enough nitrogen around. On supertankers, potentially toxic nitrogen is safely sealed inside the gas tank's insulation. In the event of a leak, nitrogen prevents the dangerous goods from reacting with oxygen, and the insulation keeps it in liquid form. Supertankers jokingly called the largest freezers in the world, because this is the equivalent of three hundred thousand home freezers, only ten times colder.
The gas is cooled onshore and pumped in liquid form to the supertanker, but these ultra-low temperatures present great engineering challenges. For this work, you simply cannot use the standard steel pipes. The transport of this super-cold liquid through the ship's pipelines presented shipbuilders with a set of new problems, the solution of which was found with the help of of stainless steel with some chrome added. This metal is able to make ordinary brittle steel withstand over low temperature.
The shipbuilders who created supertankers for the transportation of liquefied natural gas, everything was done so that not only the hulls of these ships were ready to cross rough seas, but that thousands of meters of the most complex pipelines with all their vulnerable bends, connections and taps were made of a material that would withstand low temperatures - alloyed stainless steel.
Transporting liquid on supertankers leads to another problem - how to keep it from splashing. Shipbuilders of such ships had to take care of two types of liquid. When moving in one direction supertanker carries liquefied natural gas, and on the way back, when the tanks are empty, they carry water as ballast to give the ship stability. One problem in two different forms.
Wind and waves will rock the supertanker and cause the liquid to slosh in the tanks from side to side. This movement can increase, intensifying the roll of the ship itself, and lead to catastrophic consequences. This effect is called the influence of the free surface of the liquid. In a literal sense, this is the area available for free splashing of water. This is indeed a problem leading to . Supertankers have amazing solutions. To reduce the influence of the free surface of liquid gas, the tanks are made in the form of a sphere. Thus, there is much less room for liquid to slosh while the tank is full or nearly empty. Tanks are filled with cargo by 98 percent and set off on long voyages, arriving at their destination tankers completely, leaving as much fuel as needed for the return journey. Therefore, under normal conditions, the containers are either filled to capacity or almost empty.
supertanker systems diagram
Without sediment load supertanker was significantly reduced, and in order to reduce it, water is pumped into the ballast tanks in the ship's hull directly under the gas tanks. However, space does not allow these compartments to be made spherical, so another solution is required to prevent splashing water in them - cargo divider partitions. These are physical barriers, first introduced in the 1880s to prevent oil tankers from tipping over. Baffles protect tankers from overkill.
What will the gas carrier of the future look like?
Shipping Efficiency Russian LNG can be significantly increased due to the use of the latest technological developments.
Russia's entry into the global LNG market coincided with the advent of advanced technologies for the sea transportation of liquefied gas. The first gas carriers and receiving terminals of a new generation, capable of significantly reducing the cost of transporting LNG, were put into operation. Gazprom has a unique opportunity to create its own liquefied gas transportation system using the latest advances in this area and gain an advantage over competitors who will need a long time for technical re-equipment.
Take into account advanced trends
The launch of Russia's first LNG plant on Sakhalin, preparations for the construction of an even larger production facility on the basis of the Shtokman field and the development of an LNG plant project on Yamal include the sea transportation of liquefied gas in the list of technologies that are critically important for our country. This makes it relevant to analyze the latest trends in the development of LNG maritime transport, so that not only existing, but also promising technologies are included in the development of domestic projects.
Of the projects implemented in recent years, the following areas can be distinguished in improving the efficiency of LNG sea transportation:
1. Increasing the capacity of LNG tankers;
2. Increase in the share of ships with membrane-type tanks;
3. Use of diesel engines as a ship power plant;
4. Emergence of deep-sea LNG terminals.
Increasing the capacity of LNG tankers
For more than 30 years, the maximum capacity of LNG tankers did not exceed 140-145 thousand cubic meters. m, which is equivalent to a carrying capacity of 60 thousand tons of LNG. In December 2008, LNG tanker Mozah (Fig. 1), Q-Max type, was put into operation, the lead in a series of 14 vessels with a capacity of 266 thousand cubic meters. m. Compared to the largest existing vessels, its capacity is 80% more. Simultaneously with the construction of Q-Max type tankers, orders were placed at South Korean shipyards for the construction of the 31st Q-Flex type vessel with a capacity of 210-216 thousand cubic meters. m, which is almost 50% more than existing vessels.
According to information Samsung Heavy Industries, at whose shipyard Mozah was built, in the foreseeable future, the capacity of LNG tankers will not exceed 300 thousand cubic meters. m, which is due to the technological difficulties of their construction. However, the increase in the capacity of Q-Max and Q-Flex vessels was achieved only by increasing the length and width of the hull, while maintaining the standard draft of 12 meters for large LNG tankers, which is determined by the depths at existing terminals. In the next decade, it will be possible to operate gas carriers with a draft of 20-25 m, which will increase the capacity to 350 thousand cubic meters. m and improve driving performance by improving the hydrodynamic contours of the hull. It will also reduce construction costs, as larger tankers can be built without increasing the size of the docks and slipways.
When organizing LNG exports from Russia, it is necessary to assess the possibility of using vessels with increased capacity. Construction of ships with a capacity of 250-350 thousand cubic meters. m will reduce the unit cost of transporting Russian gas and gain a competitive advantage in foreign markets.
At increase in the share of membrane tankers
Currently, LNG tankers use two main types of cargo tanks (tanks in which LNG is transported): inset spherical (Kvaerner-Moss system) and built-in prismatic membrane (Gas Transport - Technigas system) . Insert spherical tanks have a thickness of 30-70 mm (equatorial belt - 200 mm) and are made of aluminum alloys. They are installed (“embedded”) in the tanker hull without connection to the hull structures, relying on the bottom of the ship through special support cylinders. Prismatic membrane tanks have a shape close to rectangular. The membranes are made of a thin (0.5-1.2 mm) sheet of alloy steel or Invar (iron-nickel alloy) and are only a shell into which liquefied gas is loaded. All static and dynamic loads are transferred to the ship's hull through the thermal insulation layer. Safety requires the presence of a primary and secondary membrane, which ensures the safety of LNG in case of damage to the primary, as well as a double layer of thermal insulation - between the membranes and between the secondary membrane and the ship's hull.
With a tanker capacity of up to 130 thousand cubic meters. meters, the use of spherical tanks is more efficient than membrane tanks, in the range of 130-165 thousand cubic meters. m, their technical and economic characteristics are approximately equal, with a further increase in capacity, the use of membrane tanks becomes preferable.
Membrane tanks are about half as light as spherical ones, and their shape allows the ship's hull space to be used with maximum efficiency. Due to this, membrane tankers have smaller dimensions and displacement per unit of carrying capacity. They are cheaper to build and more economical to operate, in particular, due to lower port dues and fees for passage through the Suez and Panama Canals.
At present, tankers with spherical and membrane tanks are about equally divided. Due to the increase in capacity, membrane tankers will prevail in the near future, among the ships under construction and planned for construction, their share is about 80%.
In relation to Russian conditions, an important feature of the vessels is the possibility of operation in the Arctic seas. According to experts, compression and shock loads that occur when overcoming ice fields are dangerous for membrane tankers, which makes their operation in severe ice conditions risky. Manufacturers of membrane tankers claim the opposite, citing calculations that membranes, especially corrugated ones, have a high deformability, which excludes their rupture even with significant damage to hull structures. However, it cannot be guaranteed that the membrane will not be pierced by the elements of these same structures. In addition, a vessel with deformed tanks, even if they have retained their tightness, cannot be allowed for further operation, and the replacement of part of the membranes requires a long and expensive repair. Therefore, the projects of ice LNG tankers provide for the use of insert spherical tanks, the lower part of which is located at a considerable distance from the waterline and the underwater part of the side.
It is necessary to consider the possibility of building membrane tankers for the export of LNG from the Kola Peninsula (Teriberka). For the LNG plant in Yamal, apparently, only vessels with spherical tanks can be used.
The use of diesel engines and on-board gas liquefaction units
A feature of the ships of new projects was the use of diesel and diesel-electric installations as the main engines, which are more compact and economical than steam turbines. This allowed to significantly reduce fuel consumption and reduce the size of the engine room. Until recently, LNG tankers were equipped exclusively with steam turbines capable of utilizing natural gas evaporating from tanks. By burning the evaporated gas steam boilers, turbine LNG tankers cover up to 70% of fuel demand.
On many ships, including the Q-Max and Q-Flex types, the problem of LNG evaporation has been solved by installing a gas liquefaction unit on board. The evaporated gas is again liquefied and returned to the tanks. An on-board gas reliquefaction unit noticeably increases the cost of an LNG tanker, but its use is considered justified on long lines.
In the future, the problem can be solved by reducing volatility. If for ships built in the 1980s, LNG evaporation losses were 0.2-0.35% of the cargo volume per day, then on modern ships this figure is about half as low - 0.1-0.15%. It can be expected that in the next decade the level of evaporation losses will be reduced by a further two times.
It can be assumed that in the conditions of ice navigation of an LNG tanker equipped with diesel engine, the presence of an on-board gas liquefaction plant is necessary, even with a reduced level of volatility. When sailing in ice conditions, the full power of the propulsion system will be used only on a part of the route, and in this case, the volume of gas evaporated from the tanks will exceed the capacity of the engines to utilize it.
New LNG carriers must be equipped with diesel engines. The presence of an on-board plant for gas liquefaction, apparently, will be advisable both when operating on the longest routes, for example, to the east coast of the United States, and during shuttle flights from the Yamal Peninsula.
Emergence of deep-sea LNG terminals
The world's first offshore LNG receiving and regasification terminal, Gulf Gateway, went into operation in 2005, also becoming the first terminal built in the United States in the last 20 years. Raid terminals are located on floating structures or artificial islands, at a considerable distance from the coastline, often outside the territorial waters (the so-called offshore terminals). This makes it possible to reduce construction time, as well as ensure the removal of terminals at a safe distance from coastal facilities. It can be expected that the creation of offshore terminals in the next decade will significantly expand North America's ability to import LNG. There are five terminals in the USA and there are construction projects for about 40 more, of which 1/3 are offshore. 
Offshore terminals can accept ships with a significant draft. Deep-water terminals, for example, Gulf Gateway, do not have restrictions on the draft of vessels at all, the projects of others provide for a draft of up to 21-25 m. As an example, the project of the BroadWater terminal can be cited. The terminal is proposed to be located 150 km northeast of New York, in the Long Island Strait protected from waves. The terminal will consist of a small frame-piled platform installed at a depth of 27 meters and a floating storage and regasification unit (FSRU), 370 meters long and 61 meters wide, which will simultaneously serve as a berth for LNG tankers with draft up to 25 meters (Fig. 2 and 3) . The projects of a number of coastal terminals also provide for the handling of ships with increased draft and a capacity of 250-350 thousand cubic meters. m. 
While not all new terminal projects will materialize, for the foreseeable future most LNG will enter the Americas through terminals capable of handling LNG tankers with a draft of more than 20m. In the longer term, similar terminals will play a significant role in Western Europe and Japan.
The construction of loading terminals in Teriberka, capable of receiving vessels with a draft of up to 25 m, will provide a competitive advantage when exporting LNG to North America, and in the future to Europe. In the case of the implementation of the LNG plant project in Yamal, the shallow waters of the Kara Sea off the coast of the peninsula exclude the use of vessels with a draft of more than 10-12 meters.
conclusions
The order for 45 super-large Q-Max and Q-Flex type LNG tankers at once has changed the prevailing ideas about the efficiency of LNG shipping by sea. According to the customer of these vessels, Qatar Gas Transport Company, an increase in the unit capacity of tankers, as well as a number of technical improvements, will reduce LNG transportation costs by 40%. The cost of building ships, per unit of carrying capacity, is 25% lower. These vessels have not yet implemented the entire set of promising technical solutions, in particular, increased draft and improved thermal insulation of tanks.
What will be the "ideal" LNG tanker of the near future? This will be a vessel with a capacity of 250-350 thousand cubic meters. m of LNG and a draft of more than 20 m. Membrane tanks with improved thermal insulation will reduce volatility to 0.05-0.08% of the volume of LNG transported per day, and an onboard gas liquefaction plant will almost completely eliminate cargo losses. The diesel power plant will provide a speed of about 20 knots (37 km/h). The construction of even larger ships with a whole range of promising technical solutions will make it possible to cut the cost of LNG transportation by half compared to the current level, and the cost of building ships by 1/3.
Reducing the cost of shipping LNG will have the following consequences:
1. LNG will receive additional advantages over "pipe" gas. The distance at which LNG is more effective than a pipeline will be reduced by another 30-40%, from 2500-3000 km to 1500-2000 km, and for underwater pipelines - to 750-1000 km.
2. LNG shipping distances will increase, logistics schemes will become more complex and diverse.
3. Consumers will have the opportunity to diversify LNG sources, which will increase competition in this market.
This will be a significant step towards the formation of a single global gas market, instead of the two local LNG markets currently existing - Asia-Pacific and Atlantic. An additional impetus to this will be the modernization of the Panama Canal, which is scheduled to be completed by 2014-2015. Increasing the size of the lock chambers in the channel from 305x33.5 m to 420x60 m will allow the largest LNG tankers to move freely between the two oceans.
Increasing competition requires Russia to make maximum use of the latest technology. The price of a mistake in this matter will be extremely high. LNG tankers, in force high cost, operated for 40 years or more. By incorporating obsolete technical solutions into transport schemes, Gazprom will undermine its competitive position in the LNG market for decades to come. On the contrary, by providing transportation between the deep-water loading terminal in Teriberka and offshore terminals in the United States using large-capacity vessels with increased draft, the Russian company will surpass competitors from the Persian Gulf in terms of supply efficiency.
The Yamal LNG plant will not be able to use the most efficient LNG tankers due to shallow waters and ice conditions. The best solution is likely to be a feeder transportation system, with LNG transshipment through Teriberka.
The prospects for the widespread use of maritime transportation in gas exports put on the agenda the issue of organizing the construction of LNG tankers in Russia, or at least the participation of Russian enterprises in their construction. At present, none of the domestic shipbuilding enterprises has projects, technologies and experience in building such ships. Moreover, in Russia there is not a single shipyard capable of building large-capacity vessels. A breakthrough in this direction could be the acquisition by a group of Russian investors of part of the assets of Aker Yards, which has technologies for building LNG tankers, including ice-class ones, as well as shipyards in Germany and Ukraine capable of building large-capacity vessels.
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Grand Elena |
Al Gattara (Q-Flex type) |
Mozah (Q-Max type) |
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The cold, which often played a decisive role in major wars involving Russia, helps the country on the gas front as well. The United States, which has set itself the goal of occupying a quarter of the world LNG market and seriously pushing Russian hydrocarbons not only in Asia, but also in Europe, has encountered abnormal frosts and is forced to become importers of gas produced in Yamal itself. The sanctions imposed by the US authorities against Novatek do not prevent US companies from buying liquefied natural gas from the Yamal LNG plant. Blame the polar vortex on the East Coast of the United States. Due to the severe cooling demand for gas in the eastern states has grown significantly, and prices have risen to $6.3 thousand per 1 thousand cubic meters. Against the backdrop of peak demand, American companies cannot transfer shale gas from other states to the region in the required volume due to limited bandwidth internal gas pipeline and therefore were forced to go to the market for a more or less profitable energy source. Currently, the first tanker with a batch of LNG produced at the Yamal plant is being unloaded in the port of Boston. The ship arrived to the coast of New England from the British county of Kent, where the Isle of Grain terminal is located. The gas from Yamal was delivered there by the LNG carrier Christophe de Margerie, the LNG was unloaded at the terminal storage, and then re-injected into the Gaselys tanker of the French company Engie. Despite the fact that the Malaysian company Petronas became the owner of the gas during the loading of LNG in the village of Sabetta in Yamal, and after that it was resold several times, this gas remains Russian in origin. And although formally this is just a purchase on the global market, in fact the United States has become a consumer of fuel from Russia. Gaselys was bringing future warmth to the US with adventures. On January 19, short of reaching its destination, the tanker suddenly turned around and sailed to Spain, and the next day repeated its maneuver and again headed for Boston. Such movements in Engie explained weather conditions, but a number of experts and analysts suggested that the gas carrier began to wag in search of the best price offer. However, even having sailed to Boston on the morning of January 24, the French tanker did not immediately moor to the shore and stood on the roads in the port waters for several days. On January 28, the US Coast Guard confirmed that the ship had been brought by tugs to the port, and a routine inspection had been carried out on it. According to the traffic monitoring system sea vessels Marine Traffic, Gaselys is in port from 9 am on Sunday. But the story with the Yamal gas did not end there. Over the weekend, Bloomberg, citing cargo tracking company Kpler SAS, reported that the Provalys tanker is preparing to be sent to the East Coast of the United States: its task is to pick up a batch of LNG from Dunkirk, which was previously delivered to France from Russia. According to preliminary estimates by Kpler SAS, the second French LNG vessel from Russia will reach the US coast on February 15. Most likely, the new owner of Russian LNG will receive a price for its gas linked to the spot prices for gas in the New England region, now it is about $10 per million Btu, and therefore such supplies remain profitable, the analyst notes. Energy Center Skolkovo Business School Alexander Sobko. In addition, shipping to the US is more than half the price compared to Asia. For the past three years, the US has been buying LNG from Trinidad and Tobago. However, due to the cold weather, other options were also considered. Engie bought LNG from Dunkirk before the start of the winter season in the expectation that supplies from Trinidad could not fully meet demand. “All we knew at the time of the purchase was that the cargo would be coming from Northwest Europe and that the LNG would be of the right quality for New England,” Carol Churchill, a spokeswoman for the Everett terminal, told Bloomberg. According to the Marine Traffic monitoring system, Provalys is still in Dunkirk. Considering more and more new sanctions, as well as competition for the share of the LNG market in the world, the United States would not directly buy Yamal gas from Novatek in any case, says Ilya Zharsky, managing partner of the Veta expert group. As for pricing, even if such an agreement were concluded, direct sales would hardly be more profitable than occasional purchases of gas on the external European market, the expert believes. Earlier, the head of the Ministry of Energy, Alexander Novak, said that he did not experience euphoria or any special feelings that Russian gas was delivered to Boston. “This is not Russian gas, Russian gas was sold. The molecules are Russian, but in fact they are the property of buyers of Russian gas. This suggests that the LNG market is global,” he said at a session of the World Economic Forum in Davos. Experts do not rule out that new adventures can await the current shipment of Yamal gas in the Atlantic. “It is possible that as the tanker moves towards the US, prices in New England will fall, and the second tanker with Yamal LNG will turn around and continue moving in the other direction,” Sobko said. Popular in category:
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