Abstract
Natural gas is relatively cheap, environmentally friendlyand energetically efficient fossil fuel that is gaining in attractivenessdaily as it can be used in many sectors. As not all consumerscan be reached by pipelines the technique of transp01tingnatural gas in the liquefied form has been developed at the beginningof 20th century but it was only in 1959 that the firstoverseas transport of liquefied natural gas ( LN G) occurred. Inthe fifty years of operation LNG shipping has shown immaculatesafety records. LNG tankers can be described only in superlatives;they are without any doubt the most sophisticated and·expensive ships that sail around the globe, they demand specialattention when navigating to or out of harbours and need to bemanned with the most educated and experienced crew. LNGmarket is expanding and changing; demand is surpassing theproductivity, new importing and exporting countries appear,LNG fleet is growing in capacity and number at high pace, exploitationcontracts for the ships are being modified giving theopportunity for new companies to enter( . .. ). The paper givesan overview on liquefied natural gas market and the historic developmentof LNG shipping. It focuses on the recent boom inLNG shipping and emphasises questions concerning the safety,crewing and exploitation of the LNG tankers in the future.
Highlights
As not all consumers can be reached by pipelines the technique of transp01ting natural gas in the liquefied form has been developed at the beginning of 20th century but it was only in 1959 that the first overseas transport ofliquefied natural gas (LNG) occurred
LNG tankers can be described only in superlatives; they are without any doubt the most sophisticated and ·expensive ships that sail around the globe, they demand special attention when navigating to or out ofharbours and need to be manned with the most educated and experienced crew
As the demand for natural gas has been growing the LNG fleet was expanding rapidly in the last decade and is expected to continue so until at least 2010 when it should reach the number of 320 [16]
Summary
2.1 Main characteristics of natural gas Having in mind the problems of production, consumption, ecology, distribution, safety (... ) of energetic resources, transport capacities, transport technologies in general and those concerning the transportation of liquefied natural gas it is possible to state the problem of the present paper: the increased demand and consumption of natural gas has imposed many scruples to ship-owners which can imply increased investments in liquefied natural gas (LNG) ship capacities, improvement of handling and Natural gas is a fossil fuel mainly composed of methane but can contain other gaseous hydrocarbons as well as carbon dioxide, nitrogen and some noble gases which is found in reservoirs beneath the earth surface as an accompanying product in oil fields and in autonomous natural gas fields or in coal beds. 2.1 Main characteristics of natural gas Having in mind the problems of production, consumption, ecology, distribution, safety Natural gas must undergo extensive processing before becoming economically useful and was as such for a long time considered as useless by-product in oil industry. Natural gas is cheaper and cleaner and environmentally friendlier than any other known fossil fuel; it has high heating capacity(> 10KWh/m3) and its reserves are abundant and widely distributed. Natural gas is commonly measured in metric tons when it is a liquid and in cubic feet when it is in its gaseous state.. Natural gas is measured in MMBtu and the price for 1 MMBtu was around US$ 9 - 10 in March 2008. Just for comparison, in the same period, the price of crude oil was around 18 US$ per MMBtu [4]
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