Logistics of Low-Tonnage LNG

Abstract

In recent years, there has been an increasing interest in liquefied natural gas (LNG) as a bunker fuel for ships. This is due to a number of reasons of environmental (reduction of sulfur emissions by v essels in accordance with MARPOL 73/78 international convention), economic (lower price of LNG compared to distillate fuels meeting MARPOL 73/78 requirements), technical and economic (reduction of maintenance costs of vessels and an increase in service life) character. These conclusions regarding LNG are applicable to vessels of various types intended for sea and river navigation. At the same time, the transition of river ships and coastal vessels to LNG bunkering is currently being restrained, including in Russia, by a number of reasons, one of which is weak logistics support for LNG delivery from production sites to vessel bunkering points. As a result, the development of LNG vessel bunkering market requires improvement of logistics for delivery of lowtonnage LNG, which can be carried out using several modes of transport. The objective of the study is to develop a practical algorithm for estimating the cost of LNG transportation for vessel bunkering, taking into account the characteristics of intermodal logistics. The research methodology is based on an analytical method based on a system-structural approach. At the example of Russia, an algorithm has been developed for choosing the optimal transport and technological scheme (TTS) for delivering lowtonnage LNG and operational and economic models for calculating the unit cost of transportation, storage and transshipment of LNG. Testing the models on the calculated routes allowed to estimate the cost of LNG transportation according to the options of transport and technological schemes for bulk and container delivery methods and draw conclusions. Moreover, the methodology used is to a large extent universal and allows using the proposed approaches for development of TTS in relation to other countries.