Tightening sanctions: the US unloads the first tanker with Yamal LNG and waits for the second. LNG tankers: general information

The cold, which often played a decisive role in major wars involving Russia, also helps the country on the gas front. The United States, which has set itself the goal of occupying a quarter of the world LNG market and seriously displacing Russian hydrocarbons not only in Asia, but also in Europe, was faced with abnormal frosts and was forced to become importers of gas produced in Yamal. The sanctions imposed by the American authorities against the Novatek company do not prevent American companies from purchasing liquefied natural gas from the Yamal LNG plant.

The polar vortex on the East Coast of the United States is to blame. Due to severe cold weather, the demand for gas in the eastern states has increased 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 the limited capacity of the internal gas pipeline and therefore were forced to go to the market for more or less favorable energy prices.

Currently, the first tanker with a batch of LNG produced at the Yamal plant is being unloaded at the port of Boston. The ship arrived on the shores of New England from the British county of Kent, where the Isle of Grain terminal is located. Gas from Yamal was delivered there by the gas tanker Christophe de Margerie, the LNG was unloaded into the terminal storage, and then pumped back into the Gaselys tanker of the French company Engie.

Despite the fact that even during the loading of LNG in the village of Sabetta on Yamal, the Malaysian company Petronas became the owner of the gas, and after 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 consumers of fuel from Russia.

Gaselys brought the future warmth to the USA with adventures. On January 19, a little 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. Engie explained such movements by weather conditions, but a number of experts and analysts suggested that the gas carrier began to “wobble” in search of a better 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 in the roadstead in the port waters for several days. On January 28, the US Coast Guard confirmed that the vessel was brought to port by tugs and a routine inspection was carried out on it. According to the Marine Traffic monitoring system, Gaselys has been in port since 9 am on Sunday.

But the story with Yamal gas did not end there. Last weekend, Bloomberg, citing data from cargo tracking company Kpler SAS, reported that the Provalys tanker was preparing to depart for the US East Coast: its task was to pick up a shipment of LNG in Dunkirk, which had previously been delivered to France from Russia. According to preliminary estimates by Kpler SAS, the second French ship with LNG from the Russian Federation will reach American shores on February 15.

Most likely, the new owner of Russian LNG will receive a price for its gas that is tied to spot gas prices in the New England region, currently about $10 per million Btu, and therefore such supplies remain profitable, notes Alexander Sobko, an analyst at the Energy Center at Skolkovo Business School. In addition, shipping to the US is more than half the price compared to Asia.

For the past three years, the United States has purchased LNG from Trinidad and Tobago. However, due to the cold weather, we were forced to consider other options. Engie bought LNG from Dunkirk before the start of the winter season in the belief that demand could not be fully met by supplies from Trinidad.

“All we knew at the time of purchase was that the cargo would come from Northwest Europe and that the LNG would be of the right quality for New England,” Carol Churchill, a spokeswoman for the Everett terminal, explained to Bloomberg.

According to the Marine Traffic monitoring system, Provalys is still in Dunkirk.

Considering more and more new sanctions, as well as competition for a share of the LNG market in the world, the United States would not buy Yamal gas directly from Novatek in any case, notes 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 had been 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 exclude that new adventures may await the current shipment of Yamal gas in the Atlantic. “It is possible that as the tanker moves toward the United States, prices in New England will fall, and the second tanker with Yamal LNG will turn around and continue moving in a different direction,” Sobko said.

Supertankers gas carriers transport liquefied natural gas equivalent to the energy of 55 atomic bombs. The liquid from these becomes a means of cooking and heating your home, but creating seaborne gas transportation was extremely difficult, although these ships owe their existence to several amazing ideas. Let's look at them.

Transporting natural gas around the world is big business. Supertankers much larger than the Titanic and designed to transport natural gas anywhere in the world. Everything connected with him is of a gigantic scale, but to realize this, you need to be close to 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 volume of water that would be enough for an ordinary family to flush the toilet for 1,200 years. And there are four such tanks on the ship, and the temperature inside each is minus 160 degrees Celsius.

Like oil, natural gas is a fossil fuel that was formed by the decomposition of ancient organisms. It can be transmitted through pipelines, but this is very expensive and not practical when crossing oceans; instead, engineers had to come up with transporting 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 have never been any major incidents and tanker shipping line operators plan to continue in the same spirit.

supertanker tank

There is a very simple solution to turn gas into 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 incredibly huge - ten times longer than any existing tanker or 2500 meters long.

To turn a gas into a liquid, it is cooled to a temperature of minus 162 degrees Celsius, but if it is heated enough, the substance immediately turns into a flammable gas. For this purpose, there is a second line of defense - nitrogen. This is an inert gas, of which there is a lot 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. In short, ignition is impossible if there is enough nitrogen around. On supertankers, potentially toxic nitrogen is safely sealed within the insulation of the gas tank. In the event of a leak, the nitrogen prevents the dangerous cargo from reacting with oxygen, and the insulation keeps it in liquid form. Supertankers They are jokingly called the largest freezers in the world, because they are the equivalent of three hundred thousand home freezers, only ten times colder.

The gas is cooled onshore and pumped in liquid form onto a supertanker, but these ultra-low temperatures pose great engineering challenges. You simply cannot use standard steel pipes for this job. Transporting this ultra-cold liquid through a ship's pipelines presented shipbuilders with a new set of problems, the solution to which was found using stainless steel to which a little chromium was added. This metal is capable of making ordinary brittle steel withstand ultra-low temperatures.

Shipbuilders who created supertankers liquefied natural gas transporters have ensured that not only the hulls of these ships are ready to cross rough seas, but that thousands of meters of intricate pipelines, with all their vulnerable bends, connections and valves, are made of a material that will withstand low temperatures - alloy stainless steel.

Transporting liquids on supertankers leads to another problem - how to prevent it from sloshing around. Shipbuilders of such ships had to take care of two types of liquid. When moving in one direction supertanker it 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 splash from side to side in the tanks. This movement can increase, increasing the rocking of the ship itself, and lead to catastrophic consequences. This effect is called the influence of the free surface of the liquid. Literally, this is the area available for the free splashing of water. This is indeed the problem leading to . Supertankers have an amazing solution. To reduce the influence of the free surface of liquid gas, tanks are made in the form of a sphere. Thus, there is much less space for liquid to splash while the tank is full or almost empty. The tanks are filled with cargo by 98 percent and set off on long voyages, arriving at the tankers' destination completely, leaving as much fuel as necessary for the return journey. Therefore, under normal conditions, containers are either filled to capacity or almost empty.

supertanker systems diagram

Without draft load supertanker has decreased significantly, and to reduce it, water is pumped into the ballast tanks in the ship’s hull directly below the gas tanks. However, space does not allow making these compartments spherical, so to prevent water from splashing in them, another solution is required - cargo separator partitions. These are physical barriers first introduced in the 1980s to prevent oil tankers from capsizing. Bulkheads protect tankers from overkill.

The ice-class gas tanker Eduard Toll is the second tanker of the type, a series of 15 of which is being built as part of the large-scale Russian project for the production of liquefied natural gas Yamal LNG. Construction is underway in the Republic of Korea at the Daewoo Shipbuilding & Marine Engineering shipyard.

Gas carriers of this series are capable of year-round operation at temperatures down to -50 degrees Celsius. Ice reinforcements of the high Arctic category (Arc7) will allow them to independently overcome ice up to 2.1 meters thick when moving stern first. The vessels are equipped with three Azipod-type propulsion complexes with a total power of 45 MW, which is comparable to the power of a nuclear icebreaker. New membrane gas storage system GT NO 96 GW, used in cargo tanks with a total volume of 172,600 cubic meters. m, ensures safe transportation of LNG along the Northern Sea Route.

According to DSME, the shipping companies Mitsui OSK Lines and Teekay will receive a total of nine tankers of this series, and the shipping company Dynagas will have five.

The lead vessel of this series is the gas carrier (“Christophe de Margerie”), which was built in November 2016.

The gas tanker Eduard Toll was built for the shipping company Teekay. Named in honor of the famous Russian explorer Baron Eduard Toll, who died during a polar expedition. In 1900-1902, polar explorers studied the sea currents of the Kara and East Siberian seas and searched for the legendary Sannikov Land. The schooner "Zarya" was damaged, and Toll and several other polar explorers who landed on Bennett Island disappeared without a trace in the ice on the way to the mainland.

Gas tanker "Eduard Toll" IMO: 9750696, flag Bahamas, home port of Nassau, first steel cutting ceremony for the vessel took place in April 2016, launched in January 2017, handed over in December 2017 to the customer. Shipbuilder: Daewoo Shipbuilding & Marine Engineering, South Korea. Owner and operator: Teekay LNG Partners.

Main characteristics: Gross tonnage 127,000 tons, deadweight 97,000 tons. Length 299.0 meters, beam 50 meters, draft 12 meters. Speed ​​in open water - 19.5 knots; speed when traveling in ice up to one and a half meters thick is 5.5 knots.

RS class symbol: KM(*) Arc7 AUT1-ICS OMBO EPP ANTI-ICE LI CCO ECO-S BWM(S) BWM(T) WINTERIZATION(-50) gas carrier type 2G (methane) (Arc7 at d<=12.0 m).

The new tanker is designed to transport liquefied natural gas from the Yamal LNG plant under construction; it will sail from the Arctic port of Sabetta on the shore of the Gulf of Ob in the Kara Sea to the terminal in Zeebrugge (Belgium, North Sea), where the largest LNG storage and transshipment hub is located.

January 10, 2018, an independent 16-day passage in the waters of the Northern Sea Route from Cape Dezhnev to the entrance to the Gulf of Ob. According to the message dated July 06, it is in the Chukchi Sea and is following open water. The tanker left the port of Sabetta with a shipment of LNG and is heading to the Chinese port of Jiangsu Rudong. The ice part of the Northern Sea Route was crossed by the ship independently without icebreaker assistance in just 9 days. On July 19, the LNG unloading ceremony took place at the port of Jiangsu Rudong, China. The net travel time of the LNG tanker from the port of Sabetta to its destination was 19 days,

The LNG industry is a very promising growth industry for valve manufacturers around the world, but since LNG valves must meet the most stringent requirements, they represent the highest level of engineering challenges.

What is liquefied natural gas?

Liquefied natural gas, or LNG, is ordinary natural gas liquefied by cooling it to −160 °C. In this state, it is an odorless and colorless liquid, the density of which is half that of water. Liquefied gas is non-toxic, boils at a temperature of −158...−163 °C, consists of 95% methane, and the remaining 5% includes ethane, propane, butane, nitrogen.

• The first is the extraction, preparation and transportation of natural gas through a gas pipeline to a liquefaction plant;
• The second is the processing, liquefaction of natural gas and storage of LNG in the terminal.
• Third - loading LNG into gas tankers and sea transportation to consumers
• Fourth - LNG unloading at the receiving terminal, storage, regasification and delivery to end consumers

Gas liquefaction technologies.

As mentioned above, LNG is produced by compressing and cooling natural gas. In this case, the gas decreases in volume by almost 600 times. This process is complex, multi-stage, and very energy-intensive - liquefaction costs can account for about 25% of the energy contained in the final product. In other words, you need to burn one ton of LNG to get three more.

Seven different natural gas liquefaction technologies have been used around the world at different times. Air Products is currently leading the way in technology for producing large volumes of LNG for export. Its AP-SMR™, AP-C3MR™ and AP-X™ processes account for 82% of the total market. A competitor to these processes is the Optimized Cascade technology developed by ConocoPhillips.

At the same time, small-sized liquefaction plants intended for internal use in industrial enterprises have great development potential. Installations of this type can already be found in Norway, Finland and Russia.

In addition, local LNG production plants can find wide application in China, where today the production of cars powered by LNG is actively developing. The introduction of small-scale units could allow China to scale up its existing LNG vehicle transport network.

Along with stationary systems, floating natural gas liquefaction plants have been actively developing in recent years. Floating plants provide access to gas fields that are inaccessible to infrastructure (pipelines, marine terminals, etc.).

To date, the most ambitious project in this area is the floating LNG platform, which is being built by Shell 25 km away. from the west coast of Australia (the launch of the platform is scheduled for 2016).

Construction of an LNG production plant

Typically, a natural gas liquefaction plant consists of:

• gas pre-treatment and liquefaction installations;
• technological lines for LNG production;
• storage tanks;
• equipment for loading onto tankers;
• additional services to provide the plant with electricity and water for cooling.

Where did it all start?

In 1912, the first experimental plant was built, which, however, was not yet used for commercial purposes. But already in 1941, large-scale production of liquefied natural gas was established for the first time in Cleveland, USA.

In 1959, the first delivery of liquefied natural gas from the USA to the UK and Japan was carried out. In 1964, a plant was built in Algeria, from where regular tanker transportation began, in particular to France, where the first regasification terminal began operating.

In 1969, long-term deliveries began from the USA to Japan, and two years later - from Libya to Spain and Italy. In the 70s, LNG production began in Brunei and Indonesia; in the 80s, Malaysia and Australia entered the LNG market. In the 1990s, Indonesia became one of the main producers and exporters of LNG in the Asia-Pacific region - 22 million tons per year. In 1997, Qatar became one of the LNG exporters.

Consumer properties

Pure LNG does not burn, does not ignite or explode on its own. In an open space at normal temperatures, LNG returns to a gaseous state and quickly mixes with air. When evaporating, natural gas can ignite if it comes into contact with a flame source.

For ignition it is necessary to have a gas concentration in the air of 5% to 15% (volume). If the concentration is less than 5%, then there will not be enough gas to start a fire, and if more than 15%, then there will be too little oxygen in the mixture. To be used, LNG undergoes regasification - evaporation without the presence of air.

LNG is considered a priority or important natural gas import technology by a number of countries, including France, Belgium, Spain, South Korea and the United States. The largest consumer of LNG is Japan, where almost 100% of gas needs are covered by LNG imports.

Motor fuel

Since the 1990s, various projects have emerged for the use of LNG as a motor fuel in water, rail and even road transport, most often using converted gas-diesel engines.

There are already real working examples of the operation of sea and river vessels using LNG. In Russia, serial production of the TEM19-001 diesel locomotive running on LNG is being established. In the United States and Europe, projects are emerging to convert road freight transport to LNG. And there is even a project to develop a rocket engine that will use LNG + liquid oxygen as fuel.

Engines running on LNG

One of the main challenges associated with the development of the LNG market for the transport sector is to increase the number of vehicles and ships using LNG as fuel. The main technical issues in this area are related to the development and improvement of various types of engines running on LNG.

Currently, three technologies of LNG engines used for marine vessels can be distinguished: 1) spark ignition engine with a lean fuel-air mixture; 2) dual-fuel engine with ignition diesel fuel and low-pressure working gas; 3) dual fuel engine with ignition diesel fuel and high pressure working gas.

Spark ignition engines only run on natural gas, while dual-fuel diesel-gas engines can run on diesel, CNG and heavy fuel oil. Today there are three main manufacturers in this market: Wärtsilä, Rolls-Royce and Mitsubishi Heavy Industries.

In many cases, existing diesel engines can be converted to dual-fuel diesel/gas engines. Such conversion of existing engines may be an economically feasible solution for converting marine vessels to LNG.

Speaking about the development of engines for the automotive sector, it is worth noting the American company Cummins Westport, which has developed a line of LNG engines designed for heavy trucks. In Europe, Volvo has launched a new 13-liter dual-fuel engine running on diesel and CNG.

Notable CNG engine innovations include the Compact Compression Ignition (CCI) Engine developed by Motiv Engines. This engine has a number of advantages, the main one of which is a significantly higher thermal efficiency than existing analogues.

According to the company, the thermal efficiency of the developed engine can reach 50%, while the thermal efficiency of traditional gas engines is about 27%. (Using US fuel prices as an example, a truck with a diesel engine costs $0.17 per horsepower/hour to operate, a conventional CNG engine costs $0.14, and a CCEI engine costs $0.07).

It's also worth noting that, as with marine applications, many diesel truck engines can be converted to dual-fuel diesel-LNG engines.

LNG producing countries

According to 2009 data, the main countries producing liquefied natural gas were distributed in the market as follows:

The first place was occupied by Qatar (49.4 billion m³); followed by Malaysia (29.5 billion m³); Indonesia (26.0 billion m³); Australia (24.2 billion m³); Algeria (20.9 billion m³). Last on this list was Trinidad and Tobago (19.7 billion m³).

The main importers of LNG in 2009 were: Japan (85.9 billion m³); Republic of Korea (34.3 billion m³); Spain (27.0 billion m³); France (13.1 billion m³); USA (12.8 billion m³); India (12.6 billion m³).

Russia is just beginning to enter the LNG market. Currently, there is only one LNG plant operating in the Russian Federation, Sakhalin-2 (launched in 2009, the controlling stake belongs to Gazprom, Shell has 27.5%, Japanese Mitsui and Mitsubishi - 12.5% ​​and 10%, respectively). At the end of 2015, production amounted to 10.8 million tons, exceeding the design capacity by 1.2 million tons. However, due to falling prices on the world market, revenues from LNG exports in dollar terms decreased by 13.3% year-on-year to $4.5 billion.

There are no prerequisites for an improvement in the situation on the gas market: prices will continue to fall. By 2020, five LNG export terminals with a total capacity of 57.8 million tons will be put into operation in the United States. A price war will begin on the European gas market.

The second major player in the Russian LNG market is Novatek. Novatek-Yurkharovneftegaz (a subsidiary of Novatek) won the auction for the right to use the Nyakhartinsky site in the Yamal-Nenets Autonomous Okrug.

The company needs the Nyakhartinsky site for the development of the Arctic LNG project (Novatek’s second project focused on the export of liquefied natural gas, the first is Yamal LNG): it is located in close proximity to the Yurkharovskoye field, which is being developed by Novatek-Yurkharovneftegaz. The area of ​​the plot is about 3 thousand square meters. kilometers. As of January 1, 2016, its reserves were estimated at 8.9 million tons of oil and 104.2 billion cubic meters of gas.

In March, the company began preliminary negotiations with potential partners about the sale of LNG. The company's management considers Thailand to be the most promising market.

Transportation of liquefied gas

Delivery of liquefied gas to the consumer is a very complex and labor-intensive process. After liquefying the gas at plants, LNG enters storage facilities. Further transportation is carried out using special vessels - gas carriers equipped with cryocankers. It is also possible to use special vehicles. Gas from gas carriers arrives at regasification points and is then transported via pipelines .

Tankers are gas carriers.

A gas tanker, or methane carrier, is a purpose-built vessel for transporting LNG in tanks. In addition to gas tanks, such vessels are equipped with refrigeration units for cooling LNG.

The largest manufacturers of vessels for transporting liquefied natural gas are Japanese and Korean shipyards: Mitsui, Daewoo, Hyundai, Mitsubishi, Samsung, Kawasaki. It was at Korean shipyards that more than two-thirds of the world's gas carriers were built. Modern tankers of the Q-Flex and Q-Max series capable of transporting up to 210-266 thousand m3 of LNG.

The first information about the transportation of liquefied gases by sea dates back to 1929-1931, when the Shell company temporarily converted the tanker Megara into a vessel for transporting liquefied gas and built the vessel Agnita in Holland with a deadweight of 4.5 thousand tons, intended for simultaneous transportation oil, liquefied gas and sulfuric acid. Shell tankers were named after seashells- they were traded by the father of the company founder Marcus Samuel

Maritime transportation of liquefied gases became widespread only after the end of the Second World War. Initially, ships converted from tankers or dry cargo ships were used for transportation. The accumulated experience in the design, construction and operation of the first gas carriers allowed us to move on to the search for the most profitable methods of transporting these gases.

Modern standard LNG tanker (methane carrier) can transport 145-155 thousand m3 of liquefied gas, from which about 89-95 million m3 of natural gas can be obtained as a result of regasification. Due to the fact that methane carriers are extremely capital intensive, their downtime is unacceptable. They are fast, the speed of a sea vessel transporting liquefied natural gas reaches 18-20 knots, compared to 14 knots for a standard oil tanker.

In addition, LNG loading and unloading operations do not take much time (on average 12-18 hours). In the event of an accident, LNG tankers have a double-hull structure specifically designed to prevent leaks and ruptures. The cargo (LNG) is transported at atmospheric pressure and a temperature of -162°C in special thermally insulated tanks inside the internal hull of the gas carrier vessel.

A cargo storage system consists of a primary container or reservoir for storing liquid, a layer of insulation, a secondary containment designed to prevent leakage, and another layer of insulation. If the primary tank is damaged, the secondary casing will prevent leakage. All surfaces in contact with LNG are made of materials resistant to extremely low temperatures.

Therefore, the materials typically used are stainless steel, aluminum or Invar (an iron-based alloy with a nickel content of 36%).

A distinctive feature of Moss-type gas carriers, which currently make up 41% of the world's methane carrier fleet, are self-supporting spherical tanks, which are usually made of aluminum and attached to the ship's hull using a cuff along the equator of the tank.

57% of gas tankers use triple membrane tank systems (GazTransport system, Technigaz system and CS1 system). Membrane designs use a much thinner membrane that is supported by the walls of the housing. The GazTransport system includes primary and secondary membranes in the form of flat Invar panels, while in the Technigaz system the primary membrane is made of corrugated stainless steel.

In the CS1 system, invar panels from the GazTransport system, which act as the primary membrane, are combined with three-layer Technigaz membranes (sheet aluminum placed between two layers of fiberglass) as secondary insulation.

Unlike LPG (liquefied petroleum gas) ships, gas carriers are not equipped with a deck liquefaction unit, and their engines run on fluidized bed gas. Given that part of the cargo (liquefied natural gas) supplements the fuel oil, LNG tankers do not arrive at their destination port with the same amount of LNG that was loaded on them at the liquefaction plant.

The maximum permissible value of the evaporation rate in a fluidized bed is about 0.15% of the cargo volume per day. Steam turbines are mainly used as a propulsion system on methane carriers. Despite their low fuel efficiency, steam turbines can be easily adapted to run on fluidized bed gas.

Another unique feature of LNG carriers is that they typically retain a small portion of their cargo to cool the tanks to the required temperature before loading.

The next generation of LNG tankers is characterized by new features. Despite the higher cargo capacity (200-250 thousand m3), the vessels have the same draft - today, for a ship with a cargo capacity of 140 thousand m3, a draft of 12 meters is typical due to the restrictions applied in the Suez Canal and at most LNG terminals.

However, their body will be wider and longer. The power of steam turbines will not allow these larger vessels to develop sufficient speed, so they will use a dual-fuel gas-oil diesel engine developed in the 1980s. In addition, many LNG carriers currently on order will be equipped with an onboard regasification unit.

Gas evaporation on methane carriers of this type will be controlled in the same way as on ships carrying liquefied petroleum gas (LPG), which will avoid cargo losses during the voyage.

Market for maritime transportation of liquefied gas

LNG transportation involves its sea transportation from gas liquefaction plants to regasification terminals. As of November 2007, there were 247 LNG tankers in the world with a cargo capacity of over 30.8 million m3. The boom in LNG trade has ensured that all vessels are now fully occupied, compared to the mid-1980s when there were 22 vessels idled.

In addition, about 100 vessels should be put into operation by the end of the decade. The average age of the world's LNG fleet is about seven years. 110 vessels are four years or less in age, while 35 vessels range in age from five to nine years.

About 70 tankers have been in operation for 20 years or more. However, they still have a long useful life ahead of them, as LNG tankers typically have a service life of 40 years due to their corrosion-resistant characteristics. These include up to 23 tankers (small, older vessels serving the Mediterranean LNG trade) that are due to be replaced or significantly upgraded over the next three years.

Of the 247 tankers currently in operation, more than 120 serve Japan, South Korea and Chinese Taipei, 80 serve Europe, and the remaining vessels serve North America. The last few years have seen phenomenal growth in the number of vessels serving trade in Europe and North America, while the Far East has seen only a slight increase due to stagnant demand in Japan.

Regasification of liquefied natural gas

After natural gas is delivered to its destination, the process of regasification occurs, that is, its transformation from a liquid state back into a gaseous state.

The tanker delivers LNG to special regasification terminals, which consist of a berth, a discharge rack, storage tanks, an evaporation system, installations for processing evaporation gases from tanks and a metering unit.

Upon arrival at the terminal, LNG is pumped from tankers into storage tanks in liquefied form, then the LNG is converted into a gaseous state as needed. Conversion into gas occurs in an evaporation system using heat.

In terms of capacity of LNG terminals, as well as in the volume of LNG imports, Japan is the leader - 246 billion cubic meters per year according to 2010 data. In second place is the United States, more than 180 billion cubic meters per year (2010 data).

Thus, the main task in the development of receiving terminals is primarily the construction of new units in various countries. Today, 62% of receiving capacity comes from Japan, the USA and South Korea. Together with the UK and Spain, the receiving capacity of the first 5 countries is 74%. The remaining 26% is distributed among 23 countries. Consequently, the construction of new terminals will open up new and increase existing markets for LNG.

Prospects for the development of LNG markets in the world

Why is the liquefied gas industry developing at an ever-increasing pace in the world? First, in some geographic regions, such as Asia, transporting gas by tanker is more profitable. At a distance of more than 2,500 kilometers, liquefied gas can already compete in price with pipeline gas. Compared to pipelines, LNG also has the advantages of modular expansion of supplies, and also eliminates border crossing problems in some cases.

However, there are also pitfalls. The LNG industry occupies its niche in remote regions that do not have their own gas reserves. Most LNG volumes are contracted at the design and production stage. The industry is dominated by a system of long-term contracts (from 20 to 25 years), which requires developed and complex coordination of production participants, exporters, importers and carriers. All this is seen by some analysts as a possible barrier to the growth of liquefied gas trade.

Overall, in order for liquefied gas to become a more affordable source of energy, the cost of LNG supplies must compete successfully in price with alternative fuel sources. Today the situation is the opposite, which does not negate the development of this market in the future.

Continuation:

• Part 3: Butterfly valves for cryogenic temperatures

When preparing the material, data from the following sites was used:

• lngas.ru/transportation-lng/istoriya-razvitiya-gazovozov.html
• lngas.ru/transportation-lng/morskie-perevozki-spg.html
• innodigest.com/liquefied-natural-gas-LNG-as-alta/?lang=en
• expert.ru/ural/2016/16/novyij-uchastok-dlya-spg/

The oil and gas industry is rightfully considered one of the most high-tech industries in the world. Equipment used for oil and gas production numbers hundreds of thousands of items, and includes a variety of devices - from elements shut-off valves, weighing several kilograms, to gigantic structures - drilling platforms and tankers, of gigantic size, and costing many billions of dollars. In this article we will look at the offshore giants of the oil and gas industry.

Gas tankers of Q-max type

The largest gas tankers in the history of mankind can rightfully be called tankers of the Q-max type. "Q" here stands for Qatar, and "max"- maximum. A whole family of these floating giants was created specifically for the delivery of liquefied gas from Qatar by sea.

Ships of this type began to be built in 2005 at the company's shipyards Samsung Heavy Industries- shipbuilding division of Samsung. The first ship was launched in November 2007. He was named "Moza", in honor of the wife of Sheikh Moza bint Nasser al-Misned. In January 2009, having loaded 266,000 cubic meters of LNG in the port of Bilbao, a vessel of this type crossed the Suez Canal for the first time.

Q-max type gas carriers are operated by the company STASCo, but are owned by the Qatar Gas Transmission Company (Nakilat), and are chartered primarily by Qatari LNG producing companies. In total, contracts for the construction of 14 such vessels have been signed.

The dimensions of such a vessel are 345 meters (1,132 feet) long and 53.8 meters (177 feet) wide. The ship is 34.7 m (114 ft) tall and has a draft of about 12 meters (39 ft). At the same time, the vessel can accommodate a maximum volume of LNG equal to 266,000 cubic meters. m (9,400,000 cubic meters).

Here are photographs of the largest ships in this series:

Tanker "Moza"- the first ship in this series. Named after the wife of Sheikh Moza bint Nasser al-Misned. The naming ceremony took place on July 11, 2008 at the shipyard Samsung Heavy Industries in South Korea.

tanker« BU Samra»

Tanker« Mekaines»

Pipe-laying vessel “Pioneering spirit”

In June 2010, a Swiss company Allseas Marine Contractors entered into a contract for the construction of a vessel designed to transport drilling platforms and lay pipelines along the bottom of the sea. The ship named "Pieter Schelte", but later renamed , was built at the company's shipyard DSME (Daewoo Shipbuilding & Marine Engineering) and in November 2014 departed from South Korea to Europe. The vessel was supposed to be used for laying pipes South Stream in the Black Sea.

The vessel is 382 m long and 124 m wide. Let us recall that the height of the Empire State Building in the USA is 381 m (up to the roof). The side height is 30 m. The vessel is also unique in that its equipment allows laying pipelines at record depths - up to 3500 m.

in the process of completion afloat, July 2013

at the Daewoo shipyard in Geoje, March 2014

in the final stage of completion, July 2014

Comparative sizes (upper deck area) of giant ships, from top to bottom:

• the largest supertanker in history, "Seawise Giant";
• catamaran "Pieter Schelte";
• the world's largest cruise ship "Allure of the Seas";
• the legendary Titanic.

Photo source - ocean-media.su

Floating liquefied natural gas plant "Prelude"

The following giant has comparable dimensions to the floating pipe layer - "Prelude FLNG"(from English - “floating plant for the production of liquefied natural gas “ Prelude"") - the world's first plant for the production liquefied natural gas (LNG) placed on a floating base and intended for the production, treatment, liquefaction of natural gas, storage and shipment of LNG at sea.

To date "Prelude" is the largest floating object on Earth. The closest ship in size until 2010 was an oil supertanker "Knock Nevis" 458 meters long and 69 meters wide. In 2010, it was cut into scrap metal, and the laurels of the largest floating object went to the pipelayer "Pieter Schelte", later renamed

In contrast, the platform length "Prelude" 106 meters less. But it is larger in tonnage (403,342 tons), width (124 m) and displacement (900,000 tons).

Besides "Prelude" is not a ship in the exact sense of the word, because does not have engines, having on board only a few water pumps used for maneuvering

The decision to build a plant "Prelude" was taken Royal Dutch Shell May 20, 2011, and construction was completed in 2013. According to the project, the floating structure will produce 5.3 million tons of liquid hydrocarbons per year: 3.6 million tons of LNG, 1.3 million tons of condensate and 0.4 million tons of LPG. The weight of the structure is 260 thousand tons.

Displacement when fully loaded is 600,000 tons, which is 6 times more than the displacement of the largest aircraft carrier.

The floating plant will be located off the coast of Australia. This unusual decision - placing an LNG plant at sea - was caused by the position of the Australian government. It allowed gas production on the shelf, but categorically refused to locate a plant on the shores of the continent, fearing that such proximity would adversely affect the development of tourism.