Following the big success of its first-ever virtual panel in April, SIGTTO, an exclusive society with members cover more than 90% of the world’s LNG vessels and terminals and over 50% of the LPG market, held its Autumn Virtual Panel on Tuesday, 5th October 2021, with continuous sessions running from 9:30 AM (BST) to 16:30 PM (BST).
The event brought together more than 300 technical professionals, senior managers, and directors from SIGTTO’s membership, including operators and owners of LNG and LPG terminals, gas shipping companies, port authorities, training organisations, tug vessels companies and classification societies from across the world.
In line with the ongoing drive towards energy transition and decarbonization, the Energy Efficiency Existing Ship Index (EEXI) and the Carbon Intensity Indicator (CII), the regulations for reducing existing ships’ carbon impact introduced by IMO has become the main topic throughout the event.
The event was kicked off with the presentation and the live Q&A from Hiroyuki Yamada, Director of IMO’s Marine Environment Division. He discussed the outcomes of recent IMO MEPC and MSC meetings, with a specific focus on the adopted amendments to MARPOL Annex VI on the short-term GHG reduction measure (EEXI and CII), lifecycle GHG emissions and relevant safety considerations, including possible amendments to IGF Code and possible guidelines on hydrogen and ammonia.
“As an NGO, in consecutive status, the Society of International Gas Tanker and Terminal Operators (SIGTTO) has been providing expertise and valuable contribution to the work of IMO, since 1983” said Kitack Lim, Secretary-General of IMO in the remarks. “I would like to express my sincere appreciation for your support. In IMO’s important regulatory work, the participation and cooperation of organisations representing all maritime stakeholders is of utmost importance and as greatly to the impact of our work’s achievements.”
During the course, the agenda also features an exciting line-up with presentations from Howe Robinson Partners discussing the latest LNG shipping market situation and prospects for 2022; Lloyd’s Register on presenting EEXI compliance and carbon intensity reduction; CGE Risk on sharing its approach to risk management through the bowtie methodology; GTT on presenting the current practice of green gas trials and commissioning of LNGC; Bernhard Schulte Shipmanagement on sharing the lessons learned from the explosion & fire on LPGC “Syn Zania”, Keil Centre on best practice with practical application and a focus on human factors in Incident Investigation; Bureau Veritas on sharing its technical guidelines and projects of CO2 shipping; and Shell on presenting its experience of deploying the “Air Lubrication Systems” technology.
The delegates were also updated on the various working group projects being carried out by SIGTTO, and General Manager, Andrew Clifton’s insights on hydrogen shipping.
The whole event in Autumn echoes the previous SIGTTO Virtual Panel’s agenda in sharing best practices on different solutions to achieve emissions reductions in the context of EEXI and CII. Some past presentations and discussions include presentations on Suiso Frontier, the world’s first liquefied hydrogen carrier by HySTRA, technical & commercial challenges of the LNG-to-Powership solution (gas to power) by Mitsui O.S.K. Lines (MOL), the use of LPG as fuel for the main engine of two new 88,000 m³ VLGCs operated by EXMAR, and the design and development challenges of Very Large Ethane Carriers (VLEC) by ABS.
All the meetings of SIGTTO are free and have no limit to the number of registrations from any member company. This is to equip its members with the ability to reach operational excellence and produce best practices and guidelines for the gas shipping industry to secure the shipping safety records. Without any commercial ties and press attending the meetings, members can discuss freely and collectively contribute and influence the industry with the accumulated knowledge from the exchange of practical experiences.
With new members joining in and the new formed Environment Sub-committee in 2020, the number of our technical projects and member companies committed to shipping safety has reached the highest in SIGTTO’s 42 years history. “It is a very challenging and exciting time to be in the industry today.” Commented by SIGTTO General Manager, Andrew Clifton, “With COVID-19 safety measures in place, The SIGTTO London office is now open again for members to visit on 4th October. We are also delighted to announce that the 42nd Annual General Meeting will be held face-to-face again in Athens, Greece, on 18th November 2021 after having all the meetings virtual due to COVID-19 since March 2020.
Source: SIGTTO