ABS and RS to jointly develop Rules for Arctic LNG carriers

ABS and the Russian Maritime Register of Shipping are to jointly develop classification Rules for Arctic Liquefied Natural Gas Carriers.

It is the first pairing of societies to create Rules for the liquefied natural gas (LNG) market sector - under a wide-ranging cooperative agreement between the two IACS members. The announcement was made during the fourth Annual Arctic Shipping 2008 International Conference & Seminar in St. Petersburg, Russia. “We made the strategic decision that it was in the best interest of industry to combine our shared experience and technical expertise to address the need for guidance with these carriers in the Arctic, especially at a time when gas transport from the Arctic regions of Russia will increase over the next few years,” said Roger Basu, Director, ABS Corporate Research & Product Development. The principal elements in ice strengthening LNG carrier design are: strengthening of the hull; the interaction of the hull structure with the containment system; minimum propulsion power requirements and strength of the propeller. Development of the joint rules for arctic LNG carriers allows ABS and RS to share experiences gained in Russian, Canadian and US Arctic waters. This collaboration will benefit the industry by bringing together the extensive experience of RS with transportation in the Russian Arctic and the experience of ABS with operations in the Beaufort Sea and the Canadian Arctic. Combined with advanced technology using risk analysis, testing and computational methods, this will provide the basis for the new criteria.
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