LNG Academy的动态

Transcript

Hello, everyone, and welcome back to another episode of the LNG Academy and the first one for 2024. I'm your host, Mehdy Touil. And for any new listeners, I want to reiterate the vision of the LNG Academy podcast, which is simply spread LNG education to the world. This episode is brought to you by Capstone, ITS training on demand. LNG 101 course. For more details, please check the comments section. Today we are excited to have a new guest on the show, Captain Denis O'Donnell. Dennis now works for Nakilat, which is the largest LNG shipping company in the world, but up until recently worked for another operator and was captain on the Eduard Toll, one of the Arc7 vessels which operates out of the Yamal LNG project. Captain, thank you very much for joining us, and it's a pleasure to have you here today. Thank you for having me Mehdy. Captain, can you please tell us a bit about yourself and what led you to become a captain on an Arc7 vessel? Yes, I'm from Cork in Ireland, which has a a unique connection already to the city with one of the most famous ships in the world, the Titanic. I grew up visiting the beaches around Ireland and enjoying the the sea as a kid. And I was always looking out to sea. And I guess there was no surprise that I ended up making a career of it. And I attended the National Maritime College in Ireland and for a couple of years to train as a deck officer and then I started working with an oil major and then after a little bit of time with them, I decided to change to a more traditional shipping company. Teekay and I was sailing on several of their vessels for them. They operated the Yamal project as well at the time and everyone at the start wanted involvement with the the Yamal project on the Arc7s. They were cutting-edge and operating in a a really interesting new environment. It was really nice. I put my name forward as as a willing candidate. However, I didn't hear anything back at first. Demand was very, very high. There were very few spots available. And also the training involved was quite unique. So you needed to be specially trained to attend them. And the cost of that training was it was against. And finally I was promoted to chief officer and was asked with that promotion, would I like you to join the Nikolay Yevgenov One of Teekay's Arc7s and being promoted to chief officer is a, is a big step for anyone. It's a kind of. Going from the operator level to a more management position and having to change vessel type also was a massive challenge. And again, you know, I was really looking forward to taking the step. And after a little bit while on the Arc7 and sailing with as Chief mate, I was given another opportunity, thankfully very early in my career, to be promoted again, this time to master and to become captain and I was selected to become captain of Eduard Toll. This is the first one of Teekay's. Arc7 is the first thing the series. I was very privileged to get that ship as my, my first command and the crew on board were, were absolutely brilliant. You know, we're very tight knit crew on board those ships and it was a it was a joy to sail with them. And you know, as I say, you know, often a good ship is only half the battle that the people that you have with your is, is, is just as important. you know, I was lucky to get both on Arctic, both on the Eduard Toll, but also then to be sailing in the Arctic as well. And for our listeners. who might not be familiar, Could you explain the key differences between Arc 7 ice breaking vessels and regular LNG tankers? Yeah. So let me first of all address the use of the word Arc7 as it's closely related to the to the to the Arctic Icebreakers. And again, you know, it's it's a Russian registry shipping term and it denotes its ice classification status. Now the ships aren't registered in Russia Anymore and they're not registered there, but they're stuck as you as you know they're finally known as the Arc7s, you know within the shipping term but also without outside of it. In a traditional IACS term, which would be the class of international classification society, it would be termed as a Polar class 3 vessel, which is defined as year-round operation in second-year ice, which may include multi year-ice inclusions up to 2 1/2 years. This means that the ship. is constructed to be having a level of ice of up to 2 1/2 meters. And the major difference as it relates to in terms of a normal LNG tanker would be in visual terms the hull shape and structure. And also as well the ship is dual acting which means it has a fore facing and aft facing bridge as the vessel depending on the ice thickness operates in both directions. The non visual differences would be things such as azipod propulsion, it's construction material and. hull structure reinforcements. These would be the main differences in regard to the ice breaking element, but as as there are also several differences in regards to working in the cold Arctic environment. As you can imagine, all your systems need to be provided with heating and protection from the weather, which can sometimes get below -35??C. The hull shape is designed to break ice at different speeds. With the bow we used to break less thick but going at higher speeds. The aft hull structure is designed to ride up onto the ice, cracking it but processing it at a slower speed. The vessel also, even though you can't see it from the outside, as an ice belt, which is an area around the hull which is reinforced design and to deal with the extra pressures of the ice acting upon it. In terms of propulsion, the vessel has three ABB rotational azipods which operate at 15 megawatts. They're also designed, both physically but also electronically, to deal with the impact and other concerns of the ice. I think one of the things visually people notice is the ship has two bridges. It's probably the most unique aspect of the ship and one faces aft one face is forward, the forward one is used in standard navigation and also in light ice conditions while the other faces Aft is used in harder thicknesses. So sailing along the Northern Sea Route, especially during winter, present unique challenges. Can you describe what it's like to navigate through the NSR in the harshest winter conditions? It's extremely challenging when both people and equipment. To start with, you must remember that for half the year you operate in complete darkness and for the other half you operate in complete daylight. This is extremely tough on people. There was a constant battle between commercial ETA's and predicting speeds and difficult ice conditions. While you're having the navigating officers being constantly alert such changes and ice and making sure the vessel is most and the most efficient route. There's a very tight balance between to be struck between going the shortest distance via tough ice versus going the longer route through easier ice. Also being an LNG tanker or cargo systems are connected to our engine management side of things. We use the boil-off from the cargo to fuel engines. And therefore we have to balance using the natural boil off and over using forced boil off. We use satellite imagery and recommendation from other vessels while navigating, but the ice is constantly moving. You really have to make the best decision based on the information you have and then adapt your plan once you get there. While overall we have been successful in the Arctic, not everything has been smooth sailing as you can imagine. A good example of this is when I was on board Nikolay Yevgenov and we were doing the latest independent transit of the Northern Sea Route in January. Conditions were extremely tough and on top of that, we ended up having an issue with our central azipod. From there, we only had two days from the original end of the ice and open water, which in the end, because of our failure of our azipod system, it took double the time. Nobody had ever experienced a failure like that in that position, so he had to really dig deep and use all of our skills to work out our way out of that situation. With your years of experience sailing the NSR. How do you see the future of shipping traffic along this route? There has been a lot of discussion in recent years on this and yet shipping traffic along the route will continue to increase. However, I do believe that this will be based on project-specific shipping needs. General shipping. I don't see using the route for another few decades. This argument boils down to realistically consistency and reliability which affects commercial viability. Currently the NSR cannot offer this. Good examples of showing how important consistency and reliability and shipping are is this show shutdown of the Suez canal with the Ever Given incident and the now current incident we're having with the Houthi rebels in the Red Sea which has turned the shipping and trade world, shipping and trade into disarray. Scientific records show that there's been a significant drop in ice thickness and ice coverage, however not to the point that the route can be used by general shipping industry even when the route remains ice free. Winds from the north can especially bring large flows down onto the route and without an icebreaker it would be impossible to be cleared by general shipping. Another important note, again reinforces the point above, is the Northern Sea Route Administration controls the Northern Sea Route and closes it at certain times of the year for certain ships. These opening and closing dates can vary. Due to weather and ice conditions, the whole NSR is further divided up into smaller zones, and even when the route opens each year, each individual zone may have its own restrictions also. Finally, I do believe there is a chance in the future of a slight increase if Russia continues with the icebreaker build up that it has been doing in the last few years and a sort of convoy system develops. This would look like how Finland operates its Ice Breakers where Ice Breakers cover certain areas, keep routes open and help ships transit. This will require enough areas Ice Breakers to cover the area however, and a good example of this of the convoy system will be what I will talk about in your next question. Reflecting on your years at sea, could you share one of your most memorable experiences while commending an Arc 7 vessel? Well, as you can imagine, the Arctic is already a new and dynamic frontier and this is especially true for LNG shipping. Any of my experiences stem from both negative and positive experiences. However, I think there was one I'm most proud of is that as the captain of Eduard Toll I led the first LNG convoy tanker convoy through the Arctic of LNG ships in which my ship led the convoy starting three LNG tankers through the ice. This is the first time in Arc7 has actively led the convoy. This rule we clear rule for the convoy ships and manage the convoy communication, forward planning and reading the ice accurately was key to making sure this was successful. As you can imagine, making sure the other vessels don't get stuck is the key mission. Not only is it keeps the combining uniquely, in our case we could we would have had to go back and help them get unstuck. Now normally while an ice breaker is perfectly sized to go back and help ships that are in trouble, my ship with the sort of size it is had over 300 meters in length is not that capable of doing that. Reading the ice and finding a suitable route through it was also very crucial. If we were on our own route through the ice, we're using an Arc7. The ice roof look would look very different because the ice 7 is able to handle very different types of ice. But we now needed to think about the ships behind and how they would be impacted. Controlling ship speed and distance was the second most important step. Each ship creates a lead, an easier part behind it being the icebreaker. We created the initial lead, but each ship would need to be maintaining it behind us. Therefore, my officers not only have to create it, but also make sure the other vessels behind were keeping it good distance and speeds between them so that this lead is kept open and the easier path to the ice is maintained. In most cases, LNG of lesser Arc class status, in this case, Arc4 are limited to the use of the NSR. They are only allowed to pass independently for a short period of time and other times require icebreaker escort. The significant advantages is bringing Ice Breakers LNG tankers through the NSR is saving in time. If the ships were to return via Suez back to Sabetta, it would take up to 40% longer than if The ships were returned via the NSR. I'm proud to say that the convoy was a huge success and has laid the foundations and procedures for future convoys. I'm delighted having being part of creating a small part of Arctic shipping history. Have you ever had any close encounters with the polar bears or any other Arctic white life during your voyages? Yes, I've been very fortunate to be able to sail in the Arctic, which has given me, you know, many opportunities to see a lot of natural wildlife and lots of things such as the northern sea lights. People normally take big money to see sights such as this and you know, we were very lucky to get it for free effectively. We had a great respect for the environment in which we were sailing. Our rules and regulations for things which could have environmental environmental impacts were very strict and adhered to at all times. I think the common misconception is that when you go up there, you are destroying or altering the environment. This couldn't be further from the truth. We quickly learned that to be successful in the Arctic, in all areas, you need to work with, not against us. Thank you Captain so much for joining us and sharing your invaluable experiences navigating the Arctic challenging waters. Your insights have truly enriched our understanding. Here is a pleasure. To our audience, thank you for listening. We hope you found today's episode as fascinating as we did. Stay tuned for more inspiring stories.