A successful Motorship event - Gas fuelled ships conference 2010

PRESS RELEASE

3 November 2010 – For immediate release – 2 pages

A SUCCESSFUL MOTORSHIP EVENT - GAS FUELLED SHIPS CONFERENCE 2010

The event, organised by UK based Mercator Media, addressed the need for the shipping industry to find cleaner fuels and reduce emissions.  Increasingly stringent Tier III regulations, which apply to ships within Emission Control Areas, will be enforced by the International Maritime Organisation (IMO) in 2016.  This means that change is a ‘must do’ rather than an option and further investment is needed now. 

Great interest in this topic was apparent with nearly 100 delegates attending the first-ever Motorship Gas Fuelled Ships one-day conference which took place on Wednesday 20^th October in Hamburg.

The event was ably chaired by John Aitken, the secretary general of SEAaT (Shipping Emissions Abatement and Trading) who, in his opening welcome remarks, emphasised the growing importance and impact that liquefied natural gas (LNG) is having in the shipping industry.

The tone of the conference was set by the keynote address from Dr Pierre C Sames, Senior Vice President Strategic Research and Development at Germanischer Lloyd, which focused on the twin issues of the LNG bunkering infrastructure and the bunker gas tanks onboard ships. 

Dr Sames outlined that gas as ship fuel offers not only large opportunities but that there are also challenges ahead before this technology becomes widely used.  "The motivation to consider using gas as ship fuel has become stronger and we are now reaching a phase which requires more focus on the gas-as-fuel supply and bunkering as well as selecting the right gas storage tank size and type," said Dr Sames.

A busy programme comprising some 13 highly informative and technical presentations was interspersed with lively question and answer sessions involving many of the delegates, several of whom were shipowners and ship managers keen to widen their knowledge of LNG.  After the event John Aitken commented "The whole conference provided a valuable insight into all the issues with respect to usage, design and supply of LNG as a fuel for shipping.  Whilst it is not a revolutionary concept, there are still many issues that need to be explored and bottomed out."

The conference was followed by a very popular networking drinks reception which was also held at the prestigious Hotel Atlantic Kempinski, Hamburg.  Delegates took full advantage of the extended networking opportunity to discuss the many points and questions raised throughout the day.

The main sponsors of this first event were Hamburg based Germanischer Lloyd and Rolls-Royce Marine AS.  Other sponsors were Wärtsilä, Bureau Veritas and Marine Service GmbH. 

Following this successful event and responding to the very positive feedback from all concerned the Gas Fuelled Ships Conference will be back in October 2011, in Rotterdam.

Notes for editors

The Gas Fuelled Ships Conference is an annual event organised by Mercator Media Ltd, a niche media company offering print and online products and events in the commercial marine, leisure marine, ship technology, ports, fishing and engineering subcontracting industries. For further information, please visit www.mercatormedia.com or telephone +44 (0)1329 825335.

The Conference is held in association with The Motorship, which is the leading and oldest-established magazine looking primarily at the technical aspects of ship operation and shipbuilding, with an emphasis on the ship itself and its machinery.   Its readers are the senior personnel responsible for technical aspects of operation in shipping and ship management companies, as well as consultants and naval architects and those involved in the shipbuilding and marine equipment industries. It was first published in 1920.

For more information visit www.motorship.com/gfsconference or email: lpauls@mercatormedia.com