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The shipping industry has faced two major challenges during 2019-2022: the implementation of International Maritime Organization (IMO) norms on the maximum allowed sulfur concentration to be 0.5% in marine fuel, which also are known as IMO 2020 norms, from Jan 1, 2020, and the COVID-19 pandemic, which disrupted normal operations. The next challenges that the shipping industry is expected to face are the decarbonization 2030 and 2050 norms. This article will focus on the aftermaths of the IMO 2020 norms and the COVID-19 pandemic on the marine lubricants industry and how it is likely to evolve in the future as the shipping industry tries to meet the decarbonization targets.
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The global outbreak of coronavirus disease has become one of humanity's current greatest challenges and may arguably surpass climate change in the short-term. The virus's rapid dispersion through the transportation sector, its disruption to human health and global economies, has been remarkable. The energy sector has also been impacted, as it has seen episodic low prices of oil, particularly in April 2020. This scenario is due to less demand for oil amid various containment measures and related health policies of governments worldwide. The performance of existing oil and gas contracts, especially time-bound supply contracts, has been rendered impracticable in some parts of the world. This has resulted in parties invoking force majeure clauses as an excuse. However, the legitimacy of coronavirus as an acceptable force majeure has emerged topically controversial. This article, adopting an analytical approach, makes a case for coronavirus as a typical instance of force majeure for energy contracts or sales and purchase agreements ("SPAs"), such as liquefied natural gas ("LNG") contracts and energy purchase agreements ("EPAs"), and which can only avail defense depending on parties' contractual force majeure provision. This article offers an understanding of force majeure alongside required fundamentals. Likewise, it highlights current debates about force majeure and likely impacts on future energy law contracts.
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This research aims to identify and analyse the challenges faced by the energy–power supply chain (LNG Power) in Pakistan a developing economy from combined perspectives of supply chain sustainability and resilience in the context of the Triple Bottom Line framework, UN SDGs 7, 13 and energy security. The significance of this research increases many folds as energy-power supply chains have been severely disrupted by events such as COVID-19, the Russia–Ukraine war and massive devastation caused by floods in Pakistan. Pakistan meets more than 60% of its energy-power needs from natural gas (including LNG), being less harmful than coal and oil power generation. The industry is in a state of deep crisis as it faces a complex set of challenges. Exploratory research design using a mixed method case study approach was used for the identification and shortlisting of challenges. Later these were ranked using group BWM. Major challenges were lack of strategy, top management commitment, weak compliance to UN SDGs, stalled structural reforms, disasters, lack of supply chain orientation, risk management culture, financial instability, LNG non-availability, demand uncertainty, infrastructure inadequacies and lack of awareness of Industry 4.0. The research enables policy-making besides providing energy practitioners a roadmap to overcome these challenges. © 2023 The Author(s). Published by Informa UK Limited, trading as Taylor & Francis Group.
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Since the beginning of 2021, world energy prices have been rapidly increasing, reaching such a high level that entire industries, small and medium-sized enterprises became uncompetitive, while retail electricity consumers became insolvent. The European Union energy policy, now focused on the development of alternative energy sources, contributed to a decline in profitability of fossil fuel used for electricity generation. The present paper examines the roots of the current economic crisis in the European market and opportunities to overcome it. To this end, the following objectives were set: to assess existing and alternative gas supply to the European market, to consider the link between existing gas contracts and spot prices. According to the conducted analysis, the lack of new liquefied natural gas (LNG) facilities due to a decrease in investment in the context of energy price reduction and the COVID-19 spread is the main constraint to the expansion of alternative gas supply to Europe in the medium term (2022–2030). The study revealed that a sharp transition of industries and households to the use of renewable energy sources has become one of the reasons for current crisis. Electricity generation from renewables nowadays cannot catch up with the demand for energy that can be produced by coal, gas and nuclear power plants. Further research directions include assessment of the probability of a transition from the seller's market to the buyer's market. © 2022 Authors. All rights reserved.
ABSTRACT
The application of newly available technologies in the green maritime sector is difficult due to conflicting requirements and the inter-relation of different ecological, technological and economical parameters. The governments incentivize radical reductions in harmful emissions as an overall priority. If the politics do not change, the continuous implementation of stricter government regulations for reducing emissions will eventually result in the mandatory use of, what we currently consider, alternative fuels. Immediate application of radically different strategies would significantly increase the economic costs of maritime transport, thus jeopardizing its greatest benefit: the transport of massive quantities of freight at the lowest cost. Increased maritime transport costs would immediately disrupt the global economy, as seen recently during the COVID-19 pandemic. For this reason, the industry has shifted towards a gradual decrease in emissions through the implementation of "better" transitional solutions until alternative fuels eventually become low-cost fuels. Since this topic is very broad and interdisciplinary, our systematic overview gives insight into the state-of-the-art available technologies in green maritime transport with a focus on the following subjects: (i) alternative fuels;(ii) hybrid propulsion systems and hydrogen technologies;(iii) the benefits of digitalization in the maritime sector aimed at increasing vessel efficiency;(iv) hull drag reduction technologies;and (v) carbon capture technologies. This paper outlines the challenges, advantages and disadvantages of their implementation. The results of this analysis elucidate the current technologies' readiness levels and their expected development over the coming years.
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Objectives/Scope: An expansion multi-billion dollar LNG plant EPC project has successfully adopted end to end digital project delivery overcoming numerous challenges. The complete Engineering, Procurement and Construction works, is scheduled to be commissioned by 2025. An extension of the existing liquefaction complex comprising of six complete trains and associated facilities, meant to increase the national LNG production by 35%. The complexity of multiple inter-continental entities, systems and cultural divisions between Engineering, Procurement (in Europe) and Construction driven from Far-east had been significant and further compounded by Covid. To align all parties early using the Advanced Work Packaging (AWP) method and digitally mapping the systems and enormous data generated from each department (working in silos), were the main challenges in taking the job further from FEED in to Detail Engineering and Site Execution. The entities involved had adopted the AWP method first time for project delivery. Methods, Procedures, Process: Based on the Advanced Work Packaging (AWP) and Workface Planning (WFP) philosophy, the whole project have been managed through a highly effective building sequence based digital detailed work packages for Engineering, Preconstruction planning and Onsite installation (EWPs, CWPs and IWPs respectively). The digital collaboration between departments and teams located in multiple countries, made all that possible and has been the key to success. The JV engaged subject matter experts in AWP, and also implemented an end to end digital project delivery platform. The platform was implemented as a non-disruptive overlay to over 15 different preexisting software and tools. Their interaction into a single digital platform has been extremely important to connect and manage the various stage of the process. All the information from Engineering, Procurement and Construction flow in one unique database and interact each other. That allows all stakeholders, including the Owner, to manage and have the full visibility of all EPC phases. A huge amount of data and information centralized, digitalized and made available to all stakeholders. The flexibility in the customization of the various modules and dashboards of the system, has been imperative due to the different setups and approach to Construction from JV's companies and that's the biggest vantage to manage properly all phases of the project. Results, Observations, Conclusions: According to various analysis performed on the project schedule, the Engineering phase got a 10% reduction of manhours investment against a contemporary AWP implementation, because of taking a digital approach. The project has started to experience a schedule compression consequently in Construction activities, that have started earlier than planned. By utilizing the automatic breakdown of CWPs into IWPs, considering the crew size and their rates, has led to a significant reduction in manhours spent for the WFP activities at site and in terms of number of personnel required. The early preparation has started to reduce the uncertainties faced in the field. Construction progress details are made visible through the system and utilising some of the 3D functions, and also get a graphical representation on a colour coded 4D report. The selective account permissions, makes relevant data available to any stakeholder in an easy to use and simple manner, depending on the department and company. One can view and work only on the required portion of the total scope, reducing the time of chasing information when dealing with huge amount of data. Furthermore, it provided a great advantage to allow setting up the contractual requirements based on the visibility of information to the project leadership of each company involved. Novel/Additive Information: Conventionally, AWP implementation is resource intensive and time consuming for any new entity. Directly implementing this in mega project with companies in a JV situation is even more challenging. Taking a digital first approach and ad pting a strong framework enabled by cloud based technology has been a great advantage for all departments and stakeholders involved. The project has avoided lost time in chasing information and people, decreased the risk of common mistakes in data retrieval and have increased their productivity. The advanced planning and the interaction with the project schedule, the deliverables and the materials availability in real time has been done smoothly. Furthermore, the Machine learning based material visibility, management of various warehouses have helped implement a smooth material pull for the project. The GIS based scope management along with the various 3D functions, are being used along with machine learning to drive continuous improvement for the success of the LNG project. Copyright © 2022, Society of Petroleum Engineers.
ABSTRACT
With the proposal of "carbon peak" and "carbon neutralization", Liquefied Natural Gas (LNG) has gradually garnered the attention of energy market as a clean and low-carbon energy. In this context, it is of great significance to analyze the evolution mode of the LNG maritime transport network, so as to master the dynamic of global energy pattern and the status of China's import trade. In this paper, the evolution trend of the global LNG maritime transport network from 2018 to 2020 is explored based on the ship trajectory data and complex network theory. Meanwhile, according to China's trade status, LNG import sources, distribution of main import ports, and the inflow status of the top three import ports in China are analyzed. The results show that: (1) From 2018 to 2020, the global LNG maritime transport network expanded with a "scale-free" characteristic. The "breadth" and "depth" of node connections in the backbone network are increasing, and there is a risk that global LNG trade will become monopolistic;(2) The countries along the "Belt and Road Initiative" actively participated in trade. The numbers of import ports and import voyages in Central and North America, South and Southeast Asia have significantly increased, and in particular, Sabetta and Bonny ranked the top eight globally according to their export volume;(3) The average shortest path length of the network is increasing year by year from 2018 to 2020, and the new mode of "transshipment port" business is gradually emerging. By 2020, 21 transshipment ports have participated in LNG trade, and the United States occupies the dominant position in global transshipment;(4) In recent three years, China's LNG import scale has developed rapidly, and the flow direction of the maritime transport network tends to be diversified. However, Australia is still the main LNG source for China. In terms of import volume, the ports of Tianjin, Shenzhen, and Yung'an rank the top three in China, and the pressure to reduce carbon emissions has prompted the economically developed regions to build terminals and increase imports. © 2022, Science Press. All right reserved.
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Natural gas will play more and more important role in the sustainable low-carbon development mode characterized by low energy consumption, low pollution and low emission. It has been and will continue to be the focus of attention. The 28th World Gas Conference (WGC2022) was held on May 23-27, 2022 in Daegu, South Korea. The conference summarized the progress of world natural gas in the past four years, analyzed and judged the future development trend, and reached seven consensuses: (1) Natural gas is not only a transitional fuel, but also a basic fuel for future development. (2) Supply and demand value chain of natural gas has high flexibility and adaptability, and supply diversification has become a development advantage. (3) With the effect of the rapid increase of oil and gas price, the reversal of natural gas to coal has intensified the rapid growth of global carbon emissions. (4) Structural tension is emerging in the global LNG market, and the number of long-term agreement contracts will show an increasing trend. (5) The coordinated development of natural gas and hydrogen will accelerate the arrival of the low-carbon era. (6) Methane monitoring and leakage measurement technology in the natural gas industry will become the next important innovation. (7) Governments of various countries have continuously raised the minimum level of underground gas storage, and successively issued incentive policies to increase gas reserves and production. Based on the experience, the following suggestions are put forward for the development of China's natural gas: (1) Continue to highlight the important position of the natural gas industry, increase exploration and development, and improve supply capacity and voice;(2) To adapt to the new setup of international natural gas supply caused by the COVID-19 and the conflict between Russia and Ukraine, and to formulate overall strategies for natural gas import and export trade;(3) Attach importance to LNG business, scientifically arrange the construction of LNG import supporting facilities, and take the initiative to cooperate with natural gas resource countries;(4) The whole industrial chain of natural gas and hydrogen business should be planned and deployed together, and hydrogen and natural gas infrastructure construction should be linked up effectively;(5) Increase policy support, strengthen infrastructure construction such as underground gas storage and LNG terminal, reserve more energy to develop confidence, and build a strong defense line for energy security. © 2022 Natural Gas Industry Journal Agency. All rights reserved.
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Natural gas is acting as a transitional fuel source as the world shifts toward fully renewable energy. Recently, Europe has confirmed this continued usage of natural gas, with the European Union voting in favor of calling natural gas a "green" or "sustainable" source of energy despite some pushback. However, there is one caveat: a further transition toward biogas or green hydrogen and other renewable gases by 2035. This is a good sign that natural gas power generation units will have a solid future in the energy mix of tomorrow.
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Green economy talks about combing final mechanisms that have ecological and macroeconomic system gains. Likewise, this research piece examined the effects of increased spending on fiscal policies and tightening fiscal policies concerning greening the economic activity as the globe reclaims itself from the COVID-19 in China. Analysis was done applying the China longitudinal data for the period 2008–2018. We utilized the ordinary least square as well as the quantile regression equation to meticulously approximate the influences of increased fiscal spending policies in addition to tightening fiscal policies has on greening the economic system acts as the countries reclaim themselves from the pandemic via a formulated green performance indicator of China nations. The findings indicate a rather exciting pattern by saying a percentage growth in fiscal policy led to nearly 6.5% growth, that is, less than 0.5 growth in the minimum carbon dioxide polluting vaporous from energy suppliers, such as natural gas, and a 0.2% less than 0.01 cuts in the midway carbon dioxide polluting liquefied energy suppliers, that is, hydrocarbon byproducts and a nonsignificant expansion of 0.2%, more significant than 0.5 in the entire case scenario coming from polluting dense energy suppliers, that is, from coal byproduct sources. At the same time, a 1% expansion in fiscal policy reduces cumulative carbon dioxide pollution to 0.2%, less than 0.05%. On this score, the presence of the environmental hypothesis was authenticated in all scenarios analyzed. Furthermore, the causality test indicated a dual movement causative correlation between fiscal policy and carbon dioxide pollution and one-way movement concerning the fiscal policy to energy use. The findings demonstrated that China witnessed a rising switch to green advancement in China;their Green Economic Efficiency increased steadily.
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Recently, we demonstrated for Curaçao that renewable electricity generation from wind combined with energy storage in the form of ammonia is competitive with imported fossil fuels, such as LNG, oil, and coal. In the current work, we have expanded the model by considering imported green ammonia as an alternative to local electricity generation and storage. Local production of ammonia as an energy storage medium was compared with imported ammonia to make up the electricity produced from onshore wind, for Curaçao and Fiji’s largest island Viti Levu. Curaçao and Viti Levu have been selected as two interesting extremes with favorable and non-favorable wind conditions, respectively. Assuming a market price of 500 USD/t NH3, it is found that importing ammonia is the most feasible solution for both islands, with a levelized cost of electricity (LCOE) of 0.11 USD/kWh for Curaçao and 0.37 USD/kWh for Viti Levu. This compares to 0.12 USD/kWh for Curaçao;however, for Viti Levu, this value increases to 1.10 USD/kWh for a completely islanded system based on onshore wind and imported ammonia. These islands represent two extreme cases in terms of wind load factor and load consistency, as Curaçao has a high and consistent wind load factor when compared to Viti Levu. Thus, the conclusions obtained for these locations are expected to be applicable for other small island developing states.
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The continuous increase in global maritime freight transport has led to an increase in emissions. The port of Heraklion was selected as a case study to investigate the environmental impact of shipping in wider areas. Two different maritime fuels were examined: the conventional maritime fuel, marine diesel oil (MDO), and an alternative maritime fuel, liquified natural gas (LNG). To carry out this study, real data from the port of Heraklion, the Lloyd’s Register Fairplay (LRF) Sea-Web database, and literature reviews were used. The bottom-up method was adopted for data processing. The results of this study demonstrate that alternative maritime fuels, such as LNG, could drastically reduce SO2, NOx, PM, and CO2 emissions.