A Study on the Development of Educational Programs for LNG Bunkering in Consideration of the Safety System

This paper aims at presenting bunkering educational programs for LNG fueled ship taking into consideration existing similar education programs and safety systems at the international level in order to enhance both seafarers' and vessels' safety. Heavy fuel oil has typically been used as fuel of ship propulsion. The competitiveness of the fuel oil is recently getting weak in terms of cost and environmental aspects. Liquefied natural gas is introduced for ship propulsion in the maritime field as a new energy source replacing heavy fuel oil. In order to prepare for installation and operation of LNG fueled propulsion ship on board, International Maritime Organization has discussed this subject for about 10 years. As a result of the discussion on such ships in IMO, the International Code of Safety for Ships Using Gases or Other Low-Flash-Point Fuels entered into force on the year 2015. International organizations and several countries therefore drives actively entire researches and other businesses with a view to providing equipment and system of LNG bunkering. The systems are divided into ship-to-ship transfer, terminal / pipeline-to-ship transfer and truck-to-ship transfer. By adopting transfer system of LNG bunkering, many human resources will be needed in these areas on scene as well as on managing, operating, trading, finance, design of LNG bunkering industries. LNG bunkering is just in the beginning stage. Hence, this paper reviews and proposes professional educational programs of LNG bunkering in consideration of technical aspects of the safety system of LNG bunkering based on the types of bunkering systems.