201016 Unsafe LNG terminal operation
Unsafe LNG terminal operation
MARS Report 201016
After berthing at an LNG loading terminal, there was the normal discussion between the loading master and the ship’s chief officer about pre-loading and general safety procedures and so on. On completion of the cold emergency shut down [ESD] test, the loading master asked if the vessel were ready to begin loading. The chief officer explained that the pre-cooling operations were still in progress and that warmest part of the system was at minus 28°C, whereas safety procedures required the entire system to be at a temperature of minus 110°C before receiving cargo.
A short time later, the loading master again asked if the vessel was ready to load but still the lines were not cooled to the correct temperature. He left abruptly but returned within minutes and advised the chief officer that loading had commenced at a rate of 1000m³/hr. At this time, the vessel was not even properly lined up for loading. At the vessel’s order, loading was stopped and the terminal was given a strong letter of protest.
Several weeks later, in response to our dogged persistence, we received this statement from the terminal management:
‘The procedure for loading of LNG ships at Terminal XXXXXX has not been changed. But during the cooling-down operation and start of loading of your good vessel, the terminal procedure for loading of LNG ships was not followed by the loading master. This issue has been discussed with all loading masters at the terminal and correction done for the future.’
I can’t help thinking that if one of our ships had started discharging into a terminal that had not been lined up, a little more may have been made of it, with demands for dismissal, retraining of selected staff, changes in staff selection policy, risk assessment methodology, corrective and preventive actions in great detail, and an abject apology.