Vanguard Magazine

www.vanguardcanada.com FEBRUARY/MARCH 2018 29 erators may divert services to take advan- tage of this. For Montreal and the Great Lakes ports, their location is currently a major disadvantage. Right now, most shipping into North American coastal ports has to run for the last 200 nautical miles on clean and expensive fuel to comply with ECA requirements. However, Montreal is 1000 nm "inland," and Thunder Bay is nearly 2000 nm inside the ECA. This erodes their competitive position. For LNG-fueled ships, the relative fuel costs could actually be lower, provided that LNG supplies were actually available. As of today, LNG fuel is available in Vancouver from the Fortis BC facility in Tilbury, and in Montreal from Gaz Met- ro. In both locations, the delivery options are currently limited to tanker trucks, but there are plans to extend this to ship and barge options and to add local distribu- tion tanks. The Tilbury facility is adjacent to Seaspan's ferry terminal, and a short distance from BCFS large terminal in Tsawassen. Both companies are now us- ing LNG in a number of ships (Figure 3), with more on order. In the St. Lawrence, the STQ was the first adopter on LNG in its new ferry for Matane, the Gauthier, supplied by tanker truck from Montreal. Groupe Desgagnes is taking delivery of a series of LNG-ready cargo vessels of vari- ous types, and more LNG ferries for STQ are under construction. Canadian shipbuilding and repair yards are becoming LNG-ready. STQ's Gauth- ier has docked in Verrault in les Mechins, and Esquimalt Graving Dock (EGD) has handled the first of BCFS Salish class, with more to follow. Chantier Davie is building STQ's follow-on vessels, and Seaspan has secured a major contract for the conversion to LNG of two of Tote's large container ships. Canadian naval ar- chitects and marine engineers, including Vard Marine, have been responsible for many of the projects listed above, and for others worldwide. Vard is currently work- ing on the world's highest ice class cruise ship, a PC 2 vessel similar in size and ca- pability to the Canadian Coast Guard's Diefenbaker. It will operate on LNG in environmentally sensitive polar waters, starting in 2021. Canadian capabilities for LNG are now approaching a critical mass, particularly on the West Coast. The ability to provide LNG fuel to cruise, container and other deep-sea ships, in addition to local ferries, can boost the attractiveness of the Pacific Gateway, provide new markets for Cana- dian gas, and new business opportunities for a range of suppliers. The way forward Huge opportunities exist, but they will require urgent and coordinated efforts to be fully exploited. Some of this can and should be done by the private sector, marine fuels "While still a fossil fuel, NG is relatively clean burning and has a much lower carbon content than diesel or heavier fuels." by establishing better links between fuel suppliers, shipping companies and ports. Also, compared with many other coun- tries, Canadian federal and provincial government involvement and support for the adoption of NG as a marine fuel has been very limited. Support does not need to be directly economic, though targeted incentives can be valuable. Some of the biggest challenges are regulatory – the re- quirements for operating bunkering ships in Canadian ports, setting standards for bunkering equipment, etc. Other gov- ernments also help create infrastructure by adopting NG in their own fleets – for example, Finland's new icebreaker and patrol vessels. The period between now and 2020 will see significant changes in worldwide fueling infrastructure and practices, and Canada needs to act now to gain full benefit from this. Andrew Kendrick is Vice President Operations at Vard Marine Inc.

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