Cargo Handling

This is the official SIGTTO publication covering one of the most important aspects of the marine transportation of the liquefied gases; their nature requires that same is carried out in closed containers, considering the temperatures and pressures involved. It is therefore critical to properly quantify the transported cargo and this, in turn, will require complex procedures and considerations.

Another item to consider and to add to the complexity is the number of different calculation procedures, each for the specific accuracy level and value. It is essential to have a thorough understanding of the differences between above stated procedure in order to clearly get the values of the loaded and discharged cargo. Recognizing the necessity for a good guidance on these matters, the SIGTTO organization developed and released this second edition of the monograph.

The contents of this book have been fully updated and revised by the recognized experts in the field. The info contained in the monograph will serve as a background to the people working in the shipping organizations, and whose day to day activities involve dealing with the LNG custody transfer. However, it will be equally interested and useful for self-education.

The known and researched world gas reserves exceed those of oil. However, for so many years the gas has not attracted too much interest. It was rather considered a sort of hindrance by the people engaged in the oil recovery. The associated gas used to be flared. The wells containing no oil but a plenty of gas used to be totally ignored. The first practical attempts for gas production were made at the beginning of the last century.

People had finally recognized the potential of gas reserves to change the way of their living. The development of gas reserves has eventually led to the need for its transportation which, noting its flammable nature, should be carried out in a safest way. The present publication provides a good review of the marine LNG transportation as well as of the conditions that prevail today.

Without going too deep into technical details of the transportation, the author gives a nice overview of all important aspects including the characteristics of the vessels engaged in transportation, current regulations and rules governing it, gas storage ashore and of course safety considerations. The readers will find valuable information about everything associated with marine transportation of gas from both safety, technical and commercial perspectives.

This latest edition of the textbook published by McGuire and White was published by Witherby in 2000 and covers following important aspects of the liquefied gases transportation and handling, as properties and basic information on liquefied gases, ship equipment and instrumentation, principles of gas carrier design, terminal equipment and instrumentation, the ship-shore interface, cargo measuring and control, cargo handling operations, emergency procedures and personal health-and-safety issues.

This publication has been initially established as the standard guide covering the operational side of the shipping industry; the book should be treated as the completely independent companion that is to be used in the course of the professional training for the operational qualifications. As it was a case with two previous editions of the textbook, it is dealing with the issues related to the safe handling of liquefied gases in bulk and emphasized the importance of proper understanding of physical characteristics of such cargoes with regard to the practical operation of the associated equipment on board vessels and at terminals. It is primarily intended to be used by the ship officers and other people bearing responsibility for the operations.

The crude oil is maybe the most important cargo of those transported by sea over the last century. It provides people with the energy necessary to drive virtually everything. The present book was written by Captain P. Armitage with the ultimate intention to serve as a mandatory training for the second officers willing to move up to the position of Chief Officer - in fact it will be useful to every single ship officer working on a tanker and standing a cargo watch.

The content of this volume is covering absolutely everything starting from the fundamentals of the crude oil chemistry and up to the economics of today's oil market. Loading and discharge operations are deservedly treated as the critically important activities. When carrying out loading and discharge of the shipboard cargo, the accidents may seriously compromise the safety of the crew members, the ship herself as well as the environment.

Well developed and carefully reviewed plans supplemented with the standing instructions and established emergency procedures will significantly contribute to the success of the cargo operations and provide additional flexibility to the commercial operators. This volume puts decades of the practical experience into a quite concise format which is technical but still reader friendly. A copy of this book shall be in the library of every tanker officer for easy and ready reference at all times.

The present booklet which has been officially published by The Standard Club is devoted to the misdeclared cargo. The transportation of such cargo can actually become a worst nightmare for any ship owner. It can sometimes lead even to the major casualties and put the safety of the crew, the vessel and cargo on board, as well as the environment at significant risk. In fact misdeclaration of the cargoes should not be treated as any new phenomenon.

There have been numerous incidents involving misdeclared cargo. The content of this document has been arranged in five sections with the first section being purely introductory. The second section is dealing with the misdeclared transportation of the calcium hypochlorite. The next two sections address the cargo incident notification system, organization, and the experience of the P&I Club members in the field of misdeclared goods.

The publication concludes with the information about the rights of recovery relating to the misdeclared dangerous goods. Though the volume is very compact, its content will be very useful to any person engaged in transportation of the cargoes by sea that is why we recommend everyone to have a close look in it.

This Standard Club publication is dealing with marine transportation of seedcake. Let us see what the seedcake is. In fact, it is the residue that remains upon removal of the oil from the oil bearing seeds as well as cereals and relevant products. This is normally achieved by either solvent extraction or mechanical crushing. The seedcake is used as fertilized or animal feed and is the by-product of the vegetable oil production process.

Seedcakes are considered hazardous cargoes since they can self-heat. Even though the process of self-heating is quite slow, it can eventually result in the rise of the bulk temperature of the cargo and at some point the self-ignition will inevitably take place. Therefore the shippers are required to provide relevant certification from the person recognized by the competent authority that would confirm the moisture and oil content of the cargo based on the UN number.

The high moisture content of the cargo will promote significant microbiological activity resulting in the rise of the temperature to as high as seventy degrees and to deterioration in the quality. This will normally not cause ignition; however the accelerated oxidation of the residual oil will take place in this case. As a result, the temperature will sufficiently rise.

The present guidance is intended to provide all necessary support to the shippers and forwarders as well as the booking staff of the shipping lines and persons directly involved in packing various dangerous cargoes into transport units for their further transportation by sea. The authors would like to underline that the assisting parties shall have clear understanding of their duties since it will allow to enhance the communication between different participants of the transport chain and achieve compliance.

The provisions of the IMDG Code Amdt 38-16 has been reflected in this publication. The material in this guide is arranged in two parts. The first part describes operational steps breaking down the whole process of preparation and booking the goods into several steps, from their classification and selection of their packaging to packing the unit and producing the packing certificate.

In turn, the second part of the guidebook is giving readers a background to the Code and numerous useful references. The document will be of great practical interest to all people engaged in marine transportation of goods falling under the provisions of the IMDG Code and is therefore recommended to be placed on board.

This publication developed by the professionals of the SIGTTO organization was intended to advise the people engaged in the works on board gas carriers on the proper procedures relating to the technical maintenance of the PRVs, standing for the pressure relief valves, address various operation problems, possible faults and emergency closure.

The idea of the authors was to provide some general guidance to the crew members of the vessels - note that the volume is not expected to replace any of the instructions or manuals provided by the manufacturers of the equipment in question.

Opening with some introduction, the content of the volume covers the general requirements that are applicable to the PRVs including requirements to their design and installation on board. The types of the PRVs are addressed in detail, covering both spring operated and pilot operated pressure relief valves. The emergency closure of the PRVs is considered particularly important and is therefore dealt with in a separate chapter.

The publication also covers the in-service testing of the valves. Five appendices provide additional information including extracts from the IMO IGC Code, pressure levels, terminology and definitions used etc.