Qatargas Operating Company Limited (Qatargas) has successfully initiated a programme to utilise LNG boil-off gas to power its chartered conventional LNG vessels during unloading operations at Japanese LNG terminals. The programme is being implemented with the cooperation of Qatargas' Japanese buyers.
LNG vessel, 'Al Jasra' had successfully conducted the first such operation while discharging at the Niigata LNG Terminal in October 2019.
LNG tankers are designed to carry natural gas in liquid form at a temperature of – 163°C, close to the vaporisation temperature. This natural evaporation, known as boil-off, is unavoidable and has to be removed from the tanks in order to maintain the cargo tank pressure.
Using the boil-off natural gas instead of conventional fuel oil significantly reduces greenhouse gas and other harmful emissions over the course of the discharge operation. Qatargas is committed to minimising emissions of greenhouse gas and other pollutants by use of natural gas, the cleanest fossil fuel, in one of its critical operations.
