Classification guidelines for LNG carriers and FPUs
Classification societies Bureau Veritas (BV) and Russian Maritime Register of Shipping (RS) have signed a three-year cooperation agreement covering the development of joint guidelines for LNG carriers and offshore floating production units (FPUs).
“We are delighted to have reached this agreement with RS, which will greatly facilitate research into two technologically challenges areas of shipping. The agreement is based on the exchange of information for the mutual benefit of BV and RS, and for the maritime industry generally,” said Pierre Besse, vice-president for research and development at BV. “We will now be able to combine the particular strengths of the BV and RS rules, to produce definitive guidelines which draw on the experience and expertise of both organizations. In addition, the cooperation agreement enables us to exchange information from the results of recent research projects, including those relating – but by no means limited - to operations in Arctic conditions.”
Under the agreement, common guidelines for LNG carriers, based on GAP analyses as well as the BV and RS rules and the IMO IGC Code, are expected to be published in first-quarter 2012. These will include the requirement for operating in Arctic areas.
Work on producing common guidelines for FPUs, meanwhile, will start in third-quarter 2011. In addition to the parameters used for the LNG guidelines, these will include feedback gained from work undertaken in connection with a project involving the Shtokman natural gas field in the Russian sector of the Barents Sea, one of the largest in the world.
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