Expanding the Use of Liquefied Natural Gas in the Baltic Sea Region via Tailor-made Training Activities

https://commons.wmu.se/lib_chapters/1010/thumbnail.jp

Liquefied Natural Gas as a Marine Fuel: The Case of the Baltic Sea Region

https://commons.wmu.se/lib_chapters/1011/thumbnail.jp

Perspectives on Cyber Security for Offshore Oil and Gas Assets

In an ever-evolving technological industry, the oil and gas sector is already moving forward through the adaptation of Industry 4.0 and the adaptation of advanced cyber technologies through Oil and Gas 4.0. As IT/OT (information technology/operational technology) systems are evolving technologically, so are the cyber security threats faced by the offshore oil and gas assets. This paper aims to raise the awareness of cyber security threats and the organizational and technical measures that need to be adopted by the oil and gas industry for remote and complex assets in the upstream sector. A comprehensive literature review covering the areas of new IT/OT systems integration and cyber security risk analysis and management is presented. The results of a survey on the subject of cyber security for offshore oil and gas assets are also presented, and they provide valuable insight into the current industry culture and the perception of cyber security concepts. The importance of organizational culture, personnel training and involvement, as well as corporate engagement and support in the subject of cyber security is highlighted.</jats:p

Understanding the Interrelation between the Safety of Life at Sea Convention and Certain IMO’s Code

Over the last few decades, the International Maritime Organization (IMO) has very heavily utilized the Safety of Life at Sea (SOLAS), 1974 Convention as the main legal instrument (and implementation tool) concerning safety at sea for merchant vessels engaged in international trade. During this more than a century of existence and continuous improvement of the Convention, wide-ranging safety risks have been addressed via SOLAS and certain relevant “supporting” Codes, covering for example the issues of design, construction and equipment of ships, as well as paving the way for the introduction of a structured framework of operational procedures that ensures a high level of professional performance for the crew onboard those seagoing vessels (the International Management Code for the Safe Operation of Ships and for Pollution Prevention-ISM Code) and even including human factors topics. Until this point in time, the IMO has developed the SOLAS Convention with fourteen (14) chapters that are covering all the main risks associated with shipping operations and are working in parallel with other related Conventions and Codes to enhance the level of safety at sea, under a holistic approach that is working under the principle of interrelation. This paper aims to briefly discuss SOLAS’ history of development and highlight just a few of those important risks that this Convention is addressing, with certain emphasis on the topic of “safety of navigation”. Apart from helping to understand the way this Convention and other IMO’s legal instruments are interrelated, it will also provide a few educated guesses about the “upcoming” challenges that in the near future should also be included into the scope of the SOLAS, with the topic of Maritime Autonomous Surface Ships (MAAS) clearly standing out

An Automated Lifeboat Manifesting Embarkation System (ALMES): optimizing evacuation and passenger manifestation Via RFID/NFC

Today, a significant number of quite advanced technology applications support safety at sea. To the dismay of the maritime industry, the manifestation of passengers during an evacuation scenario/case has not followed a similar path of improvement, when compared to the counterpart Life Saving Appliances (LSA) Code. Embarkation and muster proceedings are still following the similar approaches that were established during the early 1900s. There have been relatively few advances in these procedures; most often, they include manually checking-in the passengers on electronic systems, along with “on the spot” completion of check-off lists and passenger counts, allowing for an influx of potential error by the concerned personnel. Furthermore, the rely and transmission of the manifest to a Maritime Rescue Coordination Centre (MRCC) is often associated with a considerable amount of time, or even involving secondary passenger counts, after the disembarkation event has been concluded. It is understandable that a vessel with limited people on-board (tankers, bulk carriers, container vessels, etc.) can effectively be abandoned in a matter of minutes, but what happens with vessels carrying a large number of passengers and more specifically those heavily engaged with cruising activities? This paper examines the creation of an electronic manifestation system that will be able to automatically record the passengers during lifeboat embarkation. This proposed system will employ the use of Near-Field Communication (NFC) and/or (Radio-frequency identification) RFID bracelets, that are already utilized within the cruise industry. It will record relevant passenger and crew data, upon their boarding on the designated lifeboat, through readers installed on the parallel sides of the entryway. The data will be displayed in electronic tablet devices to the lifeboat leaders, as well as to the Master of the vessel in real-time. This will allow for an accurate representation of the evacuation process in any given moment. Furthermore, a complete “snapshot” of that information can also be directly transmitted to the MRCC via an automated message and without any further human intervention, or even stored locally aboard the lifeboats used for the evacuation and the ship’s Vessel Data Recorder (VDR)