LNG transfer in Flow

Around 70,000m³ of LNG was transferred recently between Ben Badis and Excel while at anchor in the Flow. The operation took around 48 hours to complete.

David Sawkins, harbour master, Orkney Islands Council, told GreenPort: “We expect to see more STS operations happening here in the Flow as the use of LNG increases. This will be the third STS operation involving LNG with the world-first LNG transfer conducted here at anchor in 2007.”

Meticulous planning went into the preparations for the transfer. All the agencies involved – Orkney harbours, SPT as service providers, ships agents and Orkney Towage Ltd – took part in a detailed run-through of every aspect of the operation, before it took place to ensure safety.

In order to prepare, a full risk assessment and a hazard and operability study had to be carried out and all operations were conducted in line with the port marine safety code. A 500m exclusion zone had to be set up while during the STS transfer operation to ensure safety.

Mr Sawkins added because Scapa Flow is a completely sheltered location, the weather wasn’t an issue.