This is the abstract of my technical Paper on "RECENT DEVELOPMENTS IN OFFSHORE GAS TECHNOLOGY - FSRU,FLNG & FCNG" - This presentation was delivered at MASTECH 2013 as part of Gulf Maritime Expo 2013.

1. “Recent developments in Offshore gas technology –FSRU, FLNG, FCNG”
By
Anoop Rajendran Nair
Project Manager- New constructions
Registro Italiano Navale (RINA) India & Myanmar
Author info
Anoop Rajendran Nair, a graduate in Naval Architecture from Cochin University, India, joined
Registro Italiano Navale (RINA) as a surveyor in 2008. During his 5 year period as a surveyor
for RINA, he has gained professional expertise as a surveyor in Ships in Services, New
Constructions, Oil and Gas Projects and Marine/Industrial Testing Activities. He has been part of
the RINA team in charge of the conversion and classification of an FPSO and an FSRU during
his 2 year stint in Dubai, wherein he also held the role of a PED inspector. During his stint in
India, he has also achieved tremendous experience as an MLC auditor. He is currently with the
RINA Mumbai Office as the Project Manager for New Construction activities in India &
Myanmar.
Abstract
This presentation shall include an overview of the recent developments in the offshore gas
technology giving emphasis to FSRU, LNG FPSO and Marine CNG. The basic intention of this
paper is to highlight the interesting challenges faced by RINA through various case histories of
their recent FSRU and Marine CNG projects and the solutions imparted. This paper also
highlights the prospects and technological innovations in the FLNG arena sharing the expertise
which RINA received on association with few of the FLNG projects. This paper also discusses
the prospects of monetizing offshore gas by compressing and shipping it in FCNG carriers and
its future market prospects over other floating production systems.
RINA has become the first classification society to class a Floating Storage and Regasification
Unit ( FSRU), which was delivered in early 2013 from Dry docks world Dubai. FSRU Toscana
is currently at OLT Livorno terminal Italy carrying out the installation activities. The
presentation shall include a brief overview of the process onboard an FSRU as well. The various
technical challenges faced during the design and conversion stage are
- LNG loading using rigid loading arms.
- Mooring systems – side by side with LNG carrier.
- Fatigue assessment
- Sea keeping analysis
- Re-gasification process onboard in offshore environment.
This presentation intends to emphasis on the solutions imparted for above items considering the
case histories of FSRU Toscana and FSRU South Sumatra (in progress).
With the advent of Floating Liquefied Natural Gas (FLNG) technology in the offshore arena, we
shall be able to expand the LNG production in onshore base facilities to areas where it had not
been viable so far. FLNGs help in monetizing stranded gas resources and also in eliminating
costly production platforms and pipelines. In the next few years, some of the FLNG projects in

2. the construction stage shall be delivered and we shall be in for a proven technology for future
offshore growth.
A Floating Compressed-Natural-Gas (FCNG) production vessel is a traditional gas floating
production and offloading (FPO) unit with a high-pressure gas transfer system to load CNG
shuttle ships instead of a subsea pipeline. FCNG serves markets that fall between subsea-pipeline
markets and very-long distance LNG markets. For market opportunities that cannot be reached
by a subsea pipeline but are within 2500 km, FCNG provides a simpler and less expensive
process than FLNG does, with more flexibility to deliver to multiple sites than pipelines offer.
This paper also presents a case history of ongoing Gresik-Lombok Marine CNG pilot project
carried out by RINA in Indonesia for PT PLN (Persero).The prospect of growth of FCNGs as the
future of Floating offshore vessels are also discussed in this paper.
Key Words
FSRU, FLNG, FCNG, Marine CNG, LNG FPSO, LNG, Gas, Floating, Offshore, Conversion,
Process. Gas FPO.