EMSA Launches Tender for LNG Bunkering Study

The European Maritime Safety Agency (EMSA) is launching an invitation to a EUR 450,000 tender for study on the development of liquefied natural gas (LNG) bunkering facilities for the LNG fuelled ships in the SafeMed and TRACECA beneficiary countries.

The main objective of the contract is to provide SafeMed and TRACECA countries with the necessary study on LNG bunkering infrastructures and/or small storage siting facilities in order to support a safe development of the LNG facilities of the relevant ports or port areas, thus promoting the development LNG bunkering in the region.

The study should address safety risk assessment issues regarding LNG bunkering of the gas-fuelled ships in the relevant ports of the SafeMed and TRACECA countries both from a regulatory and technological perspective.

The aims of the contract resulting from this tender are to:

• describe the existing standards/regulations/guidelines related to LNG bunkering and those currently under development, affecting the ports on a national, regional and global scale;
• provide a gap analysis identifying, documenting and comparing the differences between the existing requirements of current/on-going LNG bunkering related regulations;
• provide recommendations how to overcome the identified gaps; and
• develop Individual Quantitative Risk Assessments for LNG as fuel bunkering operations, for the identified port(s), taking into consideration specific features of each port such as number and type of ships calling at ports, type of operations, port location and surrounding infrastructures as well as other relevant variables for the establishment of each ports safety/risk profile.

The bids for the tender should not be posted later than October 19, and the estimated date for signature of the contract is mid December 2015. The period of validity of the tender, during which tenderers may not modify the terms of their tenders in any respect will be until March 31, 2016.

The SafeMed Project is a response to the interest of the European Union (EU) to develop Euro-Mediterranean co-operation in the field of maritime safety and security, prevention of pollution from ships and marine environmental issues by providing technical advice and support to the non-EU Mediterranean countries identified in the 1995 Barcelona Process.

TRACECA (Transport Corridor Europe-Caucasus-Asia) is an international transport programme involving the European Union and 14 member States of the Eastern European, Caucasian and Central Asian region.