IAPH guidelines for LNG-powered vessels during port calls

The International Association of Ports and Harbors (IAPH) has presented guidelines for the safe handling of LNG-powered vessels at port terminals. These guidelines not only describe the required procedures and operational actions; they also set out how to maintain safety during the ship-to-ship bunkering of LNG-powered vessels.

The new guidelines dictated by the IAPh aim to equip port authorities with the necessary tools to safely organize bunkering in their ports, which increasingly receive an increasing number of calls from newly built LNG-powered ships and / or ships that have been converted to LNG.

The rules were outlined thanks to the effort of the IAPH Clean Marine Fuels (CMF) working group, which includes representatives from 13 IAPH member ports including Rotterdam, where such are already in place. The other ports belonging to the group are those of Antwerp, Bremen, Hamburg, Le Havre and Rouen, Hamburg, Los Angeles, Marseille, Montreal, Vancouver, Yokohama and Zeebrugge.

Founded in 1955, IAPH is a non-profit-making and non-governmental organization (NGO) headquartered in Tokyo, Japan, representing today some 180 member ports in 90 countries, that together handle well over 60% of the world’s sea-borne trade and nearly 80% of the world container traffic.