Top Gear’s Richard Hammond explains what an LNG tanker is all about
Published:
January 27, 2013 at 10:51am
This is how Labour wants to ship in our gas (only they’d have to build a couple of them first because none are available for lease), and they tell us that it’s better than a pipeline from Sicily.
Forget babbling, bumbling Konrad Mizzi, incoherent of speech and unclear in thought. Richard Hammond explains it all beautifully.
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Which reminds me… where is Konrad Mizzi?
They’re hiding him to stop making more nonsense of himself and his ‘idea’.
What Labour is presently doing is trying to keep their crazy idea off radar and having Saviour Balzan and his comic come up with ‘corruption’ stories to alienate the electorate.
Well, they tried to hit the wrong man, because Austin filed a libel suit in no time.
Immediately, Malta Today retracted part of its ‘story’ but Saviour will need more than just that to keep Austin off his back now. Of course, the people behind the comic may be able to sustain the newspaper’s lies, even if one of them is away from the island for medical purposes while the police wait for his arrival on the island.
On another note – it is sad to see Eddie Fenech Adami, the great man who changed Malta and who knows what we went through under Labour, say what he did in his interview with The Times today.
Eddie, of course the 1980s are still very relevant today, when the likes of Karmenu Vella, Sceberras Trigona, George Vella, and so many others of their ilk are still an active part of the Labour Party machinery today, and when Joseph Muscat s completely unabashed to say tat Mntoff -the man who fucked up the lives of so many – is his hero.
History, unless, kept alive, is bound to repeat itself.
Fenech Adami is correct when he says that he has done his part DURING DIFFICULT TIMES AND UNDER A FASCIST AND DICTATORIAL REGIME, thus ensuring that Malta passes from a tyranny to a truly democratic environment.
No one can blame him for that.
Now is the time for the people to make their wise choices. If they want heaven they can get it and if they want to live in hell, they can also get it. It’s up to us the people to decide. So thank you very much for all you did to Malta. You removed tyranny from our midst and brought democracy (at a heavy price) to us.
Maybe we can build them at Malta Shipbuilding and re-employ all those Dockyard workers.
Hammond must be a PN apologist.
He neatly explains why an oversized LNG vessel i.e. exceeding 50,000 cubic meters would be unsuitable for Malta since unload a partial consignment at one’s facility is impossible.
Such ships can only operate if completely empty or completely full.
This has already been explained but quickly brushed off by Mizzi – aka The Expert.
When challenged with the difficulties involved in finding the right ship(s) for the tiny needs of Malta his rebuttal was that getting a large ship, say with a capacity of 120,000 cubic meters or more, on its way to Egypt to unload small quantities will be easy to arrange.
What’s worse than Konrad Mizzi trivialising the problems of shipping LNG to Dellimara is Professor Edward Mallia trying to hoodwink the electorate into voting PL by seeming to endorse their puerile proposal.
Konrad SHOULD know better, but Edward DOES know better.
Great to see Hamster explain this.
This video should be seen by all Marsaxlokk residents. No, actually by the whole Maltese population and CC’d to Joseph, of course.
I almost quit viewing it several times because it is really scary.
Hammond, comparing one shipload of liquefied NG to several atomic bombs made me sick to the stomach.
Expecting Joseph or Karmenu or Konrad to understand is even scarier.
They don’t – and never will. Aqta’ qalbek, siehbi!
This video should be shown on NET TV for the sake of the nearby residents especially for the Labourites.
Dr Frank Portelli spoke of this in a recent TVAM edition. He was referring to the proposed 60,000cbm LNG storage at Delimara, which would (according to Portelli) contain the equivalent energy of 17 Hiroshimas. Actually, it’s closer to 21.
Now that assumes that all of the 60,000cbm would explode in one instant. Of course, that cannot happen because LNG does not burn before it evaporates and turns into gas. LNG does turn into gas when exposed to normal ambient temperature, but 60,000cbm of LNG are not going to evaporate in an instant for it to burn and release all that energy at once.
A full LNG storage tank presents no risks of explosion, but the emptier it gets, the greater the risk because the “empty” space will be full of evaporated LNG and that’s what would explode. But even this gas needs to be mixed with the right amount of air for it to burn or explode. Let’s assume for argument’s sake that a freakish sequence of events in the right conditions would result in this stored evaporated LNG exploding. This would of course rupture the tank, exposing the remaining liquid to ambient temperature causing it to evaporate and burn.
The point is that these would happen in sequence, and the total stored energy can never be released in an instant for the explosion to be compared to a Hiroshima bomb.
So, in effect, there are no 21 Hiroshimas to speak of in the initial explosion – the energy released depends on the amount of evaporated gas in the tanks. But there will be an explosion followed by heavy fires (caused by the now evaporating LNG) none the less, with the high probability of wiping out the nearby power station.
And there lies the real concern. In the event of such a catastrophe, the interconnector could offer some relief, in the sense that this could be up and running in a relatively short time, but even when running at full capacity, this does not provide for all the island’s needs, and it would be a number of years before power is fully restored.
One Hiroshima’s enough.
Unless we’re doing a Truman here.
Very educational. The ship in question has around four times the capacity of each of the two tanks Labour want to install at Delimara.
The gas on board the ship has the energy value of 55 atom bombs. Labour want to store 27.5 Atom bombs at Delimara? For a theoretical 25% cost saving?
I’d rather cut my consumption by 25%, thank you very much.
Labour will now tell us that the cheapest way to own our LNG carrying-ships would be to set up a shipbuilding company, which we can innovatively call Malta Shipbuilding.
..and probably build them in 6 months. U halluna.
Yes, and if they employ all the bazuzli and usual ‘lazy bums out looking for a cushy job’, they’ll be done in about 20 years time at the earliest.
Excellent stuff! And Konrad Mizzi said the tankers will just offload some of their gas cargo in Malta and keep going to their next destination with what’s left in the hold.
Will the PN please get back to discussing the power station? Who cares about free tablets? Once we’re blown up, the tablets will be blown up with us.
Excellent video. Thanks for posting this.
Equivalent to 55 atomic bombs – there will be nothing left of Malta, just a big hole in the sea.
No. Just sea. I mean no nothing. No Malta. No Italy. No Mediterranean basin. No Europe. No Northern Africa. No Middle East. Nothing.
FIFTY-FIVE A-BOMBS. FIFTY-FIVE!
I am watching Super One, where they’re under some tent at an activity with josephmuscat.com.
I really can’t stand the way the PL twists facts or builds hypotheses to scare those people who are ignorant/watch only Super One/are selectively deaf.
He’s saying that when Gonzi implements the night tariffs for energy consumption, although he will reduce the tariff for these hours, he will increase day tariffs substantially.
Imma dawn in-nies ma jisthix wicchom? Qisna Malta se tkun l-ewwel pajjiz li tintroduci dawn in-night tariffs.
Barra minn Malta ilhom jezistu snin.
Jien nithassar in-nies taghhom.
“Imma dawn in-nies ma jisthix wicchom?” Zgur li le – la qatt staha qabel u lanqas ser jisthi fil-futur.
Oh yes, and he also said that there is no discussion on PN policies as there are none.
Two days ago, the executive council approved the PN’s electoral manifesto (haven’t seen a peak of PL’s as yet) and tomorrow the PN will publish all their costings as to how they plan to implement these proposals step by step.
Let the discussions begin. And hopefully we’ll get to know the PL’s electoral manifesto, unless Il-Guy forgot where he saved it and has to start it all from scratch by copying the PN’s.
You can rest assured that the PL is working overtime to re-write its electoral programme to include the clear proposals in the PN excellent programme – and then they will use Super One to try and convince us that they had the idea first. Bunch of amateurs.
I saw the news item about the explosion in the LNG terminal in Mexico. We are too small a country to take on such risks and given the proximity of the power station and populated areas we should not consider this option even if the electricity came for free – irrispective of whether the PN or the MLP or the AD is proposing it.
May I ask a technical question (because I am not technical and I am afraid that I am missing something)? Perhaps someone might enlighten me.
My take is that we are hit in four ways in respect of energy production.
1) Pollution wise;
2) We buy the raw material in US Dollars, and therefore it costs us more to buy oil or gas even if market prices remain unchanged if the US Dollar appreciates against OUR Euro;
3) We need to use energy to produce electricity;
4) We use as much energy to produce electricity to desalinate sea water and produce fresh water,
If we buy electricity from the European grid through the interconnector, and take advantage from the night tariffs in Europe, can the desalination plants produce fresh water at night? would this translate into a cheaper ‘overall’ bill?
If most of the electricity is bought from Europe, it would mean that it is produced in Europe, meaning that the pollution happens there, right?
If we buy from Europe, would we pay in Euro or US Dollar? If we pay in Euro, wouldn’t we save on hedging costs incurred from the purchase of US Dollars to pay for oil or gas?
I am not a technical person, so I stand to be corrected. But, if my thinking is right, wouldn’t the interconnector address all four of our problems (there might be others that I am not aware of)? and if my thinking is correct, can anybody explain to me why any option would be better than obtaining most of our energy requirements from the interconnector (with adequate backup in Malta obviously (the BWSC poswerstation).
Running the desalination plants at night instead during the day will already reduce the production costs by a considerable amount and in enough quantities that we could reduce the pumping rate from the water table.
I would actually consider stopping all borehole pumping by WSC and reduce further the electrical load on the power stations during the day. Use PV during the day and imported night electricity at cheap rates. Not burning away 300Million Eur minimum and risking the burning or demolition of the whole of Delimara , free port and power station.
Everybody is also forgetting the risk analysis that includes the fact that this proposed gas tanks are in the way of the landing / takeoff cone of aircraft flying into Malta. One can see aircraft veering off the the right when taking off towards Marsaxlokk, and you know why?
To make sure that if something goes wrong during takeoff, God forbid, the power station is definitely not in the way. BUT anything can go wrong and an aircraft out of control can veer the other side smack gas tank direction.
These are risks that are NEVER taken, but always seriously considered.
Very interesting documentary.
It makes it clear why these ships cannot supply only part of their cargo – which is what Konrad Mizzi claimed to be the delivery solution.
They have to be always either almost entirely full or almost empty to prevent sloshing of the liquid natural gas.
If the tanks were to be say half full, the free surface effect would make the liquid gas slosh with the risk of capsizing the ship in rough waters. This is very clearly explained in this documentary.
So when they carry cargo, they have to deliver it all in one place. Ships used for Malta would therefore have to be the exact volume of liquid natural gas that we would require.
It would be impossible to use bigger ships.
It is manifestly obvious, I have concluded fairly easily, that neither Konrad nor – and still less – il-Ginger know what they are talking about when fomenting LNG provisions to Delimara in 100,000 cubic meter tankers.
The behemoth shown in the video cannot, by any stretch of the imagination, find its way anywhere near Delimara.The alternative of building 30,000 cubic meter tankers has already been shot down by the PN as being far too costly – four of them at 50 million euros each.
Yet, both the persons mentioned above are hell-bent on ramming down our throats the idea of somehow shipping LNG our way – irrespective of the facts explained by experts.
What is worse, of course, is that they are somehow quite a few among us are being duped into believing in the prospect.
The idiot said one of the options considered was having the tanks undergound.
The underlying method to safety is to disperse as fast as possible, any gas which may leak. This is, what is termed, the fundamental.
Need I say more?
A very good observation at 27:15 – the ships cannot unload part of their payload at the different ports of call.
“No sloshing”
Did anyone ask Konrad about all that LNG “sloshing” around in half-full tanks on the high seas? If they did, he probably answered, “Iva dik rajniha wkoll. F’kollox thalna ahna”.
Why did the French and Germans protest against nuclear plants in their countries after the tsunami caused the Fukushima Nuclear incident?
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-13188507
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=i_nr4BA2bcw
One of the reasons why the government in 2004 did not accept the LNG as fuel for our power stations was precisely because Algeria had a big accident in one of its LNG terminals at Skikda .
If someone accepted that idea we would have had FAA together with AD and MLP rightfully protesting like the French and Germans did about the planned nuclear plants.
According to Joseph ,the choice is between gas and oil. I beg to differ, the choice is between LNG and an EU funded pipeline together with the interconnector which is on the way.
While at it, why is it that Joseph did not present a petition against the building of the “cancer and asthma factory” of BWSC , like he did on the Recycling Plant ?
Quite convincing…it sounds better than oil.
[Daphne – The debate is not oil versus gas, but pipeline versus LNG terminal/storage tank/shipping the gas in in tankers.]
It would be really stupid to depend on a pipeline, with no on-site back-up. Remember what happened a few years ago…when there was a shortage of gas…throwing the Eastern European nations into crises (those that were dependent on pipelines from other countries)?
I know that the argument is not exactly parallel to ours…but we should always have a back-up.
Having said that I think that you should concentrate on the DISGRACEFUL electoral campaign staged by both parties. They are both playing games with Malta’s funds, both of them promising stuff that would cost Malta loads of money!
Has Astrid Vella seen this video?
Konrad’s solution will blow us to bits.
Is she even allowed by the FAA to speak?
What may console her is the possibility of ‘the people’ landing her on some planning board.
To “smithereens” is more appropriate. That, truly, will be it.
I was wondering how come all the fuss about the new power station has died down. Very convenient for the PL.
I don’t know if anyone has ever mentioned the following on this blog but is it possible that the PL has made some sort of arrangement in Dubai and in return for the power station funding, the Dubai people will be allowed to search for oil that is rumoured to be here?
Convenientfor gonzipn whoi has still to explain how the night tariffs will be calculated and why the day and night tariffs will not be separte but still sent as one reading.?
That is because it is never going to happen and is simply an electoral LIE
Have you ever seen an itemised telephone bill? It shows you, call by call, to which number it was made, how long it lasted and how much it cost you.
Do you think that the smart meters are not capable of keeping track of what is being used and when? It’s not rocket science.
Do you think Malta will be the only country with a different tariff at night?
Imbasta tmaqdru kollox. L-anqas tafu xi tkunu qeghdin tghidu.
Impressive … but since ‘flimkien kollox possibli’ and ‘Malta has talent’ (ahna poplu kapaci blah blah blah), why not Malta? That’s the trick, Daphne.
This whole issue will make Labour win this election unless something really unpredictable happens in the electoral campaign.
Like some people getting functioning brain cells?
Impressive … but since ‘flimkien kollox possibli’ and ‘Malta has talent’ (ahna poplu kapaci blah blah blah), why not Malta? That’s the trick, Daphne.
But what’s the point of reinventing the ruddy wheel? What’s the point of science and published research if we’ve got to do everything from scratch ourselves?
This is not something to be decided by the average voter. This is a highly technical issue best left to people who know their onions.
Will you still be of the same opinion when the economics dictate we have four of those tanks and not two?
It will be imperative, match the plant to the ships you see. Cunning plan.
When josephmuscatdotcom wins the elections, his flock will spend a month celebrating and “redeploying” and then the stark reality will hit them in the face.
Week after week will go by and months will pass as their planning applications get mired in technicalities: EIAs on land and sea, Appropriate Assessments, Site Selection Exercises, consultation periods, Method Statements, objections, Stakeholder meetings, Court injunctions . . . panic will soon start setting in. Josephmuscatdotcom will realise that the PN were right and there is no chance in hell of getting the permits through in 60 days – even 60 weeks will be looking too optimistic.
Perhaps even before this happens (after all, the PL has a couple of planning sharks like Musumeci and Charles Buhagiar who know well what to expect) josephmuscatdotcom will go to war with MEPA; I hope the PN will be organised enough to take up the challenge and uphold the rule of law.
It’s admirable of the PN to dedicate all its energies to try and win the elections but there should also be a Plan B on what to do if that doesn’t happen.
What they need to understand is that even if it were a feasible option, what brings me out in a rash is that the way they intend to go about it shows how they’re simply not the ones who can do it.
No amount of bravado will cause the concrete to set faster to keep up with their ridiculous deadline.
Miles Seaman was clear, if it has to be done, he expects the excution to take five years, anything else is asking for trouble.
It’s the industry standard against collective psychosis.
Do they really think these will let them proceed with a blatantly ramshackle design procedure, lack of transparency in the procurement process and forced commissioning and certification?
The more one thinks about it, the more insane it sounds. Are they this dumb?
This video is very informative indeed. It must be translated into Maltese and put on television and the residents in the south should be encourage to see it.
Sheer madness. May God spare us from this MLP.
It’s a priceless video of the truth, the whole truth and nothing else but the TRUTH. I’m passing this on to everyone I know.
Shameful the way the PL have projected it otherwise.
What happened to Konrad – has he fallen down the rabbit-hole in his Alice in Wonderland power station project?
If only you had a fraction of Konrad’s intelligence you would be able to say you are intelligent
[Daphne – I strongly suspect that he is not particularly intelligent at all. That’s the only explanation I can think of. How else would you explain his failure to see the Labour Party for what it is? Or his unquestioning espousal of Labour politics just because he was brought up by red parents?]
If he’s so intelligent, why is did he come back to hibernate on a fourteen-by-nine mile rock? His high-flying career, it pains me to tell you, is over.
He may just be in it for the fame and the power. He seems like a typical case of “revenge of the nerd”.
More than ever convinced that gas is the way forward, very informative video, very highly top notch standards.
[Daphne – I hope you realise that the debate is not between gas and heavy fuel oil, but between the Nationalist Party’s gas pipeline + interconnector cable from Sicily (using existing power station through conversion) and the Labour Party’s new power station/LNG marine terminal and gas storage tanks]
What really matters here is that this is a very clean fuel and from this video you can see that the safety standards are there, who came up with the idea come secondary.