Section 1 General

1.1.1 The goal of these Rules is to provide for the safe regasification of liquefied natural gas (LNG), minimising the risk to the ship or barge (hereinafter referred to as ‘ship’), its crew and to the environment by specifying requirements for the design, construction and installation of regasification systems on board LNG ships having regard to the nature of the products including flammability, toxicity, asphyxiation, corrosivity, reactivity, temperature and pressure.

1.2.1 The requirements of these Rules apply to LNG ships meeting the requirements of the Rules and Regulations for the Construction and Classification of Ships for the Carriage of Liquefied Gases in Bulk (hereinafter referred to as the Rules for Ships for Liquefied Gases) that are equipped with regasification systems and associated arrangements.

1.2.2 The requirements are in addition to the applicable requirements of the Rules and Regulations for the Classification of Ships (hereinafter referred to as the Rules for Ships), and to the applicable requirements of the Rules for Ships for Liquefied Gases.

1.2.3 Dependent on ship service and regasification operational location, requirements additional to these Rules may be imposed by the National Authority with whom the ship is registered and/or by the Administration within whose territorial jurisdiction the ship is intended to operate.

1.2.4 The Rules do not repeat the general requirements for fire safety as stated in statutory conventions. These Rules do, however, include fire safety requirements additional to those stated in the statutory conventions that are specific to the construction and equipment of regasification systems.

1.2.5 Unless requested, classification will not include those systems which are additional to the ‘send-out’ process plant equipment such as blending facilities, odorisers, or dew point correction/dehumidification, except where the design and/or arrangements of such equipment and piping may affect the safety of the vessel.

1.3.1 The following notations may be assigned as considered appropriate by the Classification Committee, on application from the Owners:

Lloyd’s RGP (Regasification Plant) – This notation will be assigned when a regasification system and arrangements have been constructed, installed and tested under Lloyd’s Register’s (hereinafter referred to as LR’s) Special Survey and in accordance with the relevant requirements of the Rules.

Lloyd’s RGP+ (Regasification Plant Plus) This notation will be assigned when a regasification system and arrangements have been constructed, installed and tested under LR’s Special Survey and in accordance with the relevant requirements of the Rules and the system is configured to allow continuing operation in the event of a single failure.

1.4.1 The regasification system and its sub-systems and equipment shall be installed and tested to the Surveyor’s satisfaction.

1.4.2 All regasification systems shall be subject to the following surveys:

1. an Initial Survey before the regasification system is put into service, which should include a complete examination of its structure, equipment, fittings, arrangements and materials of the regasification system. This survey should be such as to ensure that the structure, equipment, fittings, arrangements and material fully comply with the applicable provisions of these Rules;

2. a Renewal Survey at intervals specified by LR, but not exceeding 5 years. The Renewal Survey should be such as to ensure that the structure, equipment, fittings, arrangements and material fully comply with the applicable provisions of these Rules and are in good working order;

3. an Intermediate Survey within 3 months before or after the second anniversary date or within 3 months before or after the third anniversary date of the Certificate which should take the place of one of the annual surveys specified in Ch 1, 1.4 Survey 1.4.2.(d). The Intermediate Survey should be such as to ensure that the safety equipment, and other equipment, and associated pump and piping systems fully comply with the applicable provisions of these Rules and are in good working order;

4. an Annual Survey within 3 months before or after each anniversary date of the Certificate, including a general inspection of the structure, equipment, fittings, arrangements and material of the regasification system to ensure that they have been maintained in accordance with Ch 1, 1.4 Survey 1.4.6, and that they remain satisfactory for the service for which the ship is intended;

5. an additional survey, either general or partial according to the circumstances, should be carried out when required after an investigation prescribed in Ch 1, 1.4 Survey 1.4.8, or whenever any important repairs or renewals are made. Such a survey should ensure that the necessary repairs or renewals have been effectively made, that the material and workmanship of such repairs or renewals are satisfactory, and that the ship is fit to proceed to sea without danger to the ship or persons on board or without presenting unreasonable threat of harm to the marine environment.

1.4.3 Surveys referred to in Ch 1, 1.4 Survey 1.4.3 are to be in accordance with Pt 1, Ch 3, Pt 1, Ch 3, 9 Ships for liquefied gases, Pt 1, Ch 3, 11 Machinery surveys - General requirements, Pt 1, Ch 3, 14 Electrical equipment and Pt 1, Ch 3, 18 Inert gas systems of the Rules for Ships as applicable.

1.4.4 In addition to the survey and certification of equipment required by relevant Sections of the Rules for Ships and the Rules for Ships for Liquefied Gases, the major items of equipment included within the regasification system are required to be constructed under survey at the manufacturer’s premises. These include, but are not limited to, vaporisers, heating medium heaters and their circulating pumps, LNG booster pumps and gas compressors.

1.4.5 Where the Lloyd’s RGP+ notation is applied, the means of providing continuing operation in the event of a single failure, as demonstrated in the dependability assessment, see Ch 1, 3.3 System dependability, is to be examined and tested to ascertain that the system will continue to operate.

1.4.6 The condition of the regasification system shall be maintained to conform with the provisions of these Rules to ensure that the system remains fit to operate without danger to the ship, system or persons or without presenting unreasonable threat of harm to the marine environment.

1.4.7 After any survey of the regasification system under Ch 1, 1.4 Survey 1.4.2 has been completed, no change should be made in the structure, equipment, fittings, arrangements and material covered by the survey, without the sanction of LR, except by direct replacement.

1.4.8 Wherever an accident occurs to a regasification system or a defect is discovered, either of which affects the safety of the ship or regasification system, the efficiency or completeness of its life-saving appliances or other equipment covered by these Rules, the Master or Owner of the ship should report at the earliest opportunity to LR, who should cause investigations to be initiated to determine whether a survey, as required by Ch 1, 1.4 Survey 1.4.2.(e), is necessary.

1.4.9 Unless they form part of the classed equipment, surveys will not include those systems which are additional to the send-out process plant equipment, such as blending facilities, odorisers, dew point correction/dehumidification, except where the design and/or arrangements of such equipment and piping may affect the safety of the vessel.

1.5.1  Area means a defined location. An area can be on open deck. An area can be open, semi-enclosed or enclosed. An area can be a space below deck. An area can be hazardous or non-hazardous.

1.5.2  Blowdown is defined as the depressurisation of a system, part of a system and its equipment to allow the safe disposal of both vapour and liquid discharged from blowdown valves. Depressurisation is used to mitigate the consequences of a pipeline or vessel leak by reducing the leakage rate and/or inventory within the pipe or vessel prior to a potential failure.

1.5.3  Dependability is as defined in IEC 60050(191): Quality vocabulary — Part 3: Availability, reliability and maintainability terms — Section 3.2: Glossary of international terms. It is the collective term used to describe the availability performance and its influencing factors: reliability performance, maintainability performance and maintenance support performance and relates to essential services as agreed with Clasifications Register.

1.5.4  Enclosed space is any space within which, in the absence of artificial ventilation, the ventilation will be limited and any explosive atmosphere will not be dispersed naturally. In practical terms, this is a space bounded either on all sides, or all but one side, by bulkheads and decks irrespective of openings, such that the required ventilation rate to prevent the accumulation of pockets of stagnant air cannot be achieved by natural ventilation alone.

1.5.5  Essential Services are:

• those systems, sub-systems and equipment required to provide continued safe operation of the Regasification System; and
• as defined by Pt 6, Ch 2, 1.6 Definitions 1.6.1 of the Rules for Ships.

1.5.6  Gasification is the process of heating a saturated vapour (LNG) by the addition of heat from an external source, above its saturation temperature.

1.5.7  Gas Dangerous Space is as defined in the Rules for Ships for Liquefied Gases.

1.5.8  Hazardous area is as defined in IEC 60079-10-1: Explosive atmospheres - Part 10-1: Classification of areas - Explosive gas atmospheres.

1.5.9  High pressure refers to systems, equipment and components containing LNG with a design pressure greater than 10 bar.

1.5.10  Novel design: designs of machinery and engineering systems that are considered by LR to be unconventional.

1.5.11 A reasonably foreseeable abnormal condition is an event, incident or failure that:

• has happened and could happen again;
• is planned for (e.g. emergency actions cover such a situation, maintenance is undertaken to prevent it, etc.).

1.5.12  Regasification System is the complete gasification process plant from LNG cargo storage tanks to the gas export (send-out) shore connection including regasification unit, suction drum, associated pumping, piping and ancillary systems.

1.5.13  Regasification Unit is referring to vaporisers, heaters, LNG booster pump and associated piping intended for the gasification of LNG from the cargo storage tanks.

1.5.14  Risk assessment is the evaluation of likelihood and consequence together with a judgement on the significance of the result, see IEC/ISO 31010: Risk management, risk assessment techniques.

1.5.15  Risk: the combination of the likelihood of an event and its consequence. Likelihood may be expressed as a probability or a frequency.

1.5.16  Send-Out is the discharge of the high pressure gas after the vaporisation and heating process. Send-out may include additional processes, such as trim heating, calorific correction, odorisation, or dew point correction/dehumidication.

1.5.17  Vaporisation is the controlled boiling of a liquid (in this case LNG) due to the addition of heat from an external source.

1.5.18 Other appropriate definitions as indicated in the Rules for Ships and the Rules for Ships for Liquefied Gases.