LNG company looks to hire U.S. seafarers

LNG company looks to hire U.S. seafarers A company planning to operate a liquefied natural gas (LNG) terminal off the coast of Massachusetts said it is looking to employ U.S. seafarers on its ships.
   Joseph McKechnie, senior vice president of shipping for SUEZ Energy North America, said his company would “begin working with the U.S. Maritime Administration immediately to employ qualified U.S. officers and licensed mariners, subject to their availability as part of the crew mix on our existing fleet,” as well as on ships it acquires in the future.
   McKechnie made his remarks during a press conference Wednesday with U.S. Maritime Administrator Sean T. Connaughton and representatives from the Massachusetts Maritime Academy and U.S. Maritime Academy at Kings Point, N.Y.
   Earlier this week, Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney approved separate plans by Houston-based Suez and Excelerate of Texas to build LNG delivery terminals seven and 13 miles respectively off the Atlantic coast near Gloucester. The terminals could boost LNG capacity 20 percent in New England.
   The projects also need approval from the U.S. Coast Guard and the Maritime Administration.
   SUEZ said it anticipates having a fully operational project by 2009 ' a completed pipeline connection to an existing sub-sea pipeline, specially designed ships, and LNG supply to serve customers in Massachusetts and the rest of New England.
   “We want to commend SUEZ Energy for stepping forward, for working with us and providing this opportunity,” Connaughton said.
   McKechnie said there are no plans to bring the SUEZ fleet — registered in Norway and Spain — under the U.S.-flag. SUEZ currently owns four vessels and charters three. It plans to use two ships for the Gloucester project, and McKechnie said he recently sent out tenders for two additional ships.
   “The fleet is growing 15-20 percent on an annual basis and there are not more and more mariners coming on line. So the potential is there for quite a few U.S. mariners to get in the mix,” he added. “The challenge is to them'to get out there, get qualified, and get on our vessels, because we are looking for people as we speak.”
   Connaughton said there is reciprocity between U.S. and Norwegian licenses, but MarAd is working to confirm that it will apply to U.S. mariners who want to serve on LNG ships under the Norwegian International Registry. “At one time the U.S. dominated this industry,” noted Connaughton. In the late 1970s and early 1980s, 10 LNG carriers were built in Quincy, Mass., and three were built at Newport News Shipbuilding.
   Burmah Gas Transport used eight of the Quincy tankers, crewed by Americans, to move gas between Indonesia and Japan. In 2000, the ships were transferred to the Marshall flag-registry and the BGT Ltd. fleet was re-crewed with Croatian officers and Filipino ratings in 2000.
   SUEZ currently has Norwegian, Spanish, Latvian, Filipino, Croatian, and Finnish crews.
   “We have quite a few Americans who are qualified based on that prior experience and right now there are schools that focus on the American seafarer to help them qualify for LNG though there are very few opportunities in the U.S.,” Connaughton said. “The SUEZ agreement “starts the pipeline again for Americans to be reintroduced into the LNG trades.”
   Mass Maritime said it hopes to develop an LNG training program by 2008, though a cadet could go aboard an LNG ship as soon as this summer. Kings Point has had a Coast Guard-approved LNG training program for two years and has graduated about 40 cadets with tankerman assistant endorsements for gas ships and has plans to expand the program.
   SUEZ gas ships are typically crewed with about 30 workers, of which 30 to 35 percent are officers, and each ship has a duplicate crew.
   SUEZ says its ships today primarily carry gas from Trinidad to the U.S. East and Gulf Coasts.