State Maritime Academy Instructors Taking LNG Simulator Training AMO's STAR Center

An ongoing LNG cargo simulator course at the AMO Star center in Florida is providing the backdrop for a continued climate of cooperation between various parties who are intent on bringing American expertise back into the international LNG shipping markets. The course is being hosted and taught by the STAR Center and is being attended by instructors from the California, Maine and Massachusetts Maritime Academies.

According to AMO spokespersons, the STAR Center has a long history of training AMO LNG officers and will continue to do so in the future. This week’s training course also coincides with the recent announcement that Teekay Shipping, a major marine transportation player, will begin integrating its international LNG vessel operations with U.S. officers represented by AMO.

A total of eight students, all of them instructors from the maritime schools, are attending this week’s class. In a move that Boston Harbor Pilot President Gregg Farmer described as “the right thing to do,” the Boston Harbor Pilots also sponsored instructor training for the Head of the Deck department at Massachusetts Maritime Academy, Captain Craig Dalton. Farmer added, “This is our chance to give back to the maritime industry and further help American mariners get back on board the LNG ships.” In the wake of MARAD’s new initiative to tie LNG deepwater terminal approvals to applicant’s commitments to use US mariners, the U.S. maritime academies are also in the process of ramping up their LNG training capabilities.

This week’s course curriculum was developed by MPRI Corporation and is a competency assessment system based on simulation training, which is recognized and used worldwide by leading owner/operators and training facilities. Ray Gillett is the instructor from MPRI and Greg Musk from the STAR Center is assisting him. The Liquid Cargo Handling System (lchs) course is awaiting certification by the U.S. Coast Guard.

Last week, stakeholders from all sectors of the American LNG community met at the Maritime Institute of Technical and Graduate Studies (MITAGS) to, among other things, rough out a plan to standardize LNG training in the United States. The MARAD-sponsored LNG Crewing Initiative & Technical Working Group meeting was a follow-up to the one held at MARAD Headquarters on January 24, 2007. The stated goal of the meeting was to establish voluntary training standards for American mariners interested in working on LNG Carriers.

It is hoped that voluntary standards will incorporate existing regulatory requirements, and additional competencies as determined by the Technical Working Group. Once standards are established, all of the schools and unions have agreed to support them. MARAD is also expected to endorse the standards and use them to help promote the hiring of American mariners on the foreign flag LNG Carriers.