Study On The Fleet Planning For Carrying Imported LNG In China

Based on the requirements of energy restructuring and environment protection, demand for natural gas in China is growing. Currently, imports of China’s natural gas mainly depends on LNG marine transportation and gas pipeline transportation of natural gas. Marine transportation of LNG Imports as a primary means of importing natural gas is paid more and more attention. In order to meet the domestic demand of natural gas and fatherly the shortage of LNG, the volume of LNG imports is increasing. However, Chinese LNG shipping fleet to import LNG can not meet the transportation demand, and the development of Chinese LNG shipping fleet to import LNG has not been unified. The unified plan and rationl development of Chinese LNG fleet can improve the level of Chinese LNG fleet capacity, make use of the capacity and ensure the safety of Chinese energy security. So study on the fleet planning to import LNG in China has theoretical and practical significance, it is necessary to be researched.In this paper, firstly, transportation market of importing LNG in China is analyzed, including the status of import of LNG in China, the volume of future LNG imports as well as an introduction to the world’s and Chinese LNG fleet. Then the LNG transportation infrastructure including LNG terminal, LNG transportation routes and LNG vessels are analyzed to provide the basis of fleet planning.Then integer linear programming methods is used for the fleet planning. The model of fleet planning is establishes and to minimize total operating cost is set as the objective function in the model. According to the forecast of LNG imports and taking LNG terminal, LNG transportation routes actual situation into consideration, the scale and structure of Chinses LNG fleet is determined.Finally, there is the analysis for the result based on the comparison between two kinds of average transportation costs respectively according to the fleet planning result and the reality. According to analysis, the direction to develop Chinese LNG fleet is proposed. It will be desirable if this study can provide a reference for planning and development of Chinese LNG fleet.