Shell vice-president of shipping Grahaeme Henderson said LNG remains a growth priority for the oil major, with new charters under examination and possible newbuilding orders for specialist tonnage.
Dr Henderson said that improvements across the LNG supply chain were essential and that tackling operational flexibility must be a priority.
“There are now more than 380 LNG port-to-port routes around the world; as many routes as there are LNG vessels,” he said.
“The traditional industry model of long-term contracts on a predictable point A to point B route along a well-established supply chain no longer covers all contingencies.”
“We have already chartered some vessels and we will charter some more. We are also looking at the best way to offload from floating LNG and that will involve dynamically positioned LNG carriers as we move deeper this is the only way to do it economically.”