The second Vancouver Shipping Lunch of 2019 was held on June 6 at the Terminal City Club. It turned out to be a very successful event, attracting a diverse crowd with different shipping backgrounds. This time, the organizer, Vancouver ShipInvest and Management Ltd., invited Captain Mark Turner from LNG Canada and Mr. Dimitris Bouras from Metis Cybertechnology to be the lunch speakers. Obviously, the topic and speakers received a lot of interest from the local shipping community.
The first presentation, by Capt Mark Turner, described the challenges of the current LNG Canada project. The 677-kilometre pipeline and 300-kilometre escorted shipping route make the Kitimat project one of the most challenging in the world. Huge construction plans, coordinated with countries worldwide, make this project a remarkable one to transport Canadian LNG to Far East countries. The phase I is estimated to be in operation by 2022 and by the completion of phase II, it will receive more than 350 LNG carriers throughout the year from Kitimat to worldwide. Captain Turner got many questions to trigger a very dynamic discussion during Q&A section. This $40 billion project indeed not only highlights the important role of Canada on exporting LNG but also boosts local shipping requirements.
Captain Turner was followed by Mr. Dimitris Bouras, the Vancouver representative of Metis. Mr. Bouras explained how Metis product highlights maritime efficiency through intelligent systems. METIS virtual personal assistants may offer the owners 7/24 monitoring of ships through live data collection and analysis. It is a very effective system to allow the technical team to know the ship’s working condition and also plan for future repair work, etc. Currently, more than 30 shipping companies and management companies are employing this system and the cost is very competitive. Mr. Bouras received many questions from the crowd and AI will definitely play an important role to facilitate the owners technical management.
Considering the summer holidays, the next Vancouver Shipping Lunch will be in September.
