DNV has initiated a joint industry project to develop risk-based inspection and maintenance to improve the reliability and availability of LNG facilities.

“It is forecast that global LNG production will surge from 150 to 450 million tons a year by 2020. This will lead to a dramatic rise in the number of LNG terminals worldwide and in the risk of incidents occurring at them due to increased capacity and the application of new and unproven technology,” predicts DNV’s Jens Petter Tronskar, director of asset integrity management Asia Pacific.

As a consequence, DNV is setting up a joint industry project to develop the risk-based inspection and maintenance methodology that is specific to the LNG industry, and is talking to sponsors in order to begin this work.