The world’s total liquid fuel supply currently stands at circa 4,000 Megatons (MT) per year. Marine liquid fuels constitute a significant proportion at 300–400 MT per year.
Circa 10% of the world’s shipping occurs within the EUBSR. Global marine fuel trends released by Lloyd’s Register (LR) has forecasted the share of LNG only as shipping fuel on a global market to 11% share in 2030. That is the equivalent in volume of about 20% bunker market in the 2014. According to an analysis, a higher share (29 %) is likely in the BSR. In a study by Danish Maritime Authority (DMA), the total demand of LNG by 2020 in SECA has been forecasted to 4 MT annual. Apart from that, the South Baltic Region is a varied territory, in terms of infrastructure potentials, sources of natural gas /LNG supply, exposure to environmental hazards and human resources. The concept of the project addresses several challenges related to the using and transportation of LNG: lack of common approach used in education of users of LNG industry, still different knowledge level by companies, public authorities how to handle with the LNG as a product and topic relevant for regional development as well as lack of common understanding how to apply these rules in the training of people who will work with LNG. Finally there is a lack of a common frame of reference for professions and training at SBR scale, as well as the difficulty in obtaining validation of experience gained in a LNG-related companies do not encourage growth of cross-border training, which results in missing of certified cross-border education system which focused on key aspects of natural gas activities. Relevant framework elements like e.g. legal aspects related to the training and certification in the countries to be covered should be investigated within the seed money project to define specific focus of activities for the final project application to be submitted in the 4th call of South Baltic Programme.
