{"id":9677,"date":"2015-09-17T09:00:21","date_gmt":"2015-09-17T08:00:21","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/robindesbois.org\/?p=9677"},"modified":"2015-09-19T16:32:04","modified_gmt":"2015-09-19T15:32:04","slug":"un-methanier-belge-en-carafe-a-marseille","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/robindesbois.org\/en\/un-methanier-belge-en-carafe-a-marseille\/","title":{"rendered":"A Belgian LNG carrier stranded in Marseille"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><\/p>\n<p><p>Not far away from the <em>Corse<\/em>, on a deserted wharf, another ship is waiting for demolition. <em>Methania<\/em> was said to be already living in borrowed times in 2007, was struck by a lightning in Zeebrugge in 2008, on technical stops or in lay-up at Brest in 2013 and in 2014, and has been berthed at Marseille since mid-December 2014. Works to be carried out at Marseille repair yard were postponed. They were supposed to last for 2 months. <em>Methania<\/em>\u2019s obsolete equipment, the availability of larger and more fuel-efficient units manned by less crews deprive her of long term or short term chartering.<\/p>\n<p>According to the specialized magazine Tradewinds, the <em>Methania<\/em> is in the Top 15 of the world\u2019s oldest LNG tankers. She was built in Belgium in 1978. She is managed by Exmar, a Belgian gas shipping company. Exmar operates about 30 ships, among which 14 LNG tankers most of them built since 2000. The <em>Methania<\/em> is by far the veteran of its fleet.<!--more--><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: center;\"><a href=\"https:\/\/robindesbois.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/09\/methania_marseille_robin-des-bois-e1442478339522.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignnone  wp-image-9678\" src=\"https:\/\/robindesbois.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/09\/methania_marseille_robin-des-bois-e1442478339522.jpg\" alt=\"methania_marseille_robin-des-bois\" width=\"501\" height=\"334\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<p>September 2015, <em>Methania<\/em> at Marseille <strong>\u00a9 Pascal Bredel<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>LNG carriers of this generation contain large quantities of asbestos. The green passport of <em>Methania<\/em> remains to date confidential. Will the Belgian ship move in the wrong direction as the <em>Descartes<\/em> or in the right one as the <em>Tellier<\/em> ?<\/p>\n<p>In 2007, the <em>Descartes<\/em>, built in 1971 at Saint-Nazaire, was decommissioned in Marseille. In a letter to Robin des Bois, her owner Gaz de France confirmed the existence of asbestos on board and affirmed its will to have the ship \u00ab dismantled in strict compliance to the existing regulation, especially that related to asbestos \u00bb in the case she could not be sold. The <em>Descartes<\/em> was supposedly sold \u00ab for further operation to a renowned Asian shipowner \u00bb which had her quickly renamed twice and beached for demolition in Bangladesh.<\/p>\n<p>In 2011, the <em>Tellier<\/em>, built in 1974 at La Ciotat, was laid up, also decommissioned in Marseille. The French Ministry of Ecology pointed out the use of asbestos in the ship\u2019s structure and expressly asked GDF-Suez \u00ab not to plan to send its ship to an Asian shipbreaking yard\u00bb as this was \u00ab not complying the regulatory frame applying to European vessels \u00bb. In July, the ship left Marseille and headed to Le Havre. Gaz de France held on the incertitude regarding her final destination. After several months of expectation at Le Havre and a couple of expressions of interest, the <em>Tellier<\/em> was finally towed to Galloo Recycling Yards in Ghent, Belgium, in the summer of 2012.<\/p>\n<p>If the assumption regarding the demolition of <em>Methania<\/em> is confirmed, Belgium &#8211; the flag State -, France &#8211; the port State &#8211; and the European Union will have, considering their ship recycling strategy, to make sure the vessel will head to \u00ab a ship recycling facility designed, constructed and operated in a safe and environmentally sound manner, operating from built structures and ensuring safe and environmentally sound management and storage of hazardous materials and waste \u00bb. Such facilities are operating or developping within the European Union. Indeed, the EU strategy does not ban ships from being recycled in facilities located in third countries, under the condition the hazardous substances storage, waste management and disposal will be operated in accordance with human health and environmental protection standards \u00ab broadly equivalent \u00bb to its standards. But there are too many hazardous substances and too much asbestos on board of the <em>Methania<\/em> to follow this plan B.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<\/p>\n<p><\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Not far away from the Corse, on a deserted wharf, another ship is waiting for demolition. Methania was said to be already living in borrowed times in 2007, was struck by a lightning in Zeebrugge in 2008, on technical stops or in lay-up at Brest in 2013 and in 2014, and has been berthed at Marseille since mid-December 2014. Works to be carried out at Marseille repair yard were postponed. They were supposed to last for 2 months. Methania\u2019s obsolete equipment, the availability of larger and more fuel-efficient units manned by less crews deprive her of long term or short term chartering. According to the specialized magazine Tradewinds, the Methania is in the Top 15 of the world\u2019s oldest LNG tankers. She was built in Belgium in 1978. She is managed by Exmar, a Belgian gas shipping company. Exmar operates about 30 ships, among which 14 LNG tankers most of them built since 2000. The Methania is by far the veteran of its fleet.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":9678,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[7],"tags":[403,1968,398,2230,399,2229,1230],"class_list":["post-9677","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-demolition-des-navires","tag-amiante","tag-belgique","tag-demolition-des-navires-2","tag-exmar","tag-marseille","tag-methania","tag-methanier"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/robindesbois.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9677","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/robindesbois.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/robindesbois.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/robindesbois.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/robindesbois.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=9677"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/robindesbois.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9677\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/robindesbois.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/9678"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/robindesbois.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=9677"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/robindesbois.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=9677"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/robindesbois.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=9677"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}