LNG - The Crude Oil of the 21st Century?

摘要

In 1861 "Elizabeth Walts" was chartered to ship 225 tonnes of oil in barrels to London. Unfortunately the crew were so afraid of the cargo that they deserted and the ship eventually weighed anchor with a press gang crew, many of whom were drunk. Well they had a point. In those days the oil was full of gas, so smoking on deck was definitely not a good idea. But everything takes time. It was 25 years before the first tanker, the Gluckauf, 2,307 tonnes, was built for the German-American Petroleum Company (ironically the designers removed the double bottom, for fear gas would collect in it); another 20 years before the tanker fleet reached 1m dwt, and another decade before it reached 2m dwt. Then in its 50~(th) year the fleet surged, jumping from 2.4m dwt in 1915 to 8.2 million dwt in 1925; 13.5 million dwt in 1935; and 21.7 million dwt in 1945. Finally, in the 1950s oil became truly established and the fleet surged ahead, peaking at 335m dwt in 1978. So 'tanker fleet development took a century to complete.