Completed
A consensus study committee will review the constraints and challenges faced by the U.S. Coast Guard in ensuring that its certificate of compliance (COC) examination program for gas carriers is designed and carried out efficiently and effectively.
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2024
As liquefied gas exports from U.S. ports have grown rapidly in recent years, reforms are needed to a U.S. Coast Guard program that examines liquefied gas carriers (LGCs). Going forward, this growth in LGC exports and arrivals is likely to increase the demand for gas carrier exams by Coast Guard mari...
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Description
A consensus study committee will review the constraints and challenges faced by the U.S. Coast Guard in ensuring that its certificate of compliance (COC) examination program for gas carriers is designed and carried out efficiently and effectively. Informed by the review, the committee will consider opportunities for the Coast Guard to maintain and potentially increase the efficiency and safety effectiveness of the program in the face of growing liquefied gas carrier (LGC) activity and changing traffic patterns.
While having discretion to consider the various ways in which Coast Guard could ensure program efficiency and effectiveness, the committee will include the following among the options studied:
• Changing the location of marine inspection units for gas carriers, including the establishment of a unit near the Panama Canal that specializes in these vessels and that can concentrate on traffic bound for the U.S;
• Changing how marine examiners with gas carrier qualifications are managed and deployed, including placing all qualified examiners under the command of a single Officer in Charge, Marine Inspection (OCMI) in each District and extending the duration of their assignments in units that frequently examine these vessels;
• Using more civilians to conduct and support COC exams;
• Increasing the staffing of the Coast Guard’s LGC National Center of Expertise to enable more National Verifying Officers to be deployed to lead COC exams;
• Extending the duration of certificates of compliance for vessels that are less than 10 years old and participate in a Coast Guard vessel quality assurance program; and,
• Making other revisions to the COC examination program and its requirements, including those that apply to cargo-restricted gas carriers, on the basis of risk assessments that take into account factors such as a vessel’s age, the inspection and incident history, and participation in a quality assurance program.
When evaluating options, the committee will consider their potential impacts on the Coast Guard’s marine inspection workforce and program generally. The committee may make recommendations to the Coast Guard and Congress on options that warrant more attention, including steps that may be needed to further each such as through changes in resourcing, regulations, policies, and protocols.
Contributors
Committee
Chair
Member
Member
Member
Member
Member
Member
Member
Member
Member
Member
Mark Hutchins
Staff Officer
Conflict of Interest Disclosure
Disclosure of Conflict of Interest: Richard Gilmore
The conflict of interest policy of the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine (http://www.nationalacademies.org/coi) prohibits the appointment of an individual to a committee authoring a Consensus Study Report if the individual has a conflict of interest that is relevant to the task to be performed. An exception to this prohibition is permitted if the National Academies determines that the conflict is unavoidable and the conflict is publicly disclosed. A determination of a conflict of interest for an individual is not an assessment of that individual's actual behavior or character or ability to act objectively despite the conflicting interest.
Richard Gilmore has a conflict of interest in relation to his service on the Committee on Improving the Efficiency and Effectiveness of the Coast Guard Certificate of Compliance Examination Program for Liquefied Gas Carriers because he currently serves as a consultant to his former employer Maran Gas Maritime Inc., the gas shipping unit of Angelicoussis Shipping Group.
The National Academies has concluded that for this committee to accomplish the tasks for which it was established, its membership must include at least one person who has expertise and recent experience with the technical and commercial aspects of the growing and rapidly changing liquefied gas shipping market as well as direct experience in the international liquefied gas transportation industry. As described in his biographical summary, as Executive Vice President and more recently as a consultant at Maran Gas Maritime, Mr. Gilmore has recent experience managing all commercial aspects of the company’s liquefied natural gas (LNG) business, including its fleet expansion and implementation of the latest vessel design and propulsion technologies.
The National Academies has determined that the experience and expertise of Mr. Gilmore is needed for the committee to accomplish the task for which it has been established. The National Academies could not find another available individual with the equivalent current experience and expertise who does not have a conflict of interest. Therefore, the National Academies has concluded that the conflict is unavoidable.
The National Academies believes that Mr. Gilmore can serve effectively as a member of the committee, and the committee can produce an objective report, taking into account the composition of the committee, the work to be performed, and the procedures to be followed in completing the study.
Sponsors
U.S. Coast Guard
Staff
Mark Hutchins
Lead
Thomas Menzies
Lead
Claudia Sauls
Timothy Marflak
Major units and sub-units
Transportation Research Board
Lead
Consensus and Advisory Studies Division
Lead
