Subject: Methane Artic Discharge 2/12-13
From: [email-masked]
To: [email-masked]
Cc: [email-masked]
Date: Wed, 14 Feb 2001 02:27:00 -0800 (PST)

FYI
---------------------- Forwarded by Todd Peterson/ENRON_DEVELOPMENT on 
02/14/2001 10:31 AM ---------------------------

Larry Snyder@EES
02/13/2001 09:57 AM
To: Rick Sierra/ENRON_DEVELOPMENT@ENRON_DEVELOPMENT
cc: Victor Vega/ENRON_DEVELOPMENT@ENRON_DEVELOPMENT, Todd 
Peterson/ENRON_DEVELOPMENT@ENRON_DEVELOPMENT, Wayne 
Perry/ENRON_DEVELOPMENT@ENRON_DEVELOPMENT, Jaime 
Banchs/ENRON_DEVELOPMENT@ENRON_DEVELOPMENT 

Subject: Methane Artic Discharge 2/12-13

The discharge of the LNG cargo was sucessfully completed this morning at 
approximately 5:30 AM.  The ship sailed at around 9 AM today.  Below are the 
highlights of discharge.

At around 1:20 AM the UPS system (Uninterruptible Power Supply system) failed 
causing loss of power to alarm and control system.  This activated ESD and 
unloading was safely shutdown with no problems.  It took approximately 2 
hours to identify the UPS system as the problem, bypass the UPS so power was 
supplied directly from line (not through UPS) and restart pumps to full rate 
unloading.  Bypassing UPS only required throwing switch to line setting as 
system is set up to accommodate problems with UPS.  Eco will investigation 
the UPS system to correct the problem.
Eco had planned on loading liquid nitrogen (LN2) to the ship before cargo 
discharge started.  Eco had a preliminary procedure they had prepared for LN2 
loading.  Coast Guard had not reviewed a procedure for LN2 loading so wanted 
staff to review the document before LN2 loading.  It was agreed LNG unloading 
would proceed and LN2 loading would occur after cargo discharge was 
completed.  A copy of procedure was sent to Coast Guard's San Juan office for 
staff review.  Within  2 hours the Coast Guard had approved loading the 
liquid nitrogen after the cargo discharge was completed.  Eco will prepare an 
official procedure and submit it to the Coast Guard as an addition to the 
procedures previously submitted.
Eco had pre-cooled the LN2 line in preparation for loading onto the ship.  
The line was allowed to warm up and cooldown occurred the next morning (13th) 
during the cargo ratedown.  Once the last cargo pump was shutdown the loading 
of LN2 began.  The LN2 transfer went very slowly.  The Methane Artic used a 1 
and 1/2 inch stainless hose to connect Eco's loading line to ship's 
manifold.  Eco's line is a 3".  It was obvious the ship was in a hurry so 
they decided that after increasing the level in one of its' two tanks by 
approx. 11% that they had enough LN2 and ceased the loading operation.  
Disconnection of the vapor and LN2 lines were completed and the ship sailed 
shortly thereafter.  The ship loaded very little LN2 and obviously didn't 
really need much although they were low (only 29%  in one tank).  
There were several minor leaks at flanges in the LN2 loading system.  Leaks 
were small and nitrogen safe so loading was not stopped for warming up line 
and tightening the bolts.  These leaks were identified and flanges will be 
tightened during the next week.
With the problems of the UPS failure the operators forgot to shutdown the 
sample collection system.  This will probably result in a bad composite 
sample.  I have already discussed with Victor Vega the need to have a person 
only follow the LNG sample collection and analysis during the entire period 
of the cargo discharge.  They would have no other responsibility.  I had 
previous had discussion with the Eco chemist Luz regarding a testing program 
to take place after this discharge to give additional support to prove the 
sample system works.  I will follow up this week to ensure test takes place 
within the next week.  I will need Eco's management support with scheduling 
this. 
---------------------- Forwarded by Todd Peterson/ENRON_DEVELOPMENT on 
02/14/2001 10:31 AM ---------------------------

Larry Snyder@EES
02/13/2001 11:10 AM
To: Rick Sierra/ENRON_DEVELOPMENT@ENRON_DEVELOPMENT
cc: Victor Vega/ENRON_DEVELOPMENT@ENRON_DEVELOPMENT, Todd 
Peterson/ENRON_DEVELOPMENT@ENRON_DEVELOPMENT, Wayne 
Perry/ENRON_DEVELOPMENT@ENRON_DEVELOPMENT, Jaime 
Banchs/ENRON_DEVELOPMENT@ENRON_DEVELOPMENT 

Subject: Methane Aritc Discharge 2/12-12

One item I forgot to mention was that there was high winds for approx. 45 
minutes during the early part of the cargo discharge (around 3-4 PM) on the 
12th.  Wind speed gusted to 38 knots.  The guidelines given to the coast 
guard for wind speeds was a sustained wind speed of 30.8 knots for stopping 
cargo discharge.  When the winds came up to the 30.8 Eco started discussions 
with ship's chief mate and contacted local weather agency to get an idea of 
weather forcast.  Winds were not expected to remain at the extremely high 
level for very long and ship maintained itself alongside, so the discharge 
continued with constant monitoring of the situation..  If it had been a 
Moss-Rosenburg design ship, I would have recommended that Eco shut down the 
unloading until the winds subsided.  

The Coast Guard rep. was aware of the conversations which took place between 
the ship and shore and was pleased with how Eco handled the situation.