Shale gas goes to sea

摘要

For most of its history, the LPG shipping sector has been a relatively quiet affair, managed by a smallish group of specialist owners and operators and protected from the vagaries of the boom-and-bust cycle that afflicts the mainstream tanker and bulker sectors. This has largely been due to the high barriers to entry, which are technical as much as financial, and the comparatively settled nature of the global trade in LPG and the other products that these vessels commonly carry - ammonia, ethylene and other petrochemical gases.