Canadian Design Requirements for Marine LNG Facilities

This paper presents an overview of the new Canadian Standards Association (CSA) Group document for design of marine structures associated with liquified natural gas (LNG) facilities, Design Requirements for Marine Structures Associated with LNG Facilities (DRMS) (EXP 276.1-2015). The CSA Group has a well-known reference for LNG facilities in Canada entitled CSA Z276 Liquified Natural Gas—Production, Storage, and Handling. However, the document provides minimal guidance for LNG marine terminals. An effort was started by the British Columbia Oil and Gas Commission (BCOGC) to fill in the gaps and develop standards for the marine structures associated with LNG facilities. The document is a result of team effort by several Canadian and U.S. engineers representing various governmental agencies and consulting firms. The document addresses the structural, mooring, and berthing requirements of fixed marine structures. In addition, this new document includes specific structural requirements, with reference to Canadian, European, and American codes, metocean and seismic criteria, pipelines, geotechnical recommendations, and the tsunami potential. The document is currently used by BCOGC in British Columbia and has wide applicability outside of Canada.