Aria Hotel
Las Vegas
July 21-23, 2014
The 56th Annual Marine Chemist Association Seminar will be held at the Aria Hotel and Spa in Las Vegas this summer. The theme of this year’s seminar will LNG as fuel. As many of you know the next fuel in the maritime industry will be LNG. Every periodical you read mentions LNG whether it is in ferries, tankers or bunker barges, it is coming. The speakers at this seminar will bring together various areas of expertise to provide you with the information needed to safely conduct inspections on LNG fueled vessels. While I do not have full biographies or detailed presentation summaries, we have some of the leading LNG experts in the US scheduled to attend. Speakers planning to attend:
Joe Mckechnie
Mr. Mckechnie has worked in all aspects of the LNG Industry, from Regulator (Retired USCG Officer), to Regulate’ (Ex Senior Vice President of Shipping for GDF SUEZ), now on the Teekay LNG Board of Directors, and an independent Consultant working with various firms helping them gain access to the up and coming LNG Bunkering market.
John Hatley
Mr. Hatley PE, Americas Vice President Ship Power for Wartsila North America, has over 30 years of combined marine experience spanning business development, project management of domestic and overseas vessel construction, owner’s representation, ship operations, and vessel design.
Prior to joining Wartsila he held positions with GE Transportation, Marine Industries Northwest, First American Bulk Carriers, John J. McMullen Naval Architects, US Container Lines, and Trinidad Tankers. He is a licensed Chief Engineer with 8 years sea experience onboard commercial ships in global trades, the last 2 years serving as Chief Engineer. He has a BS degree from the US Merchant Marine Academy Kings Point Dual License Program, an MSE Naval Architecture Marine Engineering from the University of Michigan, and an MBA from the University of Washington. He holds positions of trust on various industry plus academic advisory boards and was the recipient of the 2008 Rear Admiral McCready Award for Outstanding Achievement in Marine Engineering.
Tony Teo
Technology and Business Director, Region Americas DNV GL – Maritime where he specializes in LNG as a fuel. He has written the following articles. LNG Carriers Containment Systems SNAME magazine, LNG Fuel Infrastructure in North America, Energy Efficiency for Ships
Greg Denton
Business Development Manager, GTT North America, Inc. Mr. Denton will discuss the various types of storage systems used for LNG fuel.
Rich Delpizzo
Mr. Delpizzo works out of the Washington, D.C office for ABS and will speak on ABS’s role in LNG for fuel design.
Johan Sperling
Mr. Sperling works for Crowley Marine in Seattle where they are involved in several aspects of LNG for fuel.
USCG Seattle
The Seattle unit of the Coast Guard has promised to send a speaker who is working with LNG. Due to their schedules they were not able to confirm exactly who will attend.
Amy Wangdahl,
OSHA’s Director of Maritime and Agricultural Standards will provide an update on maritime issues
Flights into Vegas are very reasonable and the room rates we obtained will make the stay at the Aria enjoyable, affordable and fun. To get a good rate for the rooms the MCA had to guarantee that a block of rooms would be sold. So, for the first time if you are not booking with the hotel and mentioning the MCA room code you will be charged extra for the seminar. If you stay at the hotel and book through a service such as Orbitz, Travelocity or a similar site you will not be eligible for the discount. You must be on the hotel’s MCA master list to get the discount. The call in number for reservations is as follows.
1-866-359-7757
Reference the meeting name:
MCA 2014 – Marine Chemists 56th Conference
Or the Block Code: MCA14
The cut-off date for reservations is: June 26, 2014 (If you book after this date you will be charged the extra $200.00 seminar fee and the room rate will no longer be guaranteed.)
