Energy supply chains are more extended and complex that ever before. Increasing demand for energy, mainly stemming from Asia and other emerging markets, has forced governments and enterprises around the world to adapt aggressive exploration strategies leading to heavy investments in infrastructure and distribution networks. Projects related to offshore drilling, storage facilities and extended transportation networks worth billions of USD are currently in place. The associated challenges and risks from production all the way to consumption are not to be neglected since they are spread across the different stages of the supply chain.
The maritime industry has played a critical role in energy supply chains ever since it began acting as the link between different nodes of the chain. It has managed to adapt to different industry needs by continuously innovating in terms of vessel types and new technologies. With fossil fuels being the main source of energy, the maritime industry has managed to accommodate the needs of the different supply chains of coal (i.e. OBO), crude oil (i.e. VLCC) and gas (i.e. LNG). In addition, the need to meet increasing demand has forced companies to seek more and more offshore solutions with drill-ships and FPSOs facilitating such operations. Finally, new types of energy such as shale gas are putting new challenges forward in terms of infrastructure, distribution and network design solutions.
This special issue aims to collect recent original contributions related to the future role of the maritime industry in energy supply chains. It will carry revised and substantially extended versions of selected papers presented at the 2015 International Association of Maritime Economists (IAME) Conference, as well as at the 3rd International Conference on Transportation Information and Safety (ICTIS). However, we also strongly encourage researchers who are unable to participate in any of the above conferences to submit papers for this call.
Suitable topics include, but are not limited to, the following:
- Supply and demand modelling
- Green operations
- Risk management
- Investment strategies
- Offshore operations
- Talent management challenges
- Network design
- Routing optimisation
- Safety and security
- Supply chain mapping
Submission deadline: 30 September, 2015
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