Technical proposals for the shipment of natural gas under compression rather than in the refrigerated, liquefied state have surfaced from time to time over the years, but have received a lukewarm response from the marine industry. The considerable cost of the shipboard containment methodology has been a major stumbling block. Now, a Canadian engineering contractor has come up with an altogether more economic solution to the cargo carrying needs of compressed natural gas (CNG), and pitched at relatively short-distance sea transport applications. Instead of the prohibitively expensive pressure bottles that have earlier been central to CNG transport concepts…