Natural gas is relatively cheap, environmentally friendly and energetically efficient fossil fuel that is gaining in attractiveness daily as it can be used in many sectors. As not all consumers can be reached by pipelines the technique of transporting natural gas in the liquefied form has been developed at the beginning of 20th century but it was only in 1959 that the first overseas transport of liquefied natural gas (LNG) occurred. In the fifty years of operation LNG shipping has shown immaculate safety records. LNG tankers can be described only in superlatives ; they are without any doubt the most sophisticated and expensive ships that sail around the globe, they demand special attention when navigating to or out of harbours and need to be manned with the most educated and experienced crew. LNG market is expanding and changing ; demand is surpassing the productivity, new importing and exporting countries appear, LNG fleet is growing in capacity and number at high pace, exploitation contracts for the ships are being modified giving the opportunity for new companies to enter (… ). The paper gives an overview on liquefied natural gas market and the historic development of LNG shipping. It focuses on the recent boom in LNG shipping and emphasises questions concerning the safety, crewing and exploitation of the LNG tankers in the future.