SIBCON 2024: Digitalised LNG bunkering process can help build trust among stakeholders

LNG Bunkering

Published Wed, 16th October 2024
by Admin

Martin Wold of Ofiniti, a DNV company, says digitalisation will play an important role in bridging data communications gap between bunker players and stakeholders to build trust which will be key with emergence of new bunker fuels.

Digitalisation will play a huge role in bridging data communications gap between bunker players and stakeholders to build trust, which will matter more than ever with the emergence of new bunker fuels.

This was a key point shared by Martin Wold, Chief Executive Officer of Ofiniti, a DNV company, during his Accelerating the Digitalised LNG Bunkering Process presentation on Tuesday (8 October) at the 23rd Singapore International Bunkering Conference (SIBCON).

Ofiniti is the new company name in which digital bunkering delivery platform FuelBoss, established by classification society DNV, operates under now.

Wold said the energy transition has begun, and with these new alternative fuels, LNG in particular, comes new complexities to be handled.

He highlighted the complexities of LNG specifically which is traded and sold on an energy basis primarily and not mass which is the usual practice in the bunkering industry.

With this, there is a need for consistency which digitalisation can help by providing accurate and error-free ways of calculating the amount of energy delivered.

“With digitalisation and digital platforms that are now emerging, you also get a reliable and shared audit trail when there’s a claim and you need to backtrack and see what happened,” he said.

“You can do this in a much more efficient way now, by ensuring that you have everything available as one shared data reference point. Also, you can trust that you have instant access to verifiable data for all involved stakeholders in the delivery, from independent solution providers.”

Wold also shared the lessons learned from three years of digitising LNG bunkering operations using FuelBoss, including consistent time savings and increased utilisation of bunker vessels.

“We see consistent time savings of 30 to 60 minutes for every bunker delivery, which is, of course, very valuable in operational efficiency and also increasing utilisation of bunker vessels,” he said.

He also highlighted the preference for digital work processes among crews of both bunker vessels and receiving vessels because it is more convenient, intuitive and easy to use.

“And finally, we are able to quantify savings of up to USD 1 per metric ton of delivered fuel, and most of that comes from optimization and increased availability of the bunker vessels,” Wold added.

“Until now, time savings and operational efficiency have not been a top priority, as LNG bunker vessels have had low utilization due to insufficient demand. However, this is the big change happening now in the LNG bunkering industry, as we’re moving from a clear state of underutilization to full utilization of LNG bunker vessels on a global scale.”

Therefore, he highlighted that the adoption of digital tools like FuelBoss have been taking off rapidly as now “time is money”, also in the LNG bunkering space.

Wold ended his presentation by informing that Ofiniti was in the final stages of the whitelisting process with MPA Singapore, for their new FuelBoss platform that provides eBDN and digital delivery also for conventional fuels.

Photo credit: Manifold Times
Published: 16 October, 2024

SIBCON 2024: Digitalised LNG bunkering process can help build trust among stakeholders

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