20|20 Marine Energy and BunkerMetric announced that leading chemical tanker company, MOL Nordic Tankers A/S has extended its trial of the BunkerPlanner marine fuel analysis tool to its whole global fleet. This follows a successful pilot test conducted on five vessels at the end of 2018. BunkerPlanner enables ship owners and fuel buyers to optimize their fuel procurement strategy on a vessel-by-vessel basis, reducing fuel bills by between 2% to 4% by enabling them to make the best operational decisions on the optimal product grade, time and location to lift bunkers.
20|20 Marine Energy and BunkerMetric have recently signed a joint marketing agreement to combine resources to take the BunkerPlanner solution to market. The timing is ahead of the impending global sulphur cap in 2020, where ship owners and operators will be faced with significantly increased fuel costs, where the majority will be forced to use more expensive distillate and distillate-based products to ensure compliance.
BunkerPlanner considers a range of factors that impact bunkering decisions, including fuel price forecasts, trade patterns and routes, vessel speed, fuel consumption, product specifications, time spent in Emission Control Areas (ECAs), sailing margins, and tank sizes, as well as costs related to deviations, port calls and barges. Using proprietary simulation and optimization algorithms, an optimal bunkering plan is generated for each of MOL Nordic Tankers’ vessels, specifying the amount of each fuel type to purchase at specific port calls.
“The extended live trial of BunkerPlanner onto the whole fleet of leading global ship owner like MOL Nordic Tankers A/S is a huge endorsement. And it fundamentally demonstrates the significant impact of using advanced, innovative software to further reduce annual fuel costs, and help ship owners manage the challenges of transitioning into a new world in 2020 where expensive distillates and distillate-hybrid products will be the most widely used compliance solution,” said Per Funch Nielsen, Senior Associate, 20|20 Marine Energy.
“The reality is that many ship owners and operators will struggle with the rising operational costs as well as new bunkering patterns driven by price changes and the local availability of products once the global sulphur cap is implemented. While there is an increasing uptake in a number of proven clean technologies that reduce fuel consumption, for the majority, the continued lack of liquidity in the market makes the investment hard to justify. BunkerPlanner is a way for many to reduce their fuel bills without incurring significant upfront capital expenditure, or downtime in waiting for vessels to drydock, as well as ensuring a continual and reliable supply of competitively priced, quality products; critically, it is something that can be easily implemented right now.”
Commenting on the trial, Andreas Sund Poulsen, VP Global Operations, MOL Nordic Tankers A/S said:
“The shipping industry is going through a rapid digitalization, and it is critical that we embrace these new technologies and innovations to help manage the challenges that we face as the sector evolves. Access to data that can provide real insights into our fuel procurement strategy, and help us to make informed decisions on how, when and where we buy our fuel in a way that reduces our overall fuel spend is invaluable; particularly as we move into 2020 where the price of fuel will inevitably rise, in conjunction with the added pressures of consistency in product availability and quality.”
The BunkerPlanner system is developed on a bespoke basis for each customer. A web interface is currently being developed for MOL Nordic Tankers A/S, which can easily be integrated into the company’s other ship management and procurement systems to ensure its full optimization. The system is licensed on a per vessel basis.
Christian Plum, Co-Founder, BunkerMetric said:
“The 2020 sulphur regulations are creating huge complexities within the marine fuel supply chain where there will be far more variables to consider and questions that need answering in relation to which products to purchase and when. We have spent a number of years developing the BunkerPlanner system to give ship owners and operators real visibility of their operations, and fuel purchasing practices and provide them with data and insights on the continually changing dynamics of the market so that they can make the right decisions when buying bunkers.”
Source: 20|20 Marine Energy, MOL Nordic Tankers A/S and BunkerMetric