Harboursandport.com: Amsterdam/Oslo - As the adoption of LNG as a ship fuel continues to speed up, DNV
GL has launched a new online bunkering platform to take operators seamlessly
from order through to delivery. FuelBoss offers
ship owners, operators and suppliers a single common platform for nomination,
scheduling, spot inquiries and business intelligence. LNG suppliers Gasum, Cryo
Shipping and Nauticor are amongst the confirmed pilot customers and have
supported the development with their expertise and domain knowledge.
LNG has arrived in
shipping. After a long wait, the number of vessels trading will more than
double in the next two years. As the
fleet grows from vessels that primarily work fixed routes to those in more
general operation, the complexities of LNG bunkering and planning need to adapt
to these changing patterns.
“The idea behind FuelBoss is
to accelerate the uptake of LNG in the maritime industry by providing suppliers
with a highly efficient tool for managing all their customers and day to day
operations, while offering ship operators a common interface for interacting
with LNG suppliers. FuelBoss will standardize and simplify daily work processes
and enable the LNG fuel industry to reap the benefits of digitalization,” says
Trond Hodne, Senior Vice President at DNV GL – Maritime. “At the moment, both
the interest in and the number of vessels using LNG is growing rapidly, but the
bunkering picture is still fragmented. Delivery costs can be a significant part
of the delivered LNG price, so optimizing the supply chain is essential.
FuelBoss will let LNG suppliers and shipowners reap the network benefits of
having a single platform for this growing market.”
Online and open to anyone,
FuelBoss is an integrated tool for LNG bunkering, allowing users to order bunker volumes within term contracts in
a standardized format, keep track of
changes and monitor involved assets, communicate through an integrated messaging service and digitally fill in,
sign and archive forms and documentation from the bunkering process. The
platform will facilitate spot inquiries outside term contracts and
the users will also have access to a map-based overview of assets to
keep track of LNG-fuelled ships and LNG bunker
vessels through live and historic AIS feed. Signing
up to the platform is free for ship owners and other buyers of LNG fuel.
The platform integrates
software developed by port call optimization and maritime supply chain
specialist Teqplay. This software has been validated and used by LNG
supplier Shell and their customers for a year, to
plan and execute LNG bunkering operations. “With the complexity of planning and
coordinating operations for serving their growing customer base, Shell saw the
need for a tailored digital tool that standardized the planning and work
processes around the LNG bunker vessel operations,” says
Leon Gommans, CEO Teqplay. “As LNG bunkering of Shell’s customers will be
carried out by an increasingly global organisation to support the adoption of
LNG fuel in new regions, the need for cost-competitive and standardized work
processes became even more pressing.”
With FuelBoss, DNV GL and
Teqplay have brought the market a flexible solution to fit the needs of both
small and large LNG suppliers. LNG suppliers Gasum, Cryo Shipping and
Nauticor have all signed up as pilot customers and
have already supported the development with their user
requirements, to ensure it becomes an efficient tool to manage their daily
operations. DNV GL will continue to develop
features for FuelBoss, including the integration of ship sensor data, data
analytics for business intelligence, and support for other alternative fuels as
demand grows.
No comments:
Post a Comment