Despite the drive to Net Zero, our world still runs on oil and gas, which means that fuel is always in demand, widely distributed, and quickly diverted to illegal profit.

The scale of fuel-related theft, smuggling, and fraud runs to hundreds of billions of dollars per year – resulting in massive revenue losses for companies and countries and significant income for corrupt officials, unscrupulous traders, criminal syndicates, militant groups, and terrorist organizations.

The maritime industry is a prime area for fuel theft.

After all, more than a quarter of the total seagoing trade is tankers, and fuel smuggling at sea is a massive industry worldwide.

The single most important factor enabling this shadowy crime to thrive is the lack of visibility, particularly how the maritime industry traditionally measures fuel while bunkering and underway.

Without an EFMS like Fueltrax installed, all fuel measurements on board a vessel are manual. Once fuel is loaded into the ship’s tanks, a second mate drops his tape or stick into the tank, pulls it up, looks to see where the line is, does a calculation, and says OK, that’s how much fuel is in there. That’s done daily, entered in an Excel file, and emailed off in something called a noon report.

There are several problems with this approach.

1. The ship is often moving while sight-based measures are taken. Have you ever tried telling the time from your wristwatch while balanced on the top of a one-legged ladder? It’s like that.
2. Ships’ fuel tanks are unusual shapes, and accurate capacity measurements are impossible. So, the crew calculates fuel volumes using ‘best-estimate’ sounding tables.
3. Sludge in the tank, water, and foam can affect measurement accuracy.
4. Ship crews have multiple responsibilities that correctly prioritize safety above all else. So, noon reports never happen at noon; they’re never done the same way, and the same people do not do them.
5. It’s impossible to audit. Because you’re dipping your tanks, the quality of your measurement is deeply flawed.

The whole process is very prone to human error. And where human error exists, human opportunity for theft is never far behind.

The maritime industry has been slow to address the problem, considering fuel theft, particularly in certain parts of the world, as a necessary ‘cost of business.’ This makes sense because where fuel theft is endemic, corruption is way higher than crews supplementing a poor day rate. So, by trying to address fuel theft, you can destabilize a black market economy, and the bad actors involved in that economy can respond accordingly, meaning well-intentioned fuel theft prevention strategies can sometimes fail.

However, with increased regulation and scrutiny, particularly regarding sustainability, financial incentives exist to address this problem. After all, any fuel lost to theft by an energy company in Nigeria will eventually make its way to that company’s emissions statements. In short, the industry must change its approach.

The solution is to remove as much of the human element fro measuring fuel flows as possible and make the resulting readings as accurate and accessible as possible to all stakeholders.

At Fueltrax, we call this approach seamless visibility.

Our solution is the only real-time, end-to-end, self-contained, and secure active marine fuel and fleet management system. Its closed-loop, tamper-proof, and alarm-protected design ensures it can’t be hacked, jail-broken, or back-doored, setting it apart from other systems.

1. Fueltrax monitors ships’ fuel consumption to ensure the vessel consumes the right amount of fuel for the voyage.
2. It certifies accurate bunkering, ensuring no extra fuel is pumped in or out of the ship’s tanks for criminal benefit.
3. It tracks vessel position with a GPS transponder that, unlike the universally used Automatic Identification System (AIS), cannot be spoofed, hacked, or switched off.
4. It observes the crew through video surveillance with Fueltrax Vision.
5. It secures fuel on board the ship. Pirates cannot steal the fuel as crews cannot access it without triggering alerts to our monitoring centers.

Beyond providing fuel security and savings, Fueltrax enables crew behavior change, allowing them an alternative to the black market/fuel theft cycle.

Historically, crews have agreed to a low day rate because they know they can supplement their income with fuel theft. However, with Fueltrax’s EFMS solution, we’re preventing losses to the extent that it allows energy companies to pay higher day rates to the crews and even pay bonuses to those crews that display the right behavior. This all leads to a better social and economic environment for the crews, the companies, and the societies in which they operate, fostering a sense of hope and optimism for a brighter future.

Of course, people will always find new ways to steal fuel, so fuel theft is not a problem that will ever be solved. This is why the data our systems generate is invaluable.

In certain parts of the world where fuel theft is a problem, we’ve encountered crews trying to tamper with our system. For example, someone may try to open a box, turn it off, disconnect the antenna, or do something similar. One of the advantages of having a system designed by ex-NASA flight control engineers is that we have some really advanced analytics, which means we are immediately alerted.

With three vessel operations centers globally, two of which are in extremely high-risk areas, we continuously evaluate these attempts, connecting the dots, reviewing trends, and helping our customers stay ahead of the fuel theft game wherever it occurs.

We’re aware that we are asking an industry famous for being behind the times regarding technology and reporting to achieve maximum transparency.

And it’s very, very challenging to do that.

However, if there’s one thing we never shy away from at Fueltrax, it’s a challenge.

We’re embracing the opportunity to help the maritime industry transform and modernize its operational procedures and practices and drive positive economic, environmental, social, and governance changes for operators, vessel owners, and crews.

We hope you’ll join us!

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