Demand for Fuel Monitoring Systems Unaffected by Low Oil Price, Says Royston

Royston says increased demand for fuel monitoring systems is linked to oil companies' growing insistence for OSVs to be fitted with the systems.

Diesel power specialist Royston says that international oil companies' "growing insistance" that oilfield contract vessels (OSVs) be fitted with fuel monitoring systems, despite the current low price of fuel, has spurred and increased interest in marine engine monitoring systems.

As a result, Royston says it has been installing its Enginei marine engine monitoring system on a growing number of offshore vessels.

"Over the last two years a number of factors have come together as part of a definite trend that has seen the IOCs (international oil companies) requiring fuel monitoring data provision in offshore support contracts," said Damian McCann, product manager for enginei fuel management systems at Royston.

McCann says that some of those factors include the desire for increased transparency in operational costs, greater attention to emissions, and efforts to improve vessel handling and working efficiencies.

"Although the trend started with high fuel prices around two years ago, there is no doubt that it is here to stay and even in the current low oil price scenario we are still undertaking new installations," added McCann.

Royston says that enginei has been so far been installed on nine vessels working for Chevron Corporation (Chevron), two for BP plc (BP), one for Addax Petroleum, four for Total S.A. (Total), two for ConocoPhillips Co. (Conoco Phillips), and one for Exxon Mobil Corp. (Exxon), as well as on one vessel operated by Gulfmark, completing work for Royal Dutch Shell plc (Shell) in the North Sea.

"The monitoring need is essentially being driven by the IOCs trying to reduce the burn of fuel that they pay for," said McCann.

McCann also notes, however, that Petróleos Mexicanos (PEMEX) is said to have changed its policies and will no longer pay for the fuel used in its future oilfield service contracts, a situation that McCann says would mean that vessel operators will have to monitor fuel use a lot more closely.

"From a fuel monitoring perspective, this would be a big sea change in the OSV market and whether other majors follow is yet to be seen, but whatever the situation, any future recovery in the oil price would lead to even greater importance being put on effective fuel management."

In August, Royston said that a growing focus on vessel performance issues and fuel management reporting had sparked an increase in demand, particularly in Nigeria, for its Enginei marine engine monitoring system.