Industry Insight: What Can Big Data Do for Bunkers?

Esa Henttinen, Executive Vice President, NAPA for Operations

One of the main talking points of 2015 has been what big data will be able to do for us in the future. Whether it be for improving efficiency, safety or helping us on our way to unmanned ships, there is no doubt about the impact that big data will have on the industry in the coming years. But how is it influencing the industry now?

In an industry as conservative as shipping, the emergence of the big data phenomenon left many sceptical when it entered our everyday conversation in 2014. But it's inclusion in the Lloyd's Register Global Marine Technology Trends 2030 and the quantity of discussion on the subject in the last 18 months is a clear sign that this theme is going to be a prominent issue for a long time to come.

LR's report stresses that one of the biggest challenges of big data; properly collating and processing masses of unsorted raw data to create high-quality, usable business information. What this insight is then used for has the power to improve decisions, leading to fuel and cost savings, better understanding of onboard safety, or simply greater oversight and control of business practices.

In 2012 when the prices of bunker fuel were reaching $800 /t, the cost savings from efficiency technologies meant a return on investment of two years on average. For a ship that burned 24 tonnes of fuel per day while steaming, fuel costs could be reduced by as much as $1 million a year. However, as it stands with the current downturn in the oil industry with the price of oil dropping below $30 per barrel, ship owners and operators may not be seeing such quick ROIs. But managing the bottom line is now even more vital to survival as low bunker costs do not fully compensate for the record low freight rates in the market.

NAPA has seen substantial benefits to both achieving fuel savings and understanding the savings from energy efficiency retrofits using big data collection and analysis. One of the most common and effective is the management and control of operational fuel efficiency. Easily measurable, with change being seen in a short period of time, optimising operations delivers tangible financial benefits that can be tracked and verified instantly. ClassNK-NAPA GREEN offers a real time big-data analysis performance monitoring and optimisation solution for precisely this function.

Using the huge range and volume of data collected from both on board and shore-side sources, ClassNK-NAPA GREEN is able to provide real time information on vessel performance. By passing this data through advanced and highly accurate predicative algorithms it delivers information on current operations and on potential operational changes to allow the vessel to reduce fuel consumption. Ranging from route, to speed profile, to floating position, changing how the vessel operates on a variety of measures can add up to big savings. Advances in automated monitoring and ship-to-shore communications has made this sort of data collection accessible to owners of all sizes, not just the big players.

ClassNK-NAPA GREEN software is also being used to verify and justify investment in innovative energy efficiency technologies; helping these technologies make the leap from concept to market leaders and driving down fuel consumption for their customers.  NAPA's involvement in projects such as the first commercial installation of Norsepower's rotor sail solution, show the possibility of big data in driving these businesses forwards by proving the returns such technologies offer. 

While the cost savings achieved now are not as great as at the height of bunker prices, with margins as tight as they currently are, the benefits of big data powered efficiency are something that all ship owners and charterers should be looking to achieve. Regulation such as the global sulphur cap, Tier III NOx emission reduction and the EU's MRV will prove big data a necessity for the future of shipping. By getting to grips with the benefits it can offer now, companies will only set themselves up for success as this becomes the norm.