INTERVIEW: BaseBlue-Backed Fuelink Sees Market for Digitalised Bunker Management

Konstantin Bronetskyi is the firm's general manager. Image Credit: Konstantin Bronetskyi / LinkedIn

Maritime technology firm Fuelink is seeing demand from the shipping industry for a more unified way of accessing the information about their bunker use.

The company, backed by BaseBlue and Schoeller Holdings, launched its bunker data management and fuel supply optimisation platform earlier this year.

The launch follows a trend in the bunker industry in recent years of companies seeking to digitalise the process as a means of gaining visibility on costs and opportunities for improvement.

The firm is already seeing demand from a range of clients in the shipping industry, Konstantin Bronetskyi, general manager of Fuelink, said in an interview with Ship & Bunker.

"We see demand for having all of the relevant information regarding the bunkers in one place," he said.

The operators with the new tools of communication have access to all the information, but they need to approach different stakeholders; here, the platform provides access to everyone in one place.

"When the platform was being developed, we had some discussions on whether we should focus on specific target clients.

"But then we understood that we are limiting the proposition if we follow this, and limiting what the clients could receive.

"So the idea was to make the system as flexible as possible.

"There is no specific target client for the platform; it can be used by small fleets, medium fleets and by different roles. Both owners and charterers will find some useful functions for them."

How it Works

The functions of the platform are broken down to a series of modules, Bronetskyi said.

"The platform has multiple modules providing different functionality," he said.

"The first one is the place to aggregate all the information regarding the delivery operations; it includes the statements of facts, all the quantity information, surveyor reports, the documentation, the quality information and the price benchmarking.

"Also it has the fuel strategy module, where you can input the information on your voyage and it will provide you with some scenarios of which fuel you're using, whether to use conventional or alternative fuels.

"It will provide you with the calculation of the bunker costs and also the emissions and emission costs, and then you can analyse the different scenarios and make informed decisions on which strategy you apply.

"It also has a module for long-term planning; this is mostly for the container vessels and cruise vessels.

"You can apply your schedule for the upcoming season and it will calculate all the fuel costs and emissions and provide you with a strategy.

"You can also use it for your budgeting purposes.

"There is also a module for EUA inventory, since now you need to have really strict discipline on the EUAs in order to comply with all of the regulations."