Shell Launches "Revitalised" LubeMonitor Service

Shell Marine says it has "revitalised" its Shell LubeMonitor service through a software package called Marine Connect.

Shell Marine (Shell) says it has "revitalised" its Shell LubeMonitor service through a software package called Marine Connect, which is designed to optimise data management and reporting functions compared to previous version of the service.

The revamped LubeMonitor will be simpler, faster and better, says Shell, and offers reports that are easy to read, complete engine overviews, historical onboard and lab data, and comments from Shell experts which define areas of concern or possible optimisation opportunities.

"Major OEMs now recommend cylinder drain oil analysis to ship owners to take account of changes in the demands being placed on marine engines," explains Shell.

"Shell LubeMonitor allows customers to evaluate Shell RLA data and data generated from Shell's Onboard Alert magnetic iron analyser and Shell's Onboard Plus BN test kit, to strike the best balance between cylinder oil cost and engine reliability by optimising feed rates."

Shell says Oskar Wehr KG GmbH & Co. (Oskar Wehr) - a Hamburg-based shipowner and early adopter of LubeMonitor - has reduced oil feed rates by 0.2g/kWh across 25 vessels while still maintaining compliance with OEM feed rate recommendations, and expects to reduce annual costs by as much as $20,000 per vessel.

Shell LubeMonitor is noted to operate alongside Shell Rapid Lubricants Analysis (RLA) cylinder check, which Shell says has seen more than 50,000 cylinder drain oils samples taken to date in order to identify potential oil or equipment issues.

Shell says it expects to analyse an estimated 18,000 cylinder drain oil samples this year alone.

In June, Shell warned that selecting an effective lubricant for use with low-sulfur fuels, now a more common practice with the existence of Emission Control Areas (ECAs), is not only about matching base number (BN) to the fuel's sulfur content.