Getting smarter about reducing the risk of costly fuel theft

Whether from pipelines or during bunkering operations, fuel theft is a major concern for charterers and governments alike. Stolen fuel cost Mexico state-owned oil company Pemex US$3.8Bn in just five years, according to the Associated Press, which reported in August on a crackdown by the Mexican government on a network of thieves that was smuggling and selling stolen fuel to funnel money to drug cartels. 

A Mexican navy officer was among the more than one dozen suspects arrested in the case. 

One effective way of mitigating the risk of bunkering fuel theft is an electronic fuel management system (EFMS), explained Ascenz Marorka head of customer success management, Serena Lim. 

Speaking to delegates at the Offshore Support Journal Conference, Asia, Singapore in September, Ms Lim detailed how her firm’s EFMS is evolving with smart technologies to mitigate fuel theft, as well as support vessel optimisation, lower fuel consumption and reduce greenhouse gas emissions. 

“With our smart bunkering, we can detect and measure the flow,” she said, noting the system’s ability to track and collect vital data for temperature, density, flow rate, etc. Introducing compressed air into a delivery hose, for example, can mislead operators into thinking they have received the full quantity of fuel. Since they measure volume rather than the fuel density, most flow meters cannot detect the presence of air. 

Another safeguard in the EFMS is its smart CCTV system, which automatically detects tampering, such as whether it has been moved or switched off. 

She said one of the main reasons charterers want to install an EFMS is “to understand how much fuel goes into the vessel, and how much fuel is used. It’s strictly to monitor the fuel consumption to make sure that there’s no fuel leakage, or no one is stealing fuel,” she said. 

Ascenz Marorka is a subsidiary of French engineering and technology company GTT, a leading developer of LNG membrane containment systems and digitalisation solutions in the maritime sector. 

Ascenz Marorka’s EFMS collects data from engines, navigation systems, sensors and uses smart CCTV to provide customisable dashboards, video and key performance indicators for vessel operators. This EFMS helps in fuel consumption management, bunkering process monitoring, and activity tracking, leading to significant cost savings and operational efficiency improvements, said Ms Lim. 

When analysed by the “trained eye”, Ms Lim noted, the data can be used to help detect whether an illegal activity such as pumping air or an unplanned stoppage occurred during a bunkering. 

She said the Ascenz Marorka EFMS is now on approved lists for ExxonMobil, Chevron, TotalEnergies and Petrobras after undertaking an extensive approval process. In many cases, oil and gas majors supply and pay for the fuel consumed by OSVs, making it in their best interests to track and monitor fuel consumption. 

In southeast Asia, Nam Cheong, Neopetro and Britoil Offshore Services have deployed the Ascenz Marorka EFMS, said Ms Lim. The EFMS can provide valuable insights on fleet performance based on analytics to both the crew and the home office.

Riviera’s Offshore Support Journal Conference, Middle East will be held in Dubai, 9-10 December 2025. Click here for more information on this industry-leading event.