Weather routeing is part of an overall fleet optimisation strategy for Neste’s tankers
Tanker operator Neste is using weather routeing and voyage optimisation to cut fuel costs and emissions as part of its overall planning for optimal fleet utilisation, liquid cargo transportation and scheduling.
Neste ship performance manager Risto Kariranta explained the ship operator’s strategy on e-navigation during Riviera Maritime Media’s Vessel optimisation: route planning that optimises scheduling and profitability webinar.
Initially, weather routeing was used to improve navigation safety. Then voyage and meteorological information was used to optimise tanker routes.
“Safety is our number one priority and after that we want to work efficiently and profitably,” said Mr Kariranta. “Reliable weather routeing helps keep us on track with fewer risks of delays.”
Neste uses NAPA weather routeing and vessel optimisation to prevent its ships from sailing into rough weather and seas. “There is greater safety, and it is economical to avoid bad weather,” he said.
Additionally, Neste uses voyage optimisation to reduce its environmental footprint. Mr Kariranta demonstrated this with two examples, one involving a route from Houston, US to Singapore and the other from Canada to Singapore.
On the Houston to Singapore route, Neste calculated the fuel consumption and time for a route through the Panama Canal and across the Pacific Ocean, and for a route across the Atlantic Ocean, around South Africa and then across the Indian Ocean.
“We used this tool to calculate fuel costs for three main alternatives,” explained Mr Kariranta. The best one depended on bunker prices, canal queues, fees and weather. From this, the eastbound route was selected. Neste then calculated the most optimised track from Houston to South Africa. This was not necessarily the shortest transatlantic route.
“We were able to make minimal changes, with the major difference using the strong currents along the Brazilian coast versus the shortest possible route,” said Mr Kariranta. “There were huge advantages by going further north. It was a longer route but burnt less fuel.” Neste saved 37.3 tonnes of fuel, equalling US$26,000 and emitted 115 tonnes less CO2.
On the next example, Neste calculated the best route was around 80 nautical miles longer but saved 40 tonnes of fuel crossing the Pacific Ocean.
“In the northern Pacific there are strong low pressures going eastbound continuously,” said Mr Kariranta. “We checked our vessels could pass those and utilise the winds with the ship bypassing from the northern side.”
These optimised routes also used currents off Japan. “Ships need to get the correct angle to get the best track to pass low pressures close to Japan, to get the wind with the ship and to get the shortest track,” he explained. Neste saved around US$20,000 and reduced emissions by 120 tonnes CO2 using this route.
Mr Kariranta said Neste has since scaled up its use of voyage optimisation to improve scheduling and tanker utilisation.
“We are planning rotations in the Baltic Sea area for a month ahead with the vessels we have,” he explained. “We built timelines and know where cargoes are loaded and where they are going. We calculated fuel use on these voyages accounting for weather effects if we go faster or slower and calculated the voyage costs.”
This is done automatically using software. “In a similar way, we use very good statistical models for timing port calls, and can we calculate port-call costs and compare different scenarios for our monthly plan,” said Mr Kariranta. “We can fulfil transportation needs in different ways as we have different types of vessels we can use for the same cargoes, and we can play around with the schedules.
“By systematically calculating alternatives and comparing them, we can optimise the whole system traffic for the coming month.”
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