BMT blueprint for global IT community

Speaking to Port Strategy, he said: “The ability to take lots of different types of data, from different applications and move it around complex systems is going to be fundamental.

BMT has already written a necessary middle-ware programme, which needs only minor adjustments to adapt it to the requirements of each port.

One of the main applications of such a trading platform could change the way bunkering companies work. For example, by trading deliveries of fuel to rivals if it makes better economic sense to do so,both time and efficiency could be maximised.

Mr Wignall explained that bunker suppliers have substantial information requirements: they need to know when ships are arriving, what their exact requirements will be and what tank space will be available on the various bunker barges to service them.

However, sometimes rival suppliers will simultaneously be operating half-laden bunker barges to the same part of the port,whereas it would have made more sense for one of them to possibly trade their own contract to the other, thereby freeing up a barge for deployment elsewhere. Potentially, this could lead to a reduction in the overall bunker barge fleet, since unnecessary movements could be kept to an absolute minimum.

“Companies could temporarily swap customers for everybody’s mutual benefit,”stresses Mr Wignall. The problem with this is that the trading system would need to operate impartially,which means that it would be better managed by a third-party operator, such as BMT, which would generate revenue by taking a percentage of any of the direct savings made by rival bunker suppliers by not necessarily serving their own customer direct; instead, they would do so using bunker barges operated by a competitor.

Other services that could be incorporated into the platform include the booking of anchorage slots, the allocation of available container berths slots, pilotage possibilities and the use of inter-harbour ferries.