The next phase will involve the further development and scaling of the solution, capturing fuel deliveries and associated verified data into the system.
It is intended that this will be undertaken by a consortium formed of shipowners/operators, fuel suppliers, port authorities and a fuel testing body. MBL is inviting interest from within these groups to join and co-sponsor this next phase of work, which is expected to begin in January, 2019.
A prototype digital system, providing fuel assurance for shipowners and suppliers, was developed earlier this year together with a consortium, which included IBIA, LR’s FOBAS team, Bostomar, Heidmar, BIMCO, Goodfuels and Precious Shipping. The project’s demonstrator phase was funded by Lloyd’s Register Foundation.
The successful development of a marine fuels quality tracing and compliance prototype involved testing in a simulated environment with the consortium in September.
The initiative ended with the prototype being used for the manual capture of the world’s first end-to-end fuel transaction on a blockchain in Rotterdam.
Deanna MacDonald, BLOC CEO, said:“The recently concluded MEPC73 showed us that there are still burning questions about the availability of compliant fuels post-2020 – and the current epidemic of bad bunker, as it’s been called by Intertanko and others, shows that building traceability and trust in the marine fuels supply chain is one of the most vital issues facing shipping right now.”
“Our demonstrator phase has shown us that dealing with marine fuels’ quality and quantity assurance is an industry wide issue, and that the industry is looking to work together to solve this issue. We’ve built something that for the first time, will allow stakeholders across the global shipping industry to verify and validate transactions across the fuels supply chain,” she added.