Case study

Every fuel transfer accounted for, from refinery to pump

A fuel distribution operation that meters both ends of every transfer: level sensors on tanker trucks and stationary tanks feed a live volume differential, so the product that leaves a refinery arrives where the contract says it should.

Sensors on trucks and tanks
Live volume differential
Alerts on discordance
Contract-checked operations

Client: Fuel distributor
Sector: Fuel distribution
Connectivity: Internet and GPS
Hardware: Level sensors, GPS

The context

Where the fuel goes missing

When energy prices spiked, fuel theft spiked with them. Industry estimates put global losses at around $133 billion, and most of that fuel goes missing during product transfers, in the gap between what leaves one tank and what arrives at the next.

This project digitalizes the transfer itself, monitoring from several fronts at once and handling all of that data in real time.

The operation

Fuel distribution, end to end

The chain: RefineriesIntermediate depotsService stations
Where fuel goes missing: During transfers, between two meters
Measured: Tank levelsTruck levelsGPS position
Benchmark: The volumes contracted with suppliers and customers

The solution

Both ends of every transfer, metered

The monitoring infrastructure connects level sensors to the tanker trucks and to the stationary tanks, and computes the differential of the volume transferred between them in real time. The sheet below redraws the views this produces: what leaves the truck, what enters the tank, the live difference between the two and the record of every operation.

Transfer monitoring · As operations teams see itSHEET FD-01 · REV A · STYLIZED

TRK

Tanker truck level

FIG. 01

Level sensors on each tanker truck read the volume on board live, so the drop during a discharge is measured, not declared.

LEVEL TO VOLUME ON BOARD · DISCHARGE PROFILE · GPS POSITION

TNK

Stationary tank level

FIG. 02

The stationary tanks at intermediate depots and service stations carry the same level sensing, so the receiving side of every transfer is metered too.

TANK LEVEL · MAX / MIN THRESHOLDS · RECEPTION PROFILE

DIF

Live transfer differential

FIG. 03

Both level streams merge into one differential: dispatched volume against received volume, computed in real time while the transfer runs.

DISPATCHED VS RECEIVED · REAL TIME Δ · DISCORDANCE ALERTS

OPS

Operations against contract

FIG. 04

Each operation goes on record with its differential, supervised against the volumes contractually established with suppliers and customers.

OPERATION LOG · SOURCE / DESTINATION · CONTRACT SUPERVISION

Results

What it changes for the operation

Losses stop being an end-of-month inventory surprise. The infrastructure merges tank and truck data, checks the volumes in real time and raises an alert on any discordance while the transfer is still under way.

Fewer unexplained losses, and a traceable record behind every litre moved.

For the operation

Every transfer, accounted for

A discordance
Before: Found at month endNow: Alerted during the transfer
Each delivery
Checked against the contracted volumes
Every operation
Recorded end to end, with the full history kept for analysis
Traceable

Under the hood

How it runs on Thinger.io

The monitoring runs on Thinger.io, which handles the level sensors on trucks and tanks as managed devices and merges both streams in real time. It stores and analyzes historical and live data and serves it back through dashboards with map display, so operations teams follow every truck and tank from one console.

Position comes from any internet-connected GPS tracker, and geoperimetry adds entry and exit alerts around depots and stations.

Level sensors on tanker trucks and stationary tanks report over the Internet, together with GPS position, to an operations console on Thinger.io that merges both streams, computes the live transfer differential and checks every operation against contract.

Keep reading

Meter both ends of your operation

This infrastructure is one industrial deployment of Thinger.io. If you move fuel, water or any product where what leaves must match what arrives, we can help you measure it in real time.

Talk to our team Explore the Industrial IoT solution