An Overview of Oil Terminal Management Systems

Oil Terminal Management Systems play a key role both operationally and in the safety of processes in oil terminals: discover more.

In this article we’ll deepen the following:

• What is an Oil Terminal Management System
  • Our systems
• Key features and evolution of Terminal Automation System: functions and advantages in today’s oil market
• Emerging trends and innovations of oil terminal management systems

What is an Oil Terminal Management System

A Terminal Automation System is a system that can manage the automation of the operations within an oil terminal.

Terminal Automation System play a key role in optimizing operations by facilitating the efficient handling, storage and distribution of petroleum products.

Terminal Automation Systems also constitute a central element to grant reliability and safety of the entire supply chain and meet the evolving needs of a modern energy market for both small and large-scale oil terminals.

Our Systems

The first edition of our TAS VEGAPLUS was responsible for managing:

• The retrieval of scheduled voyages from the customer's HOST;
• The loading management via a booking terminal;
• The queue management by means of a large LED display and voice call;
• The access control to the depot (in/out) through magnetic badge reader (e.g. Helios);
• The management of weighing scales;
• The management loading operations in the loading bays;
• The collection of loading data via connection to the customer's HOST and fiscal documents printing;
• Document delivery.
  
  

Additional features were then added among which the main are:

• Tank management, which involves setting the quantities and densities of products in the tank farm and determining from which tank products are extracted. It is also possible to manage additives and denaturant injection in addition to in-line blending of base products.
  
  
• Alarms/Events: alarms and/or events related to field devices and operator actions can be recorded and saved.
  
  

• Vehicle/Driver Data, User and Profile Management: the system allows the operator to create user profiles that determine which operations each user is authorized to perform.
  
  

Key features and evolution of Terminal Automation System: functions and advantages in today’s oil market

Over the years and with the advance of technology, several features have been added that make terminal automation systems increasingly reliable and safe.

"Biometric" technology was introduced: through the recording of personal fingerprints (known as TEMPLATE), the system is able to recognize who is entering/exiting the depot.

This technology is used on booking terminals, depot entrance, weighing control and also on document collection.

License plate identification has also been made possible through smart cameras at the entrance gate but also at the checkpoints. In this way, the exact movements of people and vehicles within the depot can be made available.

And while weighing was originally performed on a spot basis, as an occasional check and only upon entering the oil terminal, this function can now be carried out on both entry and exit.

At the time of booking, the driver is supposed to declare the amount of fuel in the tank (full; ¾, ½, ¼) and the tank truck is then weighted one more time at the exit. The terminal automation system, knowing which products have been loaded, their quantities and the specific weight of each single product, is therefore able to calculate the final weight of the vehicle.

The maximum delta between the "theoretical" calculation and the actual weight must not exceed 100kg.

Emerging trends and innovations of Oil Terminal Automation Systems

In large depots, the needs are constantly evolving, and TAS suppliers are making it possible to progressively automate even bureaucratic aspects such as checking license expiry dates, driver and vehicle certifications, and to offer advanced features such as:

• the management of excise taxes,
  
  
• the control of electronic and paper accompanying documents,
  
  
• invoicing (immediate and deferred) and management of returns and diversions with automatic reversals for invoicing or credit notes, as well as VAT exemptions,
  
  
• product handling by batches.

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