Automated Calculations for Improvement of Tank Inventory at Fuel Terminals

Businesses related to downstream petroleum products are highly competitive and thus any losses in handling the transfer of these products at fuel terminals, regardless of the size, would significantly affect the income of the distributors involved. With proper inventory, a distributor may be able to manage fluctuations in products demand and lead time and eventually benefit a good control of stock and money. Petroleum products are volatile and sensitive to changes in temperatures. Hence, inability to correctly measure volumes of products to the applicable standards will result in deviation from the actual quantity at site, and thus leading to either a loss or gain in income. Inaccuracies in the calculation and recording of measurements are partly caused by one or a combination of a few human errors. The present study is intended to minimize the errors related to human and consequently improve the quality of work performance at fuel terminals by using a reliable automated calculation system for quaquantification of volumes of petroleum products. This system is developed in a Microsoft Excel file, with features such as automatic data look-up, interpolations and a neat recording system. The system corrects the measurements to standard temperatures according to the type of tasks. It is found that the system is able to reduce the calculation time of the physical stock at the standard temperature at the fuel terminal by up to 21 times. More importantly, the system is shown to reduce the human errors detected in past records.