Impacting Downstream Petroleum Industry with Tech Solution

Emma Okonji writes about the impact of emerging technology solutions on downstream petroleum industry and how the newly launched Epump technology solution by Fuelmetrics will enhance business control and profitability

With technology being an enabler of businesses across all sectors of the economy, businesses are beginning to adopt emerging technology solutions that would enhance total business control, with high returns on investments. 

Industry players and business owners in the downstream petroleum industry, who understand the impact of technology on the sector, have continued to embrace and adopt new technology solutions, just as technology solution providers continue to develop solutions that will meet the needs of the sector. 

The latest technology solution, developed by Fuelmetrics, known as Epump, seeks to bridge the technology gap in the downstream petroleum industry, by providing transparency and total control for management and business owners in the petroleum industry sector.

Fuelmetrics is a company that was established to bridge the technological gaps for businesses in Africa. Its sole aim is to provide transparency and control for management and owners of business alike, while businesses track their revenue. 

Epump solution, which has become the prime product for Fuelmetrics, is focused on filling stations. The solution automates filling stations, giving station owners real time visibility and control of the stations wherever they are. A lot of businesses in Africa depend so much on people providing feedback and data. The challenge with that is that businesses are at the mercy of the person providing the data. If the person’s integrity is compromised, then it means the entire business is built on compromised data. This could lead to flawed input and output, and decision-making process would be affected. These are some of the challenges that Fuelmetrics aims to address with the Epump technology solution.

The Impact

Speaking about the Epump solution and its impact, the Chief Executive Officer, Fuelmetrics, Mr. Ayodeji Ogundiran, said the solution was developed as an end-to-end automation and payment infrastructure for the downstream oil and gas sector in Africa. 

Giving details on how Epump works, Ogundiran said: “The first thing we do to onboard a station on Epump is to install our proprietary forecourt controllers called “Epump Go” on all the pumps in the station. The controllers capture all sales information from the pump and transmits the information to a cloud-based server. In essence, we are able to capture the number of liters sold for every transaction, the number of customers that visited the station in a day, trend analysis and much more. Management and owners of these stations can then access the information in simplified formats, either on their mobile phones or computers anywhere in the world provided they have internet access.”

According to him, Fuelmetrics also install Automatic Tank Gauges to help stations access their inventory level in real time, how much petroleum product they have in their tank, if water is present in the tank, the volume, time of the last discharge, what was the volume, amongst others. The data is aggregated in a simple to understand dashboard and analytics for the users. After collating all the data at the server end, we do some processing, analysis, comparisons, and we are able to establish patterns. We are able to know the station’s peak period, when a station should optimally be open and much more, Ogundiran further said.

Bridging Technology Gaps 

According to Ogundiran, Epump serves as the best tool for owners of fuel stations to optimise their little margins. It ensures they capture all their revenues, and prevent smart play on them by their employees. “What we have seen in the past when we deploy Epump solutions to stations is that there is a kind of confidence that comes from stations owners, and this is because they know that they don’t have to be physically present to track and monitor their business or even commission engineers to go round stations to change prices of products when it can be done remotely, this gives them peace of mind. It has helped these owners of fuel stations to optimize their business and grow their customer base. Epump is also facilitating cashless transactions in filling stations and by doing so, we are reducing the cost and risk of cash handling,” Ogundiran said.

Business Transformation 

Ogundiran who expatiated on how the solution has transformed the downstream oil and gas sector since its launch, said although Epump cannot lay claim to having transformed the downstream oil and gas sector yet, but explained that penetration is still at about five per cent of the industry. He added that the solution has however transformed the way customers do business in more than one way. 

Giving details of the transformation, he said: “Firstly, our customers are able to block losses in their business through the visibility Epump provides. Epump is taking away their worries caused by blind spots in their operations. Our customers are typically able to pay more attention to their other businesses, spend time with their families, or even take a vacation weeks after installing Epump, a luxury that has been out of their reach for years.

“We are also helping stations transform from a cash-based economy to a cashless economy. We are deploying technologies that facilitate payment. For example, you can onboard corporate clients who don’t need to pay for their fueling transactions using cash, they can pay either using a fuel card or using a voucher and all of these are automated. It gives the customers an assurance of having products fully dispensed while it gives the station owner peace of mind, knowing there is perfect reconciliation of every business transaction. To reiterate, Epump is looking to change the industry positively, we are not there yet but we’ve had a tremendous impact on our customers.”

He said Fuelmetrics became the first to leverage Internet of Things (IoTs) technology to ensure that installations are not as rigorous as they used to be. “In the past, it would take days to run cables from every pump to a back office. We changed that by installing IoT devices that connect directly into the cloud. Now a lot of other foreign competitors are trying to follow the model but it’s still not as swift as what we’ve done with Epump. More importantly, as of today, we are the only Original Equipment Manufacturer (OEM) for the downstream industry in Africa,” Ogundiran added.

Epump Service Offerings 

Explaining the type of services offered the solution offers, Ogundiran said Epump technology offers fuel station owners visibility for their operations, it offers business growth, it helps them gain the trust of their customers but more importantly, it also offers them peace of mind.

“We are not a loan granting venture; we are however partnering with financial institutions to facilitate product financing for our customers. Data captured by Epump helps financial institutions to make informed decisions on the possible performance of product loans extended to the stations. They typically find that the risk is much lower than industry average when it is backed by data, and because of this they offer very competitive rates and terms to our customers. Any customer who has been on our platform for over six months can benefit from this arrangement, “Ogundiran further said. 

Expansion Plans 

Speaking about the expansion plans for Epump, Ogundiran said Fuelmetrics would continue to innovate to help its customers scale their businesses through technology and partnerships that work for them. He said the company would expand to a pan African business serving customers from all countries in Africa.

Addressing fraud prevention and real time monitoring, Ogundiran said: “We are always at the edge to make sure we are abreast of every new development and to make sure we provide solutions even before the problems arise. Beyond that, it’s our goal to convert at least 70 per cent  of transactions at the downstream oil and gas to cashless transactions in order to reduce cash handling and risks for our customers. In line with this, we are coming up with strategies and partnerships that will ensure stations are getting the best out of their businesses.”

In the area of real time monitoring, he said the Epump Go device is first installed on every pump and optionally in tanks. These devices generate data from all business operations, and report that data via web or mobile in real time. To avoid installation downtime, each device installation is done individually, i.e., one pump at a time. Through the use of the Epump Go device, station owners are able to access the data generated by the Epump using a dashboard which is available on Web, Android and IOS app stores, Ogundiran further said.