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Veritas Petroleum Services (VPS) and DNV GL have signed a cooperation agreement to develop a new module for DNV GL's ECO Insight fleet performance management solution.

By tapping into the world's largest fuel sampling database, this module will allow owners, operators and managers to determine how fuel quality can result in performance differences between similar vessels.

In a statement, Bjørn Olav Odland of VPS Nordic Countries, explained: "Fuel quality is a factor which is often overlooked in performance management, but it can have a significant impact. We recommend carrying out lab tests on bunkered fuel. Together with DNV GL we can now tap into the wealth of data generated by these tests and make it available to customers aiming to improve their fleet's performance."

"DNV GL and VPS have started to work on the design of the new module in January, the second half of 2015 will be used to implement it into ECO Insight. Our web-based portal structures this vast amount of data, which would normally be difficult for individual owners and operators to analyse - enabling them to make more informed business decisions," remarked Dr. Torsten Büssow, DNV GL's Head of Fleet Performance Management.

DNV GL said its performance management portal ECO Insight provides "a comprehensive and easily accessible way to manage the performance of a fleet, including voyage, hull & propeller, engine & systems performance".

"It enriches customers' own fleet reports with industry data, such as Automatic Identification System (AIS) or satellite weather and provides unique benchmarking capabilities. Advanced engineering methods, for example hull fouling prediction based on computational fluid dynamics (CFD), are also included in the portal. In addition, the Navigator Insight software carries out smart plausibility checks against specific vessel particulars to examine ensure the quality of the data collected onboard. By adding more valuable industry data such as fuel sampling data from VPS to ECO Insight, shipping companies have the opportunity to use yet another performance indicator to evaluate improvement options for their fleet," the company added.