Manage your performance and reduce your environmental impact with Opsealog
Opsealog specializes in performance management and environmental impact reduction in the maritime and offshore energy sectors. Headquartered in Marseille, France, the company is comprised mostly of former seafarers whose expertise is at the heart of all its solutions. The company’s innovative approach prioritizes efficiency as a service. Opsealog is a Green Marine Europe partner.
Interview with Arnaud Dianoux, Co-founder & Managing Director.
How was Opsealog born?
Opsealog emerged from a real need within the maritime industry for greater efficiency, a need that I identified during my ten years working onboard various types of vessels. Throughout my time at sea, I saw many opportunities for improvement:
- We relied heavily on all types of spreadsheets which was time-consuming
- Planning processes were inefficient and changing all the time.
- Vessel capacity (deadweight) often not used above 50%
- There was significant idle time.
- Transit at full speed followed by long stand-by periods
- Engines were often running unnecessarily during standby.
- Ports faced congestion due to unready cargo, necessitating extensive maneuvering, shifting, and standby, which caused delays and inefficiencies.
These inefficiencies had a strong impact on operations, costs, crew, and the environment. After these years of navigation, I started working on fuel management projects once onshore. I realized data was the key to solving many of the industry's problems. The potential to improve on-board reporting task workload, operational efficiency, and reduce costs was huge, but it required a systematic approach: data collection to analysis.
Our initial pilot projects, conducted in collaboration with a tech/data partner, revealed significant potential fuel savings—up to 15%. It became clear that to achieve real, lasting change, there needed to be a dedicated company focused on data-driven efficiency in the maritime industry. The role of a data integrator became crucial as data is available from numerous sources such as AIS (Automatic Identification System), EFMS (Electronic Fuel Monitoring System), and others. It is essential to have the expertise to seamlessly consolidate and interpret these diverse data streams into actionable insights.
With these promising results, we launched Opsealog in October 2015 with a small team of four core members. Our mission was clear: to harness the power of data to deliver tangible, measurable results in fuel efficiency and operational performance. Starting from scratch, we developed a multi-customer Business Intelligence (BI) platform, designed to integrate and analyze data from various sources.
Our first major success came with a client in Angola. We reached an ambitious target of 8% fuel savings and exceeded it, achieving 11.5%. This success opened many doors and laid the foundation for where we are today.
What is Opsealog's current scope of activities, and how has it evolved since its inception? What does the future hold?
What started as a team of four has expanded to over 38 professionals, each specializing in different business areas and contributing to our mission. Opsealog was born out of a desire to provide “efficiency as a service”, delivering tangible results to our clients. Our expert consulting team is essential for understanding each client's unique challenges, developing the right algorithms with our tech expert, and providing support to transform data into actions. Without specialized expertise, navigating the world of data can become overwhelming.
Our focus has extended beyond fuel efficiency to cover fleet optimization, performance management, cost allocation as well Health, Safety, and Environmental (HSE), and more within Streamlog, our vessel reporting solution, and Marinsights, our performance management application. Our customers affirm, "We are their Eyes" regarding data integration and marine performance insights as they do not have time to do it.
Having firmly established ourselves in the offshore market, we are now expanding our scope to related industries. Our recent partnership with Orange Marine, for instance, demonstrates our intent to grow our market share. As regulations become more stringent and the industry shifts towards decarbonization, we remain at the forefront, continuously adapting our solutions to meet the evolving needs of ship owners and charterers.
With current achievements reaching up to 15% in fuel savings and CO² emissions reduction, our future objective is to achieve even greater results. We are committed to driving the industry towards greater efficiency and environmental stewardship.
We actively participate with organizations like LEAP and ISOA, contributing to the industry’s standardization. By moving away from paper-based processes and embracing digital solutions, the industry will achieve greater data accuracy and operational efficiency.
The CASSIOPEE project supported as part of France 2030 operated by ADEME (The French Agency for Ecological Transition) is an R&D project from CORIMER (Research and Innovation Guidance Council for Maritime Industries) that we also participate in. By accessing 3000 data points per second, we aim to identify strategies to further reduce CO2 emissions by 5 to 10% on top of our existing savings.
While Opsealog has been collecting sensor data for years, the volume, types, frequency, and granularity of data are set to increase dramatically in the coming years. With only 10% of the 80,000 vessels currently transmitting real-time data ashore, the challenge lies not just in collecting but in extracting actionable value from this abundance of data while maintaining a pragmatic and methodical approach. As data accessibility grows, so do opportunities for efficiency.
What motivated your decision to join Green Marine Europe?
Joining Green Marine Europe provides Opsealog with a unique opportunity to actively contribute to the forefront of the maritime transition. By participating in technical committees, we bring our dedicated expertise and knowledge to the pioneers of the maritime industry.
Green Marine allows us to share interrogations and opportunities with these actors, anticipating their challenges and upcoming regulations. More than a think tank, it enables Opsealog to design impactful solutions and steer a positive heading for the maritime industry.
At Opsealog, we believe in comprehensive support beyond software implementation. We specialize in change management, partnering closely with our clients to navigate every step of their journey toward efficiency and sustainability.