Skip to main content

Terminology

Learn about Kpler terminology: flows, port calls, trades, voyages and more.

Written by Marc Amaya

Terminal terminology:

Terminology across terminal and API/excel add-in:

LNG-specific terminology

Map icons

Vessel Icon [Market Filter]

Definition

Vessel icon colour corresponds to the commodity colours reflected here.

When the 'Market Filter' is selected:

Red vessel icon = Liquids Tankers

Blue vessel icon = LPG Carrier + Olefins + Ammonia + Ethane Carriers

Purple vessel icon = LNG Carriers

Green vessel icon = Dry Bulk Carriers

Vessel Icon [Status Filter]

Definition

When the 'Status' filter is selected, the vessel icon colours have the following meaning:

Red vessel icon = Ballast vessel

Green vessel icon = Laden vessel

Yellow vessel icon = Vessel with open availability (can be Ballast or Laden)

Dark/White vessel icon

Vessel last position is of Low Confidence (can be Ballast or Laden)

Terminal/Landmark Icon

Definition

Red terminal icon = Importing facility

Green terminal icon = Exporting facility

LNG Only

Yellow terminal icon = Facility with open tender

In orange when inventories facility is part of an importing facility; in green, when it's part of an exporting facility, and black when it's none of the above.

Wrench icon = Shipyard

Anchor icon = Anchorage / Lightering zone

Upward arrow = export

Downward arrow = import

Additional Icons

Icons

Definitions

Zones, Locations, Regions

Zones, Locations, Regions

Installations

Icons, terminology and colour coding on the right-hand side panel

  • Highlighted blue: future events e.g. port calls (see definition below)

  • Highlighted green: current events

  • Not highlighted: past events

In the Port-Calls section of the right-hand side panel, some of the dates have an asterisk next to them. This indicates that the date is automatically pushed back by 4 days by Kpler's algorithm, if the vessel haven't arrived/started loading according to the the original date from the AIS signals.

Destination Tags

  • Port: Source of data is a port schedule from a port authority

  • AIS: Source of data is Automatic Identification Systems

  • Fixture: Source of data refers to a Spot Charter contract which is made between the owner (or Term-Charterer) of the vessel and the company that is expected to charter a vessel for the upcoming voyage. Some information frequently associated with the fixture is:

    • Company that is chartering the vessel

    • Company that is chartering out the vessel

    • Expected loading location

    • Expected discharge location

  • Market: Data sourcing form the marketplace with 2 market sources confirming information

  • Analyst: Destination has been tagged by Kpler's Analysts

  • Model: Internal forecasting. Shows percentage level of confidence of predicted future vessel destinations

Kpler Data Sources Reference

  • Customs: the cargo is coming from local custom authorities.

  • US BoL: the cargo is coming from US Customs.

  • Fixture: the cargo has been specified in the fixture.

  • Port: the cargo has been provided by local port authority or port operators

  • Analyst: as per the Analyst tag for the ETA, it is cargo information guessed by one of our analysts.

  • Market: every other kind of source, can be brokers, shipping agencies, one time market information.

  • Algorithm: All the cargoes for which we do not have hard pieces of information and which were computed internally.

  • SOMO: The cargo has been verified to be officially exported by Iraq's State Organization for Marketing of Oil (SOMO).

INCOTERM / Transfer Tags

  • FOB (Free On Board)

  • DES (Delivery Ex Ship)

  • CIF (Cost Insurance and Freight)

Icons

Ship-to-ship

Direct transfer of cargo between two vessels

Canal Crossing

Indicates a canal has been crossed

Re-export

Vessels reloading cargoes at a terminal (LNG only)

Bunkering

Vessels bunkering

Voyages

  • Voyages represent all the vessels operations that occur between the moment the vessel loaded and the moment she is ballast again. A single voyage can consist of multiple loads and multiple discharges.

  • A complete voyage will have at least one discharge, at the end of which the vessel is empty.

  • An ongoing or future voyage will have at least one load and may not have a discharge yet.

Flows

Flows is an aggregation of trades and provides a macro-view of individual cargoes in real-time.

Port Calls

Port calls provide cargo-by cargo details for loading/discharges taking place in a point of interest i.e. installations and zones.

  • Each port and terminal zone has been defined by Kpler. As soon as a vessel enters that defined zone, a ports call is automatically created by the system.

  • Loads show a positive quantity, and discharges a negative one.

  • Port calls can be in the past, ongoing or in the future.

  • Note that ship-to-ships (STS) are port calls as well, as they are a load for one vessel, and a discharge for the other.

  • Port calls are also used to detect canal crossings

  • Specific arrival and departure times are computed based on:

    • AIS positions received

    • Average congestion time for each individual port

    • Average loading/discharge time for each individual port (all dates shown are UTC).

Trades

Trades are commercial operations focusing on the cargo and its buyers, charterers and sellers. Note that multiple vessels can be involved in case of STS.

Aegean Dream loaded the cargo shown above in Dalia FPSO on 9 April and transferred the cargo to Tarbet Spirit which discharged on 7 May at Ergon St James. The STS icon shows there has been a STS.

U.S. Bills of Lading

Commercial information (such as Shipper / Consignee / Notify Party) sourced from the U.S. Bills of Lading is also available in the "Trades" tab of the terminal and can be revealed when clicking on the "eye" icon.

Differences between trade, port call and voyage

Item

Possible Number of vessels

Possible Number of Port Calls

Trade

One or more

One load & One discharge
Ship-to-ships

Port Call

One only

One

Voyage

One only

N (N>=1 for ongoing voyage, N>=2 for complete voyage).
All Port Calls have a quantity.

LNG-specific terminology

Contract type

  • Contract: an existing SPA between two players, a buyer and seller, where the cargo originates from specific terminals

  • Flexible: a middle player has both 1) flexible DES capacity at a terminal and 2) a contract or portfolio SPA with the final buyer

  • Portfolio: an SPA between a buyer and seller, which includes multiple plants from which volumes can be supplied (i.e. no origin terminals are specified)

  • Group: trades occur when buyer and seller are the same (usually they are readjusting global capacity from one area to another)

  • Spot : any contract between a buyer and a seller that is not matched with any of the above categories to explain a trade

  • Tender: a trade is part of a Tender that was offered by a certain buyer/seller

SPA, TUA and LTA

  • SPA: Sale and Purchase Agreement

  • TUA: Terminal Use Agreement - agreement allowing a company to use a part of the regasification capacity of the terminal

  • LTA: Liquefaction Tolling Agreement - agreement regarding the conversion of gas into LNG where a company is paying the owner of the Liquefaction plant a fee (toll) for the right to use some of (or all) liquefaction capacity at this terminal

Installation Metrics terminology

Nominal capacity

The import or export capacity guaranteed by an engineering contractor or technology licenser. It’s typically defined in million tonnes per annum (mtpa)

Active installation count

Count of active installations based on location filter

LNG phase
​(import/regasification)

Used to build a time series of import installations when capacity of vaporizers is changed, added or reduced over time

LNG train
​(export/liquefaction)

A train consists of various components to process, purify, and convert natural gas to liquefied natural gas (LNG). They are called trains because of the sequential arrangement of the equipment used to process and liquefy natural gas. Most export terminals have multiple trains and can start up at different stages

Installation status

Definition

Active

Operational

Downgraded

Reduction in nominal capacity of the train/phase

Under construction

Plants that are currently under construction and being built

Planned & proposed

Pre-FID, received government approval

Speculative

In early stage (Briefly mentioned in the public domain)

Suspended

Cancelled/halted plans for construction

Mothballed

Mothballed, operations halted but but kept in good conditions

Decommissioned

No longer active

Did this answer your question?