Marathon Petroleum Corporation

Business Challenge

Marathon Petroleum Corporation (MPC) received the EPA’s 2018 ENERGY STAR® Partner of the Year Award for its outstanding efforts to increase energy efficiency throughout its business. As part of its focus on energy efficiency, MPC’s joint-venture ocean marine fleet implemented a project in 2017 that resulted in a 20% reduction in fuel usage at sea and a significant reduction in greenhouse gas emissions.

Analytics Solution

To create valid fuel-use and emissions-reduction targets for the marine organization’s ocean-going fleet, MPC worked with its joint-venture partner to obtain historical speed, mileage, and fuel data for at-sea travel. The data was used to establish baselines for fuel usage and typical speeds for three classes of vessels with varying efficiency levels. Collaborating with the captains and maintenance experts, MPC set economical operating conditions and speeds for each vessel class. Over a six-month period, schedulers identified trips to run at economic speeds and gathered fuel consumption data for those trips, revealing significant fuel savings. With the success of the pilot phase, MPC’s joint-venture partner issued a memorandum to make economic operating conditions standard operating procedure.

Impact

 In 2017, the team implemented the economic speed as the norm for all ocean-going vessels. Since implementation, MPC’s ocean-going vessel fuel usage has decreased by 20% at sea, saving the company more than $2 million during the year. The fuel optimization has enabled MPC to significantly reduce greenhouse gas emissions. This project inspired similar marine analytics efforts with third-party shipping providers. For MPC, the project’s success highlighted the potential of advanced analytics, resulting in analytic growth opportunities across the company.