Vessel Performance Data Monitoring System

Vessel Performance Data Monitoring System

Tekquest was contracted by BG LNG Services, LLC (BG LNG) of Houston, Texas to develop a application suite for tracking Liquified Natural Gas (LNG) vessel performance and scheduling. BG LNG Services, LLC is a division of the BG Group, a global natural gas conglomerate which focuses on the discovery, extraction, transmission, distribution and supply of natural gas to existing and developing markets around the world.

The application, subsequently dubbed the Vessel Performance Data Monitoring System (VPDMS), is comprised of two distinct applications. The first is an onboard Windows-based application, which captures and transmits the performance and scheduling data from each LNG vessel to the second application, a land-based web application responsible for logging and presenting the data for viewing and analysis.

The windows application was built with Visual FoxPro 7, and consists of several form 'abstracts' (Voyage, Port and Suspension of Passage) which capture operational performance data and vessel space time positioning information. There is also a scheduling module, which tracks the vessels schedule over several weeks.

As data is updated daily, it is converted to XML and transmitted via email/satellite communications to a special email account. This account is scanned periodically by a program which processes the XML- formatted abstracts and schedules, parses them, and updates the database. The MS SQL Server database contains all of the historical abstract data for all vessels under the ownership/employ of BG LNG.

The server database is accessible to BG LNG analysts via an intranet website. This website contains two modules, a roles-based security application for controlling access to the application, and a viewing and reporting module for use by analysts.