Quality & Measurement Standards

Quantity: API MPMS

Tank quantities are determined to the API Manual of Petroleum Measurement Standards. Opening and closing gauges, by innage (depth of liquid) or ullage (empty space above it), are taken with the product settled, free water is measured at the tank bottom, and temperatures are taken at the levels the standard sets. The result is corrected to standard conditions and reported as gross and net standard volume.

Meter-based transfers at pipeline connections and truck racks use meters and provers to Chapters 4, 5 and 6, and marine figures are compared with vessel figures adjusted by the vessel experience factor under Chapter 17, so shore and ship quantities can be reconciled on every parcel.

Equipment: API 650, 653 and 2350

The tank is part of the measurement. API Standard 650 governs the design and construction of welded atmospheric storage tanks, and API 653 governs their inspection, repair, alteration and reconstruction in service, including the settlement and shell-roundness checks that affect a tank's calibration. Where repair work changes a tank's volume, it is re-calibrated before it returns to custody service.

API Standard 2350 sets our overfill-prevention framework. It matters to quality as well as safety: a receipt planned against documented working levels is a receipt that never needs a rushed diversion into a tank nobody planned for, and never mixes grades in the process.

Quality: ASTM and ISO test methods

Quality is tested to the method the contract or specification names: usually ASTM methods in US trade and ISO or EN methods elsewhere. Marine fuels are tested against ISO 8217:2024, the current edition of the marine fuel specification, which added requirements for fuels containing bio-components. Jet fuel follows ASTM D1655 or the buyer's specification, diesel ASTM D975 and gasoline ASTM D4814.

Independent inspection

Most cargoes we store or move are measured and sampled by an independent inspection company appointed by the parties under their contract. We give the inspector access to gauge points, sample connections and records, and our operators witness the work. The inspector's certificates of quantity and quality are the documents a sale contract normally relies on.

Our own figures are reconciled with the inspector's at every receipt and delivery. Where they differ by more than the contract allows, we investigate before the stock record closes: re-gauging, checking temperatures and the calibration table, reviewing line-fill, and re-testing retained samples where quality is in question.

• Retained samples sealed, labeled and kept for the period the contract specifies
• Line-fill status recorded before and after each transfer
• Quality disputes settled on test-method reproducibility under ISO 4259 or ASTM D3244
• Joint inspection where buyer and seller each appoint a surveyor

Certificates and audits

We describe the standards we work to rather than display certification marks. Where a management-system, sustainability-scheme or calibration certificate is held for a particular site or instrument, we provide a copy to verified counterparties on request, with its scope and issuing body, so it can be checked with the issuer. A certificate offered to anyone who has not passed our KYC did not come from us.