Business Wire

Maana and Aramco Trading Company Launch AI Application to Optimize Maritime Fleet and Shipping Operations

2.3.2021 17:00:00 EET | Business Wire | Press release

Share

Aramco Trading Company (ATC) and Maana today announced the launch of Fanar, the first Artificial Intelligence (AI)-driven maritime fleet optimization application on Microsoft Azure purpose-built for the oil and gas industry.

Fanar combines the expertise of ATC and the Maana Q knowledge technology. It unifies maritime fleet optimization, planning, management and shipment scheduling on a single platform. The application:

  • systematically integrates all data sources, constraints, and business rules
  • automatically optimizes schedules across the fleet with a single click
  • rapidly processes “what if” scenarios for better insights
  • dynamically incorporates historic performance to generate new predictions

Fanar has been tested daily by ATC since June 2020.

“Collaboration between Maana and Microsoft helps us, through Fanar, to drive down costs,” said Ibrahim Q. Al Buainain, President and CEO of Aramco Trading Company. “Fanar enables us to optimize all local decisions across our maritime shipping and logistics workflows.”

Based on any given a set of cargoes and fleet of vessels, Fanar can determine how to ship the cargo in a way that minimizes cost, optimizes fleet utilization and maximizes business value. It continuously computes dynamic criteria such as vessel locations and actuals; terminals and ports status and congestion; bunkering locations, costs and quality; vessel cleaning; time and spot chartering costs; weather; risk of piracy, terrorism or war; risk of labor and social unrest resulting in closures; epidemics; shipping routes; canal fees; charter party specifications; Contracts of Affreightment (COA); commodity prices; special considerations; business rules and more.

“Under the hood of Fanar is the digital twin of ATC’s global maritime operations,” said Babur Ozden, founder and CEO of Maana. “It is the largest digital twin in the world on Microsoft Azure for global maritime shipments of oil and gas, holding the history, present state and future simulations of billions of barrels of petroleum products, thousands of voyages and vessels.”

“Maana is a founding technology member of Energy Core, a global Microsoft initiative dedicated to digital transformation in the energy sector, through the power of artificial intelligence and cloud technologies,” said Darryl Willis, Corporate Vice President of Energy at Microsoft. “Fanar is a great example of how Maana and ATC are using Microsoft Azure for supply chain optimization.”

The Fanar application is available to Azure customers. For more information, please contact Fanar@maana.io

About Aramco Trading Company

Aramco Trading Company (ATC) is a wholly owned subsidiary of Saudi Aramco and is responsible for handling Saudi Aramco’s domestic and international supplies to worldwide markets. ATC’s mission is to integrate Saudi Aramco’s global Downstream assets to maximize profitability while ensuring Saudi Aramco’s systems are optimized and reliably balanced.

About Maana

Maana organizes human expertise, enterprise knowhow and industrial data into digital knowledge to assist subject matter experts at critical operation affecting the global economy.

To view this piece of content from cts.businesswire.com, please give your consent at the top of this page.

Contact information

Mandi Browning
mandi@maana.io

About Business Wire

For more than 50 years, Business Wire has been the global leader in press release distribution and regulatory disclosure.

Subscribe to releases from Business Wire

Subscribe to all the latest releases from Business Wire by registering your e-mail address below. You can unsubscribe at any time.

Latest releases from Business Wire

Ouster Releases The REV8 OS Family: The World’s First Native Color Lidar4.5.2026 13:00:00 EEST | Press release

Ouster, Inc. (Nasdaq: OUST) (“Ouster” or the “Company”), a leader in sensing and perception for Physical AI, announced today its new family of OS digital lidar sensors, Rev8, powered by its next-generation L4 Ouster Silicon. Ouster Rev8 features the world’s first patented native color lidar sensors, provides up to double the range and resolution of the previous generation, and is designed for functional safety, reliability, affordability, and scale. This press release features multimedia. View the full release here: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20260504718668/en/ The REV8 OS Family: The World's First Native Color Lidar. L4 Ouster Silicon: Ouster’s breakthrough L4 architecture doubles the range and resolution of its lidar over the prior generation, adds native-color sensing, and is designed for functional safety. Based on patented Ouster Silicon with embedded Fujifilm color science, the L4 chip results in exquisite color data and hardware-enabled HDR. It boasts 42.9 GMACs of p

NIQ Research Reveals New Rules of Commerce: AI Is Beginning to Decide What Consumers Buy4.5.2026 13:00:00 EEST | Press release

NielsenIQ (NYSE: NIQ) has announced the release of its new global report, The Commerce Revolution: Where East Meets West, which examines how Eastern-led commerce innovation and Western retail media monetization are colliding to reshape global consumer commerce. This press release features multimedia. View the full release here: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20260428841965/en/ The report finds live, social, and quick commerce—long scaled across Asia—now drive most incremental digital growth worldwide, while Western markets accelerate adoption as these formats localize. At the same time, retail media networks (RMNs) have become one of the fastest‑growing advertising channels globally, with US retail media ad spend projected to reach $107.6 billion (USD) in 2026. Beyond this, the report finds that previously siloed operational functions of sellers are beginning to blur boundaries. Payment platforms and rapid fulfillment models from the East are converging with the monetization mo

OPAQUE Acquires Abu Dhabi-Developed Cryptographic AI Technology from TII, Extending Confidential AI Across the Full Lifecycle with Post-Quantum Protection4.5.2026 11:23:00 EEST | Press release

OPAQUE, the Confidential AI company headquartered in San Francisco, California, today announced it has acquired advanced cryptographic AI technologies from the Technology Innovation Institute (TII), the applied research pillar of Abu Dhabi's Advanced Technology Research Council (ATRC). The acquired technology — already proven in real-world use cases — adds two critical capabilities to OPAQUE's platform: confidential AI model training powered by advanced cryptographic techniques such as multi-party computation and fully homomorphic encryption, as well as post-quantum cryptographic protections. This press release features multimedia. View the full release here: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20260504705475/en/ OPAQUE Acquires Abu Dhabi-Developed Cryptographic AI Technology from TII, Extending Confidential AI Across the Full Lifecycle with Post-Quantum Protection (Photo: AETOSWire) Founded by researchers from UC Berkeley's RISELab, and now with this acquisition, OPAQUE supports Co

Forbes Includes Philip Morris International in Its Net Zero Leaders List4.5.2026 11:00:00 EEST | Press release

Philip Morris International (PMI) (NYSE: PM) has been included once more in Forbes’ 2026 Net Zero Leaders1 list, recognizing its leadership and continued progress in advancing climate action across its global operations. The Forbes Net Zero Leaders list highlights U.S. publicly listed companies best positioned to achieve net zero emissions by 2050, based on measurable performance rather than commitments alone. Despite most companies aligning to a 2050 net zero horizon, PMI remains committed to reaching net zero by 2040, as set out in its Climate Transition Plan published in 2025. This aspiration reflects PMI’s confidence in collective progress, trust that ambition drives innovation, that policy will evolve to enable change, and collaboration will accelerate system‑wide transformation. Above all, it signals hope: that by acting early and holding firm, PMI can help build the critical momentum needed to shift markets, technologies, and mindsets, and inspire similar action across its value

Mobius Renewables Acquires Air Liquide’s Biogas Production Activities in the United States, France, Norway, and Sweden4.5.2026 09:45:00 EEST | Press release

Mobius Renewables today announced the closing of the acquisition of Air Liquide’s biogas production activities in the United States, France, Norway, and Sweden. The acquisition includes six operating landfill gas-to-RNG (Renewable Natural Gas) sites in the U.S., five operating farm waste sites in France, and a 51% interest in Redo Biosolutions with production and distribution assets across Norway and Sweden. The acquired portfolio will be a meaningful addition to Mobius Renewables (“the Company”), a global, vertically integrated low carbon fuels platform established in December 2025 by funds managed by IFM Investors to accelerate the development, production, distribution, and commercialization of RNG at scale across North America and Europe. The Company is headquartered in Houston, Texas with additional offices in the United States, France, Norway, and Sweden. With this transaction, the establishment of Mobius Renewables is complete, and GreenGasUSA and the acquired portfolio will oper

In our pressroom you can read all our latest releases, find our press contacts, images, documents and other relevant information about us.

Visit our pressroom
World GlobeA line styled icon from Orion Icon Library.HiddenA line styled icon from Orion Icon Library.Eye