Settle Invoices

The responsibility for invoicing and payments varies between organisations. OAS contains much of the data required for this; typically OAS will interface with the financials system to provide information about the quantity of each cargo. In other refineries, OAS can be used to calculate the price of each cargo and hence can be used to prepare invoices directly.

Port Services used can be calculated and the charges aggregated (port services include harbour fees, telephone charges, fresh water, tugs or any other charge defined by the refinery)

OAS enables various price and exchange rate sets to be defined. This allows different price sets to be used depending on the commercial arrangement with other parties; e.g. term arrangements may be different from spot deals. Similarly, monthly price sets may be agreed for some whereas other parties will use bank rates.

Demurrage is estimated based on Vessel Timesheet information. Although there is no formal industry standard for demurrage estimate calculations, most refineries use very similar algorithms. OAS allows rules to be managed locally by site personnel. As Demurrage is a matter for negotiation as much as calculation, OAS allows users to apportion any delays and record comments with each change. The calculated and apportioned changes are recorded so they can be reviewed and analysed at a later date if necessary.

OAS supports the tracking of Third Party Deals and currently handles three types of common arrangements. These are

• Crude Exchange : A crude exchange can occur when line-clearing a receipt pipeline shared by more than one site. Purchase or sale records are generated automatically.
  
  
• Crude Processing :  Many refineries have agreements whereby the refinery processes crude on behalf of a third party, who then gains an entitlement to lift a defined amount of product.
  
  
• Timing Exchange : Nominations may be supplied from non-refinery stock (e.g. from an offshore storage depot, or another refinery), even though the refinery produces the required documentation. Such a lifting may give rise to a third party's entitlement to lift from the refinery.

A third party's entitlement to lift is tracked and can be settled by receipts/deliveries or purchase/sales.