Case study · Commercial · Marine fuel trading
We designed and built Stream, the operational backbone of a global marine fuel trading business, taking every deal from a trader’s first chat message through to supplier invoice checks and payment control.
Project overview
Shipergy is a marine fuel trading business serving the global shipping industry. It coordinates fuel purchases across international ports, balancing availability, price, quality, credit and compliance. In early 2026, Shipergy reported trading around 450,000–500,000 tonnes of fuel a year and handling about 100 supplies a month.
For a marine fuel trader, each deal involves a chain of conversations, decisions and financial checks that need to stay connected and controlled. Pixel Fusion first engaged with Shipergy in September 2024 with a discovery phase, which led to a full proposal and a milestone-based delivery. Together we designed and built Stream, combining secure messaging with a full ERP system and turning conversations into tracked, managed transactions.
| Project snapshot | Detail |
|---|---|
| Client | Shipergy Ltd |
| Sector | Marine fuel (bunker) trading and procurement |
| Service | Discovery and requirements definition; solution design; bespoke ERP and secure messaging platform development; integration connecting trader conversations to the ERP workflow |
| Technology | C# / ASP.NET Core; SQL Server; ASP.NET Core Identity; Azure Data Protection with Key Vault and Blob Storage; SignalR / Azure SignalR; Azure Blob Storage; browser Web Push; web, desktop and mobile-ready interface |
| Duration | September 2024 to November 2026, delivered as continuous improvement in sprints. In production since November 2025. |
| Scale | 12 functional areas; a 9-step deal lifecycle; up to 7 parties tracked per deal; 53,043 vessels, 3,385 ports, 659 products and 1,565 contacts in reference data; 2,466 work items completed |
1. The challenge
A single bunker transaction may involve up to seven parties: the ship owner or manager, an optional broker, Shipergy’s owner and supply traders, a fuel supplier, the physical supplier delivering the fuel, and a port agent. Prices can change quickly, while delivery must be coordinated within the vessel’s arrival and departure window. Traders and approvers may also be away from their desks, so information and decisions need to move quickly without losing control of the transaction.
During discovery, Shipergy set out what the new system had to do:
| What Shipergy needed | Why it mattered |
|---|---|
| Record every enquiry, including opportunities not won | A complete pipeline record, so wins, losses and missed opportunities can be analysed. |
| Help traders obtain supplier prices and prepare offers | Key information in one place, so traders can respond quickly and consistently as prices change. |
| Generate deal documents | Less repetitive administration and consistent transaction information across the paperwork. |
| Check supplier invoices and track client payments | Control over amounts due, payments received and outstanding actions. |
| Support accurate, timely payments to suppliers, brokers and agents | Account for the different parties in a transaction and the amounts owed to each. |
| Check credit limits and screen ships and companies against sanctions lists before confirming deals | Financial and compliance checks built into the workflow before the business commits. |
| Turn chat messages into enquiry records within about a minute | Traders act quickly while the source message stays visible and anything the system could not read is flagged for review. |
| Support the full workflow on desktop, mobile and tablet, with push notifications | Traders and approvers can respond away from their desks. |
The guiding principle was to support informed decisions, not make them. Critical information began in conversations and had to remain accurate, traceable and subject to human review throughout each deal.
2. The solution
Shipergy selected Pixel Fusion on the recommendation of Lookthru, a partner that had worked with Shipergy for a couple of years.
We built a bespoke messaging platform and ERP as one application, bringing business conversations into the same system as Shipergy’s operational work. Staff use topic-based channels or private and group messages, with threaded discussions, @mentions, read receipts, file sharing and search. Live updates and targeted notifications help traders keep up with activity. Access to channels, messages and files is controlled, and direct-message content is encrypted in the database. Stream is available in a web browser and as a desktop app.
When a trader posts an enquiry in the Enquiries channel, the platform identifies the client, port, vessel, product and quantity and creates an enquiry record in the ERP, tagged as coming from messaging. Traders capture a deal from the desktop or mobile app without completing a separate form, and product aliases help the system recognise fuel grades entered in different ways. A manual form remains available as a continuity option, with those records tagged “Manual” so the source stays clear.
Information also flows back. When a nomination is issued, the ERP can post it to the team channel with the PDF attached, keeping the document alongside the related discussion.
Each enquiry becomes the record of the whole deal, bringing together offers, compliance status, supplier and pricing details, notes, client information, payment history and documents.
| ERP area | What it supports |
|---|---|
| Dashboard | Open, won, stalled and credit-pending enquiries, alongside claims, advance payments, credit, invoices, documents and cashflow. |
| Enquiries and deal records | A central record of each deal. Enquiries with no activity for two days are flagged as stalled. |
| Official documents | Seven document types generated from deal information, including nominations, stem confirmations, invoices and credit notes, pre-filled for human review with an audit trail. |
| Advance payments and forward pricing | Deals where the client pays before delivery, with urgent and overdue payments flagged, and forward-priced deals that create price exposure. |
| Claims | Quality and quantity disputes, with supplier payment blocked while a claim is open. |
| Client and credit management | Client companies and parent groups, with credit limits and exposure across each group. |
| Reference data | Supplier, port, vessel, product and contact records that feed selection fields across the system. |
Unrecognised clients and vessels are added as draft records for the team to verify, historical vessel names are retained so enquiries stay linked to the right vessel, and confirmed duplicate names are saved as aliases rather than new records. Reference data in production use includes 53,043 vessels identified by IMO number, 3,385 ports, 659 products and 1,565 contacts.
3. The outcome
Stream now gives Shipergy one system for chat, enquiries, offers, documents, credit and reference data, with activity recorded against each deal. It is documented to support ongoing maintenance, and the engagement concluded in November 2026 with the system handed over to Shipergy.
4. The impact
“Pixel Fusion built Stream to run our business, from a trader’s first chat message right through to invoicing and payment control. They mobilised fast, delivered to plan and brought our mobile app in ahead of schedule, and they worked as a real partner the whole way, including coming out to Athens to plan our go-live with us.”
Shipergy rated the engagement 8/10 for overall satisfaction, 9/10 for responsiveness and 9/10 for likelihood to recommend.
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