Inaccuracies in petroleum product accounting may seem insignificant when dealing with a single tanker or batch. However, on an annual scale, even a small systematic error can translate into substantial financial losses, discrepancies with counterparties, and questions from regulatory authorities.

The Fuel and Energy Business Association spoke with Pavlo Yunoshev, founder of the YNTEK service, about why businesses confuse mass, weight, and volume of fuel, why it is necessary to adjust figures to a temperature of 15 °C, and how the automation of calculations can simplify accounting.

— Pavlo, how did the idea of creating a service for automating petroleum product accounting arise? 

— The idea emerged during my practical work at tank farms, LPG terminals, and gas stations.

Petroleum product accounting is described in Instruction 281 and regulated by relevant normative documents. Specifically, for tank farms, accounting is conducted in units of “MASS,” and for gas stations, in units of “VOLUME”. According to paragraph 4.2.1, accounting for tank farms is performed in “MASS” units, and accounting for gas stations is performed in “VOLUME” units.

A similar approach applies to liquefied petroleum gas (LPG): LPG accounting is described in Instruction 332. According to paragraph 4.1, LPG accounting for filling stations (GNS, GNP) is carried out in “MASS” units, and for autogas stations (AGZS, AGZP) in “VOLUME” units.

Today, the market has numerous measuring instruments that determine “WEIGHT,” “MASS,” and “VOLUME”. At the legislative level, for the calculation of taxes and fees, the unit of measurement “VOLUME, ADJUSTED to 15 °C” is used.

During technological operations related to draining, filling, transportation, and storage, different measuring instruments are used. In most cases, enterprises lack a metrological service and do not appoint a responsible person in accordance with paragraph 4.1.6 (of Instruction 281). (4.1.6. Enterprises must establish metrological services or appoint, by order of the enterprise head, persons responsible for ensuring the unity of measurements. Metrological services of enterprises and responsible persons in their work must be guided by current regulatory legal acts and normative documents on metrology.).

In practice, enterprises constantly have to convert one set of indicators into another, taking into account density, temperature, and other parameters. For many years, I saw how disagreements and financial losses arose due to the incorrect interpretation of the concepts “mass,” “weight,” “density,” and “volume”.

That is why the idea appeared to create a service that automates such calculations and reduces the influence of the human factor.

— What accounting mistakes do enterprises encounter most often? 

— First and foremost, mass and weight are often confused, as well as actual volume versus standard volume (GSV – adjusted to 15 °C).

For example, when weighing a road tanker or a railway carriage, an enterprise gets the difference between the loaded weight and the empty vehicle weight. However, the obtained value cannot always be automatically recorded as the product mass without considering the conditions under which the measurement is carried out.

For open containers (under atmospheric pressure) and closed containers (under overpressure), different approaches to determining indicators are applied. If this is not taken into account, a systematic error may appear in the documents.

A separate problem is manual calculations. Different employees may use different tables, formulas, or methodologies. As a result, the same batch of goods may have different indicators in the documents of the supplier, carrier, and recipient.

— Why is it so important to adjust fuel volume specifically to 15 °C? 

— The volume of a petroleum product depends on temperature. At a higher temperature, the liquid expands; at a lower one, it compresses. Therefore, the same actual mass of product can have a different volume depending on the conditions under which the measurement is conducted.

Adjusting the volume to 15 °C creates a single basis for comparing indicators during receipt, storage, transportation, and product shipment.

This is especially important because customs payments and taxes are calculated using volume indicators adjusted to 15 °C. Accordingly, market participants need to maintain such accounting at all stages of operations with petroleum products and LPG.

Simply put, adjusting to 15 °C allows all parties to compare identical indicators, regardless of the actual temperature at which the measurement was conducted.

— How do mistakes in such calculations affect the enterprise’s financial result? 

— Within the scope of one road tanker or one railcar, the difference may seem insignificant. But if the same error is repeated during each receipt or shipment, it accumulates on the scale of annual turnover.

According to our calculations, just because of incorrect differentiation between mass and weight, the error can be about 0.15% of the petroleum product turnover. For an enterprise with large volumes of operations, this is already a significant financial indicator.

The problem lies not only in direct losses. Incorrect data can cause disputes with suppliers, carriers, or buyers, as each party relies on its own measurement results.

Here is a practical example: a tanker with 4,000 tons of diesel fuel was unloaded into 154 road tankers. All fuel trucks were weighed on tensometric scales. The scale readings were controlled by the trader, consignee, and carrier. The consignment note was filled out using simple arithmetic. As a result of such actions, a systematic error occurred, which led to the distortion of commodity and excise accounting.

• The loss per road tanker was 34 kg and 41 liters at 15 °C.
• Accordingly, the total loss was 5,236 kg (154 × 34 = 5,236).
• The deviation in excise accounting was 6,314 liters (154 × 41 = 6,314).
• Assuming the cost of one liter is 75.00 UAH, financial losses would amount to 6,314 × 75 = 473,550.0 UAH.
• The percentage of losses in the example of one tanker with diesel fuel with a total weight of 4,000 tons is 0.13%.

— Separately, you draw attention to the accounting of the LPG vapor phase. Why is this important?

— Before starting technological operations, an autogas tanker already contains a certain amount of LPG in the vapor phase. It must also be taken into account to correctly determine the actual movement of the product.

In practice, the mass of the vapor phase is often not included in calculations at all. At the same time, depending on the season and other conditions, it can range from 140 to 380 kilograms. In some cases, the mass of vapors exceeded 500 kilograms.

If this indicator is not taken into account, an enterprise may mistakenly attribute the corresponding quantity of product to technological or actual losses. Automated calculation helps to more accurately determine what quantity (mass) of LPG was in the vapor phase (before the start of loading). The calculated vapor phase mass values are converted into the liquid phase and volume at 15 °C. Such a calculation allows avoiding misunderstandings between carriers and customers. Gas-tanker trucks are equipped only with pumps and, accordingly, can only pump the liquid phase of LPG.

— How exactly does automation help the enterprise avoid such discrepancies? 

— The user enters the input data, after which the system performs the calculation according to a built-in algorithm.

This allows avoiding complex manual calculations, not using different tables, and not depending on exactly what methodology an individual employee uses.

The algorithms are based on normative documents and international standards. The user’s task is to correctly enter the input data and check their reliability.

Thus, automation does not eliminate the enterprise’s responsibility for the correctness of primary information, but it reduces the risk of error directly during the calculation.

— What risks arise for an enterprise if accounting is conducted incorrectly? 

— First of all, these are financial losses and discrepancies with counterparties. In addition, errors can end up in primary documents, reports, and excise invoices.

A regulatory authority can check data specified in bills of lading, quality certificates, excise invoices, and other documents. Since a significant part of the information is stored in electronic systems, discrepancies can be discovered for previous periods as well.

For a regulatory authority, the fact of discrepancy itself will matter. Regardless of whether a shortage or surplus was formed, it can be regarded as a violation of commercial, customs, or excise accounting rules.

— Why might it be more profitable for an enterprise to use a specialized service rather than performing calculations independently? 

— To correctly perform such calculations, one needs not only formulas but also an understanding of normative documents, international standards, and the specifics of accounting for different types of products.

An enterprise has to either keep a relevant specialist, train employees, and monitor the relevance of methodologies, or use an external specialized solution.

The service gives access to the methodology embedded in algorithms without the need to independently develop software or constantly perform complex calculations manually.

At the same time, enterprise employees must understand basic terms and control the correctness of input data. No algorithm can provide a correct result if the initial information is entered incorrectly.

— Have such calculations helped in practice to settle disputes between enterprises? 

— Yes, correct calculations have repeatedly helped clients argue for their data during disagreements with counterparties.

When both parties use different methodologies or interpret mass, weight, or adjusted volume differently, a dispute can last a long time. Having a calculation performed according to a single methodology allows for a substantive comparison of input data and an understanding of at which stage the difference arose.

This does not guarantee the automatic resolution of every dispute, but it gives the enterprise a reasoned position for negotiations and document verification.

— For which market participants is the service intended? 

— For importers, traders, carriers, operators of tank farms, gas stations, industrial enterprises, and other companies that professionally work with petroleum products and LPG.

In fact, the service can be useful to all enterprises that need to maintain petroleum product or LPG accounting, compare mass, weight, density, actual and adjusted volume of product, and verify the correctness of indicators in documents.

— On what regulatory and methodological basis are the algorithms built? 

— The algorithms are based on the current legislation of Ukraine, international API MPMS and ASTM standards, and generally accepted methodologies for adjusting petroleum product volume to 15 °C.

The goal is for identical input data to be processed by a single algorithm and to yield a reproducible result.

This is especially important for the market where a supplier, carrier, tank farm, laboratory, gas station, and regulatory bodies can simultaneously participate in one operation.

— What functions of the service are already implemented, and how do you plan to develop it? 

— Currently, the BAF data array processing algorithm is implemented on the platform during the weighing of vehicles with petroleum products and LPG.

Preparation of attachments to consignment notes takes a few minutes. Individual calculations can also be performed using a Telegram bot—in such a case, the result is generated a few seconds after entering the necessary data.

In the future, it is envisaged to integrate the service with SEARP, enterprise ERP systems, measuring equipment, mobile applications, analytical tools, and systems for automatic reporting.

A separate direction of development is the creation of an environment in which enterprises and other authorized participants of the process will be able to work with identical input data and unified calculation algorithms.

— What main market problem should such a platform solve? 

— Our goal is to create not just a calculator, but a digital platform for standardized petroleum product accounting.

A unified methodology for determining mass, weight, and liters at 15 °C should make calculations more transparent and understandable for all parties.

This allows reducing the risk of manipulating units of measurement, ensuring the possibility of independent verification of results, and gradually increasing the level of trust between market participants.

For business, this is primarily a tool for more accurate accounting and control of its own operations. For the state—a potential opportunity to receive more transparent and comparable data, formed according to unified rules.

— Can you provide a specific, but anonymized example where a correct calculation helped an enterprise discover an error, avoid losses, or settle a dispute with a counterparty? 

— Such examples exist. A carrier approached us with a request to explain the amount of liquefied gas shortages during the unloading of a gas-tanker vessel. The carrier performed a technological operation—arrival of an autogas-tanker for loading, weighing on tensometric scales (determination of weight before loading), pumping LPG into the gas-tanker, weighing on tensometric scales (after loading). Input data for the calculation were the LPG quality passport (on the vessel), vapor pressure in the gas-tanker container, and ambient temperature. We performed a molecular mass calculation, calculated the mass of the vapor phase based on quality passport data, temperature, and vapor pressure at which technological operations were performed. As a result of the calculation, it was established that the mass of the vapor phase, which was in the autogas-tanker container before the start of cargo operations, but after weighing, was 456 KG.VAC, which corresponds to 826 liters at 15 °C. This quantity is pumped onto the gas-tanker vessel during loading and is not taken into account in accounting. All questions to the carrier were dropped regarding each specific machine.

— What operations can already be performed today through the platform and Telegram bot: what data does the user enter and what result or document do they receive? 

— As of July 2026, one can use the service to calculate “MASS — MT.VAC,” “WEIGHT — MT.AIR,” and “VOLUME at 15°C” for petroleum product and LPG according to actual road or rail scale readings during loading/unloading according to consignment notes. How it works:

1. You enter the parameters of the tank and cargo

• You pay for the calculation

• You receive an official signed document The service also provides the opportunity to calculate the mass of the LPG vapor phase before the start of loading after weighing (mass of the LPG vapor phase that is in the container in vapors under pressure). The mass of the vapor phase is converted to volume at 15°C.

— Does the enterprise really not need to collect a separate package of documents, invite a specialist, or send equipment for inspection to conduct a calculation? What is actually required from the user? 

— The user uses exclusively those measuring instruments that are involved in the technological operation. Given the lack of trust between suppliers, carriers, and regulatory bodies, we have not encountered cases where non-verified or non-certified measuring instruments were used in the process.

The user must be sure only that their representative correctly entered data from actual scale readings and quality passport data (which is attached to the bill of lading or cargo customs declaration). Regarding LPG, the user’s representative enters data on pressure in the container and temperature immediately after weighing the (empty) machine before loading. Of course, errors may occur during data entry, but they are easy to detect and correct immediately. Usually, input data is collected by the driver or a representative. Everything is reduced to a minimum of specialized knowledge—what you saw is what you wrote down.

— What part of the work does the service perform automatically, and what must still be checked by a responsible enterprise employee? 

— After entering data, the service will require confirmation of their authenticity from the person who enters this data. After confirmation, the service will perform calculations in accordance with the requirements of normative documents. The calculation results are formed into a separate document in the form of an attachment without human participation, so it is impossible to change them.

— Can the calculation result be used when drawing up consignment documents, reconciling with a counterparty, or preparing for an inspection? What legal or evidentiary status does such a calculation have? 

— Yes, it is possible; in most cases, all market participants use the services of independent server companies. To perform calculations, YNTEK uses the same normative documents and international standards; we are verified users and use only licensed algorithms.

— Have the service’s algorithms undergone independent technical, metrological, or expert verification confirming their compliance with Ukrainian regulations and international standards? 

— Undoubtedly, all calculation algorithms undergo verification. Depending on the complexity of the calculation, the accuracy and number of iterations required to achieve it are defined in normative documents. When calculating the CTPL coefficient, the number of iterations must not exceed 15; otherwise, the calculation is stopped.

— What is the fundamental difference between YNTEK and an ordinary online calculator or an internal enterprise spreadsheet, and what market problem does the service solve comprehensively? 

— Our state chose an optimal solution and took the normative documents of leading countries of the world, such as the United States of America and Great Britain, as a basis. YNTEK specialists have traveled a long road in minimizing risks associated with the accounting or loss of petroleum products and LPG. We provide a super-intendant service that is only gaining popularity in Ukraine.