About Admanthos

Refineries are rarely close to the people who need their products. Gasoline, diesel, jet fuel and heating oil usually travel by sea at some point, and they often spend weeks in a tank along the way. Admanthos works in that part of the supply chain.

The business has two activities: moving petroleum products by ship and storing them on shore. Neither is glamorous. Done well, they go unnoticed, because the fuel simply arrives on specification, in the agreed quantity, at the agreed time.

This website is written for traders, distributors, refiners and terminal users who need more than a brochure. Our aim is to explain how the work is done, including the parts where things go wrong, so you can judge whether we are the right company to work with.

Most of the expensive problems in this business happen at the handover between ship and shore. A slow berth turns into demurrage. A tank that isn't ready leaves a vessel waiting at anchor. Figures that don't match after discharge can turn into a claim that takes months to settle.

Each side of that handover is usually run by a different company, with different incentives. Thinking about the voyage and the tank as one problem changes the questions that get asked early on: will the tank be empty and clean on arrival, can the shore line accept the vessel's discharge rate, and who pays if either answer turns out to be no?

Lower Fairfield County, with Stamford and Greenwich at its center, has long been a base for shipping companies, commodity traders and the brokers and lawyers who serve them. New York's financial and legal markets are about an hour away by train, and the region's own marine industry runs along Long Island Sound.

Being here matters for practical reasons. New York Harbor, close by, is one of the main US petroleum products hubs and the delivery point for the benchmark NYMEX gasoline and diesel futures contracts.

Whether or not you work with us, these questions tell you quickly how an operator runs its business:

1. Who owns or operates the vessel or tank, and can I see the documents?
2. What were the last three cargoes in this tank, and how was it cleaned?
3. Who is the independent inspector, and who appoints them?
4. How often are the gauges calibrated and the tanks inspected, and when were they last done?
5. What is the gain or loss history on comparable parcels?
6. What happens to my product, and who pays, if the facility has an outage?
7. Can I see your insurance certificates and spill response arrangements?
8. What is your latest vetting or audit result, and what did it find?

A serious operator will expect these questions. Be cautious of anyone who won't answer them, or who asks for fees before giving you documents you can verify independently.