Every cargo has a past. Regulators and courts want that past written down in full, and the ship that carries it is now part of the record.

Carbon accounting once stopped at the funnel. It is reaching into the hold and asking owners to vouch for numbers they were never asked to keep.

The fleets that measure their own data before anyone demands it will have little to fear when the auditors climb the gangway.

The transatlantic ethane trade has grown quietly. CIEL’s figures put INEOS-linked volumes at 3,130 kt in 2025, roughly 7.3 times the 2016 level. That cargo moves on a purpose-built fleet of VLECs and Dragon-class carriers, and independent tonnage carries about 22.8% of the total. Until now, almost no one outside the trade knew its size. Data Desk found that neither academics nor analysts had worked out its exact scale.

That lack of visibility is the problem. Purified ethane falls outside the EU Carbon Border Adjustment Mechanism and the EU Methane Regulation, even though it comes from the same wells as LNG. The emissions behind it rest on supplier self-reporting and a certification scheme that CIEL says cannot be independently verified. Meanwhile, satellite and aerial monitoring recorded more than ninety super-emitter events in the Appalachian Basin in a single year.

Shipping should recognise the pattern. Much of the industry’s own carbon reporting still rests on self-declared fuel data, and the EU ETS and FuelEU Maritime have only begun to test it. Once campaigners and courts begin scrutinising one part of a supply chain, they rarely stop at the wellhead. CIEL wants EU reporting to cover transport and name actual suppliers, and that would put the carrier in the same emissions inventory as the cargo.

The commercial exposure is real as well. Owners who built or chartered ships for this feedstock are tied to a €5 billion project that faces its fifth legal action. Its export credit backers are being urged to reopen due diligence. Highly specialised tonnage has few other trades to turn to if its cargo base wobbles.

The broader point for owners and managers is that emissions credibility is turning into a contract term. Charterers will want voyage data they can defend before a regulator or a judge. Fleets that measure and verify their own numbers early will be in a far stronger place than those relying on someone else’s paperwork.

A fleet does not necessarily need nine identical connectivity packages simply because it has nine vessels.

Usage, routes and operational requirements can differ from ship to ship — and can change over time.

AST Networks’ LEO connectivity options are designed around that reality. Operators can choose between pooled data, unlimited connectivity, seasonal solutions and Dual-LEO configurations, with the ability to scale connectivity according to individual vessel requirements.

That gives fleet and IT teams greater flexibility to decide what each vessel needs rather than forcing different operating profiles into one standard model.

» See the connectivity options available from AST Networks «

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What Does Effective Loss Prevention Look Like in Practice? A live webinar in partnership with OneOcean | 17th November 2026
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Vessel Performance Summit | 10th March 2027 | Denmark
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Digital Ship Summit | October 2027 | Singapore
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