Forecourt Operations Management of CNG Stations

With the expansion of city gas distribution (CGD) network in the country the automation of forecourt operations is becoming the need of the hour. Forecourt operations include purchase, storage, sale, distribution, conversion and regasification of natural gas. All these operations require automation as CGD companies are now expanding their area coverage and need to ensure efficiency in their retail operations. The various forecourt activities that can be automated for the CGD sector include, gas purchase management, inventory management, sales collection and monitoring, distribution management monitoring, asset management and financial book keeping.

The forecourt application landscape in the CGD sector consists of inventory management system, asset management system, point of sale (POS) system, distribution management system, finance management system, supervisory control and data acquisition (SCADA), vehicle tracking system and CCTV system. All such systems must be integrated with a central system of the CGD company so as to derive the maximum benefits of automation.

Increasing number of CGD entities are now introducing automation in forecourt operations as it offers better efficiency, increased safety and significant reduction in opex. Inventory control, which is a critical part of inventory management and encompasses tasks such as stock sourcing and forecasting is being automated widely throughout the CGD segment. This procedure is no longer being limited to gas inventory management and is also being extended to the management of other necessary supplies in forecourt operation. Further, in order to provide a productive and integrated solutions for forecourt operations CGD entities are ensuring that inventory management interacts with other relevant applications such as finance management, sales and distribution, POS, SCADA and so on.