AI and Digital Technology Drive Efficiency Gains Across Liquid Fuels Logistics and Energy Sectors

## Maritime Industry Briefing: Technology & Energy Logistics ### AI Transforms Liquid Fuels Document Processing Liquid fuels logistics specialist Murex has selected AI firm Seekr to overhaul its document management operations, in a deployment that directly touches barge and waterway freight operations. According to a PR Newswire announcement dated September 3, 2026, the partnership applies Seekr's vision-model document ingestion and agentic reasoning capabilities to process more than 15,000 Bills of Lading per month across truck, barge, and rail channels. The integration marks the first energy sector deployment for Seekr's model-agnostic AI platform, which the company describes as 'explainable and defensible' — a distinction increasingly valued in regulated freight environments where audit trails and compliance documentation are critical. For maritime operators handling liquid bulk cargoes, the automation of Bills of Lading processing at this scale represents a meaningful step toward reducing manual administrative burden and improving cargo tracking accuracy across multimodal supply chains. The move reflects a broader industry trend of energy logistics companies investing in AI to manage high-volume, document-intensive workflows that have historically relied on manual processing. ### Predictive Maintenance Leader Expands Latin American Footprint I-care, a Belgium-based global leader in predictive maintenance and reliability solutions, announced an expanded presence in Brazil on September 3, 2026, citing growing regional demand and closer alignment with global clients' local subsidiaries. While not exclusively a maritime company, I-care's predictive maintenance technologies are widely applied in port machinery, marine propulsion systems, and offshore energy assets — sectors where unplanned downtime carries significant operational and financial consequences. The Latin American expansion positions I-care to serve an energy and industrial market that includes major offshore oil and gas operations, particularly in Brazil's pre-salt basin, where equipment reliability is paramount. The company's growth strategy in the region underscores the increasing appetite among Latin American operators for condition-monitoring and reliability engineering solutions. ### Grid Compliance Technology Unlocks Transmission Capacity In the broader energy infrastructure space, Open Access Technology International (OATI) reported that its webLineR™ platform is now being used by Entergy, three NextEra Energy operating companies, and several Florida transmission providers to achieve compliance with FERC Order 881, which mandates ambient-adjusted line ratings. The technology automates a complex compliance process while simultaneously unlocking additional transmission capacity — a development relevant to port electrification projects and shore power infrastructure that depend on reliable grid access. --- *Sources: PR Newswire (Seekr/Murex announcement, September 3, 2026; I-care Brazil expansion, September 3, 2026; OATI FERC 881 compliance, September 3, 2026)*