What is a CTRM system?

A CTRM (commodity trading and risk management) system is the platform a trading business runs its book on. It captures physical and paper trades, values positions against market curves, tracks credit and market exposure, schedules and tracks cargoes, and settles the money — replacing the spreadsheet estate most desks accumulate. Octane covers that whole lifecycle in one audited platform.

How is Octane different from a spreadsheet-based trading operation?

A spreadsheet cannot tell you who changed a price, when, or on whose approval. Octane records every change as an immutable audit event, routes governed changes through maker-checker approval, and emits domain events so downstream modules react automatically. Position, risk and settlement all read from the same records, so the desk, the risk team and finance stop reconciling three versions of the truth.

Which commodities does Octane support?

Crude oil, refined products, natural gas and LNG, coal, and carbon credits — physical and paper, spot, term and master-contract structures. Units, quality specifications, conversion factors and pricing conventions are configured per commodity rather than hard-coded.

How is Octane licensed and priced?

Octane is licensed by package: Trade, Operate, Settle and Control, plus Advanced Analytics. Start with the one that matches how your desk works today and turn on another as the operation grows — the platform is one system, so adding a package unlocks modules rather than starting a migration. Advanced Analytics is charged separately because it carries its own data infrastructure. Founding clients get a free, customizable development application and a 30-day full-feature trial.

Can Octane run on our own infrastructure?

Yes. Octane runs as a browser application, as a mirrored desktop client for Windows, macOS and Linux, and can be deployed into your own cloud tenancy or data centre. It is a Java and PostgreSQL stack with no proprietary runtime dependency.

How long does implementation take?

Because reference data, permissions, approval workflows and even interface wording are configured rather than coded, a single-desk deployment is measured in weeks rather than the multi-year programmes this category is known for. Founding clients are onboarded alongside the team that builds the product.

Physical crude

Crude oil trading software

Dated Brent and formula pricing, quality differentials by grade, API and sulphur specifications, blending, and voyage economics from load port to discharge. Crude selection and netback comparison run against the same curves the book is valued on.

Units: bbl · MT Physical & paper

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Octane crude trade capture and lifecycle book

The lifecycle

From capture to cash, on one record.

1
Capture

Term, spot and master-contract cargoes with grade, laycan, tolerance and incoterm.
2
Price

Formula pricing off Dated Brent and published assessments, with grade differentials.
3
Operate

Nomination, voyage, laytime and demurrage against the same trade record.
4
Settle

Provisional and final invoicing on measured quantity, with secondary costs.

Built for this market

What you get for Crude oil.

Configured for how this market actually trades — units, specifications, pricing conventions and settlement rules — rather than a generic template with the labels changed.

Formula & differential pricing

Governed pricing formulas resolve from approved settled prices — never a spreadsheet cell. Grade differentials, premiums and discounts are versioned and auditable.

Grade & assay specifications

API gravity, sulphur, TAN and pour point held per grade, with density-driven conversion between barrels and metric tonnes.

Voyage & freight economics

Charter, laytime and demurrage tracked against the cargo, so freight lands in deal economics rather than beside it.

Netback & crude selection

Compare crudes on netback against the curves the book is already valued on, not a parallel model.

Quality claims & tolerance

Operational tolerance, quality giveaway and claims handled as part of settlement, with the evidence attached.

Paper hedges linked to the barrel

Crude derivatives carry a reference to the physical deal they offset, so hedge effectiveness is measurable rather than asserted.

Before you ask

Questions we get from Crude oil desks.

Does Octane support Dated Brent formula pricing?: Yes. Pricing formulas are built from governed markers and resolve against approved settled prices, including Dated Brent, published assessments and grade differentials. Every formula is versioned, and the price a trade settled on can always be reconstructed.
Can it convert between barrels and metric tonnes?: Yes, using the density of the specific grade rather than a single site-wide factor, so a heavy and a light crude do not convert at the same rate.

Also covered

Every market on one platform.

Desks rarely trade one thing. Each market below runs on its own rulebook inside the same system of record — so a crude cargo and a power block share governance without sharing assumptions.

Crude Oil Refined Products Natural Gas & LNG Power & Electricity Coal Carbon & Emissions NGL & Hydrocarbons Petrochemicals Biofuels & Ethanol Paper & Derivatives

See it with your Crude oil book.

We configure the demo around your contracts, your curves and your counterparties — so you are looking at your own desk, not a sample one.

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