Year: 2026

Nautilus is a fleet management and regulatory compliance platform designed for shipping companies, shipowners, and maritime consultants operating under IMO and EU environmental regulations. It centralizes vessel data, voyage records, and emissions calculations into a single backend, providing accurate, audit-ready compliance documentation for regulatory submissions.

The platform addresses the growing complexity of maritime environmental legislation — a landscape that has shifted dramatically with the introduction of the EU Emissions Trading System (ETS) for shipping in 2024, the IMO’s Carbon Intensity Indicator (CII) rating framework, FuelEU Maritime penalties, and theEnergy Efficiency Existing Ship Index (EEXI) certification requirements.

Try it now on https://nautilus.ingeniat.eu or check the specification here.

(Note: some features cut down on this demo version, contact us for access to a fully featured version)

Getting Started

Log in with the pre-filled credentials:
[email protected] / admin123

What Nautilus Does

Nautilus serves as the system of record for a fleet’s compliance posture. It tracks every vessel in a company’s register, records each voyage with cargo and consumption data, and calculates the resulting emissions, CII ratings, and EU ETS allowances automatically. The backend exposes a REST API consumed by a React frontend, with role-based access for fleet managers, company admins, and regulatory auditors.

Regulatory Calculations

The platform implements four interlocking compliance calculations:

EEXI (Energy Efficiency Existing Ship Index) — A theoretical maximum efficiency threshold calculated from a vessel’s technical design parameters (installed power, TTEW, DWT, design speed). Unlike operational ratings, EEXI is a design certification that vessels must meet through engine power limitations (EPL) or other technical upgrades. Nautilus stores the EEXI certificate reference and tracks compliance status per vessel.

CII (Carbon Intensity Indicator) — An operational rating expressed in grams of CO2 per cargo-carrying capacity per nautical mile (gCO2/t·nm). Vessels are assigned a rating from A (best) through E (worst) based on their annual operational performance. Ratings below D for three consecutive years trigger a corrective action requirement (CAP). Nautilus calculates the CII per voyage leg and aggregates it into a rolling annual rating per vessel.

EU ETS (European Union Emissions Trading System) — Shipping companies operating within EU ports must surrender EU Allowances (EUAs) covering 100% of CO2 emissions from intra-EU voyages and 50% from voyages arriving from or departing to non-EU ports (phased in through 2026). Nautilus tracks total verified emissions per voyage, converts to EUA requirements, and maintains an allowance ledger per company.

FuelEU Maritime — In effect from 2025, this regulation imposes a greenhouse gas (GHG) intensity limit on energy used on board vessels. The limit tightens progressively (‑2% in 2025, reaching ‑80% by 2050). Vessels exceeding the limit face penalties. Nautilus flags non-compliant voyages by comparing fuel energy content against the GHG intensity target.

Walk into most shipping offices and ask how they’re handling EU ETS. You’ll hear the same thing: “We’ll buy what we need in September and move on.” It’s treated like a tax — an irritating compliance cost to settle at the deadline.

That’s not just sub-optimal. Over a three-year phase-in, it’s the most expensive way to do it. And yet, almost nobody is talking about the alternative. Let’s walk through what a disciplined EUA procurement strategy actually looks like — and what it saves.

The phased surrender schedule isn’t just a political concession. It’s a pricing gift.

– 2024 emissions → surrender 40% by September 2025
– 2025 emissions → surrender 70% by September 2026
– 2026 emissions → surrender 100% by September 2027 onwards

That ramp (40/70/100) creates nearly three full years between the first real cash-out and the moment you face the full obligation. You don’t need all your allowances on Day 1. You have time. Time to average in, position on pullbacks, and exploit the single biggest driver of EUA prices that shipping analysts rarely mention: gas market dynamics.

EU ETS and FuelEU Maritime were written with large shipping companies in mind. The monitoring plans, carbon registries, allowance procurement cycles, and annual verification requirements all assume you have people whose full-time job is exactly this. Most small operators don’t. And the regulation offers no simpler version for those who don’t.

Since January 2024, every ship above 5,000 GT calling at EU or EEA ports has been required to purchase and surrender EU Emissions Trading System allowances — real money, real deadlines, real penalties for getting it wrong. The phase-in is steep: 40% coverage in 2024, 70% in 2025, 100% from 2026. For a single tanker or bulk carrier with significant EU trading exposure, that translates to an allowance bill of €100,000 to €500,000 per year — a cost that needs to be procured, tracked, and surrendered by 30 September each year without exception.

FuelEU Maritime, which entered into force in January 2025, adds a parallel framework on top. Where ETS charges you for what you emit, FuelEU sets targets for how clean your fuel needs to be — on a well-to-wake basis that captures the full lifecycle of every tonne of bunker consumed. Miss the GHG intensity target and the penalty is €2,400 per gigajoule of shortfall. The two regimes run independently of each other and require separate monitoring, separate reporting, and separate compliance strategies.

Since 2025 the net has widened further. General cargo ships and offshore vessels above 400 GT came into full MRV monitoring scope under the amended regulation — pulling thousands of smaller operators into a system they had little time to prepare for. For these vessels there are no ETS allowances to buy yet, but the monitoring obligation is real: approved monitoring plans, voyage-level fuel data collection, annual verified emission reports, and the Document of Compliance consequences that follow if any of it is missing.