Authentix
An End-to-End Authentication Solution

While branded fuel companies continue to make efforts to ensure the integrity of their downstream fuel supply, the risks of fuel manipulation, quality issues, and the financial impacts still loom large today. These threats, when realized, often damage the integrity of the brands and lead to financial and liability consequences as most companies still lack the critical insights driven by supply chain data that could help drive subsequent corrective and preventative actions.

Today, Authentix assists both branded fuel owners as well as other commercial and consumer product companies to thrive in supply and distribution chain complexity, mitigate risks, promote revenue growth, and gain a competitive advantage in the market. “Our advanced authentication solutions make the world a better place by protecting the integrity of products and minimizing fraud or eliminating it completely. Authentix verifies the integrity of physical products and connects the physical to the digital world to provide insightful data analytics that help secure the integrity of global commerce,” says president and CEO of the company Kevin McKenna.

Authentix has decades of experience with some of the world’s largest organizations and is devoted to providing a turnkey solution to verify the authenticity and integrity of products and programs. In many countries, national governments utilize Authentix proprietary markers in refined fuels to prevent grade swapping, adulteration, and tax avoidance. In addition, the company offers its data management system (AXIS®) as a platform for these programs to provide auditing visibility and enable fast responses to any exceptions in the field.

AXIS aggregates the relevant data from program operations and other sources, using field test results, program data, and reporting tools to provide the client insights where there may be issues in the supply chain and what needs to be done to address them. These insights optimize the operations and enhance the overall performance of the authentication program. “Our proprietary chemical analyzers enable detection of adulterants and dilution to ensure that the fuel supply is not compromised and that the proper tax revenues are being collected,” adds McKenna. “The digital transaction data includes information such as transit location and composition of the fuel with a signature that can be fed into a data transaction registry.

Our proprietary chemical analyzers enable detection of adulterants and dilution to ensure that the fuel supply is not compromised and that the proper tax revenues are being collected

Moreover, as the program operations get recorded, our project managers and support engineers can constantly monitor the results to identify any anomalies.”

Authentix works in close partnerships with customers to learn, adapt and modify, while delivering the best technology to achieve the overall business objectives. A particular instance showing Authentix’ value proposition is the deployment of its integrity program in the Republic of Serbia to fight fuel smuggling and adulteration. The Serbian government knew they had an integrity issue in their fuel supply chain as the number of fuel stations and vehicle registrations were increasing while the taxable sale of fuels was declining. Additional data showed that 30 percent more diesel was sold in fuel stations than what was being legitimately supplied. With an Authentix fuel integrity program in place, it became virtually impossible for certain parties to continue the manipulation of supply and enabled the government to have forensic evidence that supported successful criminal prosecution. In the first five months of the Serbia fuel integrity program launch, more than 930 million liters of fuel were marked, and the Serbian government began to see an 18 percent overall increase in sales and tax collections.

Authentix was born out of the merger of two oil and gas centric businesses, Biocode—a spinoff from Royal Dutch Shell, and Isotag—formed by technology acquired from Los Alamos National Laboratory. “Today, our team comprises of experts with over 20 years of combined experience, and they understand where the issues lie in a supply chain and how to secure the integrity of products within that supply chain,” says McKenna.