> ## Content Index > Fetch the complete content index at: https://blog.financely.io/llms.txt > Use this file to discover other available public pages before exploring further. # Case Study: EN590 FOB Rotterdam: KYT Stopped a $500,000 Tank Storage Fee - URL: https://blog.financely.io/case-study-en590-fob-rotterdam-kyt-stopped-a-500-000-tank-storage-fee/ - Published: 2026-10-07T01:30:26.000Z - Updated: 2026-10-07T01:30:26.000Z - Description: A first-time buyer was ready to pay $500,000 in tank storage fees for discounted EN590 FOB Rotterdam. A Know Your Transaction review found no real allocation, no real storage, and no product. The fee was not paid. - Author: Financely Debt Advisors - Tags: Case Studies, Petroleum ## KYT Stopped a $500,000 Tank Storage Payment on a Fake EN590 Allocation A first-time fuel buyer came to Financely ready to pay **$500,000** in tank storage fees. The offer was EN590, FOB Rotterdam, at a heavy discount to the physical market. The seller’s procedure was simple: reserve the tank, pay the storage fees, and the product would be injected for lifting. The buyer was not an experienced desk. The discount looked like margin. The storage step looked like a normal FOB condition. He wanted the cargo, and he needed something more concrete than a pricing objection before he would walk away. What Was About To Be Paid **$500,000** in tank storage fees, before any product was shown to exist. Product claimed: **EN590**. Basis claimed: **FOB Rotterdam**. Price: a heavy discount to the physical market. ## Why The Offer Already Failed A Commercial Test EN590 FOB Rotterdam does not clear at a heavy discount to a first-time buyer who has no relationship with a refinery, a titleholder, or a terminal. A price that far through the market is not distressed inventory. It is the bait. The Port of Rotterdam and VOTOB use the term storage spoofing for the sale of storage capacity and inventories that are not there. The usual tools are cloned terminal sites, forged tank documents, and a fee that has to be paid before anyone can verify the product. [OilPrice](https://oilprice.com/Energy/Crude-Oil/Rotterdams-Growing-Oil-Storage-Fraud-Problem-Is-Costing-Traders-Millions.html?ref=blog.financely.io) reported known losses of at least €10 million a year, and deals with an offered value of about €2.5 billion reported to the task force in 2025\. In February 2026 a Rotterdam court heard the first prosecution of this kind: about 2 million barrels, valued at $155 million, that were not in tank. [The storage-spoofing task force reported the hearing](https://storagespoofing.nl/en/news/historic-first-case/?ref=blog.financely.io). That is the pattern this file matched. Discounted product, FOB Rotterdam, and a storage fee standing between the buyer and the cargo. Financely’s notes on [tank storage spoofing](https://www.financely-group.com/tank-storage-scams-in-fuel-trading?ref=blog.financely.io) and [fake fuel allocations](https://www.financely.io/common-oil-trading-scams-in-trade-finance?ref=blog.financely.io) describe the same sequence. ## What KYT Is KYT means Know Your Transaction. KYC and KYB tell you who the counterparty is. KYT tells you what the trade is. In trade finance, KYT is the check that the goods, the route, the documents, the counterparties, and the payment path match. A file can pass a name screen and still be a fee scam. KYT is where that breaks. Financely’s [KYT framework](https://www.financely.io/kyt-in-trade-finance?ref=blog.financely.io) treats it as a control on fraud, trade-based money laundering, sanctions exposure, and deals that cannot be monitored or enforced. Four questions decide it. Is there a real commercial purpose? Do the documents match each other and the Incoterms? Can the payment path be tied to the named parties? If the deal fails, is there a remedy that exists outside the broker chain? ## What The Review Found The client had the offer and the storage-fee instruction. He did not have proof of product. Financely ran KYT on the allocation and the storage step he had been told to fund. The review did not find a real EN590 allocation, a real Rotterdam storage position, or product that could be injected. The file was fake. The discount was the first flag. The KYT result was the proof he needed to drop the deal. The $500,000 storage payment was not made. The client is anonymized. Outcome **Allocation:** not real. **Storage:** not real. **Product:** not there. **Fee not paid:** $500,000. ## What Financely’s KYT Review Includes The review follows the five pillars used on commodity files: counterparties, goods, documents, logistics, and cash. On a fuel allocation, that work is specific. - **Counterparties.** Buyer, seller, broker, and any agent. Beneficial ownership, not just the name on the offer. Sanctions screening on the entities and the people controlling them. - **Goods.** Grade, spec, quantity, and whether EN590 at the stated discount is a real commercial price. Title and custody, or the absence of both. - **Documents.** Offer, commercial invoice, tank storage agreement, tank storage receipt, injection report, and any inspection certificate, checked against each other for parties, tank, quantity, and port. - **Logistics.** Terminal, tank number, and whether the operator recognizes the booking on its own domain. Route, vessel, and inspection plan if the file claims any. - **Cash and settlement.** Who is paid, from which account, and whether that beneficiary is the terminal named in the storage instruction. Third-party payees and a fee ladder before verification are escalated, not processed. The workflow is intake, validate, verify, then stop or proceed. Flags that end a fuel file include no evidence of title, documents that do not match, a storage fee demanded before the terminal confirms the tank, pricing that cannot be explained, and pressure to wire before those checks are done. What you get is a transaction checklist matched to the lane, a diligence pack that ties the offer to the storage instruction and the payment path, and a written reason to pay or not to pay. The same pack is what a bank will ask for if the trade is later put up for a letter of credit or a borrowing base. A deal that cannot survive KYT will not survive a credit committee. The [KYT guide for trade finance](https://www.financely-group.com/kyt-in-trade-finance-transaction-monitoring-for-lcs?ref=blog.financely.io) sets out how that file is built. The client in this file was a first-time trader. The discount was already enough for an experienced desk to refuse the offer. He needed the transaction checked, item by item, before he would leave $500,000 unsent. That is what the review was for. ## Need A KYT Review Before You Pay A Tank Fee? Financely runs Know Your Transaction reviews on fuel allocations, storage instructions, counterparties, and payment paths before a reservation or injection fee is sent. [Request a Quote](https://www.financely-group.com/requestaquote?ref=blog.financely.io)