Ardmore Shipping could spend millions putting a sensor on every piece of equipment on its fleet, but the tanker owner just is not interested.

"We're not really interested in big data, we're interested in little data," said Ardmore chief executive Anthony Gurnee. "We don't have to collect a lot of data to optimise what we do. When you start going down the big data route, you're cheapening the value of the sea staff, the guys aboard the ships."