Chevron and Total join new Blockchain venture for oil trading
Chevron, Total and Indian refiner Reliance Industries have joined their rivals in a new venture to bring blockchain into energy trading.
The oil majors will become users of Vakt, a London-based platform for trading Brent crude oil using the technology behind bitcoin.
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They become the second round of investors in the project, which intends to launch publically early this year.
“These are global companies with a history of innovation who will help Vakt expand the platform across physically traded energy commodity markets worldwide. Their substantial investment in Vakt is further evidence of the industry’s appetite for collaborative industry solutions,” said chief technical officer Adam Vile.
Founded by BP, Shell and Norwegian Equinor, the platform aims to increase efficiency and reduce costs in post-trade processing.
It launched in November last year, promising to grow the system and will later offer commodities other than North Sea Brent.
The new additions mean Vakt has now signed up five of the world’s ten biggest oil and gas companies.
Other investors include commodity trading groups Gunvor, Koch Supply & Trading, and Mercuria.
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Reliance Industries’ PMS Prasad said: “Vakt’s platform will help lead the transition away from traditional systems involving manual exchange of information between participants to an integrated platform thereby enhancing transparency, data security and capturing efficiencies.”
Chevron’s Colin Parfitt said: “Chevron is joining the Vakt consortium to stay at the forefront of the technology’s development and to help move the industry forward in the blockchain space.”