Major oil and gas companies could be set to do away with conventional payments systems in favor of blockchain-powered solutions – after a 10-company consortium including energy giants such as Royal Dutch Shell and Exxon successfully piloted oilfield water-handling payments at an American shale field.
Per Reuters, the group is known as the OOC Oil & Gas Blockchain Consortium, and also comprises ConocoPhillips, Equinor and Repsol. The companies worked with blockchain provider Data Gumbo on the pilot.
The test saw the companies automate payments for oilfield water-handling operations on Data Gumbo’s platform at five Equinor wells in North Dakota, and also involved water disposal firm Nuverra Environmental Solutions.
OOC Consortium claimed that the platform allowed the companies to cut down “90 to 120-day” processes down to just one week, cutting out nine steps – and automatically validate 85% of volume measurements.
The OOC Consortium claims that it completed the pilot in January, and wants to use the platform for “other commodities and services,” aiming to potentially roll it out “this year.”
The same news agency quoted the consortium as stating that falling oil prices and the coronavirus pandemic had added urgency to the forthcoming rollout.
The move comes just days after Russian energy giant Gazprom announced that its Gazprom Neft subsidiary had successfully completed a pilot using the Russian Central Bank’s own Masterchain blockchain network.
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