Vakt, the blockchain platform British Petroleum (BP) and Shell trading oil and oil products, has started work in full mode. At present, the platform can only be used by the members of the consortium of its creators; it is expected that in January 2019 Vakt will become an open platform.
In addition to BP and Shell, the consortium includes a trading company Gunvor Group, Koch Supply and Trading Mercuria Energy Group, a Norwegian energy company Equinor and a number of banks: Societe Generale, ING and ABN. Formally, the start Vakt took place on Wednesday, however, the consortium decided to delay the immediate use of the platform. According to the authors, initially Vakt to perform the functions of digitizing document management and centralized collection and execution of documents necessary for closing deals.
His assessment of the initiative gave a trader Shell Andrew Smith (Andrew Smith):
“This is an exciting moment. Cooperation with our colleagues and a number of key industry players — the best way to mobilize our knowledge and experience and set the scale required to launch a platform for digital transactions, which can radically change the way we work”.
Initially, the consortium will work with Vakt under the sale and purchase five grades of crude oil produced in the North sea. In the future we plan to include in the load platform crude oil from the U.S. and refined products from Northern Europe. In addition, the first major update Vakt will expand the functionality of the site through integration with the financial platform komgo established with the participation of the majority of shareholders Vakt.
A member of the Gunvor Group Eren Zeki oglu (Eren Zekioglu) said:
“Vakt — it logistics division […] as soon As the transaction is recorded in our log as closed, it is arranged in Vakt. The next area is financial, and integration with komgo will open us access to multiple banks”.
Although the blockchain is not often used in oil production, the technology is gaining popularity in the energy sector as a whole. So, a subsidiary of startup ConsenSys leverages the blockchain to redistribute power within an entire state (USA).
