
The rise of Blockchain in the Oil & Gas industry
Our expert's opinion
"New technologies are used a lot in each sector to contribute to the productivity level. Oil and gas is one of the most important sectors where quality assurance and trackability are of great significance. Therefore, continuous improvement of performance and quality control should be an important point of focus.
What do you think about the use of blockchain technology?"
- Benjamin Ducène, Associate Consultant
Oil and gas firms are starting to embrace the blockchain
GlobalData’s latest report, Blockchain in Oil & Gas, suggests that oil and gas companies are in the process of adopting advanced technologies to improve workflow management and reduce operational losses. One such technology is blockchain, which came to prominence with crypto currencies and is now gaining acceptance in mainstream transaction processing across several verticals.
Blockchain technology can also help the industry improve their operational performance and service delivery. One major area in which blockchain can be applied is supply chain management. Blockchain technology can be used in tracking and identifying raw materials based on their source to improve quality control. The distributed ledger system can track and identify the complete supply chain of the raw materials from place of origin to end user. Detailed information of the supply chain can give a better overview of the usage of the product. Blockchain can preserve digital data of every action by the stakeholders in the network from sourcing to trading to reselling of products. It also reduces the potential for data to be tampered with or damaged.
Blockchain technology can play a vital role in asset management as well. One of the key features of blockchain is easy and secure data tracking. Manufacturers can use this to trace regular maintenance updates. Also compliance and regulatory matters can be detected by analysis of data. Blockchain can provide quick and easy extraction of information and also assure authenticity of data.
Blockchain provides a smart trade platform for efficient and reliable execution of energy trades. The distributed ledger system can keep track of asset management and joint ownerships. Moreover, the smart contracts concept can eliminate manual transactions and third-party involvement by making transactions automatic. This results in faster, error-free and cost effective processes. It also improves transparency among the parties involved in the contracts, resulting in fewer contract disputes.
GlobalData’s thematic research identifies Royal Dutch Shell, BP, Gazprom, Statoil, and Repsol as some of the key oil and gas companies at the forefront of the deployment of blockchain technology over the next two to five years.
Source: Offshore Technology