VAKT, the company re-imagining commodity post-trade processing underpinned by blockchain, has announced investment from three new strategic investors: Chevron, Total and Reliance Industries, who will also become early users of VAKT’s blockchain-enabled platform.
Image: VAKT adds Chevron, Total and Reliance Industries as investors. Photo courtesy of Katia Grimmer-Laversanne/Freeimages.com
With their investment, the three new investors join the existing consortium participants to champion industry modernisation and secure their ability to help steer VAKT’s strategic direction and roadmap.
Launched on November 28th for the BFOET crude oil market, the VAKT platform manages physical energy transactions from trade entry to final settlement, eliminating reconciliation and paper-based processes. Built using blockchain technology, it provides a single source of truth for buyers and sellers that is safeguarded with an immutable, distributed audit trail.
The platform promises major efficiency gains and cost savings for post-trade processing, including trade finance, and marks one of the world’s first fully operational enterprise-grade blockchain solutions.
“Total has been supporting industry initiatives to digitise cargo post-trade processes for some time,” said Thomas Waymel, President Trading & Shipping at TOTAL “We view them as a major step forward towards safer, faster and cheaper logistical operations. We are committed to contribute to the roll out to various markets of the VAKT blockchain platform which is linked to a full digital ecosystem. We aim for simplification of the daily work of our logisticians in Europe, Americas and Asia.”
“We are pleased to be involved with VAKT’s blockchain-enabled platform that paves the way for migration to a digital ecosystem, transforming the manner in which energy trades are executed,” said P.M.S. Prasad, Executive Director at Reliance Industries. “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 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,” said Colin Parfitt, President, Chevron Supply and Trading.
“We’re delighted to welcome Chevron, Total and Reliance as VAKT investors,” said Adam Vile CTO and Director, VAKT. “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.
“With Chevron, Reliance and Total on board, we now have five of the world’s top ten largest oil and gas companies by market capitalisation as VAKT investors.”
VAKT’s original investors and first users of the platform include energy majors BP, Equinor and Shell; independent traders Gunvor, Koch Supply & Trading, and Mercuria; and banks ABN Amro, ING and Société Générale. Launched initially in the North SEA BFOET market, VAKT’s ambition is to cover all physically traded energy markets with a roadmap that currently includes US crude oil pipelines and Northwest Europe refined product barges. The first public launch to non-consortium licensees is expected for early 2019.
Source: Company Press Release