The OOC Oil & Gas Blockchain Consortium has announced the competition of a first successful pilot around water haulage.

The project, which was developed in partnership with Data Gumbo, involved automating the water haulage process, from field readings to invoice payments. It is claimed to be the first industry-wide use of a blockchain-native network – Data Gumbo’s GumboNet network -for produced water haulage.

Initial results of the pilot include reducing the current process workflow to up to seven days, from 90-120 days, as well as delivering up to a 35% reallocation of resources compared with current business processes, for operators and trucking companies. 85% of all volume measurement was automatically validated against data from multiple parties, with future projects looking to raise this to 100%.

“The results of this pilot prove that non-manned volume validations can trigger automated payments to vendors, and showcase the opportunities that exist for blockchain to reduce costs, increase efficiency, provide transparency and eliminate disputes in the oil and gas industry,” said Rebecca Hofmann, OOC Oil & Gas Blockchain Consortium chairman. “This is just the tip of the iceberg for the potential of blockchain in our industry.”

The consortium, whose membership includes Chevron, ExxonMobil and Shell among 10 oil and gas companies, has other projects in the pipeline. At the start of this year, a collaboration was announced with Canadian software firm GuildOne to test the industry’s first blockchain application for Authorization for Expenditure balloting – a part of cost and expense approval in the oil and gas industry. In September, a proposal was announced to explore automation of payments, including reducing disputes and fraud risk.

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