In February 2019, ExxonMobil, Chevron, ConocoPhillips, equinor, Repsol, Hess and vanguard natural resources formed the first blockchain alliance in the oil and gas industry in the United States. The alliance belongs to the non-profit organization offshore operator Committee (OOC), so it is named OOC oil and gas blockchain consortium, aiming to promote industry standards, framework and capacity-building around blockchain technology for the oil and gas industry. In September, the OOC oil and gas blockchain consortium signed a contract with data gumbo, a blockchain technology supplier. According to the contract, the two sides will conduct pilot test of regional chain technology in Bakun shale area, North Dakota, to reduce the management cost of field operation, as well as reduce payment disputes and potential fraud. In this pilot, data gumbo's blockchain technology will be used for automatic payment. It is reported that this technology can save about $3.7 billion annually for oil and gas enterprises operating in shale area.
Nowadays, blockchain technology has become a hot technology to promote the digitalization of oil and gas industry. Moreover, the application prospect of blockchain in oilfield services, bulk commodity trading and carbon emission has also attracted the attention of the industry. The application of blockchain can enable a large number of trade-related documents and inventory data such as bills of exchange, engineering change notices, receipts, etc. to be realized by adopting specific coding rules. As the application of blockchain does not need to change the core infrastructure such as enterprise resource planning (ERP) system, the insiders believe that once blockchain technology is proved to bring benefits in relevant fields, the network effect will promote the rapid application of blockchain technology.
