Antelope Water Management, a US-based company providing sustainable water solutions for extracting oil and gas, has announced the adoption of GumboNet, the blockchain network of Data Gumbo Corporation.
Initially, Data Gumbo targeted its blockchain network to the offshore oil and gas sector. Now it will assist the Houston-based water management company in the Permian Basin. The area that spans West Texas and southeastern New Mexico is one of the largest oil and gas fields in the US. Recently the U.S. Geological Survey estimated the area has 46.3 billion barrels of crude and 281 trillion cubic feet of natural gas.
GumboNet, a blockchain-as-a-service (BAAS) platform, will provide Antelope’s customers and its vendors with real-time data transparency and automation of contract execution and payments.
The technology will allow Antelope’s stakeholders and local regulators to benefit from the data certainty to lower overhead costs. Plus it will reduce outstanding payments between parties, and ensure data certainty for all business transactions.
“We are excited to add transparency to our operations while removing needless expenses and duplications of efforts to eliminate incorrect data and days sale outstanding (DSO)s through Data Gumbo’s blockchain for all stakeholders”, added Brownlow.
Data Gumbo specifically caters to the oil and gas industry and is trying to address the inefficiency between oil majors, suppliers and other stakeholders. The key problem it solves is different measurement interpretations between members of a supply chain which causes delays and disputes. Those discrepancies could relate to weight, speed, height, connection, delivery time, volume, or several other factors.
“Data Gumbo was the first blockchain in offshore drilling and now we are the first in oil & gas water management,” said Andrew Bruce, CEO of Data Gumbo. He outlined the benefits of the platform as “security, certainty of data and, most of all, savings to the bottom line.”
In an interview with Bloomberg, Bruce said that oil operators can save at least 30 percent in costs if they adopt blockchain in contract executions. The blockchain start-up has recently raised $6 million in Series A funding helped by Saudi Aramco Energy Ventures and Equinor Technology Ventures. That brings the total company funding to $9.3 million.
GumboNet is a subscription-based BAAS offering that clients from upstream, midstream and downstream can opt for and become a part of the network.
The oil industry has been quick to adopt blockchain for various purposes. Six months ago, many of the oil majors launched the Offshore Operators Committee (OOC). In future, some of its plans may overlap with GumboNet’s offerings. Equinor is also a member of the OOC.
But the highest-profile blockchain network is VAKT which has a post-trade solution. It is currently used in more than 90% of Brent crude transactions.
