Today, post-trade oil blockchain VAKT announced SGS is joining the platform as the first inspection company. SGS offers inspection, verification, testing, and certification services and will integrate its solution with the VAKT platform. The Swiss headquartered inspection firm had CHF 6.6 billion ($7 billion) in revenues in 2019.
Owned by a combination of banks, oil majors, and oil traders, VAKT is digitizing oil post-trade processes. It is built using enterprise blockchain Quorum, JP Morgan’s version of Ethereum. VAKT manages deal details, confirmation, contract, logistics and invoicing, i.e., processes from trade initiation to final settlement. The goal is to eliminate reconciliation and paper-based processes.
Currently, VAKT is live in North Sea oil crude trade and covers more than 90% of the market. Earlier this year, Saudi Aramco Energy Ventures invested $5 million in the platform and joined as a user to bring Aramco’s North Sea trade volumes on VAKT. SGS will initially roll out its platform in the North Sea crude oil market for testing and eventually expand into other markets.
Along with Saudi Aramco, VAKT has 13 shareholders, which include — Shell, BP, Chevron, Total, Reliance Industries, Equinor, Gunvor, Mercuria, Koch Industries, ABN Amro, ING, and Societe Generale.
“VAKT is delighted to welcome SGS as the first inspection company joining the VAKT ecosystem. Our platform is built to allow traders to send inspection nominations to surveyors and for the latter to contribute their results and invoice their clients seamlessly,” said Etienne Amic, CEO of VAKT.
“We are looking forward to significantly enriching the functionalities of the platform along this axis, with all the good things that clients have come to expect from us: well-designed APIs; privacy of bilateral contracts powered by blockchain; and routing of the data to the relevant parties according to market practices with a view to streamlining operations for all,” added Amic.
SGS is also part of the trade finance blockchain komgo, which has seven investors in common with VAKT. komgo is focused on letters of credit transactions in the commodities sector and is integrated with the VAKT platform.
