Saudi Arabia trials blockchain for ensuring quality in oil and gas sector

Saudi Arabia is trialing blockchain technology to track quality in oil and gas industry, Ahmad Khowaiter, CTO of Saudi Aramco – a Saudi Arabian national petroleum and natural gas company, told Sputnik.

Khowaiter said that blockchain technology has a number of advantages in ensuring the quality of the product and the source of the product. He added that the company is interested in utilizing the technology and is currently evaluating it.

“There are a lot of challenges in identifying sources of production and also for tracking quality, in which we think there is an opportunity to utilize blockchain. We are interested in it, we are testing it in some applications," Khowaiter said.

Last month, Aramco CEO Amin Nasser had said that Saudi Arabia was working on technology to reduce emissions associated with oil production close to zero.

Khowaiter said that the company is seeking to cut global carbon dioxide emissions, associated with the production of oil and gas, by 15 percent.

In May 2018, Bitcoin Magazine reported that Aramco was working towards adopting blockchain technology to enhance its management and accounting processes.

In a document dated January 09, 2019, Aramco said that it has established a digital transformation program where blockchain is one of the technologies under consideration to support the financial services domain.

“Saudi Aramco is currently exploring the potential use of blockchain with its business network, which includes suppliers, contractors, customers, banks, manufacturers, universities, and others to achieve secure, real-time visibility, as well as inexpensive transactional processing across various business areas, including energy commodities trade, finance and treasury, contractual and legal agreements, and corporate maintenance,” it read.