Saudi Aramco Energy Ventures (SAEV) has invested $5 million into blockchain-based oil trading company VAKT, the company said in a press release.
VAKT, which describes itself as “the company re-imagining commodity post-trade processing underpinned by blockchain,” said it welcomes SAEV as its latest investor with a $5m investment in new shares and Aramco Trading Company as a future platform user.
SAEV joins VAKT’s current shareholder base of 12 investors, the company said, “all among the world’s largest players in energy and commodities trading.”
VAKT said the investment will help the company with further development of the platform and expansion into new markets – particularly into Asia.
“VAKT has demonstrated that their platform has the potential to digitize what is currently a very manual process and be truly transformative to end users and customers,” Hans Middelthon, managing director of SAEV Europe, said. “Leveraging blockchain theory and applying it to the complicated world of post-trade processing, VAKT has made a compelling pitch to become an integral part of market infrastructure.”
The platform was created in 2017 by a consortium of industry leaders, including BP and Shell, as well as Equinor and trading companies such as Mercuria Energy Group.
The VAKT platform manages physical energy transactions from trade entry to final settlement, eliminating reconciliation and paper-based processes. Built using blockchain technology, it provides a single source of truth for buyers and sellers that is safeguarded with an immutable, distributed audit trail.
