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Saudi Aramco Energy Ventures makes $5mn investment in blockchain based trading platform
Saudi Aramco Energy Ventures (SAEV) has joined VAKT, a post-trade processing platform underpinned by blockchain, following a $5mn investment in new shares.
SAEV joins VAKT’s current shareholder base of 12 investors, all among the world’s largest players in energy and commodities trading. The investment will help VAKT with further development of the platform and expansion into new markets – particularly into Asia.
The deal will also see Aramco Trading become a new user of the platform, which is currently live in the North Sea BFOET (Brent, Forties, Oseberg, Ekofisk and Troll) crude oil market. The company will bring its own North Sea trading volumes, adding to the platform’s already high market share. (See Petroleum Review, June 2019, for more information.)
Commenting on the platform, Hans Middelthon, Managing Director of SAEV Europe, says: ‘VAKT has demonstrated that their platform has the potential to digitise what is currently a very manual process and be truly transformative to end users and customers. 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. SAEV’s mission is to develop and deploy technologies into Aramco’s operations.’
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 a distributed audit trail.
