{"id":18931,"date":"2017-11-29T16:07:10","date_gmt":"2017-11-29T12:07:10","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.intelligentcio.com\/eu\/?p=18931"},"modified":"2017-11-29T16:07:10","modified_gmt":"2017-11-29T12:07:10","slug":"testing-digital-technology-to-improve-energy-trading-efficiency","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.intelligentcio.com\/eu\/2017\/11\/29\/testing-digital-technology-to-improve-energy-trading-efficiency\/","title":{"rendered":"Testing digital technology to improve energy trading efficiency"},"content":{"rendered":"

\u2018Blockchain\u2019 may sound cryptic, but the mystique is limited when it comes to what it could offer a company doing thousands of physical energy trades every year.<\/p>\n

Any transaction, whether it is of funds, services or commodities, needs a system that makes transfer of ownership secure, transparent and efficient. Such systems might be based on digital platforms, but many are still \u2018analogue\u2019 and paper based. There is a large potential in modernising post-transaction processes in physical energy trading. Blockchain technology is a tool that could release that potential.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe have decided to be an early mover and team up with a group of energy majors, banks and trading houses to apply blockchain technology for post-transaction operations and deal handling,\u201d says Redwan Zeroual, Statoil\u2019s project leader in this new venture.<\/p>\n

After a deal is done, there is a lot of manual work involved in making sure the money is in the bank and ownership of the commodity is transferred from the seller to the buyer.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>
\nPhoto of Redwan ZeroualRedwan Zeroual, Statoil\u2019s project leader in this new venture.(Photo: Ole J\u00f8rgen Bratland)<\/p>\n

The process is archaic and the paper trail is quite substantial, resulting in delays, increased costs and risks.<\/p>\n

\u201cBy applying new technology, we can have a more efficient process and use more of our operators\u2019 and deal handlers\u2019 time on value adding activities,\u201d says Mr. Zeroual.<\/p>\n

The new venture seeks to create a secure, real-time blockchain-based digital platform to manage physical energy transactions from trade entry to final settlement. Such a platform offers the potential to reduce administrative operational risks and costs of physical energy trading, and improve the reliability and efficiency of the full transaction process.<\/p>\n

\u201cShaving off the mystique surrounding blockchain technology, the goal is to move away from cumbersome paper heavy processes to a platform with secure smart contracts and authenticated transfers of electronic documents. In short, digitalising operations in energy trading can make it a quicker, cheaper and more secure process,\u201d says Mr. Zeroual.<\/p>\n

The plan is that the consortium will establish the new company this year, and that the new platform can be ready for its first transaction towards the end of 2018.<\/p>\n

In addition to this specific venture, Statoil has a corporate innovation team that is investigating how new technology and business models can come to the company\u2019s advantage. That includes applying digital technologies such as blockchain to other parts of Statoil\u2019s business.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhat we see with blockchain is that it can be used in energy trading, but also in other parts of our business such as logistics and distributed energy systems when we grow the company\u2019s new energy solutions business area,\u201d says Owen Williams, Senior Advisor in Statoil\u2019s innovation unit.<\/p>\n

Blockchain could remove the need for expensive intermediaries and support a more secure information flow. That enables substantial cost savings. Blockchain can also solve issues of transparency or authenticity by generating certificates of origin which can be applied to many areas of Statoil\u2019s activities. \t<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

\u2018Blockchain\u2019 may sound cryptic, but the mystique is limited when it comes to what it could offer a company doing thousands of physical energy trades every year. Any transaction, whether it is of funds, services or commodities, needs a system that makes transfer of ownership secure, transparent and efficient. Such systems might be based on […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":21,"featured_media":18932,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[42,33,14,427],"tags":[105,2357,2358,2359],"class_list":["post-18931","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-banking-finance","category-energy","category-more-news","category-trade-logistics","tag-blockchain","tag-energy-trading","tag-energy-trading-efficiency","tag-statoil"],"acf":[],"publishpress_future_workflow_manual_trigger":{"enabledWorkflows":[]},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.intelligentcio.com\/eu\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18931","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.intelligentcio.com\/eu\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.intelligentcio.com\/eu\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.intelligentcio.com\/eu\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/21"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.intelligentcio.com\/eu\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=18931"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.intelligentcio.com\/eu\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18931\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.intelligentcio.com\/eu\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/18932"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.intelligentcio.com\/eu\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=18931"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.intelligentcio.com\/eu\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=18931"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.intelligentcio.com\/eu\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=18931"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}