BTL's blockchain energy trading project adds Gazprom, Total, Eni and more

TSX Venture Exchange-listed blockchain company BTL Group has added some big names to its European energy trading project including, Eni Trading & Shipping, Total, Gazprom Marketing & Trading Limited, Mercuria, Vattenfall, Petroineos and Freepoint.

They will participate in BTL's Interbit blockchain platform to deliver gas trading reconciliation through to settlement and delivery of trades.

Called OneOffice, this second phase of BTL's European energy project follows phase one which demonstrated the delivery of back office cost saving via smart contracts that automate trade reconciliation processes. In this second phase, BTL will work with the participants to build the OneOffice application to deliver cost savings across the trade life cycle.

Interbit, as a next generation blockchain platform, has the capacity to operate and interconnect many thousands of blockchains per server, in a secure, private and scalable manner, said a statement.

Francesco Romeo, Eni Trading & Shipping ICT Vice President, said "Following our experience during the European energy pilot, we look forward to expanding the scope to enable straight through processing through the whole settlement process as well as bringing wider participation from the industry."

Philippe Chauvain, Vice President Risk Control and IT, Total Gas & Power Limited, said: "Total has been trading gas and power since 2000. At the moment, we hear a lot about blockchain and how this technology could transform the trading processes. If successful, this initiative with BTL could help us to reduce the risks of human errors and to increase the speed in the reconciliation process of transactions with our fellow counterparts."

Catherine Newman, General Manager Global IT & Delivery, Gazprom Marketing & Trading Limited, said: "Blockchain could provide cross-industry opportunities to improve the speed, security and efficiency of transactions with Gazprom Marketing & Trading Limited's counterparties at the forefront of technological developments in commodity trading. These opportunities can only be realised by working collaboratively with other commodity market participants. Although it is early stages yet, the POC with BTL represents an exciting and potentially disruptive prospect in the near future".

"Blockchain has great potential to increase automation and efficiency of our trading operation. Back office processes for confirmation, settlement and invoicing are ideal use cases for this emerging technology. We expect significant improvements in these processes by utilising BTL's OneOffice," said Frank van Doorn, acting Head of Trading, Vattenfall.

Dominic McCann, BTL's CEO, said: "Phase two extends from trade reconciliation to settlement using our Interbit application for the natural gas trade life cycle. We are delighted to be working with some of the largest and most innovative companies in the energy sector, bringing together like-minded firms that see the potential of BTL's industry agnostic blockchain technology in reducing risks, costs and providing better protection against cyber threats.

"The launch of the OneOffice project is a significant achievement for BTL as we move closer towards introducing the Interbit platform across multiple industries later this calendar quarter."