Industry Insights from Vertrax

In this series, we’re breaking down how blockchain can impact the complex segments of the oil and gas industry: upstream, midstream, and downstream.

Part 1: Upstream

As we mentioned in the first part of this series, there are three segments of the oil and gas industry: upstream, midstream, and downstream. Linking the upstream segment (exploration and production) and downstream segment (refinement), midstream oil and gas includes the transportation and storage of natural gas, crude oil, and refined products.

Due to the potential of environmental harm from improper storage or transportation, midstream oil and gas is one of the most regulated industries. And because oil and gas products have to pass through national, state, local, and municipal borders, they must successfully attain a wide variety of approvals. While midstream oil and gas businesses struggle to juggle regulations with their many partners, blockchain has the capability to mitigate these problems.

In this series, we’re breaking down how blockchain can impact the complex segments of the oil and gas industry: upstream, midstream, and downstream.

There are three main sectors in the oil and gas industry: upstream, midstream, and downstream. These categories denote where the relevant resource is in the process of traveling from underground reservoirs to its final destination, whether that be in the tank of a car or a gas stove in an apartment. For this initial installment in the series, we’ll explore blockchain’s use in upstream oil and gas.

Possibly the most complex part of the oil and gas industry — and definitely one of the most technology-heavy — upstream oil and gas refers to both the search for natural resources and their extraction. Upstream oil and gas is also known as exploration and production (E&P).

This post was updated September, 2019.

The cost of trucking has been trending up for the past decade and shows no signs of slowing down. In order to combat these changes in operating costs, you must first be aware of what these costs are, and then what solutions can help to minimize the impact they have on your bottom line.

The 32nd World LPG Forum & 2019 European Congress (WLPGA) is just a few weeks away and Vertrax couldn’t be any more excited to be attending! WLPGA rolls two great events into one premier global event, bringing visitors from across the world together to see the future of the LPG industry.

According to the World Economic Forum, “digital transformation in the Oil and Gas industry could unlock approximately $1.6 trillion of value for the industry, its customers, and wider society.”

While we’ve broken down the overall benefits of blockchain and its specific benefits for fleet management, there are still some challenges that need to be overcome in order for this technology to become standard in the industry.

Across the world, businesses in many industries are gaining interest in the latest cutting-edge technology: blockchain. Around 66% of global organizations have some level of interest in blockchain, with almost 10% currently experimenting with or deploying it.

As more and more industries adopt advanced technology, streamlining business operations, and improving transparency into performance, technological terms are starting to become common in day-to-day conversations. For example, “blockchain” is a term that many professionals in a wide range of industries have become acquainted with. It’s no wonder when worldwide spending on blockchain solutions is expected to grow from 1.5 billion in 2018 to an estimated 11.7 billion by 2022.

Remote tank monitoring has been surging in popularity recently, and for good reason — the benefits it holds are staggering for both the consumer and supplier. With this rise in popularity comes the emergence of various competing tank monitoring solutions with wides ranges in quality and functionality.

We’re excited to announce Vertrax's blockchain partnership with IBM and the successful deployment of our production solution using the IBM Blockchain Platform on AWS.

With the increasing demand for technology in all aspects of life, it’s no surprise that consumers are demanding a smarter and easier way to live with propane. Being able to remotely monitor tank levels benefits both consumers and suppliers, so the more accurate the monitors and the more advanced the technology is, the better the outcomes will be.

However, current remote tank monitoring solutions aren’t able to provide consumers and suppliers with the ease of use and reliable data that they are requiring nowadays. In this blog, we lay out how current solutions fall short and what both suppliers and consumers can look to in order to gain the insights they want and reap the benefits of high-quality remote tank monitoring solutions.