Industry Insights from Vertrax

The trucking industry is rapidly advancing in terms of the technology being developed and tested. With each new year comes new technology with claims that it will “revolutionize the industry.” However, many of these technologies haven’t been fully vetted and will inevitably be abandoned or rolled back to development for many years.

2019 was a spectacular year for Vertrax with the launch of 2 new products, as well as major improvements to our existing ones. With the year coming to a close, we thought we’d take the time to share our top blog posts from this year that highlight these launches and more.

Consider these your must-reads to set the stage for success in 2020!

Individual data points are like fuel molecules waiting in pipelines and tanks to heat our homes or cook our food. Massive amounts of them sit inside supply chains and transactions, just needing a spark to unleash their transformative power.

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

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).

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.

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.