The Offshore Operators Committee, a nonprofit organization, concentrated on offshore energy, has found a blockchain management system that decreases costs and time for transporting wastewater.

The (OOC)’s Oil and Gas Blockchain Consortium has concluded its first pilot of a produced water haulage management system utilizing blockchain technology. The pilot, the primary industry-wide usage of a blockchain-native network for produced water haulage, mainly tried to streamline the process of transporting wastewater byproducts accumulated during the extraction of oil and natural gas, referred to as produced water.

The pilot automatically measured volume and generated invoices during the transportation process. Developed in association with Data Gumbo, a blockchain software company based in Houston, Texas, the pilot found the new tools decreased the amount of time it takes to transport produced water. The process also needs less human intervention and reduced costs, the consortium stated.

Water logistics and transportation firm Nuverra Environmental Solutions, and an unnamed midstream disposal company worked on the pilot, which was used across five oil and gas wells in the Bakken field in North Dakota. The OOC Oil and Gas Blockchain Consortium comprises ten big-name oil and gas member companies, including Chevron, Equinor, ConocoPhillips, ExxonMobil, Marathon, Hess, Noble Energy, Pioneer Natural Resources, Repsol and Shell.

The consortium set out to study and defines blockchain use cases over the industry value chain to solve common pain points. The initial pilot results saw a reduction in the process workflow from 90-120 days down to between one and seven days and reduced 16 steps to seven that need no manual intervention. Also, 85% of all volume measurements are now automatically validated against the information offered by the multiple parties involved, and this figure could climb close to 100%, the release stated.

Validations during the process automatically triggered the execution of related invoice transactions, which reduced financial risk by giving peace of mind that payments matched up with certain field activity. “The results of this pilot prove that non-manned volume validations can trigger automated payments to vendors, and showcase the opportunities that exist for blockchain to reduce costs, increase efficiency, provide transparency and eliminate disputes in the oil and gas industry,” chairman of the OOC Oil and Gas Blockchain Consortium, Rebecca Hofmann said in a statement.

The consortium also stated that 25%-35% of resources could be reallocated, compared to its recent business model for the operator and trucking company, thanks to DLT’s inherent advantages.“This is just the tip of the iceberg for the potential of blockchain in our industry,” Hofmann added.