Bakken: Again, Leading The Industry In Innovative Technology -- September 24, 2019

Last week I mentioned "blockchain" in passing.  Don't bother going to that link; there's nothing there about "blockchain." I must have put it there as a spaceholder. I did not understand it but thought it might be important or come up again some day.

I believe I first saw the story which Reuters also picked up:

A group of oil and gas companies has agreed to begin testing blockchain, a technology at the heart of digital currencies, in a bid to lower administrative costs in their field operations while also reducing payment disputes and chances for fraud.

The OOC Oil & Gas Blockchain Consortium, whose members include Chevron Corp, ConocoPhillips, Exxon Mobil Corp, Equinor and Royal Dutch Shell, among others, has awarded a contract to Data Gumbo to pilot the technology for water handling services in the Bakken shale field in North Dakota.

Blockchain, a technology that underpins bitcoin and other digital currencies, is a distributed ledger that can make and verify transactions on a network in real time, offering the potential to cut costs and lower the risk of fraud.

In the pilot, Data Gumbo’s blockchain technology will be used to automate payments, which are typically handled manually and through third-party reporting that increases costs. The technology could generate about $3.7 billion annually in cost savings for the oil and gas water business, Data Gumbo Chief Executive Andrew Bruce said. 

Water handling? First thought: is CLR one of the companies listed? CLR was not listed in either of the two articles linked. 

It's come up again. I still don't understand it, but at least someone is trying to explain it to me.

The link is here from The Journal of Petroleum Technology.

Archived at this link.