According to a press release on March 11, 2020, VAKT, a DLT (distributed ledger technology) based commodity post-trade management platform, has embraced SGS, a leading inspection, testing, verification, and certification firm, into its ecosystem as the first inspection company on its platform.

SGS Joins VAKT Blockchain Consortium 

In an attempt to extend its ecosystem, which strives to eradicate all the bottlenecks in post-trade processing and the complete global commodities trading process with blockchain technology, Vakt has joined SGS, an extremely reputed inspection platform to its consortium. 

As said in a VAKT press release, SGS is the first inspection company to enter its developing consortium, and it assumes the firm to combine its abundance of experience in testing, verification, and certification into the VAKT ecosystem.

The firm states the increase of SGS to its consortium is a forward-thinking plan and the next logical step in its purpose to reduce manual processes and human error, which in turn hinders post-trade processing.

Etienne Amic, CEO of VAKT, displayed enthusiasm over SGS’s interest in the platform, continuing that the platform is created to streamline the processes of both commodities traders and surveyors, and the team is poised to improve the VAKT system further to allow users more functionalities.

In his words:

“We plan to significantly enrich the functionalities of the platform along this axis, with all the features that clients expect from us, including user-friendly APIs, the privacy of bilateral contracts powered by blockchain, and routing of data to relevant entities according to market practices, to streamline operations for all.”

The team states the VAKT system is now live in the North Sea BFOET (Brent, Forties, Oseberg, Ekofisk, and Troll) crude oil market, where SGS will first test the platform before it gets extended to other markets.

Established in late 2018 by influencing firms in the oil sector, including Equinor, BP, and Mercuria, among others, the London-based VAKT has since drawn various heavyweights in the oil and gas sector due to its commitment of transforming the industry with innovative technologies.

Saudi Aramco Energy Ventures, a Saudi Arabian national petroleum, and the natural gas company reportedly entered the VAKT platform earlier in January 2020. They invested $5 million in the platform in an attempt to leverage VAKT’s technology to improve its operations.