Blockchain is believed to be a foundational technology that will create foundations in the economic and financial systems in a way that will revolutionize the business models and the organizational structures. Blockchain has opened a series of possibilities for blockchain-based innovative applications that are extended to midstream Oil and Gas industry.
In the era of the digital revolution, the need for an advanced information and communication technology has become crucial in midstream oil and gas industry to be able support increased challenges of decarbonization, decentralization, digitalization, and security. Blockchain is proposed to be an integrated platform through a series of different applications, such as, metering, billing, carbon trading, security, supply chain management, and performance-based contracts. The opportunities and impacts of utilizing blockchain-based applications will be demonstrated including economic, environmental, operational and social related benefits. Blockchain is disruptive technology, however, the current applications are in early development phase. Key improvement areas have to be assessed to reach the desired levels of scalability, decentralization and security. The paper concludes that this technology has significant potential to enhance the efficiency and maximize the profit that needs further digging from both research and industry. This work provides an overview of the blockchain technology and working principles. It describes the novelty and innovation that blockchains brings to industry, especially when combined with smart contracts. Also, the paper explores blockchain potential for the midstream oil and gas industry and investigates the state-of-the-art current business cases. To the best of our knowledge, this is one of the earliest works to explore blockchain-based applications in midstream oil and gas industry.
