Enargas which is considered Argentina’s biggest natural gas regulator has recently approved a blockchain-based gas distribution tracking platform. The system was already piloted by a local distributor which is servicing over 2 million residents in the country.

According to an announcement on March 18, the system – named Gasnet – was authorized for nationwide expansion. Earlier to this announcement, the network was used only by Gasnor, which is a local gas distributor with over 2 million subscribers.

A RSK’s spokesman, the blockchain platform used by the system, told the media that the regulator pushed for this service expansion due to the advantages experienced by Enargas:

It’s easier to control for the regulator authority and more effective the way that gas distributors share their key processes with the regulator.

At press time, there’s no news of other distributors joining the network. However, IOV Labs – the firm behind RSK – anticipates that others will join soon because of the high-end usefulness this network will provide in the coming days.

The advantages of blockchain in Gas management

Gasnet plans to manage service providers by carrying out transactions when a new connection or reconnection certificates are registered and improve regulatory oversight. To achieve that, the network used RSK smart contracts and its RIF second-layer solution. It was launched in collaboration with Argentina-based software development company, Grupo Sabra.

RSK in partnership with Grupo Sabra starts the development of the network for Gasnor in 2019. Now, Enargas authorized the expansion to all distributors nationwide willing to adopt it. The regulator and Gasnor are both running their own nodes of the Gasnet network. Gasnor chief information officer, Carlos Amin, commented:

The implementation of the blockchain solution will enable us to streamline our processes, reduce costs, improve time to market, and most importantly provide a much better user experience.

Blockchain use in the fossil fuel industry

Due to the blockchain technology’s ability to aid manage complex ecosystems and outstanding supply chain management, this emerging tech is becoming increasingly useful within the fossil fuel industry. An analysis published by the media in the early days of February recommends that the oil firms worldwide have begun using blockchain to make the entire industry safer, cleaner, and more efficient for everyone.

The biggest news of this decade is Saudi’s investment in this emerging tech. Saudi Arabia’s state oil company, Saudi Aramco, purchased $5 million shares in a blockchain trading platform called Vakt at the end of January.