Petroleum exploration company PTT Exploration and Production (PTTEP), Thailand's largest corporation, is collaborating with blockchain firm Ripple to integrate its technology for cross-border transactions.

Reports in Ripple Coin News on Tuesday (April 23) said PTTEP and Siam Commercial Bank (SCB) are joining Ripple to accelerate cross-border transactions for PTTEP. The companies have called the collaboration "the first time that the bank decided to use the [Ripple] system in B2B format."

Their announcement follows Ripple's own blog post last year that noted Siam Commercial Bank would become the first financial institution (FI) to join RippleNet, and deploy its "multi-hop" functionality to settle payments on behalf of other FIs on the network.

"This eliminates the need for a direct, one-to-one connection (or bilateral relationship) between [FIs] to settle a payment," Ripple said in its blog post at the time. "Using multi-hop, SCB will be able to receive and forward on a payment without a bilateral relationship between the originator and beneficiary institutions."

"This is a beginning of cooperation with [FI] to increase the efficiency of PTTEP's cross-border financial transactions in less time, resulting in lower costs," said PTTEP CEO Khun Somporn Wongwuttipornchai in a translated statement, who added that the initiative "reflects PTTEP's determination to seek new approaches or methods to increase the efficiency of work ... to maintain business competitiveness."

The beginning of their project will see Ripple and SCB facilitating transactions from PTTEP to various payment recipients across Southeast Asia, the companies noted.

News of PTTEP's adoption of the Ripple and SCB integration follows reports from earlier this month that the bank would be ramping up deployment of Ripple technology, including its xCurrent functionality. SCB CSO Paul Arriyavat told reporters that the bank invested in Ripple to "commercialize" its technology and address underbanked populations, and connect them with digital global payment solutions.