{"id":22179,"date":"2018-05-02T15:14:12","date_gmt":"2018-05-02T15:14:12","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/ci027cfe6f800226c3"},"modified":"2018-05-02T15:14:12","modified_gmt":"2018-05-02T15:14:12","slug":"nick-spanos-saudi-arabia-kicking-tires-and-s-huge","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/bitcoinmagazine.com\/culture\/nick-spanos-saudi-arabia-kicking-tires-and-s-huge","title":{"rendered":"Nick Spanos: Saudi Arabia Is “Kicking the Tires \u2014 and That’s Huge”"},"content":{"rendered":"
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In line with their Vision 2030 commitment to adopt advanced technology including blockchain, Saudi Arabia\u2019s state-owned oil company Aramco is working towards adopting blockchain technology for management and accounting.<\/p>\n

Second only to the U.S. in world oil production, Saudi Arabia sees an opportunity to pull ahead and become the number one oil producer in the world.<\/p>\n

Saudi Arabia\u2019s petroleum sector accounts<\/a> for 42 percent of the country’s Gross Domestic Product, 87 percent of their budget revenues and 90 percent of export earnings.<\/p>\n

In an interview with Bitcoin Magazine<\/em>, Nick Spanos, CEO and co-founder of Zap.org<\/a>, and founder of Blockchain Technologies Corp and the Bitcoin Centre NYC, talked about the Saudis\u2019 enthusiasm for blockchain technology:<\/p>\n

\u201cSaudi Arabia is kicking the tires, and that\u2019s huge. As part of their ambitious Vision 2030, Saudi Arabia as a whole is doing everything it can to modernize and diversify their economy. It means they\u2019re open to doing things differently \u2014 and to doing big things with blockchain,\u201d said Spanos. <\/p>\n

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Everyone we meet is thrilled about the potential of blockchain. It\u2019s not just for oil, and you\u2019ll see a lot come from here very soon.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

Eliminating Fraud and Human Error in the Oil Industry with EnergyLedger<\/h3>\n

Spanos and Zap.org have developed a secure supply management and smart contracts DApp specifically for the oil and gas industry called EnergyLedger. Spanos explained:<\/p>\n

\u201cSince the beginning of oil production, there\u2019s never been a way to truly secure and track the process to prevent fraud, nor any way to automate the chain-of-custody and settlements to virtually eliminate the window for human error. All of this is now possible.<\/p>\n

\u201cZap.org\u2019s next-generation smart contracts are revolutionizing blockchain applications everywhere, and we also realized that the energy sector needed a dedicated, custom solutions provider, so Zap.org is powering EnergyLedger, the killer decentralized application for oil and gas.\u201d<\/p>\n

How It Works<\/h3>\n

The existing oil infrastructure \u2014 flow meters, pipelines, barrels, tanks, terminals and trucks \u2014 are tied into the Internet of Things and onto the blockchain, via Zap.org\u2019s oracles. <\/p>\n

Each time a barrel is produced, it will be matched with a utility token generated from that particular flow meter, which constantly reports to the smart contract.<\/p>\n

At each point in the process, from upstream to downstream, that barrel will be tracked and everyone involved in the process \u2014 the contractors, the tax collectors, the truckers \u2014 will only be paid at the moment that they\u2019ve verifiably performed what needs to be done for that barrel.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s all automated, and overhead costs will be slashed as thousands of accountants, finance professionals and back office traders will no longer be needed.<\/p>\n

The U.S. Oil Industry Falls Behind in Blockchain Adoption<\/h3>\n

According to Investopedia<\/a>, the world\u2019s top five oil producers in 2016 were the U.S. (14.86 m. b\/d), Saudi Arabia (12.39 b\/d), Russia (11.24 m. b\/d), China (4.87 m. b\/d) and Canada (4.59 m. b\/d).<\/p>\n

While the U.S. oil industry hasn\u2019t embraced blockchain technology, Spanos says that there are many other oil-producing nations looking to use it. He says:<\/p>\n

\u201cThere\u2019s [blockchain] activity on most continents, notably in Mexico, Venezuela, Chile, UAE, China, Singapore, Nigeria, Russia and more. They’ve reported that they\u2019ve already implemented blockchain or are testing it for wider applications.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cThe U.S. appears to be lagging; we have yet to hear of anyone in the U.S. industry testing blockchain, other than a small drilling firm in Texas that we just began working with.\u201d <\/p>\n

Spanos agreed that it was odd that all of the high-profile oil industry blockchain trials are happening outside of the U.S. but suspects that it won\u2019t be the case for much longer.<\/p>\n

\u201cOne reason is the regulatory climate, in which blockchain industry startups choose instead to create hubs abroad, where there isn\u2019t this cloud of doubt hanging over them from what the regulators will do to the industry,\u201d says Spanos.<\/p>\n

\u201cEven as the regulatory environment under the new president has become more favorable, blockchain will still go a long way to helping with regulatory compliance. The cost savings along the line will bring costs \u2014 and prices \u2014 down for the U.S. consumer and manufacturing.\u201d<\/p>\n

Spanos concluded that the U.S. oil industry will likely be converting to a blockchain soon.<\/p>\n

\u201cAmerica is heading toward energy independence, and if it wants to remain competitive and continue this trend, then it will seek to match or surpass what the competition is doing \u2014 and they won\u2019t be doing it the same way for much longer,\u201d Spanos noted.<\/p>\n

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Anyone who does not implement what blockchain has to offer, in some way or another, will fall behind. The benefits are just too immense.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Saudi Arabia\u2019s Aramco Oil Company Wants to “Blockchain Up” Ahead of the U.S.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2916,"featured_media":22180,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[33],"tags":[556,3466,1062,2926,1673],"class_list":{"0":"post-22179","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-culture","9":"tag-nick-spanos","10":"tag-oil","11":"tag-saudi-arabia","12":"tag-zap"},"author_data":{"id":2916,"name":"Jessie Willms","nicename":"jessie-willms","avatar_url":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/34e39b2d2b80d0f1b4eaf183ca23eff71d1e903536d749658f27936a80197dee?s=96&d=robohash&r=g"},"featured_image_url":"https:\/\/bitcoinmagazine.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/11\/nick-spanos-saudi-arabia-is-kicking-the-tires-and-thats-huge.jpg","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/bitcoinmagazine.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/22179","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/bitcoinmagazine.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/bitcoinmagazine.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bitcoinmagazine.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2916"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bitcoinmagazine.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=22179"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/bitcoinmagazine.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/22179\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bitcoinmagazine.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/22180"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/bitcoinmagazine.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=22179"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bitcoinmagazine.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=22179"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bitcoinmagazine.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=22179"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}