First Ever Blockchain-powered Transaction on the Gas Market Registered in Italy

Experimentation with blockchain and distributed ledger technology (DLT) continues with big players in the Italian energy and gas industry making transactions using the disruptive means.

Recently, Snam S.p.A, an Italian natural gas infrastructure company, conducted the first natural gas purchase and sale transaction. This is the first time in world history for companies in this sector to carry out two-sided transactions for the buying and selling of natural gas based on DLT.

Teamwork

The pilot was started on 17 December, 2019, and operated on one of the Italian trading hubs for natural gas. An experimentation that is part of the path that gas companies started with the large projects which represents one of the foundations of the energy sector in the future.

And an increasingly important role will be played by technologies such as blockchain and DLT. The goal of this path is to innovate the network making it more sustainable and with greater levels of integration with the territories and communities in which companies operate. In this sense, not only the blockchain, but also the Internet of Things (IoT) and Big Data allows to increase the knowledge on the functioning level of the equipment, allow to improve maintenance actions and to reduce emissions.

Parenthetically, such innovation plans require heavy investments. Particularly, some gas companies in the country are planning to start innovative projects dedicated to researching and implementing innovation in the energy transition, sustainability and development of new forms of relationships and transactions in the energy sector.

Blockchain Could Be the Next Big Solution

The transaction was successful due to the blockchain and DLT platform created in partnership with another giant in the technology world, and continues with an experimentation plan with DLT that aims to manage demand in an innovative way of more efficient and more flexible transactions coming from the energy market.

Among the different projects that are underway in Italy – aiming at creating the energy firms of the future with an ever-growing vocation for innovation and sustainability – include: Smart Gas to manage the transport network more efficiently and to introduce new maintenance solutions with IoT, sensors, Drones, Big Data for asset management; Development of new skills to manage innovation processes; Environmental Sustainability also with a reduction of methane emissions of orders of magnitude greater than 20% within the time period of 2025; and Innovation to manage the energy transition, i.e. creation of solutions to bring the most appropriate type of energy to the market needs in respect of sustainability.

As Coinidol.com, world blockchain news outlet, reported, other giant oil and gas firms including Shell, ADNOC, Gazprom, Total, Vattenfall, Freepoint, and many others, are busy doing everything possible to come up with effective blockchain tools to help them conduct their businesses in a fast, secure and transparent way, and without any borders.