The Smart Contracts in the Oil, Gas and Petrochemical Industry

Abstract

Purpose: A smart contract represents an agreement between parties that exploits a blockchain as the enforcing medium, limiting or avoiding the need of a legal enforcement (e.g., a court). The purpose of this paper is the review advantage and challenges of smart contracts on Oil, Gas & Petrochemical Industry. Methodology: This paper does a systematic review to discuss the application prospects of blockchain technology in the oil, gas & Petrochemical industry. Findings: The results show that the smart contract would be effective in Oil, Gas & Petrochemical industry. Originality/Value: Finally, we note that, despite its significant potential, smart contracting is still a developing technology and has several open challenges associated with its implementation, such as privacy concerns, risk of cyber-attacks (such as hacking) and the energy required for computation and blockchain deployment of the contracts. So far, smart contract applications in energy systems have been mostly focused on research, proof-of-concept and demonstration projects (such as P2P demonstration projects run in a local community or microgrid).