London — Chevron, Total and Reliance Industries have become strategic investors in the Vakt blockchain platform, Vakt said Wednesday.

The digital platform, which handles post-trade processing in the North Sea crude oil market, counts BP, Equinor and Shell among existing shareholders.

"With Chevron, Reliance and Total on board, we now have five of the world's top ten largest oil and gas companies by market capitalization" as investors, Vakt director Adam Vile said in a statement.

BP, Equinor, Shell, Gunvor and Mercuria are already using the platform, launched in late November, and are all strategic investors.

Vakt aims to extend it to US crude oil pipelines and Northwest Europe refined product barges later this year. Ultimately the platform could support all physically traded energy markets, it has said.

The platform manages physical energy transactions from trade entry to final settlement, eliminating reconciliation and paper-based processes. It does not involve the trade itself.

A first public launch to non-consortium licensees is expected soon, the company said. Licensees can expect efficiency cost savings of around 40% in post-trade resolution, Vakt's vice-president of business development, Lyon Hardgrave, told S&P Global Platts in November.

Other investors in the company include ABN Amro and Societe Generale.

-- Henry Edwardes-Evans, henry.edwardes-evans@spglobal.com

-- Edited by Wendy Wells, newsdesk@spglobal.com