These Oil Traders Are Trying to Overhaul the Industry With a Blockchain Venture

  • New Komgo entity will develop ledger to track commodity trades
  • Shell, Mercuria, Gunvor team up with banks including ING, Citi

Photographer: Martin Divisek/Bloomberg

Lock
This article is for subscribers only.

Commodity giants Mercuria Energy Group Ltd. and Gunvor Group joined forces with Royal Dutch Shell Plc and a slew of international banks to create a trade-finance venture aimed at becoming the industry standard.

Using blockchain technology, the Komgo SA venture will develop a digital ledger-based system to track commodity transactions, the partners said Wednesday. The inclusion of some of the biggest lenders in trade finance may help establish a universal norm after previous efforts to use blockchain faltered.