Gazpromneft-Aero, a subsidiary of Gazprom Neft, announced the launch of a blockchain-based Smart Fuel platform. It is designed to automate air stations.
The new platform has already been used in more than 100 regular flights of the Russian low-cost airline Smartavia. Raiffeisenbank became a participant in the pilot project. The platform is integrated with Raiffeisenbank’s payment services and ERP Smartavia system. The service operates on the Hyperledger Fabric blockchain, and smart contracts are used to automate and accelerate payment processing.
According to the management of Gazpromneft-Aero, the system is capable of processing payments in a few seconds, while the processing of traditional payment transactions takes up to five days. Now, thanks to the blockchain, the workflow from the moment the plane arrives to full settlement has been reduced to 30 minutes, while payment is made in 15 seconds. Dmitry Makarov, Smart Fuel project manager, explained that usually the refueling process involves a lot of documentation and entails excessive costs. The exact amount of fuel required for a flight cannot be predicted in advance. Therefore, airlines are forced to overpay to suppliers in order for the planes to have enough fuel.
Using the Smart Fuel platform, pilots provide up-to-date data before refueling the aircraft, and then reserve the right amount of fuel. A certain amount is debited from the airline’s account, and after that refueling takes place. Makarov said that Smart Fuel guarantees data security, provides maximum transparency for all participants in transactions and increases the efficiency of mutual settlements. The test of the platform lasted from September to December 2020. Given the successful testing of the platform, Smartavia will continue to use this solution for aircraft refueling.
“Organizations make a large number of payments every day, and blockchain will help automate many business processes. Innovations make life easier for customers, so the demand for such solutions will constantly grow, ”said Dmitry Sredin, Head of Large Companies Relations at Raiffeisenbank.
Evgenia Ovchinnikova, Director of the Center for Technological Research and Development of Raiffeisenbank, added that using this blockchain-based platform, its users can continue to work in any convenient ERP system without learning new programs.
“We are proud to be one of the first banks to help the leader of the gas station market to automate payments for fuel using blockchain technology,” said Ovchinnikova.
Gazpromneft-Aero has already developed blockchain-based aircraft refueling solutions. In 2018, this company, together with the Russian air carrier S7 Airlines, presented a similar project Aviation fuel smart contracts (AFSC).
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