State-owned Indian refiner HPCL will implement blockchain for order verification

By: Bharggavi Ssayee

October 19, 2023 2:08 PM

One of the biggest oil and gas firms in India, Hindustan Petroleum, is introducing a blockchain platform to facilitate automatic order verification.

In order to facilitate the automated verification of purchase orders (POs), Hindustan Petroleum (HPCL), an Indian state-owned refiner and one of the country's leading oil and gas corporations, has launched a blockchain system.

Zupple Labs, a blockchain software company, and HPCL have announced a partnership to incorporate HPCL's blockchain-based digital credentialing technology into the purchase order system.

HPCL can now issue digital POs to its vendors using Zupple Labs' verification technology (called LegitDoc) without first having to manually check the PO requests. Third-party verifiers will benefit from the project because it will allow them to automatically confirm the legitimacy of Purchase Orders (POs) on the HPCL website.

According to an HPCL spokesman, "the implementation helps to automate the verification of HPCL POs to external parties." The official further explained, "This works by integrating the blockchain system with HPCL's internal e-PO and provides tamper-evident verifiable POs."

These Purchase Orders (POs) will be sent to suppliers and may be shared with other parties. These Purchase Orders can be instantly verified by any third-party validator using the HPCL vendor portal verification app.

The HPCL representative said that for the past six months, the business has been working with Zupple Labs on the blockchain initiative. The official said, "HPCL has successfully finished developing the blockchain PO system, and the same capability will be officially made available to the merchants within this month.

According to the company's representative, HPCL's blockchain-based PO system is live on both internal and external blockchains.

Business head and co-founder of Zupple Labs, Neil Martis, claims that the PO verification system uses "two parallel blockchains" (the public Near blockchain and the private Hyperledger Fabric blockchain) for settlement purposes. Martis explained that HPCL included the latter as part of the company's BC/DR preparations. Midway through October 2023, Zupple Labs reports that HPCL has used the facility to submit 3,000 purchase orders.