Last checked at 
(Alliance News) - Wildcat Petroleum PLC on Monday announced it had signed an agreement with Crown Energy AB to explore the use of blockchain technology in the oil and gas sector.
Wildcat, a firm targeting investment opportunities within the upstream sector of the petroleum industry, said it had signed a memorandum of understanding with Crown Energy for its potential participation in any future Initial coin offering that Wildcat launch. Stockholm-listed Crown Energy specialises in oil and gas exploration in Africa and the Middle East.
London-headquartered Wildcat is working on a "proprietary and innovative model to monetise hydrocarbon blocks based on blockchain technology". The model is in development and will be launched by 2022, it said.
Crown Energy has oil interests in Madagascar, South Africa, and Iraq, containing up to 2.5 billion barrels of oil equivalent, Wildcat said. Under the agreement, the two companies agree that there may be scope to tokenise these prospective oil resources.
Shares in Wildcat, which began trading in London at the end of 2020, were up 13% to trade at 3.40 pence in London on Monday afternoon.
"The level of interest in Wildcat's blockchain approach that we have received from oil and gas companies in recent weeks has been incredible and we are thrilled to announce this memorandum of understanding with Crown Energy," said Wildcat Chair Mandhir Singh.
"The company has received numerous similar expressions of interest from both public and private oil companies looking for an alternative way to monetise non-performing oil blocks. Assisting these oil companies to monetise their assets has the potential to provide the Wildcat with a valuable future revenue stream with minimum risk and negligible additional costs.
Wildcat also said it was making progress towards acquiring an oil asset and would make further announcements.
By Will Paige; willpaige@alliancenews.com
Copyright 2021 Alliance News Limited. All Rights Reserved.