VAKT in Houston: What we learned

VAKT’s Charles Waple, Jatin Bhadra and Juliette Braithwaite recently visited Houston for a meeting hosted by the Energy Institute. This visit also provided an opportunity to engage with clients and prospects, exploring VAKT’s expansion into the US market.

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During the week, several recurring themes emerged, offering valuable insights for both VAKT and the Industry. Here are the three key takeaways from our time in Houston:

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1. The Push for Standardization

A significant portion of –our discussions revolved around the oil industry’s need for greater standardization, particularly in areas like inspector reports and product reference data.  

VAKT has already developed a standardized data set that maps seamlessly to our customers’ systems. This enables us to generate actionable insights and enhance operational efficiency. By actively engaging in conversations about standardization, we aim to accelerate the systematic adoption of industry-wide standards, driving consistency and improving processes for all stakeholders.  

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2. US Market has Unique Nuances

Everything’s bigger in the USA. Navigating a market of this size and scale is no small feat, but it’s a challenge VAKT is ready to embrace.  

Already live in Europe for barges operations, VAKT is now expanding to Vessels. Leveraging lessons from these markets, our platform is poised to deliver the same efficiencies and ROI to the US. In 2025, we’re taking on the unique challenges of the US oil market to empower our customers like never before.

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3. Winning Over Loss Controllers

Loss controllers expressed strong interest in VAKT’s ability to create a single source of truth across the post-trade and operational lifecycle of physical oil trades.  

One of the biggest challenges for loss control teams is the time spent searching for accurate information across various departments. VAKT simplifies this by consolidating affirmed trade data, logistics details, and supporting documents-such as inspector reports and emails-into a single, standardized format, in a single location on VAKT. This makes it easy for users to find exactly what they need, when they need it.  

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Looking Ahead: Advancing Data Standardization

Our work in Houston underscored the importance of collaborative efforts to drive standardization across the physical oil industry. VAKT will continue to engage with industry groups, including EnergyLeap, to bring innovative standards to the forefront.

Stay tuned for updates as we make progress on this journey.  

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VAKT: The Solution for Today and Tomorrow

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