A group of 10 major global oil and gas companies has successfully tested a block-chain-based system for approving expenditures. AFEs are used in the oil and gas industry to approve capital and expenditure projects and calculate work shares of members of a joint operating agreement. Blockchain technology is expected to significantly reduce the amount of time required. Specifically, the proof of concept aims to improve the approval process and create unalterable records of the final work interests. At the same time, the system will use “smart contracts” to reduce errors by automatically calculating working interests.