The Evolving Dimensions of National Data Centers/media/Files/resources/oilfield_review/ors06/... · The Evolving Dimensions of National Data Centers ... such as prestack depth migration,

54 Oilfield Review

The Evolving Dimensions of National Data Centers

Anatoly BrekhuntsovSiberian Scientific Analytical Centre (SibSAC),Joint Stock Company (JSC)Tyumen, Russia

Knut BulowRick JohnstonSteve ScillitaniHouston, Texas, USA

Sergey GmizinSergey KekuchAdministration of Yamalo-NenetskyAutonomous DistrictSalekhard, Russia

Amparo MenaCarlos Alberto Moreno GomezQuito, Ecuador

Gina Isabel RodriguezBogotá, Colombia

Igor SedymovMoscow, Russia

For help in preparation of this article, thanks to CarmenAlcovedes and Jesus Diaz, Caracas, Venezuela; JavierCardona Pinilla, Agencia Nacional de Hidrocarburos,Bogotá, Colombia; Nnaemeka Ezeani, New Delhi, India;Leonardo Gimenez Saldivia, Dubai, UAE; Louis Desroches,Janice Gregory-Sloan and Cyril Py, Houston; HammadHussein, Abu Dhabi, UAE; Kapil Joneja, Bangkok, Thailand;Sujit Kumar, Bogotá, Colombia; Yusuf Tuvi, Izmir, Turkey;Peter Webb, Moscow; and Lawrence Wood, London.DecisionPoint, Enterprise, Finder, GeoFrame, Ocean, Petrel,ProSource and Seabed are marks of Schlumberger. NExT isa mark of NExT (equity partners Schlumberger, Texas A&MUniversity, University of Oklahoma and Heriot-WattUniversity). Q-Land and Q-Marine are marks ofWesternGeco. Livelink is a trademark of Open TextCorporation. OpenWorks is a trademark of LandmarkGraphics Corporation. SharePoint is a trademark ofMicrosoft Corporation. eSearch is a trademark of Iron Mountain.

Most data have little intrinsic value. The valuearises from using data and information toachieve an end, whether that is optimizingproduction, tracking a business enterprise ormanaging a country’s resources for the benefit ofits citizens. Increased pressure to maximizeoutput from existing fields and find new reservesdrives the need for automated and efficientlymanaged E&P data systems.

Resource holders in control of these assetsmay be local or national, or may be members ofregional cooperatives. Easily accessible andtransparent data centers give these govern -mental bodies a competitive edge in attracting afull spectrum of investor companies. Increasedtransparency assures fairness in all transactions.A resource center that operates more efficientlyand with more openness is appealing to investorsand serves as a catalyst for business growth.

In an active data center, key business activitiesbetween government, industry and researchinstitutions are conducted to encourage businessgrowth. As a further advance, tradi tional datacenters that were limited to E&P data are nowexpanding to include other resource informationsuch as geotechnical, water, mining, cultural,agricultural, industrial and transport data.

Data management in the E&P sector hascontinually evolved over recent decades, drivenby advances in information technology and theapplication of best practices. However, the same

technology has also fostered an exponentialgrowth in the types and complexity of data. Cost-effective computing technology has enabled newor more advanced data processes and techniquessuch as prestack depth migration, prestackseismic interpretation and analysis, and time-lapse, or four-dimensional (4D), seismic processes.There are also seismic-acquisition techniquessuch as the Q-Marine or Q-Land single-sensorsystems that allow prestack data to be reformedto create multiple data volumes with specificattributes to meet current and future needs of geoscientists.1

Real-time drilling operations, continualmonitoring of production, temperature andpressure, as well as an increase in the number ofcaptured images, have also contributed to theincrease in data volume. The diversity of dataand their interrelationships add otherdimensions of complexity. Other significantsources of data include remote sensing,paleontology, geochemistry, cores and thinsections, and supervisory control and dataacquisition (SCADA) systems.2 This is by nomeans an exhaustive list of data sources.

In the downstream arena, refineries cangenerate more than one terabyte of data eachday. While much of this information is transitory,increasing levels of captured data result fromgreater regulatory control and pressure tooptimize the use of these key facilities.

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Summer 2006 55

This article describes how resource holdersuse data to manage the energy industry and theevolution of data management from a nationaldata repository (NDR)—a static, closed systemin which the data are gathered and archived—toa dynamic, open national data center (NDC).Examples show NDCs with traditional E&P dataand those that also include other resources suchas information on rivers, forests, fisheries andeconomic data. Also presented are differentbusiness models of NDCs.

Historical PerspectiveCompanies have acquired resource data forseveral decades, with a value that often exceedsbillions of dollars. Without effective data-management processes, 5% to 10% of stored orcaptured data may be lost every year. To makethe situation worse, technology continuallyevolves, making storage systems obsolete. Forexample, old tapes become unreadable bypresent technologies, and the media maydegrade with time. Much of the information isunique, representing a snapshot in time thatcannot be reacquired if it is lost or degraded.

In the 1990s, governments and national oilcompanies realized the value of establishingprocesses for managing and preserving all datagenerated from E&P activities. About 80% ofmost companies’ knowledge is in unstructureddata such as spreadsheets, text files, documentson paper and other physical media. This widevariety in unstructured data is difficult tomanage. When partners are involved, thesituation becomes even more complex. Forexample, in Norway, prior to establishment of anNDC system called DISKOS, multiple copies ofthe same data were produced about 20 times inpartner companies, leading to additional costsand inefficiencies.3

Most NDRs emerged independently indifferent parts of the world in response to theneed for efficiency and cost control, and toprotect and preserve national assets. Thespecific focus of these operations was on internaldata preservation rather than outward-facingactivities, such as licensing-round support. Dataentitlement, ownership and control were handledby people and processes, with the simplest oftechnology: pen and paper. Many of these paper-based centers now have adopted simple

technology-based asset-management systems tomake them more efficient.

The NDR concept progressed from thisprimitive model to represent a central repositoryof knowledge for the geotechnical community atlarge, including oil companies, governments anduniversities; it also served as a central resource

1. Ait-Messaoud M, Boulegroun M-Z, Gribi A, Kasmi R,Touami M, Anderson B, Van Baaren P, El-Emam A,Rached G, Laake A, Pickering S, Moldoveanu N andÖzbek A: “New Dimensions in Land SeismicTechnology,” Oilfield Review 17, no. 3 (Autumn 2005):42–53.Christie P, Nichols D, Özbek A, Curtis T, Larsen L,Strudley A, Davis R and Svendsen M: “Raising theStandards of Seismic Data Quality,” Oilfield Review 13,no. 2 (Summer 2001): 16–31.

2. Beham R, Brown A, Mottershead C, Whitgift J, Cross J,Desroches L, Espeland J, Greenberg M, Haines P,Landgren K, Layrisse I, Lugo J, Moreán O, Ochoa E,O’Neill D and Sledz J: “Changing the Shape of E&P DataManagement,” Oilfield Review 9, no. 2 (Summer 1997):21–33.

3. DISKOS is a national data repository that was launchedby the Norwegian government in 1994 and becameoperational in 1995. Tonstad K: “The Value of Informationand Success Factors for a NDR,” presented at the FifthInternational Meeting of National Geoscience DataRepositories (NDR 5), Reston, Virginia, USA, September21–23, 2004. See http://www.agiweb.org/ngdrs/ndr5/postconference/presentations/Tonstad.ppt(accessed May 9, 2006).

> The ancient library of Celsius in Turkey.


for marketing speculative data. To support such achange, systems and processes that were used tomanage assets evolved to support online accessto these repositories. The Enterprise Finderdatabase integration software came into usage,and more sophisticated map-based userinterfaces were developed.4 As these sites were more outwardly focused, security andentitlement began to be handled throughtechnology instead of manual processes (left).

In today’s climate of increasing oil and gasdemand and with the availability of cost-effectivetechnology, an increasing number of countrieswill be transforming their current inward-facingrepositories to NDCs—outward-facing facilities.

Maximizing Value from Data and Information There is a significant difference between an NDRand an NDC—between a passive repository and adynamic center. Typically, the technology andprocesses of an NDR are designed to gather,organize, quality-control and store data and aregenerally devoid of advanced technologies forinternal or external exploitation of the data. Incontrast, an NDC is an activity center. Not onlyare resource data gathered, organized, quality-controlled and stored, but an expanded set ofservices is provided to help stimulate externalinvestment in the country’s natural resources.

These services in an NDC enable multipleorganizations and different software applicationsto directly access and transfer data, allowingvisualization, economic analysis, forecasting andpersonnel training. The increased efficiency,accessibility and usage allow a government entityto create and extract more value from the data.These activities occur between government andindustry, between partners, and betweengovernment and research organizations. An NDCallows the government to streamline monitoringof operator activities.

Certain new technologies can be applied toolder data to extract further value, which ispossible using a three-tier NDC architecture(left). This NDC architecture comprises desktoptools in the top tier, the Schlumbergerintegration engine (SIE) as the middleware, and in the bottom tier, multiple data repositories including the Seabed advanced E&Pdatastore system.5

The Seabed relational data model is a newapproach that incorporates advanced off-the-shelfdatabase technology from Oracle, Microsoft, Javaand ESRI.6 The Seabed data model has beenpublished to advance industry-wide integration.7

It incorporates the best features of thePetrotechnical Open Software Corporation(POSC) and the Public Petroleum Data Model

56 Oilfield Review

> Information and services provided in a national data center (NDC). The elementsof an NDC are protected by security, while providing connectivity for entitled users.

NationalData

Center

Visualizationaccess and

collaborations

Externaldatabases

Contractorsand operating

companies

Fieldoperations

Licensingrounds

Gateway

Data processing

Headquartersand offices

Training

Government

> NDC architecture. The top tier is the desktop interface to the user community. Thesecond tier of middleware handles data integration and provides support services tousers and system administrators. The functions include security, entitlement, usermanagement, Web services and remote execution of code on objects that aredistributed throughout the network. The third tier comprises diverse data stores.The Schlumberger integration engine is middleware that provides dynamic onlineaccess to the third tier and a suite of tools that enables users to relate data acrossthe data stores in that tier.

UsermanagementEntitlement Web

servicesSecurity

Seabed system.Logical data model (public).Physical database assets (licensed)

Applications.Ocean applications.Petrel.OpenWorks.ProSource.Other applications

Finder OpenWorks

Petrel

Multiple Data Repositories

Schlumberger Integration Engine (SIE)

Desktop Tools

GeoFrameProprietary andlegacy-based

systems

Web-based tools.DecisionPoint.Livelink.Microsoft SharePoint.Replicated data

Remoteexecutionof code


Summer 2006 57

(PPDM) to provide the flexibility and efficiencyneeded for the varied business demands andworkflow practices of the upstream oil and gasindustry. The Seabed data model covers the fullspectrum of E&P domains, enabling data centersto customize solutions. In addition to storage andarchival of exploration data, governments canmonitor operational activities. The Seabed systemis modular by domain, by functionality and by levelof detail, providing full configurability that is vitalfor fit-for-purpose data centers. For example, adata center can start small with minimalfunctionalities and yet have the capability toexpand progressively over time.

Incorporating concepts not previously used indata management, the Seabed data modelextends the functionality of the relationaldatabase model, providing improved workflowsand more efficient database maintenance andadministration. It assures data quality withbusiness rules, integrity constraints andstandard reference values for data.

As part of this new architecture, theProSource multidata source management appli -cation was developed to provide users with asingle interface for browsing and integratingdata that come from multiple repositories. Thisapplication allows users to visualize key datatypes—chart, wellbore, table, form, tree andspatially oriented data in a geographicinformation system (GIS) format—in customizedworkflows. Additionally, the ProSource toolleverages the capabilities of the Seabeddatastore system and the SIE, making aninformation-management process more effective.

Entitlement is a key data-access requirementthat enables an NDC to interact with externalentities. Entitlement allows a government,company, data owner or other defined entity togrant or restrict access to its information basedon a defined set of rules. These rules can be setto entitle data objects at any level of a datastructure, down to the archive object, seismicpolygon or line segment, geographical area, well,well log, log curve or data record. TheSchlumberger system also supports hierarchiesof entitlements for objects. Entitlement becomesmuch more important in repositories wheremany users are accessing public and private datathrough the same interface.

An example of geographic entitlement wouldbe the granting of a license to a company for onlya portion of a seismic survey that is containedwithin a particular exploration-lease boundary.The entitlement granted could then be furtherrestricted to only certain data items associatedwith that seismic survey. For example, a usercould be given access to a 3D post-stack time-

migration data volume, but excluded from seeingor accessing a specific 3D depth migration.Entitlement can be further extended to restrictthe functions that can be applied to a particulardata item or items, such as read-only and export.Security enhances entitlement to further qualifya user or entity to grant access based onaccepted security practices.

A new trend in the entitlement process is self-service management for entitlement. This processputs the entitlement capability in the hands of theentity submitting the data to the data centerrather than having a back-office organizationhandle it manually. This process saves time andalso reduces the potential for errors in theentitlement workflow. Under this scenario,company data administrators can automaticallygrant entitlements to partners, consultants or any

other authorized data user. This methodology alsohelps to support potential trade, farmout ordivestiture activities by providing an easymechanism to grant access to data.

The entitlement process is implemented inthe SIE. The SIE has a robust entitlement enginethat can entitle items in many data centers,independent of data source. This processmanages and enforces protection of entitlementsindependent of the application or repositoryfrom which the user is accessing information.The entitlement metadata are contained withinthe Seabed data model to allow auditing andreporting functions for this critical process.8

With secure access, active data centersprovide a channel to research institutions withthe goal of applying new data analysis, pro-cessing and interpretation techniques (above).

4. Brown T, Burke T, Kletzky A, Haarstad I, Hensley J,Murchie S, Purdy C and Ramasamy A: “In-Time DataDelivery,” Oilfield Review 11, no. 4 (Winter 1999/2000):34–55.

5. The Schlumberger integration engine allows access to various data repositories regardless of the datamodels, and provides the capability to view a commonbusiness object that has information in a number ofseparate repositories.

6. Webb P and Quigley D: “Seabed Marks ContinuingEvolution of the E&P Database,” First Break 23, no. 1(January 2006): 25–28.

7. http://www.slb.com/media/services/software/opensystems/seabed/index.html (accessed August 5, 2006).

8. Metadata are data that describe other data, for examplesource, creation date, keywords and format information.

> Secure Web access to data with entitlement. Once a user requests data,security protocols govern interactions through the Web, when checkingthe active user directory to determine the level of entitlement allowed tothat user, when accessing the various data stores, and when transmittingthe results back to the user through the Web.

Seismic

Security

Entitlement

Web services

User requests data

Security DataSecurity

Security

Active userdirectory

Logs Cores

Financial


Cutting-edge research could lead to ideas forenhanced hydrocarbon recovery and identi -fication of new reserves. These advances couldthen stimulate new investment in thedevelopment of the resource base.

While the goal of many governments is toattract investors or partners to develop theirresources, increased competitiveness in theglobal economy requires openness and trans -parency to attract key investors. Establishmentof an NDC can help achieve this end. Efficientaccess to data and advanced processes makeassets more attractive to interested parties. Thestate can give these interested partiespermission, or entitle them, to access certainlevels of data. The NDC then makes assets workfor the benefit of the state by enabling broaderaccess to entitled stakeholders and clients toattract investment. This process avoids theredundancy of building and maintaining separatedatabases and duplicating data, which helpscontrol the cost of managing the information.

An NDC fosters an understanding of naturalresources and resource optimization, andtherefore helps a country manage its naturalresources efficiently and optimally. Adherence tostandards and efficiency in regulatory reportingare mandatory. Submissions are checked andvalidated in a short time frame, and directdelivery of data between the field and the NDC is possible.

An NDC offers many benefits to oil and gascompanies and service contractors. Not only canthe approval process for seismic, logging anddrilling programs be quicker, but the data can becross-checked and validated when multipleinterpretations and multiple sources or versionsof data exist. Operators can access completedatasets, with data stored in a format that allowsquick, easy loading to a project on a workstation.Finally, an infrastructure shared with partnersmeans less hardware, software and office space,leading to operator cost savings.

Because of the many advantages of NDCs,many data repositories are gradually evolving tonational data centers. This trend is clearly seenin an example from Colombia.

Evolution from NDR to NDC in ColombiaThe existence of petroleum in Colombia can betraced back to the 16th century Spanishconquest of the village of La Tora, today known asBarrancabermeja. At that time, naturally seepingoil was used by the indigenous people as arelaxing medicine, among various other uses. The

conquerors used this magic substance towaterproof ships. Centuries later, this strangeblack substance would become a prime energyresource and underpin Colombia’s entire economy.

There is some evidence that the firstexploration well in Colombia was drilled in 1883with a production capacity of 50 barrels per day[7.9 m3/d].9 Today, the oil and natural gas ofColombia comprise more than 37 billion bbl[5 billion m3] of oil equivalent, distributed in18 sedimentary basins that cover an area of1,036,400 km2 [400,170 mi2].

The oil industry fuels the economy of thecountry, with 55.4% of export revenues comingfrom petroleum. In 1999, discovery of newreserves became a national priority to maintainself-sufficiency and revenue growth. Thisresulted in a series of reforms in oil policies—contractual and fiscal—to reactivate exploration.More than 60 concessions were signed. Newtechnologies have been deployed to reduce theoil decline rate from 12% in 2001 to about 1% in2005. However, internal consumption is stillexpected to surpass production between 2007and 2008. Colombia will have to start importingoil to meet internal oil demand. This new realityrequired the adoption of new policies to facilitateand promote E&P activity.

Ecopetrol, the Colombian National OilCompany, devised plans for managing E&P datain the late 1990s that became a corporatestrategy in 1998. In 2000, Ecopetrol launched theColombian National Data Repository (Banco deInformacion Petrolera, or BIP), an organizationthat emerged as the official data repository forthe oil industry in Colombia. In 2003, as part of astate reorganization, the BIP NDR became theEPIS (Exploration and Production InformationServices) NDC, a project of the NationalHydrocarbon Agency (ANH), and the newnational organization for managing the country’shydrocarbon policies (next page).

The main objectives of this new organizationare to increase hydrocarbon reserves by promot -ing investment in new exploration projectsthrough transparency and competitiveness, and toincrease investor confidence in E&P projects byoffering accurate, high-quality information thatreduces exploration risk. Some of the challengesare improving delivery time, providing compre -hensive, high-quality information, and managinglarge data volumes as new technologies are introduced.

Implementing EPISTo facilitate the transition from NDR to NDC, theANH evaluated several factors needed for anefficient NDC. These include hardware andsoftware technologies that speed up transactionsand guarantee information security, and thatenable data integration from different databases.Also key is the implementation of processes andprocedures that allow replicability of standards,monitoring and traceability.10 Management andtraining of personnel are also important.

The five main functions of EPIS services arephysical data reception and verification;technical data verification, data cataloging,loading and integration; technical data delivery;integrated browsing; and online help andphysical-media technology service.

Physical data reception and verificationinvolve validating data from oil companies,service companies and other parties against the official data-delivery manual—confirmingquantities, formats, time frame and deliverylocation. Technical data verification enables datato be reviewed by a group of professionals in eacharea to ensure that the data comply with oilindustry standards. Once this process iscomplete, the data are cataloged, verified andloaded into databases that are accessible tousers. Integration is a key activity in this step for retaining data integrity among all technical databases.

Technical data-delivery service consists ofsearching, selecting and delivering—in digital oranalog media—the stored technical data relatedto seismic acquisition, wells, maps or documentsto ANH or any other company or person dulyauthorized by ANH.

A user can locate, select, visualize and thenextract the relevant data that are stored indifferent physical repositories through anintegrated Web portal called “My EPIS.” My EPIShas a text-oriented search interface, in Englishand Spanish; data can also be located quicklyand easily through a graphical interface that useslocation maps.

The many varied physical assets (more than1,450,000), covering 50 years of petroleumhistory, are cataloged and bar-coded into10 categories. These include data in a wide rangeof media and formats such as paper, tapes, CDs,videos, analog seismic, geologic or geophysicalreports, maps, seismic sections, well logs,satellite images and film. More than 30 terabytesof data are stored in the EPIS repositories. Call-center and help-desk services ensure usersupport in any aspect of E&P technical data

58 Oilfield Review


Summer 2006 59

9. See Ecopetrol’s Web page: http://www.ecopetrol.com.co(accessed August 4, 2006).

10. EPIS was awarded ISO 9000 Quality Certification inDecember 2004, making it the world’s first national datacenter with certified processes and procedures.

> Improved Web portal for Colombia data. The first EPIS Web portal in 2003 was a line-item interface (top). The current portal has a graphical interface(bottom) available in both English and Spanish with quick links to many features in a menu bar. Examples include (from left) the home page, sets of seismicdata, data from individual seismic lines and current production statistics.

INFORMACION DE LINEAS

LINEA PROGRAMA AREA

11BR-1986-01 SOGAMOSO-86






11BR-1986-10N SOGAMOSO-86

SANTANDER

SANTANDER

SANTANDER

SANTANDER

SANTANDER

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Adicionar

SOUTHAMERICA

COLOMBIA


browsing, downloading and administrativerequests. An important service provided toinvestors is a “Data Room” that allows anauthorized user or possible investor to visualizedata to make informed decisions.

EPIS benefits for ANH are both tangible andintangible. Both the number of signed contractsand the revenues associated with the data-delivery packages have increased since EPISreplaced BIP (right). Other, more indirectbenefits are less easily measured, butunmistakable. Making decisions at the rightmoment, with the right information, has atremendous impact on project success, efficientuse of resources and effective budget planning.

Currently, EPIS is an NDC that includes onlyE&P data. In the future, EPIS will includeproduction data with associated services andtechnical support. The method of financialsupport will migrate slowly into a self-fundedprogram, with the latest technological facilitiesthat allow all users around the world to downloadtheir entitled data in real time. Anotherpossibility for the future is inclusion of othertypes of resource information.

Advances in data-handling procedures andcertain enabling technologies have allowed NDCsto progress to include downstream data such aspetrochemical and other non-E&P resources suchas rivers, forests and fisheries, in addition totransportation, and social and economic datatypes.11 A few countries have used this system tomanage their mining industries—diamonds, goldand metals—while others are using it to manageother resources like subsurface water (nextpage). An example of a more wide-ranging NDC is that of the Yamalo-Nenetsky Autonomous District of the Russian Federation (Yamal) inwestern Siberia.

Yamal: Extending the NDC DomainYamal is one of the largest regions of the RussianFederation with more than 50% of its territory inthe polar region. The Yamal region producesabout 90% of Russia’s gas and about 15% of its oiland represents 22.5% of the world’s gasproduction. There are more than 53 operatingcompanies working in Yamal, and 157 licenceshave been issued for 42 exploration and 115 field-development projects.12

Since the beginning of exploration about40 years ago, enormous volumes of E&P datahave been generated from 600,000 km[372,833 mi] of seismic coverage, and data from6,500 exploration wells and 20,000 developmentwells. With major political and economic changessweeping across Russia in the 1990s, the three

state E&P enterprises in the region werereorganized into more than 30 independentcompanies, and the region’s hydrocarbonresource information was distributed amongthem. About 60% to 80% of user time was spentsearching for, validating and reformatting data.Media deterioration, poor storage facilities andother factors contributed to an estimated annualdata loss of 5% to 10%.

In 1997, to preserve the informationresources of the region and introduce moderndata-management standards, the Yamal admini -stration decided to create a single, state-of-the-art repository of old and newly obtained E&Pdata. Schlumberger received a contract toprovide advanced technology and information-management expertise for the Yamal TerritorialData Bank (TDB) project, and the operations ofTDB were managed by the Siberian ScientificAnalytical Centre (SibSAC) in Tyumen, Russia.

The Schlumberger-SibSAC partnership providedthe best available combination of technology,experience and regional expertise.

The first phase began in 1998, with loading ofgeological, geophysical and production data tothe TDB. Most exploration activities includedseismic surveys and wells that were originallyfulfilled used government financing; thereforethe government owned the information. Mostdata were on paper; they were scanned into theTDB or digitized. About 1 million scanned imageswere loaded for about 5,200 exploration wells.The production wells included well-constructionand production data.

60 Oilfield Review

> Tangible benefits from EPIS. The number of E&P contracts signed by ANHthat were supported by BIP (2002 and 2003) and EPIS (2004 onward) indicatethe success of the system (top). The monthly income (in Colombian pesos,COP) from data-delivery packages has a seasonal behavior, but alsoexperienced a significant increase year-on-year from 2005 to 2006 (bottom).

70

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f E&

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350

250

200

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11. Gmyzin SG and Bouffard B: “Why the Future Lies inNational Data Centres,” First Break 22, no. 1(January 2004): 67–69.

12. Mason A: “Arctic Gas: Reserves and Production,” inNuttall M (ed): Encyclopedia of the Arctic. New YorkCity: Routledge Press (2004): 698–706.


Summer 2006 61

> Some NDRs and NDCs around the world. Data repositories and national data centers around the world are owned by national oil companies (circles) or national, regional or local governments (triangles). The operation and the technology used are indicated in different colors: government (brown),Schlumberger (blue), Halliburton (red) and other (gray). There are multiple locations in USA at the state level.

Utrecht

Salekhard

Tokyo

Copenhagen

Astana

StavangerAberdeen

Yaounde

Pointe-NoireLuanda

Sanaa

Abu DhabiKuwait City

PretoriaPerth

Lagos

Algiers

CairoBagdad

DohaNew Delhi

Jakarta

Wellington

Bangkok

Islamabad

Rio de Janeiro

Lima

Santa Cruz

Bogotá Caracas

Calgary

USA

Mexico City

New Orleans

CongoPointe-Noire,

Wells and logs.Seismic with

SociétéNationale des

Pétroles duCongo

Santa Cruz,Bolivia

Seismic, GIS,wells, logs andphysical data

New Delhi,India

E&P data

AlgeriaAlgiers,

Seismic, GIS,wells, logs

and production

The NetherlandsUtrecht,

Multidepth data,broad datasets

for surface,mid-depth anddeep features

Tokyo

Salekhard, RussiaYamal,

E&P, minerals,water, forestryand fisheries

Lima, Peru

Seismic,some wells, logsand production

Copenhagen,Denmark

E&P andgeoscience

Aberdeen

Wells, logs,GIS and

e-government

Stavanger

Seismic, GIS,some wells, logsand production

E&P data,logs, geoscience,completion and

production

Abu Dhabi,UAE

USA

Caracas

Seismic, GIS,wells, logs and

production

Multiplelocations

Distributedcatalogs of

physical data

Bangkok,Thailand

Seismic, GIS,some wells

and logs

Perth,Australia

E&P, minerals,geoscience andphysical data

Seismic, GIS,wells and logs

Rio de Janeiro

E&P data

Cairo

Calgary

Well, logs,production ande-government

Bogotá,Colombia


documents

Lagos,Nigeria

New Zealand


1993 1994 1995 1996 1997 1998 1999 2000 2001 2002 2003 2004 2005

KazakhstanAstana,

Seismic

South AfricaPretoria,

E&P andlarge physicaldata catalog.Seismic withCompagnieGénérale deGéophysique

CameroonYaounde,

Wells, logs,seismic and

physical assets

Bagdad, Iraq

Seismic

Mexico City

Well, logs,GIS, drilling,production,

physical dataand seismic

Jakarta

E&P data

KuwaitKuwait City,

Well production,facilities, cultural,

geological,physical assets,

log data, seismic,navigationand GIS

New Orleans

Seismic, GIS,wells, logs,documents,portal and

e-government

Doha, Qatar

Seismic, logs,geoscience,

drilling, physicalassets andproduction

AngolaLuanda,

Seismic, GIS,wells and logs

PakistanIslamabad,

Seismic

YemenSanaa,

E&P, seismic,logs, drilling,production,

geoscience anddocuments

Wellington,

E&P data

GovernmentNational Oil Company

Legend shapes:

Legend colors:GovernmentSchlumbergerHalliburtonOther

E&P dataabout countries

that Japandepends on for

oil and gas


The TDB in Salekhard, Russia, contains thecentral data repository and provides single point-of-entry secured access to the users (above).Data are fed to a preparation, quality-control andloading center located in Tyumen before they arereplicated and sent to a central repository. Thereare also several mobile centers that serve aspoints of data gathering and preparation.

The first phase of data loading presentedmany challenges. More than 50% of the datacollected existed in analog form. Other problemswere several generations’ change of hardwareand techniques, physical deterioration of mediaand the loss of originals. Close cooperation withSibSAC, rapid implementation and focused effortalong with use of a comprehensive suite ofSchlumberger software technology allowedgathering and storing of 95% of available data,around 10 terabytes, in the TDB by the end of2002. SibSAC was responsible for gathering,checking, transcribing and loading, while

Schlumberger was responsible for technicalsolutions, training, documentation and process consulting.

The data included 854 seismic surveysequaling 450,000 km [279,625 mi] of seismiclines that were previously stored on 70,000 tapes;720,000 documents for 6,000 wells; digital andpaper logs from nearly 8,000 wells; andproduction information for approximately20,000 production wells.

Overall, the Yamal NDC approach has beensuccessful. The NDC operation is adequatelyfunded and the membership provides costsavings by sharing the cost and benefits amongseveral companies. Data sales provide about halfthe operational cost. Most importantly, thebusiness model supports a long-term vision thatfosters and supports continual improvements toand innovation within the data center.

Because of this success, the Yamaladministration decided to extend data coveragebeyond hydrocarbons to a natural-resourcesdomain (next page). The second phase of datamanagement includes information about land,rivers, water, fish, wildlife and forests. Inclusionof cultural data such as administrative divisionsand population helped ensure maximumefficiency in using human resources in theregional labor market.

Yamal had limited information on land usageabout 15 years ago. Monitoring of land usage wasneeded to assess land values, control theenvironment and pollution, and regulate operatoractivities. Also required were verification of land-use regulations, prevention of illegal activitiesand investigation of liabilities.

Yamal’s TDB has the potential to apply thisnew information-management structure to theregion’s infrastructure management such asrailways and roads, rivers and seaports, electricaland telephone lines, and pipelines. This

62 Oilfield Review

> The facility that houses the Yamal TDB. Constructed in 1999 by the Yamal Administration for Department of Natural ResourcesManagement and Oil-and-Gas Complex Development, two floors of this building were specially designed for the Yamal TDB.


Summer 2006 63

infrastructure and facilities database is beingcreated within the framework of an integratedinformation system for the general economicdevelopment of the territory.

Work on the establishment of a social andeconomic parameter database was recentlyinitiated for further enhancing the integratedinformation system. This would aid in preparingregional budgets, setting investment policies,facilitating economic forecasting, and evaluatingthe living standards of the population.

The regulatory and legal frameworkencompasses the integrated information system.It gives users access to the laws of the RussianFederation as well as to regional legalrequirements—at a federal level and at a locallevel—that are specific to the particular region.

This TDB structure enables management tomake informed decisions aimed at a stable long-term development of the region. Yamal may have

set the stage for a future comprehensiveinformation-management system encompassingthe entire Russian Federation.

The change from managing only E&P data tomanaging other resources is less a technicalproblem than a political or organizational issue.At the Sixth International Meeting of theNational Geoscience Data Repositories (NDR6)in The Netherlands, the participants noted that 80% of the difficulties of establishing anNDC relate to the following four items: legalissues, financing, government buy-in andindustry buy-in.13

However, funding an NDC remains one of theimportant challenges. The global expenditure onNDRs and NDCs is estimated to be in the range ofUS$ 60 to 90 million annually. The typical cost forsustaining a significant NDC ranges betweenUS$ 2 to 5 million yearly, with the major costrelated to the storage and management ofseismic trace data.

Business ConsiderationsPetrotechnical data acquired in the process offinding, developing and producing oil and gas arecomplex, voluminous and unique to the industry.Data managers in this industry are highly skilledspecialists, usually from geoscience andinformation-technology backgrounds. Theseprofessionals are challenged with masteringadvanced technology, complex formats, and poorand inconsistent data quality. The data’s originmust be geospatially located with a high degreeof accuracy both horizontally and vertically. As aresult, professional management of E&P data hasa significant cost that is often overlooked bymany organizations.

The original business justification for the firstNDRs was quite simple: centralize the storageand management of petrotechnical data in acommon location and then distribute the costamong several organizations that use or need thedata. An NDR provides a greater value to thegovernment if its capabilities are expanded tobecome a national data center. This is becausean NDC is an effective cost saver and also arevenue generator, which benefits both thegovernment and the users.

The business models for NDCs may vary. Theymay be government-sponsored, industry-sponsored, or sometimes even commercialventures. Business models may be broadlycharacterized into four types: governmentoutsourcing to a third party, an industry-ledconsortium, those funded by an agency, andagency-funded with cost recovery.

Government licensing or outsourcing—The government-licensing or outsourcingbusiness model allows one or more vendors toown and operate an NDC as a for-profitcommercial venture. Industry users purchasedata access, downloads and information productsfrom the vendor based on market rates thatcompensate the vendor for its investments ininfrastructure, software and staffing. For thesponsoring government entity, this optionprovides the core benefits of an NDC withoutmajor government investment.

Though this approach is attractive togovernment agencies from a cost perspective, ithas not been successful in fully funding aneffective NDC, and consequently has seenlimited implementation. The barriers include

13. Bulow K and Peersmann M: “Feedback on NDR6Questionnaires, Summary of the Analysis,” presented atthe Sixth International Meeting of the National GeoscienceData Repositories (NDR6), Utrecht, The Netherlands,September 19–22, 2005. See http://www.posc.org/technical/ndr/ndr6/ndr6_presentation/NDR7_RoadMap_Nov05.ppt#11 (accessed May 9, 2006).

> Territorial Data Bank (TDB) project in Yamalo-Nenetskydistrict. The information in the Yamal TDB has evolved fromits initial E&P focus to include cultural, infrastructure, socialand economic databases. The regulatory and legalframework—the country’s laws and regional local laws andacts—encompass the entire information system and provideusers with an understanding of the legal requirements. TheTDB aids government decision making regarding resources.

Decisionmaking by

management

Regulatory and legal framework

Infrastructure database

Other natural resources and cultural information

Geological, geophysical and production information

Social and economicparameter database

Yamalo-Nenetsky


warehouse storage cost for physical data,collection and management cost for private data,access costs for government and universities, anunrealized expectation that demand for dataaccess will fully fund the operation, andexpectation by many in government that publicdata are free.

One variant in this concept has had success.The notion in the USA and some other countriesis that any public information managed by thegovernment is available to any citizen whorequests the information at the cost ofdistribution. As a result, there is an industrycomprising numerous data vendors thatpurchase E&P data from various state andfederal agencies and then provide some value-added processing.

The data-vendor model is particularlycommon in North America where there are hugenumbers of E&P companies and millions of wellsto manage. The data are sold to the industry on acommercial basis. The vendor databases in someregions fulfill the need to provide data access tothe industry that would otherwise be achieved byan NDC. In this manner, a vendor database canbe considered a form of pseudo-NDC thatprovides the data-distribution functions.However, this service is incomplete and fallsshort when compared to the benefits of agovernment NDC.

Industry-led consortium—In an industry-ledconsortium, several operators and participants ina given region form a group that will fund anNDC. Companies pay a fee to join the consortium.The government agency is included as a specialmember with minimal investment. A boardgoverns the group with representation from allmembers. Two examples of the consortium modelinclude Norway’s DISKOS and the UK’s CommonData Access (CDA).14

DISKOS is a group of 17 members, includingNorway’s largest acreage holder, Statoil, and agovernment agency, the Norwegian PetroleumDirectorate. The funding model considers bothfixed and variable cost. The operation is fundedby member fees, including a set fee plus a portionthat is based on the volume of data that ismanaged for each member. Activity-basedservices, such as loading new datasets, areestablished as a variable cost and have anassociated fee based on the volume of the dataloaded. This approach allows the NDC to addresources to match peaks in demand.15

A third component of NDC funding iscommercial charges for value-added services.Typically, an NDC allows vendors to provide

services on a commercial basis. A range ofactivities that leverage the data center’s capacityfor storage, professional data-managementservices and connectivity are available. Examplesinclude corrections to data that do not meet thestandards set by the government, management ofa member’s data that originate from out-of-country, and management and delivery ofprestack seismic datasets for processing.

DISKOS has established best practices forapportioning member costs with a fixed-costelement for predictable cost and variable costsfor activity-based services. Also, the outsourcingapproach encourages efficiency in competitivebidding and service-level agreements. Membershave saved significantly by pooling resourceswith a central service. DISKOS saves operators

an estimated US$ 60 million annually. Typically, it takes about 4 to 5 years for tangiblebenefits to exceed the cost of operating the NDC (above).16

Agency-funded—In an agency-funded model,the government agency that is responsible forthe energy industry funds the NDC. The agency isthe custodian of the information assets andpromotes and manages oil and gas resources.Typically, these governments view the receiptand management of petrotechnical informationfrom operators as the legal responsibility of thestate and therefore budget for the NDC program.The business premise is that government shouldplay an active role in the health and vibrancy ofthe industry it stewards by providing quality datato the industry. The NDC serves as a means of

64 Oilfield Review

14. CDA is a nonprofit subsidiary of United KingdomOffshore Operators Association that was set up in 1994to provide data-management services to members andto the oil industry in the UK. CDA facilitates effectivecollaboration between oil companies, servicecompanies and regulatory authorities in the UK. For more on CDA: http://www.cdal.com/HOME/page33866.asp (accessed April 20, 2006).

15. The consortium business model has been a success forDISKOS for the past 12 years. DISKOS is self-funded andall members actively use the service. About 60 terabytesof data have been loaded into the DISKOS system,including 500 3D seismic surveys, 1,500 2D seismicsurveys and 18,000 well logs. Benefits include efficientaccess to high-quality data that results in faster projectcycle time and risk mitigation. Government-to-business(G2B) processes for data submissions have beenstreamlined with improved quality and service.

16. Tonstad, reference 3.17. The OCS Connect project is a phased, multiyear,

electronic government (e-government) transformation ofthe Offshore Minerals Management (OMM), a division ofthe United States Department of Interior MineralsManagement Service (MMS). The project aims to improvecore operational processes of the OMM program, whichincludes replacement of legacy information-managementtools with state-of-the-art commercial products. These

will help to meet the needs of the stakeholder and usercommunities such as federal, state and local government,private industry, the scientific community, internationalagencies and the general public. OMM will employ theSeabed advanced E&P datastore system as part of theOCS Connect project.The Department of Industry and Resources in WesternAustralia has established the Western AustraliaPetroleum Information Management System (WAPIMS),a petroleum-exploration database containing data ontitles, wells, geophysical surveys and other E&P datasubmitted by the petroleum industry. Today, the databasecontains more than 560,000 items received by thedepartment, including well logs, seismic sections, maps,reports, well samples, and field and processed data. Italso contains data on all well production since 1964, andanalyses, formation tops and other well information. Thesystem is built around the Schlumberger Finder datamanagement system eSearch software, including aDecisionPoint personalized E&P Web workflow solutionwith a map-browser interface that makes it a multiclientsystem. It has online public access available athttp://dp.doir.wa.gov.au/dp/index.jsp (accessedAugust 21, 2006).

18. www.nitg.tno.nl/eng/pubrels/jaarv2003/jv2003eng11.pdf(accessed July 28, 2006).

> Cost-benefit relationship for a typical NDC. On average, benefits outweighcosts in about four to five years.

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attracting external investment and new players.This type of NDC is typically owned and operatedby the state.

Other examples of agencies using an agency-funded model include the MineralsManagement Service in the United States, andthe Department of Industry and Resources inWestern Australia.17

An NDC can attract international funding interms of grants or loans to the countries thathave hydrocarbons but are not among the worldleaders in production. For example, the WorldBank approved a loan of US$ 15 million in 2005 tosupport the government of Gabon’s effortstowards improved management of biodiversity,environment and natural resources. This laterled to an NDC established by the Gabongovernment. In other examples, the World Bankfunding was initially used to initiate NDCs inBolivia and Cameroon.

Agency-funded with cost recovery—In thisbusiness model, a government funds an NDCproject and ongoing operations and thenallocates the costs to the operators within itsjurisdiction. Unlike the industry-led consortium,NDC governance is dictated by the agency withinput from industry members. The funding hasthe same components described in the industry-led consortium model. This model generallyincludes a one-time member fee, an annual feebased on company size, and usage fees tied tovariable costs.

The Yamal TDB is an example of an agency-funded model with cost recovery. Regionaladministration manages the operation of the NDCwith a focus on data delivery to end users, withSibSAC managing the data and Schlumberger

providing information-management technologyand systems-integration services. The regionaladministration fully funds the NDC, although itrecovers the costs by selling data access,downloads and information products to all E&Pcompanies in the province. The Yamal NDC beganoperation in 1998, and adopted a self-fundingmodel in 2000.

In the future, hybrid business models arepossible where the government agencies forenergy, driven by e-government initiatives—electronic transactions—provide fundamentalcommunication and information capabilities thatare open to the public. This will spawn a newindustry of value-added services that go far beyondtoday’s data distribution. The key is the E&Pindustry embracing e-government transformationand staying dedicated to a vision of openness.

Conditions for a Successful NDCCriteria for a successful NDC are based upontransparency, degree of self-support, having anindustry or a government focus, cost savings,value creation and fairness to all parties.

An important consideration is how well thebusiness model facilitates transparent financialtransactions. Openness brings transparency andultimately reduces business corruption that ispossible in the traditional manual process. Thisserves as a catalyst to attract more investors.

The ability of a business model to self-fundthe NDC implementation, operations and long-term evolution is essential. The needs of industryand the needs of the government typically opposeeach other. There is a healthy tension betweenthese groups that naturally seeks a balance in awell-managed industry.

NDCs are expected to save costs bycentralizing information management. Thesesavings are realized only if the NDC deliversinformation well enough that the sharedproducts and services are not replicated in themember companies themselves. This indicatorreflects the likelihood of the business model toencourage actual savings.

Finally, business models should be fair to allplayers in the marketplace, including E&Pcompanies, universities and service companiesfrom small to large, regardless of the length oftime in the specific country.

There is no correct or optimal businessmodel. Each geopolitical entity adopts a businessmodel that is appropriate for its social andeconomic conditions. Each type of businessmodel can be augmented with contractual termsand conditions, governance approaches andlegislation to achieve the key performanceaspects of the NDC.

What’s Next—A Proliferation of NDCs?Governments around the world are in theprocess of implementing seamless transactionsbetween government and business, betweengovernment and people, and within variousgovernment agencies. While market driverscontinue to push the trend toward more openaccess, technology—more importantly cost-effective technology—continues to exertpressure on speeding up legislation to encourageexternal investment.

NDCs of the future will incorporate a widevariety of data types in addition to E&P,geoscience, mining and groundwater. Accordingto an economic study done by The NetherlandsInstitute of Applied Geoscience, an annualinvestment of EUR 15 million in managing oil andgas, industrial materials and groundwaterresources results in an estimated value ofapproximately EUR 10,000 million per year.18

As the value of these NDCs continues tobecome better known, the rapid growth in theirimplementation will continue (left). Integrationwill be driven to the next level, where NDCsbecome activity hubs in a large global network.This broader network will increase the availabilityof investment and will encourage more countriesto improve and transform their NDRs from apassive position of merely preserving and storingdata, as done in the past, to a dynamic one ofgenerating new investments. —RG/MAA

> Rapid growth of NDRs and NDCs.

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