Offshore staff
LONDON – The Oil & Gas Authority (OGA) will launch the UK’s first oil and gas national data repository (NDR) early next year.
This will safeguard, regulate, and ensure wider access to the UK’s petroleum-related information, one of the recommendations of the Wood Maximizing Recovery Review.
It will support regulatory compliance and provide comprehensive data for analysis, which the OGA hopes will spur greater investment, new technologies, and exploration activity on the UK continental shelf.
Last year a consultation was initiated seeking the industry’s views on establishing and maintaining the NDR, which would be funded through an OGA levy, payable by all offshore petroleum license holders.
Most respondents (28 out of 32) were supportive of the levy.
Nic Granger, director of corporate at the OGA, said: “Having a UK NDR is vital to unlocking the huge prize of the United Kingdom continental shelf’s potential 10-20 Bboe of resources. The OGA is committed to creating an environment where enhanced and trusted data can deliver extra value for our sector…”
Malcolm Fleming, chief executive ofCommon Data Access (CDA), a subsidiary of Oil & Gas UK, added: “The effective collection and availability of well, seismic and other petroleum-related information is crucial to unlocking the significant remaining hydrocarbon potential of the UKCS.”
The OGA plans to enter a two-year contract with CDA for the provision of NDR services, based on its existing data store and legacy data collection. During subsequent phases, the OGA will undertake procurement for new NDR services, and expects to award a contract to this effect in mid-2020.
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