The meetings of the National Repositories are as follows:
Representatives from 13 Repositories attended the first meeting which had very simple objectives :
The summary produced in the report following the meeting is outlined below.
National data repositories are a relatively new phenomena in the oil industry. They have emerged independently in different parts of the world but as a response to the same stimuli
Three different models for establishing repositories have emerged
The particular mode adopted in the various countries depends upon the culture of the country and the level of government involvement.
The first meeting was useful and it was agreed that were areas for collaboration that could be usefully followed up in subsequent meetings.
These areas are in the fields of standards for naming things, such as wells, seismic lines, and defining high level frameworks for common business processes such as quality checking data, compositing logs.
This was attended by representatives of about 10 Repositories.
Attendees updated colleagues on progress and then two break-out sessions investigated whether it is possible to develop cooperation around the areas of Meta Data and Business processes.
Attendees also found the second meeting useful and it was agreed to continue to meet, at least in the short term, and to try to identify a real focus from which real benefit from cooperation could be achieved.
Actions taken away from the second meeting included the creation of these web pages via POSC and an exercise, to be managed by Stewart Robinson of UK DTI, to try and move towards common definitions of meta data for well and seismic data.
The meeting was facilitated and chaired by Stewart Robinson of the UK
Department of Trade and Industry
There were representatives from :
|
Repositories |
Suppliers |
Oil
companies |
Standards |
|
Alberta - Canada |
Geoquest |
Pan Canadian |
POSC |
|
Algeria |
IBM |
|
PPDM |
|
Faroe Islands |
PECC |
|
|
|
Indonesia |
QC Data |
|
|
|
Netherlands |
|
|
|
|
Norway |
|
|
|
|
Peru |
|
|
|
|
Queensland - Australia |
|
|
|
|
UK |
|
|
|
|
USA |
|
|
|
|
Venezuela |
|
|
|
A number of other countries showed interest but were unable to attend.
See later for contacts names / addresses etc.
Day 1 was devoted to discussing the problems of data exchange.
Day 2 allowed the delegates to update each other on progress.
Data
exchange
The emergence of National Data Repositories should help to resolve a
number of issues surrounding data handling in the E&P area. However
establishing these repositories and using data from the repositories to populate
project databases in individual oil companies creates a number of other issues
that need to be addressed. Some of these issues were addressed in the previous
meeting in Norway and were :
can common (and global) naming standards for items such as wells, log
curves, seismic lines, companies etc. be reached
can common (and global) reference entities be agreed for items such as well status, geological tops, reservoir units etc
A major issue is data :
How can National Repositories be populated from disparate data sources
How can a project database in an oil company be populated from a
National Repository.
How can data exchange between Repositories be supported, particularly of
data with multiple data types
Taking the above in turn it is reasonable to assume that the basis for a
National Repository is going to be a variant of either a PPDM or an Epicentre
database and that in-house oil company data stores will be either PPDM,
Epicentre, Openworks, Finder, bespoke etc.
The actual combinations of required data exchanges is thus not trivial.
The problem was typified by taking the UK as an example but similar examples
will occur almost everywhere eventually.
The Repository will initially need to load various naming data such as :
Company details
Basic well data
Licensing (concessions) data
Using this as a base the following data sets may be loaded and shared
depending upon entitlement :
Well log curves
Seismic data
Well production data
Drilling data
The source for all of this data will be a variety of data stores.
Establishing the National Repository will require Quality Control of the data.
Whatever quality rules are applied at initial load will need to be maintained in
perpetuity as more data is added.
Once the Repository has a sound set of data and users have confidence in
that data they may wish to use the Repository to establish an in-house project
database by moving any or all of the above data sets. The target data store will
invariably not be the same as the one used in the Repository.
Two specific examples are :
Using the National Repository to exchange well production data between partners and with the government and subsequently making this production data available to all members of the Repository. Most oil companies use one of a small number of well production packages, none of which are POSC (or anything else) compliant. They need to give production data to their partners, who may have disparate systems and the government. One way is to use the Repository as a neutral store of data in an agreed format and have data exchange routines in and out that maintain the integrity of the data.
Establishing and maintaining a project database in-house, for an
identified project area. The project database would require knowledge of all
wells in that area, all well log curves of given types, seismic shot in that
area, hard copy data available, well tests run. The data for this will have
come from disparate data sources to populate the database and will be
required in the particular format of the chosen project data store.
These examples were then taken as the basis for discussion and suppliers
of technology then described their products or services and how they could help
provide these services.
Presentations were given from
Geoquest
with
Geoshare,
Oilfield
systems with
their DAEX product,
Panther
software corporation.
PPDM
described moves that organization is making towards supporting data exchange
and Pan Canadian provided an
insight to the problem from an oil company perspective.
There was then a wide ranging discussion from which no absolute
conclusion was reached.
Some issues raised were :
Technology is available to resolve the problem, viz. the three companies
presenting.
The major problem to be resolved is a people problem; managing standards
and procedures.
Need to move away from unique point to point solutions by sharing
solutions.
Is the nature of a National Repository to be a Data Warehouse or to
provide direct access.
Responsibility for data quality must be clearly defined.
Current work on Common Business Objects could lead to global solutions.
Can standard data sets for exchange be agreed amongst Repositories.
The lack of global standards for codes and reference entities is a
problem.
How can footprints be shared and exchanged.
Is there any scope for developing global generic standards for quality
control.
The following actions were volunteered.
Paul Maton of POSC to take back to POSC the comments on Business
Objects.
NPD (Norway) and UK DTI will liaise on possible exchange formats for
Production Data using Epicentre; Norway are probably ahead in developing
this.
Paul Maton to raise sharing and exchanging footprints within POSC. He
hinted that a solution may be available soon !
POSC To be encouraged to take forward the development and ownership of a
wider set of reference entities.
This is a topic to which National Repositories may wish to return at
future meetings.
Updates
from Repositories
Some of these may appear terse but they are just updates to longer
reports given at previous meetings. It is intended (see below) to develop a
standard template for these projects on the POSC web site.
ALASKA
The Alaska initiative involves about 14 players who are both large and
small companies together with the government. An RFI has been circulated and
replies received, but there have been some difficulties between all the players
as to the overall vision because the initial funding appeared high compared to
real and perceived benefits.
The initiative has reviewed the position and now intends to proceed with
a small pilot project involving a small number of players. The scope of this has
not been agreed but could involve a logs project possibly moving on to
production data.
A new position paper is to be produced by September.
ALBERTA (Cannogis)
System continues to function well.
Production accounting has been added.
New application to be added (being discussed with local Government) is
self assessment of Royalties.
ALGERIA
The overall infrastructure of the data store is now in place.
Data loading continues to take place with an emphasis being placed on
storing quality data.
The focus of the project has changed to establishing data delivery
mechanisms for partners.
World bank funding runs out at the end of 1997.
GEIXS
This is a European initiative to establish a hub and share geological
survey data across the EEC countries.
Project leader is David Ovadia from UK BGS.
This is a two year project.
Technology is likely to be Epicentre with an ArcView web-enabled
solution.
NETHERLANDS (TNO)
GEUS is funded by the National Government.
Culture is that data is not made public until 10 years.
Data stores being developed are more than E&P data; also there is
agricultural data, land use, rainfall, property and other data types.
GEUS are allowed to make some money but cannot make a profit on
distributing data. There is no intention to compete with third party data
suppliers.
Starting with shallow (non E&P) data; developing own model base upon
Epicentre.
INDONESIA
Repository is being established to:
attract more investors
increase productivity
reduce costs
Is to be established by non-profit making government agency.
Looking to centralize data storage by reducing duplicate copies.
Initial phase is cartography, documents and geoscience data.
Next phases are to be production and reservoir data.
Plan is to use Epicentre and provide a CDROM for browsing.
Tender is to be issued for database supplier, work underway is data
remastering.
NORWAY (Diskos)
15 of companies operating on Norwegian Shelf are now members.
45% of 2D and 85% of 3D seismic data is now loaded.
Upgrading the closed DISKOS network with higher bandwidth.
Are developing a Business Case for extending system to handle all
Development wells.
The cultural data (licenses, wells, coastlines, ...) in the system is
being extended outside Norwegian waters.
The system is upgraded to include pre-stack seismic data.
New data types being actively considered :
Production data
Geophysical logs and VSPs
Core data and photos
PERU
A government body PeruPetro was formed in 1993 with the objective of
reviving the Peruvian oil industry. There are now about 35 companies active in
Peru.
There is a desire to set up National
Databank for the 14,000 or so wells.
A tender was run which was won by Geoquest and the intention is to
develop a solution based around the Geoquest family of products.
First phase will include an index to scanned documents.
QUEENSLAND - Australia
This project started about 18 months ago. Project has been funded by the
State government who recoup costs by delivery and usage charges.
Legacy attributes have been loaded and bulk data loading is underway
Focus is shifting from storage to delivery because the project has been
successful and it has been difficult to keep up with demand.
Currently all delivery to users is off-line because of an initial poor
communications backbone but this is being moved to on-line.
UK (CDA)
Digital logs phase is now live, difficult problems over company
entitlement to data have had to be resolved. There is still a backlog of legacy
data to be loaded.
A further phase to extend to hard copy well data and scan all this data
has been awarded and will start soon.
A preferred supplier has been identified for a Seismic phase, that will
include Licensing data. This phase will be based upon Epicentre.
Problems have arisen over the way the project is managed by a number of
sub-committees.
USA - National Geosciences Data Repository System (NGDRS)
Phase
III is underway since February of 1997. Its objective is to provide for a
co-ordinated and orderly transfer of significant volumes of geoscience data from
the private sector to the NGDRS and to provide improved access to the data.
Three major components are identified for Phase III:
The
establishment of a clearinghouse organization
and the processes and procedures needed to co-ordinate all activities
relating to the acquisition and transfer of data and data transfer
priorities. The major project started under this component is the
establishment of repository site the Houston area to house cores, cuttings
and other samples.
The
creation of the metadata repository
including the hardware, software, database and networking service components
that will allow users to access via Internet the full range of NGDRS
metadata and data. The data center to support the metadata repository will
be installed in the Houston area (at the offices of the Information Store)
and is expected to be operational during September 1997.
Installation
of electronic databases was
started in July 1997. It will include databases with data on cores/cuttings,
well logs, and seismic surveys. These databases are being provided by the
Bureau of Economic Geology, Mineral Management Services, Kansas Geological
Survey, Oklahoma Geological Survey, PGS and other seismic data vendors.
Installation of databases is planned to continue in 1998 and beyond. Once
the metadata repository is operational and some of the databases are loaded,
the NGDRS will be open to the public - 4th quarter of 1997. Users will be
able, via Internet, to access, browse, organize and order data utilizing a
GIS-oriented, Java-enabled data browser (GeoTrek™).
Phase III funds for 1997 are being provided by federal government.
Operations of the metadata repository are expected to be self-sustaining after
year one of Phase III. Private sector, corporate and federal government support
will be requested to cover the cost of the activities dealing with data
transfer, indexing, and cataloguing
in future years.
VENEZUELA
Government are considering funding the establishment of a central data
repository.
Objectives are to gain control of data but more importantly to help to
stimulate exploration activity.
Immediate intention is to produce a tender document and some work has
taken place looking at what has been done elsewhere.
Meta
Data
Since the Norway meeting a basic set of meta data for Repositories is
available on the POSC web site and definitions from the Norwegian and UK
Repositories are included. Other Repositories are encouraged to add their
definitions and a review of these definitions may form an agenda item at a
future meeting.
In the UK the DTI have been experimenting with making data available in
POSC format via the web. Initially only the basic well header data used to
describe wells in CDA has been put out on the web. It is proposed to extend this
facility to other data sets.
Norway have made significant advances extending
the data sets available via Diskos. They are currently actively looking
to extend to Production Data using POSC standards.
Communication
POSC have developed a National Repositories page on the POSC server. All
are encouraged to access this page and let Paul Maton of POSC know of any
changes to the name/ email addresses indexes or the basic information. The index
also points to any web sites for specific Repositories and Paul Maton should be
told of these. Notes of the Repositories meetings will be put on the web and
notification of any fixture meetings.
Discussion pages for meta data are available.
It was agreed that this is the most suitable vehicle for keeping in
touch. POSC were thanked for providing the facility.
Stewart Robinson agreed to liaise with Paul Maton to review these pages.
He also agreed to produce these set of notes and circulate to all
interested parties.
Next
meeting
It was agreed that there is benefit for National Repositories to
continue to meet.
Indonesia agreed to host the next meeting, probably in March/April 1998. Stewart Robinson agreed to liaise with Triyono Hadi to agree an agenda and help with contacts etc.
Meeting 4 was hosted by the NPD in Stavanger, Norway on 5-7 March 2002.
Over 60 delegates from 16 countries met in Stavanger in early March 2002 to revive the National Data Repository topic. The meeting was hosted at NPD's facilities and supported by co-hosts the UK DTI and POSC.
The proceedings of the meeting -- including a complete set
of presentations and future plans -- is available at the following [LINK].
| Next page | Previous page | NDR Contents Page | POSC Home Page |
Copyright © 1997 Petrotechnical Open Software
Corporation. All rights reserved.
POSC ®, the POSC logo ® and Epicentre® are registered trademarks of
Petrotechnical Open Software Corporation.