NDR11 -- Creating Value From Data

HOUSTON, TX and KUALA LUMPUR, MALAYSIA--(Marketwire - Nov 15, 2012) - Over 170 delegates from more than 30 countries gathered in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia for NDR11 -- the 11th in a series of National Data Repository meetings. Hosted by the Malaysian national oil company PETRONAS and managed by Energistics, the global upstream oil and gas standards consortium, NDR11 brought together regulators from countries with hydrocarbon reserves with oil operators, oilfield service companies and software vendors to share best practices in data management.

The conference was keynoted by Mr. Ramlan Malek, Vice President of Petroleum Management; Exploration & Production Business for PETRONAS, who opened this year's ceremonies with the observation that, "The problem for many regulators is how to create value from data." He encouraged wide-ranging collaboration between countries, operators and service providers to provide more efficient data management solutions for the regulators.

From countries with mature and well-known data stores to emerging nations, the 3-day conference was a forum that enabled collaboration at all levels. Over the years NDR conferences have evolved into successful working meetings -- where delegates participate with a view to sharing their own experiences -- good and bad -- and to learn from others.

One of the aims of this conference is to perpetuate collaboration and, as a result, a number of work groups have been set up, under the guardianship of members of the NDR Steering Committee. These include work groups on managing seismic field data, managing core samples, managing data ownership and IPR, data quality and validation, and training and recruiting, among others. A theme that emerged from this year's conference is that while NDR's are fast becoming a vital aspect of an exploration project, there is a wide variety of regulatory expectations and equally, of requirements by operators. One intention is to create a directory of regulatory requirements to assist both regulators and operators.

At this year's conference the Production Reporting Work Group, which was formed at NDR10, presented a proof of concept daily production report developed from requirements gathered from six countries and based on the Energistics production standard, PRODML. Using PRODML, the two teams working independently were able to demonstrate how production data can be moved digitally and seamlessly from an operator direct to a National Data Repository without manual intervention. 

Jerry Hubbard, President & CEO of Energistics and NDR Executive Sponsor, said, "It is confidently expected that a growing number of work group collaborations will bear fruit from this meeting. We are particularly enthusiastic on issues surrounding production reporting, seismic data and the recruitment and retention of skilled data management staff."

Malcolm Fleming, Chair of the NDR11 Steering Committee, said, "We couldn't be happier with the turn out and participation at this year's NDR conference. The dialogue, learning and work group participation is outstanding and I am confident that our industry will benefit as a result."

Energistics is a global, not-for-profit, membership organization that serves as the facilitator, custodian and advocate for the development and adoption of technical open data exchange standards in the upstream oil and gas industry. Uniquely designed to unite upstream industry professionals in a neutral and collaborative facilitation environment, Energistics membership consists of integrated, independent and national oil companies, oilfield service companies, software vendors, system integrators, regulatory agencies and the global standards user community. For more information visit www.energistics.org.

PETRONAS is the national oil and gas company of Malaysia. Incorporated in 1974 the company, ranked among the most profitable among the Fortune Global 500 entities, is engaged in the oil, gas and petrochemicals industries with strategic business assets and interests in more than 30 countries. It is one of the world's leading LNG companies and is fully involved in every value chain of the LNG business, from liquefaction and shipping to re-gasification and trading. Apart from its Malaysian production facility, currently one of the world's largest, PETRONAS also owns interests in LNG assets in Australia and Egypt. For more information visit www.petronas.com.