National Data Repository Seminar Stavanger, Norway

1
National Data Repository Seminar Stavanger,
Norway

• The Namibian Perspective
• Presented by
• Obeth Mbui Kandjoze

2
Legislation Issues - Petroleum E P Act (1991)

• Data Ownership
• Well logs, maps, magnetic tapes, cuts of core
  cutting samples, and all other GG information
  Property of the State.
  
• Data shall be submitted to the Minister soon
  after acquisition or preparation.
  
• Data may not be published or reproduced without
  the consent of the Minister.

3
Legislation Issues

• Reporting Routines Mechanisms
• E P companies report to the Petroleum
  Commissioner
  
• Companies involved in Recon, E P activities
  must keep proper records of
  
• Drilling, operation, deepening, plugging or
  abandonment of wells
  
• Nature of substances found in wells drilled and
  depths at which substances are found
  
• Casing of wells
• Areas in which G or G work is done
• G G surveys carried out

4
Legislation Issues

• Reporting Routines Mechanisms
• Companies shall submit within 30 days after 30th
  June 31st December of each year
  
• Summary of all G G work, drilling activities
  analytical results
  
• Maps, G G reports on all operations on license
  area
  
• Companies shall submit within 60 days at end of
  each year of currency of license
  
• Results of E P operations of the previous year
• Estimates of petroleum recoverable in the area
• Companies shall submit daily drilling reports on
  all drilling operations in license area

5
Legislation Issues

• Reporting Routines Mechanisms
• At expiration or cancellation companies shall at
  a date not later than 3 months after cancellation
  or expiration deliver to the Commissioner
  
• All records.
• All maps and plans.
• All tapes, diagrams, profiles and charts.
• All other books, documents, records and reports.
• Contravention of Law carries a N100,000.00 fine
  or a jail term not exceeding 5 years.

6
Legislation Issues

• Data Release.
• At expiration or cancellation of a license, all
  data become public domain data unless otherwise
  specified in terms of the contract
  
• Norsk Hydro negotiated that its data such as
  well logs and all operational, technical and
  geological reports be released 5 years after
  completion of any of the wells in the license
  area.

7
Standardization

• Data Standards, Quality Formats
• Over the years of E P activities in Namibia,
  data acquisition and processing were and are
  issues of E P and seismic survey companies.
  
• Thus, data standards, quality and formats were
  and are still, issues that NAMCOR has little to
  say about except to accept industry standards.
  

8
Organisation of the NDR Project

• Presently NAMCOR does not manage a NDR in
  Namibia.
  
• For years NAMCOR data was stored at Hays
  Information Management (HIM) (UK).
  
• The R/ exchange rate necessitated that storage
  arrangements with HIM be transferred to Petroleum
  Agency SA (PASA), since October 2000.
  
• All remaining items in the storage of HIM has
  since December 2001 been shipped to PASA.
  
• All E P companies and service companies
  acquiring data must forward all data to PASA for
  storage.
  

9
Business Model

• Sales Contracts
• Data sales agreements with various contractors
  are in place
  
• Lynx Information Systems Ltd (UK) Older
  Reprocessed Seismic Data.
  
• TGS-Nopec (UK) Ltd Geophysical Data.
• WesternGeco UK Geophysical Data.
• Fugro Airborne Surveys Offshore
  Aeromagnetic Data.
  
• A contractors obligation is to market the data
  to best of its abilities.
  
• Revenue Sharing Formulas between Namcor
  Contractors are used to share proceeds.

10
Business Model

• Sales Contracts
• E P Companies interested in buying Namcor data
  should contact the contracting companies.
  
• A Namcor website has been established with
  details of
  
• Data sales companies
• Their contact addresses
• Issues of relevance to E P activities in
  Namibia
  
• http//www.namcor.com.na

11
Operation of the NDR

• Data management is an outsourced function at
  Namcor.
  
• Therefore, operation of the National Data
  Repository is really a matter for the contracting
  company.
  

12
NDR Accessibility

• Data accessibility is a policy matter that is
  determined by Namcor in terms of who may or may
  not access our data.
  
• In terms of online access, our data is as yet not
  accessible online.
  

13
Operational Statistics

• This is a matter for the contracting company
  since Namcor manages no NDR at present.

14
Relationship With Industry

• Namcor maintains an active presence with oil and
  gas companies and contractors
  
• By attending most major international conferences
  such as the AAPG, SEG, Africa Upstream and others
  such as PESGB.
  
• By means of visits, joint training sessions and
  field excursions with oil gas companies
  
• Data Sales Contracts play a major role in
  maintaining the existing relationship with
  contactors.
  

15
Experiences and Lessons Learnt

• Here, there are two important points to point
  out
  
• Firstly, the exchange rate (w.r.t. storage)
• Secondly, the field data. Re-writing old tapes is
  an expensive exercise. Storing field tapes in
  general is also expensive.
  
• Thus, operators store may in the future be
  requested to store such data at their own
  expenses.
  
• We have no direct control over data validation,
  integrity and quality.
  
• Data sales is directly linked to the level of
  interest in the Namibian offshore.
  
• Currently the experience has been that data sales
  has increased only with increased E P
  activities.

16
Future Challenges and Trends

• Currently the level of E P activities is low
  because Namibia is being perceived as a gas
  frontier.
  
• Once more oil and gas is found, an increase in
  data volumes is anticipated, and as such the need
  for a proper data storage facility.
  

17
Future Challenges and Trends

• Not only will Namcor be required to take charge
  of its own data, but will also be required to
  ensure data validation, quality, integrity and
  accessibility in order to better manage and
  promote its E P activities.
• The future challenge for Namcor will be to
  position itself for this task both in terms of
  its physical infrastructure and personnel
  requirements.

18
NAMCOR (Pty) Ltd

• Petroleum House
• Aviation Road
• Windhoek
• Tel [phone]
• Fax [phone]
• URL www.namcor.com.na
• Email namcor_at_namcor.com.na