Six thousand subscribers from hundreds of organisations have downloaded more than 340 terabytes – equivalent to around 85,000 HD movies - of information in the year since the Oil & Gas Authority (OGA) launched the National Data Repository (NDR) on 25 March 2019.

The release - at https://ndr.nstauthority.co.uk - made 130 terabytes of information available including details on more than 12,500 wellbores, 5,000 seismic surveys and 3,000 pipelines, and more data has been added since the launch including a 9% increase in well data.

Celebrating its first anniversary since going live, the NDR now receives an average of 350 visitors a day. A little over half of all users come from the UK, with visitors from the USA (9.4%) and Norway (5.4%) the next most frequent. In total visitors came from more than 100 countries, including one from the Falkland Islands.

More than 24 terabytes of seismic data have been ordered in the past year - approximately 20 times the quantity that had been accessed prior to the launch of the NDR. And the site has proved so popular that even on Christmas Day 2019, five people logged in; one each in Tokyo, Islamabad, Baghdad, London and Bristol.

The NDR is already proving to be a vital tool in the aim of maximising economic recovery from the UKCS as the easy availability of data is helping companies make better decisions in areas such as exploration and investment.

Importantly, it is also supporting the net zero agenda as the information – some of which has not been freely accessible since it was first gathered in the mid-sixties – can now be reassessed to help to determine whether or not a particular site may be suitable for carbon storage.

Improvements to the service, which will allow it to support new types of information such as seismic field data and make it easier to download large quantities of data more quickly, will be unveiled later in the year.

The new system will provide the OGA with greater insight into what is available and what needs to be incorporated. Where there are known issues of missing data, the OGA will be better able to drive improvements, and the resulting increased quality of data will cement the NDR’s position as a world-leading information resource.

The new platform will allow the more efficient collection, storage and distribution of data so we can reach deeper into the industry archive, and provide critical input to emerging analysis and technologies that will underpin the future roles of geoscience and engineering. The intention is to keep improving the platform so that the NDR is embedded as a powerful tool within the OGA’s Digital Energy Platform in line with the digital strategy.

The combination of better and even more accessible decades of oil and gas data could provide provide information that will prove extremely valuable in the energy transition.

Nic Granger, OGA Director of Corporate, said:

“The NDR has been a great success. I’m proud of the work put in by colleagues in getting it up and running and ensuring it is continually updated and I’m delighted that it is already proving to be so well-used across the industry.

“I’m sure that the increased functionality we will add later this year will make the site even more useful and assist the twin aims of net zero and maximising economic recovery.”

Dr Daniel Brown, Executive  Director Common Data Access (CDA), a wholly owned subsidiary of OGUK said: “Free flow of data is fundamental to an efficient basin, and the NDR performs a critical role in this all the way from exploration through to decommissioning, and into the energy transition and CCUS. Built on foundations laid by CDA and industry over the past 20 years, we’re delighted that the first year of the UK NDR has been such a resounding success, and we are encouraged by the OGA’s plans to build on this success in years to come.”

 

Notes to Editors

  • The Oil & Gas Authority became an Executive Agency on 1 April 2015, and became a government company, limited by shares under the Companies Act 2006, with the Secretary of State for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy the sole shareholder on 1 October 2016.
  • For more information contact simon.belgard@nstauthority.co.uk or call 0300 067 1610.