Data “an incredibly valuable resource for businesses and other organisations"

By Nic Granger, OGA Director of Corporate and CFO

The recent UK National Data Strategy recognised data as “an incredibly valuable resource for businesses and other organisations”. This isn’t news to the energy sector, in the 2014 Wood review, the importance of data was key; “the ready access to timely data is a prerequisite for a competitive market and this is even more important in an industry which relies on good data to create value.” 

The OGA has always treated data as a critical asset for the UK Continental Shelf (UKCS).  We were given a strong mandate in the Energy Act 2016 to enable the collection, retention and ultimately disclosure of data that would enable the industry, including the supply chain, to create the greatest value.

Digital Strategy

The OGA’s 2020 digital strategy aims to build and embed a culture of digital excellence across industry whilst developing public trust in open and transparent quality data and platforms. A key to this is unlocking data value through advanced analytical tools and using OGA influence to unlock further the value for the industry and supply chain.

This has led to data being made available through several platforms, which we plan to integrate into a single point of entry; the Digital Energy Platform.  This data is freely available to the energy sector supply chain, industry and academia and will become ever more critical as we transition to a low carbon economy, for example, through identifying potential locations for carbon storage sites.

Open data

The open data site makes OGA data freely available to everyone to use and republish and can be viewed through a GIS interface, download direct or through APIs.  With access to licence information, well information, production data, various exploration studies, pipeline and infrastructure data the portal has over 50million API hits a year.

NDR

The National Data Repository (NDR) enables reporting by industry of key data and provides free public access to 180TB of online and a further 150TB offline industry data, including well, geophysical, and other petroleum licence data.  Using cloud-based technology the NDR has increased the easily available data fivefold, making more than 50 years’ worth of crucial North Sea data available – helping companies make better informed decisions to guide their transition to net zero.

The NDR provides all users with immediate free access to data that was previously expensive and time-consuming to retrieve. The data is useful in decision-making including exploration, production efficiency and the drive to net zero – particularly the identification of potential sites for carbon storage.

Energy Pathfinder

This portal allows industry and supply chain to identify contract opportunities from across the offshore energy section in the UKCS.  

Extensively redeveloped in 2021, the portal has more than 1,000 subscribers, including details of operators and Tier 1 suppliers so smaller companies can bid for sub-contracts, opportunities for collaboration for innovative solutions and see forward work plans for upcoming tenders.  

Recently released interactive decommissioning dashboards also help the supply chain keep abreast of medium-term work, including heavy-lift vessel owners, drilling contractors, subsea specialists, onshore dismantling firms and waste managers.

What’s next

We continue to work towards creating our single easy-to-use OGA digital energy platform integrating our digital and data offerings and work with other parts of the offshore energy sector including the creation of a cohesive Offshore Energy Digital and Data Strategy with Energy Systems Catapult and other offshore energy organisations.

Read the latest issue of the OGV Energy magazine HERE