Extending the life of the UK North Sea through advanced data technology – By Dan Brown, Executive Director, Common Data Access (CDA)

Technology is key to helping us fulfil the industry’s ambition to add another generation of production – an ambition outlined in Vision 2035 and advances in data management analysis techniques are helping us work towards this objective.

Production of the remaining resources – estimated at between 10-20 billion barrels of oil and gas - plus the identification of new accumulations will require innovative solutions, improved deployment of technology and, in many cases, application across multiple assets and licences, and all at an ever lower lifting cost.

Through a unique industry collaboration, Common Data Access made quality UK Continental Shelf (UKCS) data accessible to explorers so they can benefit from the industry’s collective stores of well and seismic geological information – while saving the industry over £300m to date through better ways of working.

Recent research by Oil & Gas UK shows that the volumes of hydrocarbons discovered in both 2016 and 2017 were higher than in any year since 2008. This positive trend demonstrates that technological innovations in data analysis and access to open geological data are helping our industry develop a deeper understanding derived from the full wealth of seismic and well data available. We have access to more subsurface data, following two surveys of the North Sea funded by the Oil and Gas Authority (OGA) and the advanced techniques we use to interpret the data are helping explorers pinpoint economically relevant volumes of hydrocarbons with ever greater accuracy.

Technology innovations include more efficient seismic modelling and interpretation workflows, support by the latest generation of 3D technology, and advanced assistive computing techniques based on machine learning.

These all help increase the chances of exploration success in a shorter timescale, reduce geological uncertainty and help exploration and production companies make more informed investment decisions and respond faster to licence rounds and asset transfers.

While technological innovation is vital, energy data management as a professional discipline is emerging as strategically important in efforts to support Vision 2035. CDA has pioneered the development of two academic courses to meet the demand for practitioners skilled in managing the geological and geophysical data so vital our sector’s operations.

Two cohorts of students have already earned Graduate Certificates in Petroleum Data Management from Robert Gordon University. With the University of Aberdeen, and working with Chevron, Shell, and Total, we also established an MSc Petroleum Data Management programme to provide that next level of energy data management education and skills development.

We continue to move with the times and are working closely with the Oil and Gas Authority to make the collection of technical, well and seismic data established by industry under CDA’s guidance available to everybody under open conditions of use. We hope that in doing so, we will provide an invaluable resource to technology innovators looking to apply new machine learning and artificial intelligence techniques to the demanding task of locating oil and gas deposits deep under the seabed.