Publications

In recent workshops and other engagements with Asia-Pacific oil and gas data managers, the Professional Petroleum Data Management (PPDM) Association has determined that some areas of legacy technical data will become more important in the next 18 months of low oil prices. This importance is determined by their more frequent use in decision support packages than the traditional data subject matter areas that enable critical business decisions in subsurface geology and reservoir exploration and appraisal. This is because many operators are re-tasking data management teams to determine ways to use existing legacy operational data to reduce operating costs and risks in the development, operation and abandonment phases of the asset lifecycle. This reflects an overall industry trend toward looking for efficiencies in surface operations as a corporate growth strategy, and technical data management groups are shifting their emphasis and adjusting their skill sets accordingly. This paper presents an example of how best practices from existing data management standards and bodies of knowledge can be applied to prioritize categories of surface data to focus on performance and efficiency of existing assets. Application of best practices includes the use of data governance and data quality standards and metrics for data objects used by asset teams. A case study is presented in which a measureable increase in competency in these areas is correlated with a quantified improvement in financial performance compared with a selected peer group.