Oil & Gas UK revises seismic data release guidelines

Offshore staff

LONDON –Oil & Gas UK has released revised guidelines for seismic data release. The purpose of the new guidelines is to make it easier for companies to access and to share data to encourage exploration and maximize production.

Common Data Access and the British Geological Survey also have secured agreement from BERR that any piece of data relating to a seismic survey or well can be archived to the National Hydrocarbon Data Archive independently.

"The updated document guides companies on compliance with the data release regulations," says Paul Dymond, Oil & Gas UK's operations director. "It will also help improve the voluntary process agreed by industry and BERR to encourage companies to release seismic data to the National Hydrocarbons Data Archive (NHDA) after a set period. The NHDA subsequently publishes this archived data to make it available at low cost to others exploring the province."

"The new agreement will make it simpler and easier for companies to archive elements of data on a license, releasing them from their legal obligation to keep this data in a useable form in perpetuity," says CDA CEO Malcolm Fleming.

05/19/2008