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Events
30th Sept -2nd Oct 2013
SPE Annual Technical
Conference and Exhibition
New Orleans, LA
20th - 22nd Oct 2013
WITSML SIG Working Meeting
Dubai, UAE
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Energistics Regulatory
Agency
Members
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In this third edition
of the Regulator's Newsletter, we are pleased to announce that
NDR2014 will be held in Baku, Azerbaijan hosted by the State Oil
Company of Azerbaijan (SOCAR). Planning has now started in
earnest; there is more information below. The article on the
challenges of setting up an NDR has been compiled from reports at NDR
meetings and we may use this to highlight possible breakout
sessions.
Also in this edition is a detailed report on the
Pakistan NDR. I have chosen to highlight it because it is a more
mature NDR which started in 2001, and also because they have
developed other facilities in-line with the NDR.
I have also included a report on how the British
Geological Survey in the UK successfully moved 175,000 core samples
from one location to another with no loss of service. A fine
achievement. Contact me
if you want more details.
Our campaign to convince more of you to enroll as full Energistics
members has had success, as some of you have joined. However, we do
need as many members as possible as this will allow us to improve the
website and provide a professional place where Regulators can begin
to work together. It is almost certain that any problem you have is
either an issue elsewhere or has already been solved. You could spend
a lot of money trying to solve these problems - or join Energistics,
an organization of like-minded people.
Energistics does not require significant membership fees; it is
funded mostly from oil and service company contributions. I will
continue to chase you for membership.
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Stewart
Robinson, Energistics
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The
NDR2014 Steering Committee is delighted to announce that NDR2014 will
be held in Baku, Azerbaijan hosted by SOCAR. The dates for NDR2014
will be Monday, 29th September through 3rd October
2014.

Planning the event will now begin in detail; we will
keep you informed in these newsletters.
In particular we will take into account the comments and suggestions
from NDR11. We are looking to improve the breakouts, country
presentations and introduce a few plenary sessions.
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Experience in Establishing NDRs
This analysis has been compiled from presentations at
NDR meetings and could be used to define breakout sessions at future
meetings and possible collaborations.
The key success factors in establishing an NDR are:
- Coherent,
sensible and well-publicised regulations
- Practical
data standards (and in particular standards for data exchange)
which are prescribed and enforced by the Regulator
- Fair,
effective and timely enforcement of the rules
- Clarity
on data ownership and associated rights
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Oil has been produced in what is now the Islamic
Republic of Pakistan since the early 1920's. During the 1950's
several companies carried out extensive geological and geophysical
surveys and drilled 47 exploratory wells. As a result, a few small
gas fields were discovered. Despite this early success, exploration
activity declined after having reached its peak in the mid-1950s.
Private companies whose main objective was to earn a profit were not
interested in developing the gas discoveries, especially when
infrastructure and demand for gas did not yet exist.
To revive exploration in the energy sector, the
Government of Pakistan signed a long-term loan agreement in 1961 with
the USSR, whereby Pakistan received financing, equipment and the
services of Soviet experts to engage in exploration and development.
OGDC (Oil and Gas Development Corporation) was created in 1961 and
charged with responsibility to undertake a well thought out and
systematic exploratory program and to plan and promote Pakistan's oil
and gas prospects.
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Moving 175k Core Samples in the UK
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In the UK there are over 8,000 offshore wells. In
common with most oil provinces, oil companies have to deliver only a
sliver of the cores drilled. For many years the entire UK offshore
collection of core material from the North Sea, nearly 175,000 boxes,
was housed at Gilmerton in Edinburgh, Scotland and was managed by the
British Geological Survey (BGS).
BGS manages the UK National Geological Materials
Collection. A key component of this collection are borehole cores
from both onshore and offshore. Until recently they were stored
at three locations across England and Scotland. Maintaining multiple
core store facilities across the UK was not cost-effective and a
review was undertaken. The review concluded that the creation of a
single core store for UK collections at Keyworth was the most
cost-effective solution.
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An Exchange Format for Production Data
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Following the NDR10 meeting in Rio de Janeiro in March
2011, a production data reporting group was constituted to develop
common reporting standards between countries. It took a bit of time
to get the work going but after a kick-off meeting eventually data
sets were collected from the following countries: Malaysia,
Argentina, UK, Azerbaijan, Nigeria and The Netherlands.
The following reasons for collecting the data were
also identified:
- to
monitor fields
- to
collect taxes or royalty
- to
satisfy regulatory requirements
- to
publish data to encourage inward investment
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Standards Leadership Council Meets in London
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In the first Regulatory Newsletter I reported on the
Standards Leadership Council (SLC), formed in 2011, to encourage
collaboration on open standards and develop "best
practices" for the benefit of the global oil and gas industry.
This now comprises the ten leading standards bodies associated with
the oil and gas industry. In February they hosted their first SLC
European meeting and were joined by operators and service
companies from across the industry. Please look at their website for members and more information.
Malcolm Fleming of CDA, who you all probably know,
gave a very interesting keynote speech on the work CDA is doing on
professionalising E&P Data Management - ultimately creating a
professional qualification based on 5 levels of core competencies -
with a view to enhancing the standing of Data Managers within the
industry. (This is probably relevant to all Regulators and will be of
interest to all NDR staff. Contact me or Malcolm for his slides.)
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Energistics is a global, not-for-profit, membership
organization that serves as the facilitator, custodian and advocate for
the development and adoption of technical open data exchange standards in
the upstream oil and gas industry. Uniquely designed to unite
upstream industry professionals in a neutral and collaborative
facilitation environment, Energistics membership consists of integrated,
independent and national oil companies, oilfield service companies,
software vendors, system integrators, regulatory agencies and the global
standards user community.
Questions? Comments?
Contact Melissa Ray.
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