A study commissioned by the UK’s Common Data Access, performed by Schlumberger, investigates the value of data and data management to oil and gas companies. Survey authors Steve Hawtin and David Lecore use valuation methodologies suggested by the International Valuation Standards Council. A parallel approach involved quizzing 20 senior executives as to the contributions they believe accrue from their own work, their tools, processes and the data. Data was considered, on average, to contribute around 38% to the overall value pot, with people’s worth at a modest 32%1.
Further discussions with oil company staff established that data contributes ‘between 25 and 33%’ of value in a project—a lot of money for an asset team that is generating millions of dollars in value per year. But this is just the value that accrues through normal day to day business. Data’s contribution is even more important when its ‘unexpected’ value is taken into account. The report includes examples from the North Sea and elsewhere where smart re-use of old data made a major impact to the bottom line.
The report also provides insights into the cost of data in the context of decision tree analysis—using the value of information approach. A rather longwinded ‘round table’ discussion by data management professionals is included as is a historical investigation by word count of data management trends using the OnePetro text data base from the SPE and others. The survey is available as a 50 page download from www.oilit.com/links/1102_12.
1 Given that a decent 3D survey can cost several million dollars, such modesty is relative. Nobody asked the data what it thought of the interpreters!
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