The Johan Sverdrup field was initially discovered by Lundin in 2010, who combined old seismic data and data from old exploration wells from Diskos with new seismic, new data programmes and new analysis models in their exploration activities. In 2020, production income from the field was estimated at NOK 1,430 billion over 50 years. Photo: Jonny Engelsvoll/Equinor

The Norwegian Petroleum Directorate’s data is expected to play a vital role when it comes to facilitating and contributing towards more rapid development of new industries on the shelf.

This is one of the conclusions from the report “The value of the Norwegian Petroleum Directorate’s data”, prepared by consulting firm Menon Economics on behalf of the NPD.

“Of course, it’s exciting to see the concrete values of the NPD’s data management through efficient use of resources, but one of the most interesting things about the study is that we now have data on how the companies are using the data that we manage,” says Petter Dischington, responsible for the report in the NPD.

“This information shows that NPD’s data is key to the activities that provide the companies with a greater understanding of the subsurface and furthermore, contribute to value creation on the shelf.”

The goal of the report has been to illustrate the substantial value this can represent for various player groups, as well as to examine appropriate mechanisms to achieve this.

Menon has mapped use and benefits related to the NPD’s data management and sharing. Values have been identified in terms of time and cost effects, quality effects and through innovation and advances that shared data would facilitate – but that would not be realised if the data was not made available.

The NPD manages almost 15 petabytes of data. The Menon report highlights the value that this data and the Norwegian Petroleum Directorate’s data management add to the Norwegian society. Historically, the value of data has been under-communicated.

These are the main findings from the report:

• Licensees and operators on the Norwegian shelf achieve estimated annual gains corresponding to NOK 1.5 billion in time and resources saved, as well as innovations and advances linked to the NPD’s data
• The NPD’s data is used for numerous purposes, and users therefore largely consider this an advantage
• The industry refers to the NPD’s data management as important input in the further development of the Norwegian petroleum industryThe Norwegian Petroleum’s data is expected to play a vital role in facilitating and contributing towards more rapid development of new industries on the shelf, such as carbon storage and seabed minerals

KeyFacts Energy Industry Directory: Norwegian Petroleum Directorate