Will multi-client data management be the irresistible option for E&P companies?

Landmark Graphics believes that oil companies in the future will reap major cost and efficiency benefits from sharing data management services. Michael Weiss of GrandBasin, a Landmark service provider, explains the background to multi-client data management. At the heart of every upstream energy company - major, super major, independent or national oil company - lays a multifaceted decision-making process. Data go in - decisions come out, risky business decisions that might easily cost millions or billions of dollars to implement. The quality of those decisions depends directly on the data quality and accessibility of those data. Data, therefore, are foundational corporate assets and every energy company is engaged in the data management business, like it or not. E&P data management is complex and highly technical. Whatís more, it is difficult to measure the direct impact of data management on the bottom line. As a result, few corporate executives have made data management a top strategic priority. Historical under-investment in data management has led to stultified infrastructures unable to cope with today's demands. Nevertheless, market pressures are bearing down on oil companies worldwide causing sufficient pain to force them to consider innovative approaches to mission-critical business functions, including E&P data management. One solution many companies - and national petroleum agencies - are turning to with increasing frequency is Web-enabled multi-client data management. This shared approach to the problem promises to lower infrastructure costs, improve access to data, shorten E&P cycle times, ensure regulatory compliance, better preserve corporate data assets and establish more consistent data management practices industry-wide.