NOVA SCOTIA CANADA: THE NEXT PLAY

First ever Canadian Petroleum Digital Data now online

Nova Scotia’s commitment to assist explorers to understand and unlock areas of hydrocarbon potential has resulted in the creation of a world-class digital data management facility. The website (www.cnsopbdmc.ca) provides access to non-confidential well, seismic and geographic information systems data. “Data is to exploration companies what wind is to a sailboat. Without it, nothing happens,” says Diana Dalton, chair of the Canada Nova Scotia Offshore Petroleum Board.

The first of its kind in Canada, the new digital Data Management Centre (DMC) is revolutionizing information access, so that anyone anywhere in the world will be able to evaluate any non-confidential information from the large store of data we have already gathered and are adding to all the time. In March 2007, Schlumberger Information Solutions was awarded the contract to install and configure the DMC software and hardware.

Home page for new on-line Data Management Centre website

The DMC is located within the recently renovated and expanded CNSOPB Geoscience Research Centre (GRC), located in Dartmouth, Nova Scotia. The DMC began operations in October 2007. The research center stores all physical samples, including cores and well cuttings from offshore wells, as well as paper copies of all petroleum data acquired from offshore Nova Scotia. The GRC/DMC is designed as a one-stop location for all information and data acquired offshore Nova Scotia.

The center will provide easy web access to digital data via a map-based GIS interface. A user will be able to zoom in to an area of interest and, for example, select a well and view or download all available digital well and/or log data.

The DMC will manage and provide access to well data (logs and reports), seismic images (e.g., TIFF files), seismic navigation and GIS data (e.g., offshore licences, well locations, bathymetry, etc). In the future, the center could be expanded to include: operational, safety, environmental and fisheries data, etc.

Carl Makrides, of the CNSOPB, says, “The DMC should encourage activity in the region by allowing new explorers to rapidly review large volumes of digital exploration and production data, thereby lowering exploration risk.” The DMC is also intended to act as a pilot project in the establishment of a National Data Centre (NDC) for digital petroleum data, which in time may link several regulatory Boards and government departments across Canada.