With exploration and oil production activities ramping up offshore, the Guyana Geology and Mines Commission (GGMC) will be tasked with analyzing large volumes of oil and gas information and data that come from seismic surveys, well logs or reports, field tapes, samples, maps, and geological models.
In fact, this information is being generated at a rapid pace by the companies and as required by their contract/license, it is shared with GGMC.
The reality of the day is that the Commission, which is already overwhelmed, simply does not have the facilities, the personnel or the equipment (hardware and software) to copy, analyze, interpret, verify, preserve, store and provide secure access to this data. In light of this, the Commission will benefit from a US$4.1M World Bank loan to establish a new National Petroleum Data Repository.
The Bank noted that petroleum data is extremely valuable as it allows the government of the day to understand its resources as well as plan the orderly evaluation and development. It said that the Data Repository will be critical to this process as it would be able to conduct a needs assessment and have the needed hardware and software to collect and store existing data that includes core samples, well reports, field tapes, seismic reports, etc.
It said, too, that part of the loan contemplates the training of a team appointed by GGMC that will be responsible for data management. The Repository will also aid the work of the Petroleum Commission when it is established.
