Data Management Services

Information Services Department

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• Background

  
  Oil and gas exploration in South Africa, began in 1965 and since then a great volume of data have been collected and managed by the Agency. These volumes include all exploration data like seismic surveys, borehole data, technical reports and geological sample data. Numerous legacy databases and data sets were migrated into a suite of Oracle databases. The primary users of the databases are internal Geoscientists who interpret the data with the aim of marketing petroleum business opportunities to oil companies. Data is provided to potential and existing permit holders and academic institutions on request.
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  Having migrated all data to an integrated system, Petroleum Agency SA is able to produce various catalogues of available data within specific areas of interest. Currently, the Agency is working on enabling Internet-access to meta-data on selected databases and general information. The aim is to eventually establish portal access to the data repository where interested parties can search on and select required data.

• Data Management Services

  
  

  Using industry standard software coupled with years of experience in dealing with data transcription services, we can carefully copy the data onto a variety of modern media to suit the client's needs.
  
  The following facilities are available to preserve valuable data and prepare it for integration into today's data interpretation environments:

  Tape Copy and Recovery Services

  • Over 80000 open reel tapes containing national exploration data in various formats and magnetic media have been transcribed to modern media.
  • Data copy and transcription services has been provided to other African countries

  

  Our current tape drive capabilities facilitate reading and writing of the following media:
  
  Data Scanning Services

  • High resolution scanning of seismic sections for vectorisation projects.
  • Scanning of geophysical log images have been done for conversion into industry standard LAS format.
  • Large volumes of reports and diagrams have been scanned to make them online available and improve accessibility.

  Digital Data Management

  • Utilise rapid advances in storage technology to ensure the long-term archival of the data.
  • Digitisation of maps with original map projections (basemaps, shot-point location maps and contour maps).
  • Add value to seismic data by improving its management.
  • Analyze and list tape header information for all SEG formats.

  
  Secure Storage of Data

  • Environmentally controlled rooms
  • Electronic controlled access
  • Fire Detection and suppression controlled environment
  • Core Store and Tape Storage facilities

  Library Services

  • Special Library – items catalogued according to UDC System
  • Industry related textbooks on oil and gas, Legal, IT, HR, etc.
  • Online subscription to periodicals
  • Large collection of specialist geology information

  Data Viewing Facilities

  • Core viewing and sampling facilities
  • Microscope to view slide collection
  • Access can be provided to data and reports
  • In hardcopy or digital formats
  • Workstations for access to interpretation data and prospects.

• Information Management Infrastructure

  
  

  Being the custodian of the National Petroleum Exploration and Production Database of South Africa, the Agency relies on a sustainable and effective Information Management Infrastructure in order to comply with its mandate to:

  • Archive and maintain database on petroleum exploration & production data
  • Provide access to existing data, information and literature on request.
  • Add value and incorporate new as well as interpreted data into database.

  Maintain records of all hydrocarbon exploration and production activities and consist of the following main components of software, hardware and peripherals :