National Data Repository (NDR) Conferences are being held annually in different countries to attract and gather international expertise to present state of the art policies for the management of oil & gas data repositories by and for countries in order to improve their ability to encourage and monitor the utilization of national natural resources. These policies include guidelines on technology, data formats and standards of data. It is at these conferences that policy formulators get exposure to what other countries are doing, where standards are set for how data, acquired at considerable cost, is stored and made available for investors like International Oil Companies (IOC's). Nowadays there is a tendency to establish National Data Centers, (NDC's) where the best quality data are quickly and easily made and kept available to the investment community and higher confidence is created in the information provided from a highly specialized group of professionals managing the NDC's trough state of the art technology.

Petroleum Agency SA (PASA) attended and presented at these conferences in Norway (2002) and Colombia (2006). The conferences are normally hosted by the NDR organizations like the NPD in Norway, the TNO in the Netherlands and ANH in Colombia. At the previous NDR7 conference Petroleum Agency SA was requested to assist in hosting the next conference in South Africa since all previous ones were mainly held in Europe and South America but not yet in Africa.

Petroleum Agency SA hosted NDR8 conference in Cape Town during the period 19^th to 21^st February 2008; the first of its kind on the African continent. The conference was well attended and conducted very successfully. Petroleum Agency SA would like to thank everyone (respective delegates, sponsors, organisers and Agency staff) for honouring such an event. Much appreciated!