How to obtain our Technical Data

Interested parties, including potential license or permit holders, clients, academic institutions or anybody interested in making use of existing South African upstream oil and gas exploration data, can obtain access to available data.

All interested parties, who requires access to data, needs to sign a Confidentiality Agreement (CA) or Confidentiality undertakings and contracts may differ depending on the nature or the use of such data.

The Client will have to undertake to treat the data as confidential between itself and PETROLEUM AGENCY SA and that it shall not use the data to provide a service of any kind to a third party whether by way of trade or otherwise unless agreed under a separate contract.

The current policy makes provision for Commercial and Copy Cost rates depending on the type of user and access rights.

PETROLEUM AGENCY SA does not accept responsibility for the integrity, accuracy or quality of the data. PETROLEUM AGENCY SA will not be held liable for any decisions or actions of the Client based on the data purchased from or provided by PETROLEUM AGENCY SA.

The Client will indemnify PETROLEUM AGENCY SA against all loss, damage, costs and expenses incurred arising as a result of failure by the Client to comply with the terms of this Agreement.

The Agreement and acts or omissions there under are to be construed in terms of and governed by the laws of the Republic of South Africa.

Kindly note the different procedures to follow depending on the nature of the interested parties.

Commercial and Service Providers

Oil and Gas exploration and Production Companies and Service Providers can purchase data at commercial rates where the following terms apply:

  • A Data Confidentiality and Data Use Agreement (DCDUA) is required ensure everybody purchasing technical data comply with standard terms and conditions.
  • The purchase of data constitutes a license to use the data for a maximum period of 10 years. The actual term of the agreement will depend on the amount of data and the extent of the area under review.
  • Data belongs to the State and ownership of the data is not transferred when purchased.
  • Data purchased from the Agency may not be sold.
  • Purchased data needs to be kept confidential for the duration of the data sales and use agreement.
  • Unless agreed upon in the Agreement, no derivative products, interpretations or conclusions can be disclosed or published without the written consent from the Agency.
  • Derivative products become the Intellectual Property of the entity who purchased the data and can be sold to Industry depending on the nature or purpose of the agreement.
  • All data purchased under the DCDUA plus any Reprocessed Data needs to be returned at termination of the contract.
  • The return of Derivative Products at termination of the contract is a standard requirement but will depend on the purpose and nature of the agreement.
  • Service Providers can purchase data, develop derivative products or reprocessed data. They can sell the derivative products or reprocessed data to Industry but have to provide data, derivative products or reprocessed data back during or at termination of the contract.

Data Confidentiality and Data Use Agreement


Each study project needs to be motivated separately and will be subjected to the provisions of an agreed scope of work and the following standard provisions by the institution:

  • Study project description and objectives.
  • Minimum data requirements.
  • Benefits to the Agency’s business objectives and staff, relative to skills transfer and capacity building.
  • Acknowledgement that the data is owned by the Agency and represents a commercial asset.
  • Acknowledgement that the data is supplied for the motivated research purpose only.
  • Responsibility for safety and confidentiality of data supplied by the Agency.
  • Original supplied data is required to be returned at own cost to the Agency or the institution is required to supply a statement that the data have been destroyed at the end of the project.
  • Data is not permitted to be supplied to any third party without written authorization from the Agency.
  • To ensure that all third parties, who need to gain access to Agency data, sign a confidentiality agreement and a copy is sent to the Agency.
  • The supply of six-monthly progress reports to the Agency.
  • The supply of draft publications to the Agency for comments and review prior to publication.
  • The supply of final thesis and published papers to the Agency.
  • The supply of new, reprocessed or reformatted generated data to the Agency.
  • To give Agency staff the option of being co-authors of publications where the use of data and input warrant such inclusion.

Academic institutions will be charged as follows:

  • RSA institutions will be charged “copy cost” rates.
  • Foreign institutions will be charged 10% of the commercial value/catalogue prices.
  • Foreign institutions will be charged 5% of the commercial value/catalogue price if a South African institution/student/academic or student is involved in the study project.

Data will only be made available on completion of a signed contract and an accepted quotation for the supply of the data has been received from an authorized representative of the academic institution.

The institution will carry the cost for any courier or shipment cost plus a 10% handling fee.

Memorandum of Confidentiality Agreement