The National Oil Company of Liberia (NOCAL) has signed a four-year multi-year oil well Data management agreement with Core Laboratories Sales BV, an Oil Industry Service Giant.
The agreement is the first major initiative by a major sector player in three (3) years and it will see the management value addition and re-organization of Oil Well Data collected by oil companies that operated in Liberia since the 1970s.
The signing ceremony took place on Thursday, August 1 at NOCAL’s head office on Randall Street, and was witnessed by agency principals.
Speaking at the signing ceremony NOCAL Chief Executive Officer, Atty. Saifuah-Mai Gray said the agreement ushers in a new era in the sector that has been dormant for the past three years.
“A key mandate of the NOCAL ACT involves the management of data which represents a major income stream for NOCAL,” Gray said.
“When I took over the company, Well Data Sales was poor to non-existent; coupled with the absence of operators in the basin. The need to be innovative with what we have available is very paramount.”
According to records, 17 wells have been drilled by oil companies since the 1970s, and companies have collected huge amounts of geological, geophysical, geochemical and operational data.
“This large amount of information belongs to Liberia by law and in principle, NOCAL should be the go-to technical expert on all aspects concerning our basins,” the NOCAL bass said.
“We believe that with the consummation of this agreement with Core Laboratories Sales Bv, we will be able to conduct a full quality inventory of all our well data going back to the start. We need to have all our legacy data in our possession.”
According to Ms. Gray, data in its raw form exists either as physical samples and reports or as soft copy of files and numbers that must be synthesized into information that will guide companies’ decisions on where to drill to ultimately find oil & gas.
She said the agreement will also enable the NOCAL to increase the value of its data by applying new methods to study key elements involved in the successful discovery of oil.