Data Democratisation has identified to play active role in performance excellence towards operating cost reduction in the E&P sector.
This was the position of NNPC/IDSL in collaboration with top E&P industry stakeholders during the maiden episode of its webinar series on achieving operational excellence in asset management, themed Leveraging Data Democratisation to Improve Asset Management Efficiency which held recently.
Delivering the keynote address for the event, the MD of Integrated Data Services Limited, IDSL, Ferdinand Barwei, tasked all professionals to key into the evolving industry synergy powered by the GMD of NNPC to accelerate all-round growth in the Nigerian oil & gas industry. He called on everyone to work towards the reduction of the unit operating cost (UOC) of crude oil to $10 per barrel as directed by the GMD, Mele Kolo Kyari.
Bariwei acknowledged that oil & gas operating cost is a function of multiple factors and went forward to aver that the fundamental first step to cost reduction is understanding the key elements of the cost through a proper analysis of historical and current data. He said that globally, other industries have since identified the importance of data in pursuit of operational excellence and encouraged the Nigerian E&P industries to invest significantly in the management and democratization of their data to enable them leverage advanced technologies to extract insights to achieve more with less. He advised that instead of the conventional focus on the drilling of new wells in a bit to enhance production, companies should pay substantive attention to their data as it has proven to help in cost effective production enhancement from existing assets.
Following the keynote address was a short speech by the event moderator of the event,
the Operations Director of Seplat Petroleum Development Company, Effiong Okon, who buttressed the importance of effective data management in the E&P sector. Effiong recounted that due to COVID-19 related challenges, several E&P companies posted losses in their recent reports, necessitating the need to do things differently going forward.
Delivering an elucidating groundbreaking presentation, the GM Operations, Oriental Energy Resources, Austin Ekeigwe pinpointed the relevance of data democratisation in the pursuit of asset management efficiency. He shared practical case studies where the performance of brown assets in the Niger Delta, with declining production were remarkably turned around by his team following a scientific integration and reengineering of subsurface and production data to enable data democratisation which provided breakthrough insights for enhancement of production from the hitherto low performing assets. He advised that for any E&P to achieve operational excellence, data democratisation is a sine qua non.
Also speaking in the same vein, the GM Joint Venture, National Petroleum Investment Management Services (NAPIMS) Martina Atuchi, corroborated that the importance of data in contemporary oil & gas assets management cannot be overemphasised. She said it is usually a great concern to her team when well intervention outcomes deviate remarkably from the promises of proposals which indicates erroneous analysis due to low understanding of asset dynamics. She said the webinar is heartwarming as it is a high time, we harnessed our over 60 years of oil & gas production data to improve the way we do things. She advised that we cannot afford to play catchup in this digital evolution age like we did and paid dearly for it in the era of industrial revolution. Buttressing her stance, she challenged stakeholders to come up with a framework to standardise well & reservoir reporting formats in the country for effective asset management digitalisation and thanked the GMD NNPC and GGM NAPIMS for leading the much-needed change towards operational efficiency in the Nigerian oil & gas sector.
The energy of the session was kept on the high when the Head Upstream Monitoring & Regulations Division of the Department of Petroleum Resources (DPR), Enorense Amadasu, represented by Adeyiga A.T., Upstream Monitoring & Regulations Division, took turn to convey the support of the management of the DPR, led by Sarki Auwulu for changes in the industry and enumerated several steps already undertaken by the Department to improve regulation and overall management of the industry including the setting up of the National Data Repositor. Participants were excited at this and requested that the NDR be digitalised and expanded to include production data, well schematic data and so on as well as democratised to create a single source of truth of information for the industry as done in other oil producing cpiuntires.
Contributing from the perspective of the multinationals, the Asset Optimisation, Digital & Technology Manager of SNEPCo, Abdulrahman Majinyawa, expressed his delight for the increasing awareness for digital transformation in the Nigerian E&P space and added that it is an inevitable revolution. He outlined various steps being taken by the leadership of SNEPCo to expand the adoption of digital technologies and develop digital skills in the areas of data analytics, machine learning, cloud computing, robotics, etc. across its organisation. He added that investment in data to gain useful insights for efficient data management is the way to go for every progressive thinking organization.
On his part the GM Exploration & Development, Tunde Ehizoje, represented by the Acting Manager Petroleum Engineering Department, Hamza Salisu, stated that NPDC has taken a proactive and decisive management decision by contracting CypherCrescent Limited, an applied research and technology company, to digitise and democratise all its asset data to pave way for total digitalisation of its asset management processes in line with international best practices.
According to him, this will unlock the full potential of its assets by helping his company to leverage its huge data generated over the course of 32 years since 1988, to easily identify viable well intervention opportunities through advanced analytics, improve asset integrity through automated exception based surveillance, and streamline operational processes to reduce operating cost in line with the directive GMD of NNPC, Mallam Mele Kolo Kyari which requests E&P companies in Nigeria to drive down unit operating cost (UOC), to $10 per barrel. He added that the cost reduction directive is in tandem with the policy direction of the current MD of NPDC, Mr. Sambo Mansur who is vigorously leading and supporting innovative ideas and projects for resource optimisation in the organisation.
Mr. Chike Nwosu (MD, Waltersmith and Petromen) dexterously wrapped up the event by expounding on various factors contributing to operating cost across the E&P value chain, admonished that a shared blueprint for effective digital transformation towards cost efficiency in the Nigerian E&P industry should evolve from the series.
Industry professionals hailed the webinar as timely and crucial as it provides a rallying point for exchange of ideas and incubation of collaborativeresearch and technology company, to digitise and democratise all its asset data to pave way for total digitalisation of its asset management processes in line with international best practices.
According to him, this will unlock the full potential of its assets by helping his company to leverage its huge data generated over the course of 32 years since 1988, to easily identify viable well intervention opportunities through advanced analytics, improve asset integrity through automated exception based surveillance, and streamline operational processes to reduce operating cost in line with the directive GMD of NNPC, Mele Kolo Kyari which requests E&P companies in Nigeria to drive down unit operating cost (UOC), to $10 per barrel. He added that the cost reduction directive is in tandem with the policy direction of the current MD of NPDC, Sambo Mansur who is vigorously leading and supporting innovative ideas and projects for resource optimisation in the organisation.
The MD, Waltersmith and Petromen, Chike Nwosu, expatiated on various factors contributing to operating cost across the E&P value chain, admonishing that a shared blueprint for effective digital transformation towards cost efficiency in the Nigerian E&P industry should evolve from the series.
Industry professionals hailed the webinar as timely and crucial as it provides a rallying point for exchange of ideas and incubation of collaborative strategies for enhanced business strategies in the face of growing business demands especially as we try to navigate our way out of the COVID-19 induced economic challenges.
The maiden webinar series on data democratisation, championed by IDSL with technical support from CypherCrescent Limited, was a curtain raiser to the series of other episodes which will expound on other crucial elements, resources and enablers of E&P operational excellence such as process, technology, people as well as institutional support frameworks. The next episode, planned to focus on the best processes to adopt in order to optimise value from E&P big data is scheduled for September 10, 2020 and many industry professionals are looking forward to it.
