How to Execute a Successful Petrotechnical Data Donation Project

Abstract

Abstract This paper describes the methodology used to design and execute a project for donating multiple high-resolution datasets simultaneously to a number of university geoscience departments. A step-by-step process shows how an integrated, multidisciplinary team consisting of data specialists, geoscientists, attorneys, administrators and others verified that the datasets were sound, eligible for distribution and consistently delivered to recipient universities. The steps include obtaining permissions from four internal BP asset teams and four external data co-owners, and assuring ownership and distribution rights through the data acquisition contractor. Efficiencies in the data donation process were achieved by batch issuing the data to a group of universities under a single round of permissions granted by internal BP data owners and a Letter Agreement executed between BP and each of the data co-owners. The permissions and agreements put in place will cover additional qualified research and teaching institutions that may be identified in the future, allowing subsequent data donations without the need for supplementary rounds of approvals. After executing Confidentiality Agreements and distributing data to a group of 15 targeted U.S. University Geoscience Departments, additional universities have applied for, and received, the datasets, with selected universities outside the U.S. also receiving data. Originally, data were delivered on a physical disk drive however, more recently, a digital data download system has been enabled. The BP Data Donation Project met the initial goal of delivering high-resolution geophysical datasets from four BP deep-water developments in the Gulf of Mexico to multiple universities in 2011. BP have seen that these universities are using the data in teaching and research and that expertise in using these data types is developing in the recipient Geoscience Departments. Research results based on the donated datasets have enhanced our understanding of seafloor and shallow subsurface geology. The data donation effort has enabled graduate research projects and the first manuscripts based on research using the data are beginning to be published. The data donation project will eventually be shut down, with one potential trigger being a drop off in demand for the high-resolution datasets. However, alternative datasets may become eligible for donation in the future, possibly including a collection of proprietary, high-resolution 3D seismic data.