The Egyptian Ministry of Petroleum and Schlumberger have announced the launch of the Egypt Upstream Gateway, an innovative national project for the digitalisation of subsurface information and enable global access to the country's subsurface data. This unique digital initiative will be used to unlock the potential of Egypt's petroleum sector and promote the country for international investment in exploration and production projects.
“Egypt is in the process of launching the Egypt Upstream Gateway, a digital subsurface platform that will act as an up-to-date repository of the country’s subsurface data,” commented H.E. Tarek El-Molla, Minister of Petroleum and Mineral Resources for Egypt. “The Egypt Upstream Gateway will digitally promote Egypt’s oil and gas bid rounds through seamless online access to the sector’s data, as well as endorsing our exploration potential worldwide, it is a defining milestone in the country’s oil and gas digital transformation.”
The Egypt Upstream Gateway provides digital access to over 100 years' worth of accumulated national onshore and offshore seismic, non-seismic, well-log, production, and additional subsurface data under a single platform. This data, which empowers de-risked decisions through the ability to explore multiple basins and evergreen data, can be accessed virtually from anywhere using the platform’s online portal. In addition, the Egypt Upstream Gateway will host Egypt's upcoming bid round highlighting lease availability information to national and international investors.
Rajeev Sonthalia, President of Digital & Integration at Schlumberger, said, "The Egypt Upstream Gateway is the embodiment of the Egyptian Ministry of Petroleum's vision, leveraging digitisation to modernise the country's petroleum sector. With the launch of this industry-first platform, the Egyptian Ministry of Petroleum and its affiliates—EGPC, EGAS, GANOPE—can digitally showcase national assets to investors worldwide, in addition to leveraging the latest digital technology and solutions to accelerate discovery throughout the country."
Digitalisation has become a key issue for the offshore oil and gas industry (and indeed the entire energy sector). The importance of getting a firm grip on data and having the capacity to effectively use this is paramount and can lead to tangible benefits in areas such as production efficiency and lifetime of assets. This is clearly understood by the Egyptian Ministry of Petroleum with this announcement that marks a real sign of intent to get ahead of the curve. It is also noteworthy that the data will be opened up for international consideration with discussions on data sharing and partnerships around this intensifying in recent months.
