Katalyst Data Management is excited to collaborate with Blockchain for Energy, a consortium in the area of using blockchain to manage the seismic data ownership lifecycle by creating a Seismic Entitlement solution. The goal is to create a clearer picture for companies to understand their proprietary rights and the right of access and use of subsurface data.

What proprietary rights do I have to my seismic data? What are my access rights?

Today, often operators don’t know their rights in trading data. With increasing data volumes, keeping track of seismic data contracts, ownership and entitlements, compliance is becoming more complex and challenging for oil and gas companies.

Seismic data ownership is defined by your proprietary rights to your data. It provides nothing more than a classification or a catalog system. Many E&P companies have embarked on ownership cleanup projects to understand their subsurface database assets better. However, data ownership does not show you the whole picture or inform you on what you can and cannot do with the data.

Typically oil and gas companies have initiated ownership projects in order to get a better high level understanding of what proprietary rights they actually have to their seismic data. Most companies only have proprietary rights to 10% to 25% of their assets. That means most of their subsurface database or asset is actually licensed or non-proprietary data.

More often than not, E&P companies embark on ownership clean-up projects to try to generate revenue through means of licensing their proprietary seismic data assets. Entitlements take it a step further. Entitlements inform you on who has the right to access that data and how to use that data. The right of access and use of the subsurface data means that you as a licensee or partner agreed to treat the data in a certain way.

Bridging the Gap

Many companies are not confident in their data. The Blockchain for Energy technology offers exciting possibilities through its distributed ledger and the application of smart contracts to expose rights in the data to consumers, so they can be confident in using their data.

Blockchain for Energy allows for:
• Accessible digital library of seismic data and ownership.
• Accelerates access to the “family tree” of data while administering rights management.
• Automatically updates for Mergers & Acquisitions activity.

All of these apply to ownership in SZ data and using Blockchain demands these transactions. Trust is ensured because all parties can see the transaction and the broker is eliminated.

“Being a custodian of data for operators enables us to better support them when entering into transactions with their data. Blockchain offers us exciting possibilities in solving the problem of ownership and rights in a secure yet transparent fashion. It’s a great opportunity for Katalyst,”said Katalyst’s SVP and CIO, Richard Davis.

Through application of blockchain technology, we can solve the problems of deciphering company ownership, which will increase efficiency and save time.

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