The ongoing challenge of effectively managing petroleum EP data to meet the changing needs of business was the central theme of the PPDM Association conference held in Perth, Western Australia on September 2nd and 3rd. The event was attended by 60 data management professionals representing more than 20 different companies.

Chellie Hailes, Information Architect with Chevron USA, opened the conference with a discussion of the benefits of master data and Chevron’s Keystone project to deploy master data globally using the PPDM data model. Chellie noted that “ Applications that use master data benefit from defining and maintaining a trusted single version”. Following on from this topic, Trudy Curtis (PPDM CEO) presented a Master Data Maturity Model helping attendees to identify where they fit within the matrix through a workshop session.

On the quality front, Geoscience Australia’s improvement of online well header data was shown as a practical demonstration of the PPDM audit model. “Once you have done the homework to get a better data value, the extra work involved in saying why you are updating it and where you got the data from is minimal” said GA project manager Dave Rowland. The effective use of business rules in improving data quality was also discussed and underscored in a team workshop run by Schlumberger’s Dag Heggelund, who said “Companies need to focus on the non-obvious, high-impact data quality issues rather than the typical approach which is to concentrate on the obvious issues that don’t provide the same return”.

New technology was represented in a novel use of Google’s Earth and Sketchup to present geological interpretations by John Lang (Monitor Energy), and reviews of physical data management by Andy Cairns (CGG Veritas) and Guy Holmes (Spectrum) who had interesting analogues for data decay.

Gaining and measuring value from a corporate approach to data management was the focus of a workshop discussion led by Scott Tidemann (Petrosys). Case Studies presented by Steve Cooper (PPDM) and Volker Hirsinger (Petrosys) illustrated the benefits of effective data management for small to medium sized companies through the in-house implementation of PPDM. Supporting this, the importance of asking the right questions of the business as part of any DM strategy was highlighted by Keith Toyne of Fugro Data Solutions.

Enthusiasm for PPDM’s role in establishing data management standards was illustrated by 15 government and industry getting together immediately following the conference to review an Australian baseline comparison for PPDM’s ‘What is a Well?’ project.

The PPDM Association is a global, not-for-profit standards organization that works collaboratively with industry to create and publish data management standards for the resource industry. Through the PPDM Association, world-wide petroleum data experts gather together in a collaborative, round table approach to engineer business driven, pragmatic data management standards that will meet industry needs. PPDM Version 3.8 is an open, practical and usable standard that is supported by over 100 members. For more information, visit www.ppdm.org.