Minerals Report - International Seabed Authority

Dr. Nyland said that information that is received by NPD that is not
confidential by law is organized in a way to facilitate rapid distribution and to
encourage greater use of it. She emphasized that the NPD is working very
hard to establish high quality data sets and to put most of it in digital format.
In relation to the release of seismic and well data, Dr. Nyland said that
under the Norwegian regulation, license data are considered confidential for
two years, data not owned by a license group are considered confidential for
five years, and market available data are considered confidential for ten years.
She said that however, NPD may shorten or extend the period of
confidentiality of market available data. In this respect, she said that
sometimes NPD arranges for the pre-release of such data if it makes an area
more attractive or interesting to applicants.
Dr. Nyland said that sensitive information such as data interpretation
is confidential for twenty years. She said that data from relinquished areas
are not considered confidential. She also said that all navigation data are
considered public.
She said that a primary consideration in Norway’s policy on data
release is for the data to be used in a manner that the total exploration cost is
reduced as much as possible and for resources to be discovered in a speedy
fashion. She pointed out that drilling for petroleum on Norway’s continental
shelf is expensive, and that to drill a well costs about 30 to 100 million US
dollars. She also pointed out that since Norway is an active player in the
activities, the state would like as much as possible to reduce associated costs.
She said that in Norway it is felt that release of data and sharing information
is very important to achieve this objective. She emphasized that data in and of
itself does not provide a competitive advantage in obtaining a production
license, but that the award of a license validates the use of the data. She
further pointed out that the release of data reduces the need to duplicate data,
and said that Norway has areas where three different companies have
acquired data without gaining any more information.
Dr. Nyland said that the role of NPD is to serve as a catalyst for
standardization and cooperation, to increase data circulation, and to organize
statistics and trend analysis on behalf of the authorities. Based on the large
INTERNATIONAL SEABED AUTHORITY 811