In 2016, the investigatory powers act was passed through Parliament, providing among other things, a legal framework for the retention and examination of bulk personal datasets. At the same time, the North Sea Transition Authority (NSTA) had successfully pushed for legal powers that enabled it to not only collect industry data but, after a certain period of confidentiality, make it openly available. 

“Legislation is a really powerful tool, as it removes the argument on whether the data should or can be collected, replacing it with the fact that the law says this is how it’s going to be’’. Nic Granger, Director of Corporate, North Sea Transition Authority.

You might expect a radical change in a sector’s approach to data could be met with some resistance, but this was not the case. Instead, organisations now had a legal requirement to fulfil, including the need for a named individual to hold these responsibilities, meaning data management teams were given the budget and attention they’d been asking for. And now, the regulatory foresight shown by the NSTA has led to far-reaching benefits in sectors such as carbon capture and storage (CCS), hydrogen, offshore wind and oil & gas. 

Carbon Capture and Storage

The NSTA’s mission is to accelerate the energy transition, support emissions reduction and ensure the UK maintains a secure supply of energy. This involves regulating and influencing industries spanning oil & gas, offshore hydrogen and carbon capture and storage (CCS). 

CCS (the process of capturing and storing carbon dioxide emissions and storing them, often underground or within rock formations) is seen by many as a critical component of the UK’s net zero strategy:

“We see carbon capture and storage having a significant impact on the energy transition. The 21 licences that we issued in September, could capture ten percent of UK carbon emissions,” says Granger, “and the six licences which were in place before that could add even greater capacity.”.  

The previous government set a target to store 20-30 million tonnes of CO2 by 2030. And, while the plans of the newly-elected Government remain to be seen, the first round of CCS projects critical to meeting these targets are due for a final investment decision in the near future.

Seismic Data

One type of data, previously used for oil and gas projects, is now proving its worth in CCS. By helping to identify geological formations and assess storage capacity, seismic data is immensely valuable in CCS, highlighted by the fact that the NSTA’s data downloads increased 20-fold on the day the CCS licensing round opened. 

Now, following an announcement in the 2023 Energy Act, the NSTA has the power to collect carbon storage data from industry. Again, demonstrating its proactive approach to data governance as the CCS industry begins to pick up speed.

The value of seismic data stretches beyond the confines of the CCS sector however, it includes the top 100 metres of geological data, making it ideal for siting offshore wind farms:

“In 2015, the government funded two large chunks of seismic data. That data was intended to be used for oil and gas but what we’re now seeing is the data being reprocessed and used for offshore wind, another crucial pillar for energy transition in the UK.”

Democratising Data

Another type of data showing promising benefits across industries is GIS (geographic information system) data. Primarily generated through regulatory transactions, and made openly available by the NSTA, GIS data is helping to identify existing oil and gas infrastructure such as pipelines. These pipelines then have the potential to be repurposed for use in hydrogen or carbon dioxide transportation.

“This data is available on the equivalent of an open government licence, so it’s an open NSTA licence. We’ve now had over 500 million spatial server requests, roughly 2 million hits a week. The data is great from a spatial planning point of view, and it really helps to explain the importance of data when you can see it visually.”

By opening up datasets like these, the NSTA is also helping to democratise data and reduce costs. This allows academics to access datasets that were previously too expensive for their research budgets. Armed with these datasets, academics can then research ways to phase out fossil fuels and achieve net zero, faster. But, having large quantities of data is one thing, in order to truly reap the benefits of open data, it must be high quality.  

“Our approach is to open up as much data as we can. There’s a huge volume of industry data available under the NSTA’s NDR user agreement but the ownership is retained by industry. We have over a petabyte of data and we’re now ensuring new data loaded is high quality and machine readable.”