Old Data and Important Cog in New Market

Q: How is Net Brains showcasing its products and services to the new operators entering the market?

A: There are two ways in which Net Brains offers its services to new operators in the Mexican market. First, our consulting services consist of visiting the prospective client, demonstrating our technologies and helping them decide which one best suits their needs. Second, we offer our knowledge base, which we showcase by presenting how our methodologies have been bought and implemented by PEMEX with successful results. With the combination of these two approaches, the client can benchmark the optimal technology and learn what results to expect.

Q: What opportunities exist with PEMEX’s historical data and how can Net Brains help companies exploit those?

A: The usage of PEMEX’s historical data by new players will be two-sided. PEMEX used to own all the raw and processed data but this has now been passed to CNH. In the new law, there is a clause that allows companies to approach the regulator to offer acquisition, processing and interpretation of data, then share the revenues with CNH by selling that data as a multiclient. Net Brains is interested in reprocessing data, so we are carefully studying the regulations regarding this activity.

We have been in discussions with around 20 of the new operators in Mexico and the common theme is that the data provided by PEMEX is not sufficient for them to make strategic decisions about the continuation of reservoir exploitation. They need a better way to understand the reservoir, whether that means acquiring new data or reprocessing existing data.

Q: How will Net Brains face the challenge of working with each client’s different processes for data management?

A: This factor certainly presents a challenge for us because every company has its own way of managing data. We have to show them that an established process is required for effective data management rather than simply having a few competent people who decide how it is done. Net Brains helps companies identify data management problems, but also helps them look for better future processes by documenting findings and collating best practices. Net Brains obtained ISO:9000 certification eight years ago, which requires us to collect and store data so that companies can refer back to it and use it as knowledge to improve future operations.

Q: What is the company’s strategy to differentiate itself when it steps into an operators’ decision-making process?

A: Our strategy differs depending on the nature of each project but what makes Net Brains stand out from our competitors is our culture of going above and beyond simply making an interpretation or building a model. We also help our clients form a hierarchy of their reservoirs so as to predict the initial investment amount and return rate before they drill. This is an advantage because it assists companies as they build their portfolio. This characteristic of Net Brains’ methodology has helped PEMEX transform its own processes over the years.

Q: Since Mexico’s oil and gas data passed from PEMEX to CNH, how has Net Brains been interacting with the regulator?

A: CNH’s evaluation for Rounds 1.1, 1.2 and 1.3 was carried out using technology provided by Net Brains. CNH adopted part of our methodology to sort and arrange the information provided by PEMEX to come to a logical economic factor for each reservoir. As with PEMEX, CNH still has to decide on its direction, so this posed a challenge while working with the commission.

Q: What are Net Brains’ ambitions in Mexico’s future deepwater sector?

A: Before the reform we helped PEMEX carry out exploration work on some deepwater blocks but we are not heavily involved in the current deepwater work in Mexico. Net Brains believes that future deepwater work will be done by the IOCs, which have the most experience and highest quality technology to carry it out. Just like PEMEX, Net Brains is new to deepwater so we need to understand it more before competing with the big guys. Shallow-water work is more interesting for us because we want to stick to our strengths.