Release of data

The Directorate has a duty of confidentiality in relation to data, materials and
information submitted to us. The duration of the duty of confidentiality for
geodata is governed by Section 85 of the Petroleum Regulations (Norwegian only). The Directorate can release such data when the confidentiality period expires.

The primary determining factor for the duration of the duty of confidentiality is whether the data is interpreted or commercially available. Data that does not fall under these two categories is referred to as “other data” in the regulations.

The length of the duty of confidentiality is calculated as from the date when the data became available to the data owner.

Interpreted data

Interpreted data is subject to a duty of confidentiality for 5 years, with two
exceptions:

• For interpreted data in status reports (relinquishment reports), the duty of confidentiality expires as from the date the licence is surrendered.
• Interpreted data from relinquished areas and surrendered licences is
  subject to a duty of confidentiality for 1 year, calculated as from the date of the surrender/relinquishment.

Interpreted data means products that are the result of a discretionary
professional assessment, and which are of sufficient quality to potentially form a basis for decisions in the production licence. Processed geophysical data and measured well data, or visualisations thereof, are not considered to be interpreted data. This definition is more detailed, including examples, in the Guidelines for interpreted data (Norwegian only).

Until 2023, interpreted data was subject to a duty of confidentiality for 20 years. This was changed to 5 years, with a transitional provision to the effect that interpreted data reported prior to 1 January 2023 would be subject to confidentiality for up to 5 years after this amendment. In practice, this means that all interpreted data more than 5 years old as of 1 January 2028 will be released.

Commercially available data

Commercially available data must be kept confidential for 10 years. Commercially available data means data collected for the sole purpose of submitting the data for sale to a third party. It is a prerequisite that the data is commercially available from the time they are available to the owner.

This means that the data must be available to everyone at market price from when they are available to the owner and ready for use. Data acquired for internal use in one or more production licences is not considered to be "commercially available". 

In 2012, the Norwegian Offshore Directorate sent out a circular with a clarification of the term "commercially available".

Additional processing of commercially available data such as re-processing and merges will be subject to the following confidentiality periods:

• If the re-processing/merge is carried out by a company for its own use or use in a production licence, the confidentiality period will be 2 years from when the new product became available to the data owner, but no shorter than the period for the underlying data.
• If the re-processing/merge is carried out with the sole purpose of submitting the data for sale to a third party, the confidentiality period will be 10 years from when the new product became available to the data
  owner.

You can read more about how the rules associated with commercially available data are practised in Chapter 9.2 of the Yellow Book. Commercially available data will not be released in connection with relinquishment of acreage or expiration, lapse and surrender of a production licence.

Other data

Other data is subject to a duty of confidentiality for 2 years.

"Other data" means data that does not fall under the categories of interpreted data or commercially available data. This will typically be non-interpreted data (raw data) which is jointly owned in a production licence.

Other data will be released in connection with relinquishment of acreage, or expiration, lapse and surrender of a production licence.

Trade secrets

Trade secrets (which are not geodata) are subject to a duty of confidentiality for 20 years.

Trade secrets means "technical devices and procedures, as well as operational or business matters which for competition reasons it is important to keep secret in the interests of the person whom the information concerns", cf. Section 13 first paragraph number 2 of the Public Administration Act.

Trade secrets will not be released in connection with relinquishment of acreage or expiration, lapse and surrender of a production licence.

Articles about released data over the last few years

2024

Large area with new released datasets in the Barents Sea

Norwegian Offshore Directorate publishes new deep sea data

2023

First offshore wind data sets available in Diskos

The NPD is releasing even more data to the public

30,000 data sets are now publicly accessible

Valuable NPD data

Norwegian Petroleum Directorate to update quality-assured geochemical database

2022

Sharing data from older wells

First yearly update of quality-assured geochemical database for the North Sea

2021

Norwegian Petroleum Directorate to update quality-assured geochemical database for the North Sea

The Norwegian Petroleum Directorate grants access to quality-assured geochemical database for the North Sea