Establishing a National Energy Data Repository for Sudan

HDS partnered with OvationData and Talus Inc to design and implement a complete National Data Repository (NDR) for Sudan's Ministry of Energy & Petroleum — protecting and unlocking the country's entire oil and gas data estate.

The Challenge

National oil and gas data is a strategic asset — yet for many governments, decades of exploration activity have generated vast, fragmented data estates spread across legacy systems, paper archives and inconsistent formats. Sudan's Ministry of Energy & Petroleum required a modern, centralised NDR capable of cataloguing, validating and securing the country's complete E&P dataset to support future licensing, investment and exploration decisions.

The Solution

HDS, in a joint deployment with partners OvationData Ltd and Talus Inc, implemented a comprehensive NDR solution based on GeoSCOPE and Exploration Archives. The project covered the full technology and people stack: IT infrastructure upgrades, ArcGIS installation and configuration, technical data management training for Ministry staff, and the establishment of robust data governance workflows covering cataloguing, validation, cleansing and migration to the NDR structure.

Data standards were defined and implemented at the outset, ensuring that incoming data — regardless of vintage or source format — would conform to a consistent, queryable taxonomy. The system was designed to support ongoing population and management well beyond the initial deployment phase.

The Outcome

A fully functional NDR infrastructure was established and staff were trained to operate it independently. The complete national dataset has been safeguarded and backed up. HDS remains engaged with the Ministry and is ready to continue the training and data migration programme when conditions permit.