On the microsite launched by SeismicZone.com yesterday, seismic data owners can visually showcase their data libraries on interactive maps specific to their proprietary data, a new option for the resale market.
Last year Katalyst opened a new full service iGlass datacentre in Perth last May to support Asia Pacific oil and gas companies with their operational and exploration programs, having earlier acquired the Perth-based oil and gas data management division of SpectrumData.
SpectrumData provides data management, tape transcription and scanning services to APAC's geoscience data industry.
Katalyst believes that as companies seek ways to be efficient within constrained budgets, more data owners and purchasers are starting to adopt the process of online transactions over traditional methods for marketing seismic data.
Quality inspection and many of the other aspects of a data purchase can easily be handled via ecommerce, which Katalyst says is a "major paradigm shift" for the seismic data resale market.
With companies being forced to look for creative ways to get more revenue, SeismicZone.com provides a simple alternative for data owners to sell their data faster by marketing to a global audience more quickly online.
Seismic buyers in turn benefit from the cost savings of online transactions, as the SeismicZone ecommerce site features 2D and 3D data available for purchase around the globe and has more than 5000 visitors each year and growing.
While the website has the most data onshore North America, as that's where it started, Darnell told Energy News that he was "confident" multi-client companies with which he has already had discussions will load their data onto SeismicZone.
"Oil companies do not typically have their own website to market their proprietary data," he said.
"Katalyst is a private cloud solution to manage [their] sub-surface data through our iGlass solution. The SeismicZone technology is a value add service we offer.
"We anticipated that the industry would embrace the idea of an online marketplace, especially companies who are active in the seismic data resale market.
"In the current environment, many are in a situation where they have to explore every avenue for saving time and money."
SeismicZone.com is a public website, open for anyone to see where data is available for license and request to receive updates as data is added to their area of interest, but visitors must become registered users for the site to view quality inspection images.
Katalyst will host webinars starting in May that focus on common challenges for data owners.
