DARTMOUTH, Canada, October 2 /PRNewswire/ --     The Canada-Nova Scotia Offshore Petroleum Board (the Board) together with
the Nova Scotia Department of Energy, Natural Resources Canada and
Schlumberger Information Solutions officially opened the Board's newly
expanded Geoscience Research Centre (GRC) and digital Data Management Centre
(DMC) today.

"The Geoscience Research Centre and Data Management Centre create an
environment that foster communication, information dissemination and
understanding of offshore Nova Scotia's geological resources," said Diana
Dalton, Board Chair and Acting CEO.

The GRC houses the DMC and stores hardcopy information and samples
including: well data, cores and cuttings, and geological and geophysical
data. The DMC is designed to give users on-line access to digital offshore
petroleum data. It is undergoing final configuration and will be fully
operational later in October. The Province of Nova Scotia and the Government
of Canada provided CAD$2.4 Million in funding for expansion of the GRC and
development of the DMC.

"Making geoscience information available to the public is an important
investment for future exploration success," said Energy Minister Bill Dooks.
"We have the resource potential, now people with entrepreneurial spirit can
see that for themselves. They will have easy access to this data from any
where in the world, 24 hours a day, via the Internet."

"Our Government recognizes that the oil and gas industry relies on
current, accessible data," said the Honourable Gary Lunn, Minister of Natural
Resources. "We are pleased to support the digital Data Management Centre
which, together with the Geoscience Research Centre, will play a pivotal role
in the exploration of Nova Scotia's offshore resources."

Schlumberger Information Solutions (SIS) designed, installed and is
configuring the DMC hardware, software, and user workflows. Going forward the
Board will have ongoing support and maintenance of the DMC provided by SIS.

"By working closely with the Board we were able to fully understand their
requirements to create a leading-edge data management center to attract new
investors to this key exploration area," said Deanna Jones, Vice President
Schlumberger Information Solutions North America. "Our long time experience
in designing and deploying National Data Centres helped us to define a
working model for this DMC, including the deployment of next generation self
service energy information capabilities to advance oil and gas development in
Canada."

The DMC will manage and provide web access to well data (e.g. logs &
reports), seismic images (e.g. TIFF, JPG) and SEGY data, geographic
information system data (e.g. license information, bathymetry, pipelines
etc.) and production data. The loading and verification of this data is
ongoing. In the future, the DMC could be expanded to include operational,
safety, environmental, and fisheries data.

The DMC is also intended to act as a "pilot project" in the establishment
of a National Data Centre (NDC) for digital petroleum data, which in time
could link several regulatory Boards and government departments across
Canada.

The Canada-Nova Scotia Offshore Petroleum Board is the independent joint
agency of the Governments of Canada and Nova Scotia responsible for the
regulation of petroleum activities and resources offshore Nova Scotia.

Background on the GRC can be found on the Board's website:
http://www.cnsopb.ns.ca/resources/data.html

The official opening of the GRC/DMC is available via audio webcast:
https://event.on24.com/eventRegistration/EventLobbyServlet?target=registration.jsp&eventid=95183&sessionid=1&key=A1DF03EE0851A0AB7E79AD380C52B4D9&sourcepage=register