PennWell Corp. forms new energy data division

Journal Record, The (Oklahoma City), Apr 17, 2002 by Ray Carter

Tulsa-based PennWell Corp. on Tuesday announced plans to form a new division based in Oklahoma City dedicated to U.S. well and production data. The new division, PennEnergy Data, will handle the acquisition, management and marketing of PennWell's well, permit and production data, including historical data PennWell received in 1999 as a result of a Federal Trade Commission order.

The commission, acting on industry concerns about the presence of a monopoly in the oil and gas data market, awarded PennWell the license to well and production data for more than 1.3 million U.S. oil and gas wells. In creating PennEnergy Data, PennWell has collaborated with Denver-based petroWEB, a provider of Web-based geographic information systems for managing data, to develop the data delivery infrastructure and interface for PennEnergy Data. Officials said PennEnergy Data would meet market demand for better data collection and management tools in the oil and gas industry. Operating companies will receive increased efficiency and cost savings with the new data service, officials said. "Since receiving the FTC license to the historical well and production data file, we recognized the real challenge for a successful energy data product in today's market is in moving away from traditional collection and delivery processes, which are cumbersome and costly," said Jayne Gilsinger, PennWell's senior vice president of business development and chief executive officer of PennEnergy Data. "So we've defined our data product to be more affordable and streamlined for supporting today's data management requirements." PennWell has major locations in Tulsa, Oklahoma City, Houston, Fort Worth and London. The company also has offices in New Hampshire, New Jersey, California, Germany and Singapore.