Bentley-based data recovery specialist SpectrumData Recovery has signed a four year contract with the Ethiopian Government to recover volumes of exploration data from collections of deteriorating magnetic reel tapes.
Bentley-based data recovery specialist SpectrumData Recovery has signed a four year contract with the Ethiopian Government to recover volumes of exploration data from collections of deteriorating magnetic reel tapes.
The full text of a company announcement is pasted below
Saving a large proportion of Ethiopia's exploration data archive will be a rescue mission performed by WA-based data recovery and storage company SpectrumData following the signing of a unique four-year contract.
Under the contract with the Ethiopian Government, SpectrumData will recover and reformat large volumes of exploration data from deteriorating magnetic reel tapes using specialist data recovery software and processes developed by the company through 20 years' experience in seismic data recovery.
The data, made up of over one million files and recovered from over 3000 highly deteriorated and at risk tapes, covers over 5,000 linear kilometres of seismic data within Ethiopia's Ogaden Basin.
Following the recovery and migration of the geophysical archive, SpectrumData will have distribution rights for the data to third parties for a period of four years.
Expensive to record and costing hundreds of thousands of dollars per day to acquire, the data is of huge interest to international oil and gas exploration companies looking to identify areas within Ethiopia suitable for exploration.
Regaining access to the data will enable the Ethiopian Ministry of Mines to increase the availability of information to those companies interested in exploring in the region.
Chief Executive Officer Guy Holmes said securing the contract demonstrates that SpectrumData and WA's IT sector can compete with global companies, particularly those in Europe and the US, for this highly specialised work.
"We are confident this project will showcase our services to many other African and Middle Eastern companies in a similar situation to Ethiopia and we have already received interest for similar projects in Mongolia, Indonesia, Malaysia, Turkey and Peru," Mr Holmes said.
Phase One of the project commenced recently with a specialist team of SpectrumData personnel flying to Addis Ababa in Ethiopia to begin recovering the data.
"As this data cannot leave Ethiopia due to current prohibitions, which is the case with many countries, we have had to go to it," Mr Holmes said.
"Our ability to get the SpectrumData 'roving' team on the ground in Ethiopia quickly with the necessary technology and equipment to carry out this project demonstrates just how rapidly our internationally experienced team can be mobilised and sent anywhere when new projects eventuate. This project showcases the unique service offering that SpectrumData is providing to the exploration industry, both at home and internationally."
"For some of our much larger competitors, they simply could not mobilise and be on the ground as quickly as we can."
The Ethiopian contract adds to SpectrumData's global expansion with projects also secured in Africa and New Zealand and previously undertaken in Japan. It also follows the company's recent opening in May of WA's first internationally certified Class 100 'clean room' for data recovery purposes.
The clean room, one of only a few in Australia for advanced data recovery, enables the retrieval of data in a controlled, dust free environment and ensures that contamination of the
disk or platter does not occur.