Last updated on June 26th, 2023 at 10:40 am
INTRODUCTION
The Oil and Gas Industry is one of the most globalized and complex industry in the world. For its effective functioning it requires a smooth and secure flow of information all around and that too real time. And this is where high powered Virtual Data Rooms play an important part in helping the industry streamline all aspects of its business from M&A to fund raising, environmental audits and joint ventures.
VDRs offer superior data handling ability by ensuring the security and integrity of all sensitive data throughout the deal or tender as they offer a high degree of customized business solutions. The comprehensive functionality includes easy upload and indexing, elite digital rights management technology, fully customized digital document watermarks, real-time tracking and reporting of all user activity, multi-dimensional access controls, enterprise search with onboard optical character recognition technology, bulk printing, question and answer management, new document notifications, secure user messaging and more.
Aside from the financial aspect of the transaction, VDRs enable you to focus on legal, land, and environmental due diligence like:
- Environmental assessments
- Land and title issues
- Intellectual property
- Physical inspection of equipment
due diligence
The sheer volume of information involved in fostering partnerships or closing out deals in the energy sector makes the due diligence process of any bid a lengthy, costly and complicated ordeal but VDRs help reduce this. The reduced time taken to complete diligence as well as reduced costs allow oil and gas companies to redefine their target market and ‘cast a broader net’ in terms of where they seek to operate and who they plan to partner with. Besides the constantly changing geo-political situations pose a great stress and result in a forced change in the way that oil and gas companies do business with themselves and with governments. Virtual data rooms have altered the manner in which these companies interact with government tenders.
VDRs have vastly improved the flow and quality of information pertaining to the tendered oil reserves or gas fields. They allow and facilitate the tender process to be split up into the relevant blocks being tendered and then provide extensive information relating to the reserves, so that each company can evaluate and interpret the data to better help them formulate a competitive bid. Many countries employing virtual data rooms to aid the bidding process have found that the number of interested companies and submitted bids have increased.
Fundraising is another important area that has been affected by the rise of virtual data rooms in the oil and gas sector. Seeking investments in an increasingly global and multi-lingual arena involves sustained interactions with multiple investors, consultants and parties. This increases the need for the sharing of real time information between parties securely. Virtual data rooms allow for strict monitoring of all interactions so that discussions can be controlled and be subjected to the strict regulatory oversight that is indicative of the industry.
Bringing the costs of business development down is another major achievement of secure data rooms as it reduces the barriers to co-operation and strategic partnership within the industry. The unique features of virtual data rooms also allow for the temporary sharing of sensitive company information without compromising the integrity of the company as a whole. This opens up the window for short-term partnerships aimed at bridging the gaps caused by the commodity cycle and by fluctuating demand for oil and gas derivatives.
VDRs helps the oil and gas industry more efficient by ensuring that it has the best chances of long-term growth, created through partnerships and effective competition.
The Confiex team specializes in providing premium virtual data room solutions tailored for businesses. With their vast experience in working with document sharing platforms, they have been actively supporting the Virtual Data Room community since 2015 by offering valuable information to users free of charge.