Professional Assessment of Petroleum Reservoir Data Management Systems and Digital Transformation Readiness in Nigerian E&P Companies

Effective reservoir data management is a foundational requirement for petroleum engineering decision quality, and the digital transformation of data management practices is a strategic priority for Nigerian exploration and production companies competing in an increasingly technology-intensive industry. This study professionally assesses reservoir data management system quality and digital transformation readiness in six Nigerian E&P companies, spanning supermajors, national oil company subsidiaries, and indigenous independent producers. An assessment framework drawing on the PPDM 3.9 Professional Petroleum Data Management standard and the Gartner Data Management Maturity Model is applied to evaluate eleven data management capability domains: data governance, master data management, data architecture, data quality management, reference data management, data warehousing, subsurface data integration, data security, metadata management, data lifecycle management, and technology infrastructure. Structured interviews with data management leads, technical reviews of data system architecture documentation, and data quality sampling exercises were conducted in each organisation. Results indicate a mean capability maturity score of 2.1 out of 5.0 across assessed organisations, with indigenous producers averaging 1.7 and supermajors achieving 3.2. Critical gaps identified include inadequate data quality management programmes, absence of master data governance frameworks, and limited integration between geological and engineering data platforms. The study presents a prioritised digital transformation roadmap with implementation milestones tailored to the resource constraints of different operator categories. Keywords: reservoir data management, digital transformation, Nigerian E&P, PPDM standard, data governance.