Glex AS: Integrating Business Analysis and Intelligence Data to a Unified Platform

The energy industry is continuously grappling with the challenges of managing vast and growing quantities of data. In mature oil and gas basins, the ability to leverage legacy data from previous geological evaluations and drilling is essential for identifying and developing the remaining valuable resources. Meanwhile, emerging sectors like Carbon Capture and Storage (CCS) and offshore wind are heavily reliant on both historic and new data, requiring more efficient workflows to preserve their often tighter margins. Traditional GIS systems, however, are often cumbersome, demanding specialist skills for domain- and company-specific data management and map production, which can hinder productivity and decision-making. Glex AS is addressing these industry challenges head-on by offering a map-based platform designed to be self-service and user-friendly, yet powerful enough to support professional needs.The Glex platform, Glex Energy, is engineered to streamline integration and collaboration in a domain-tailored context. By seamlessly integrating multiple data sources, the platform enables users to quickly discover, identify, and focus on the most relevant information for their analyses and decision-making processes. “We are very responsive to changes in the market and needs of customers, but we try to balance meeting individual company requests with what the market more generally needs. By avoiding making very tailored solutions, we can use our resources better for our whole market,” explains Andrew McCann, CEO, Glex.

Moreover, Glex goes beyond what a GIS platform can normally provide and can work effectively in tandem with existing solutions. The company’s overarching goal is to empower customers to effectively understand and develop their asset portfolios. Glex supports critical workflows in exploration, business development (M&A), and asset management by integrating business analysis and intelligence data into a unified platform. This approach addresses a growing demand from customers for shared sources of data and information within their organizations, facilitating more informed decision-making. To further enhance efficiency, Glex has developed automated pipelines and metadata linking between data sources.

Glex’s innovative approach to GIS solutions is built on three key pillars: data access and ingestion, data analysis and visualization, and tailored workflow support. These areas are meticulously designed to address the technological development and customer needs across all target industries. In the realm of data access and ingestion, Glex collaborates with public and national data repositories to establish and maintain robust data pipelines. Additionally, Glex works closely with third-party data providers, who traditionally deliver data pipelines to each customer separately. By creating a ‘once for all’ system in partnership with these providers, Glex significantly reduces costs and efforts for all parties involved. The system also allows third-party suppliers to maintain control over data access, ensuring that only authorized customers can utilize their data. Furthermore, the company’s platform enables customers to easily add or link their own data and documents, facilitating seamless access and integration.

On the data analysis and visualization front, Glex enhances the user experience by organizing data objects by type, such as licenses & concessions, fields, discoveries, wells, and wind-farms. This classification simplifies the process of assigning and associating additional data, allowing users to view and analyze information from public, third-party, and proprietary sources in a unified manner. The platform’s use of metadata linking ensures that relevant information is easily identified and accessible. Additionally, by monitoring changes in data attributes, Glex helps users stay informed about decisions and operations within both their own and others’ portfolios. This functionality is particularly valuable for business developers seeking new opportunities, as it provides a dynamic and up-to-date view of the market landscape. Glex also excels in offering tailored workflow support, with features designed to enhance visualization, search, filtering, collaboration, and presentation. These tools allow users to quickly access and effectively utilize the data they need for their specific tasks.

The inception of Glex is rooted in a practical need that arose within a small oil and gas company. The challenge was to create a visual database for exploration prospects, leading to the innovative use of gaming technology to develop a visual space supported by a flexible backend capable of integrating public, third-party, and proprietary data. Today, Glex is led by a unique leadership team that blends gaming development expertise with senior leadership experience in the energy industry. Together, they are steering Glex toward continued success, addressing the complex needs of the energy sector with innovative solutions. “Gen AI is generally poor at handling spatial and temporal structured data, which is what most of our relevant data is. Therefore we still need to focus on systemizing complex datasets to enable users to perform their evaluations, until such time that Gen AI is able to address more data types meaningfully” concludes McCann.