The Middle Eastern region stands as the global powerhouse of Oil and Gas production. With state-owned entities managing vast reserves, and complex joint ventures linking multiple stakeholders, the region’s energy companies operate some of the most intricate SAP landscapes in the world. Every process, from upstream exploration to downstream refining, depends on accuracy, compliance and agility. Working within the SAP data model for the Oil and Gas industry can be complex, and creating secure, Production-like data for non-production environments calls for a different approach. If testing environments don’t reflect real Production data, the risks can be huge.
The Middle Eastern region stands as the global powerhouse of Oil and Gas production. With state-owned entities managing vast reserves, and complex joint ventures linking multiple stakeholders, the region’s energy companies operate some of the most intricate SAP landscapes in the world. Every process, from upstream exploration to downstream refining, depends on accuracy, compliance and agility.
Yet one critical issue is often overlooked: test data.
Working within the SAP data model for the Oil and Gas industry can be complex, and creating secure, Production-like data for non-production environments calls for a different approach. If testing environments don’t reflect real Production data, the risks can be huge, including:
- inaccurate revenue allocations under Production Sharing Agreement (PSA) models
- compliance violations
- project delays.
Why is test data so important? According to Gartner, the average organisation loses $12.9 million annually due to poor data quality. For most Oil and Gas companies, the SAP system is the backbone of operations. Any significant outage, whether in a specific process or the entire Production system, can have a multi-million-dollar impact. This is why effective testing in non-production environments is important. And testing is only effective when test cases and data mirror the scenarios that will occur in Production.
Oil and Gas landscape in the Middle East: PSA, state ownership and high-stakes accuracy
Middle Eastern operators largely work under Production Sharing Agreement (PSA) models. Unlike the U.S., where Production Revenue Accounting (PRA) dominates private-sector operations, PSA means the state often owns the resource, with contractors and joint ventures involved in production and cost recovery.
This structure requires clear, auditable allocation of revenues between the government and partners; making accuracy critical not just for financial health, but also for governance transparency. Add ESG (Environmental, Social, & Governance) reporting and sustainability metrics on top of this, and the burden on data integrity becomes even more important.
That’s why many organisations rely on SAP systems to manage this complex flow of financial and operational data. But maintaining data accuracy across these environments presents its own challenges. Full SAP system refreshes, for example, are expensive, slow, and risky - and they often expose sensitive information to non-production systems, something regional compliance frameworks increasingly prohibit.
This is where EPI-USE Labs’ Data Sync Manager (DSM) software suite can help. DSM provides a smarter alternative. It allows Oil and Gas companies to refresh test environments quickly, using representative subsets of Production data, preserving data integrity while ensuring privacy and compliance through scrambling and masking.
Example: Desert OilCo and the test data dilemma
To explain the above in more detail, here is a fictional use case:
Desert OilCo is a Gulf-based upstream giant under a PSA agreement. They manage billions in production allocations, co-ordinate with global partners, and face strict national reporting standards. Their SAP challenges include:
- extremely large data volumes that make traditional refreshes impractical
- month-end bottlenecks for revenue allocation and cost recovery testing
- compliance pressure to anonymise sensitive data before using it in non-production environments
- security vulnerabilities in manual data handling processes.
The DSM advantage: Instead of restoring full Production backups, DSM creates time-sliced, business-object-driven subsets of Production data that are smaller, faster to refresh, and fully masked for compliance. This approach enables multiple test system updates from a single export – cutting refresh times from weeks to hours.
Downstream complexity and data integrity
Downstream processes, from refining to distribution, are highly integrated. Testing an isolated change without breaking dependencies is almost impossible with conventional methods.
The DSM solution: DSM uses intelligent Business Objects to maintain process integrity. Copying a purchase order, for example, automatically brings related Material Masters, Pricing Conditions, and other linked data – so test environments behave like Production without the full size or cost.
Data privacy and regional compliance
With the Middle East implementing stricter data governance standards, including privacy frameworks like PDPL and financial transparency mandates, protecting sensitive information in test environments is a top priority.
DSM’s built-in security: DSM’s Data Secure feature provides pre-configured scrambling rules that can be customised for local compliance. Whether it’s masking personal data or financial allocations, DSM ensures nothing sensitive leaves the source unprotected. Policies can also be standardised and replicated across all environments for consistency and audit readiness.
Enabling DevOps and faster innovation
As Middle Eastern operators pursue digital transformation and automation, many are adopting DevOps principles for SAP. This requires rapid, repeatable and secure data provisioning for development and testing. DSM meets this need by allowing selective data copies on demand, eliminating the delays and complexity of full system refreshes which is critical for shorter release cycles.
For Middle Eastern Oil and Gas operators, testing isn’t an IT function; it’s a strategic enabler of compliance, ESG goals and operational resilience. In a market where state accountability, sustainability commitments, and strong partnerships define success, accuracy and security in SAP testing are non-negotiable.
DSM helps deliver on these priorities by combining agility, compliance and efficiency in one solution.
Learn more about Data Sync Manager (DSM) for Oil & Gas
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