The questions a Saudi Aramco buyer asks,
answered honestly and cited.

Not yet. We treat SACS-002 as a hard gate, not an afterthought. Nothing that connects to Aramco networks or processes Aramco data can proceed without a valid CCC/CCC+ issued after assessment by an Aramco-authorized audit firm. Our plan is to complete the CCC self-assessment against the SACS-002 controls (24 common plus the applicable specific requirements) during pilot scoping, and to obtain CCC+ via on-site audit if we are classified as Network Connectivity or Critical Data Processor. Until then we engage only in an isolated, public-data-only mode.

It depends on the deployment. In its default form, PetroMap runs standalone on public data with no connection to Aramco systems, which points to the CCC (remote-validated self-assessment) track. If a pilot requires network connectivity into Aramco or processing of Aramco-classified data, the classification escalates to Critical Data Processor or Network Connectivity, which mandates CCC+ with an on-site audit. We scope the deployment to the lowest necessary classification. Note that where both apply, only CCC+ is accepted.

PetroMap's public product processes no personal data of Saudi data subjects, which keeps it outside most PDPL processing obligations. For any in-Kingdom deployment we align to PDPL as enforced since 14 September 2024 by SDAIA: lawful-basis review, a data-transfer assessment before any cross-border movement, and destruction/anonymization rules. If a pilot ever introduces personal data, we appoint a data protection officer and follow SDAIA's implementing regulations. We do not move Saudi personal data out of the Kingdom.

Yes, by design. The NCA CCC-2:2024 requires that sensitive and critical-national-infrastructure data stay inside the Kingdom or on an NCA-recognized provider with a Saudi-region presence. Our public product currently runs Swiss-hosted, but for any Aramco engagement we deploy in-Kingdom (Saudi cloud region or on-prem inside Aramco) so that no CNI-adjacent data leaves the Kingdom. Foreign-only cloud is a non-starter for CNI data and we do not propose it.

No. This is a firm boundary. The knowledge base is built entirely from public, peer-reviewed geoscience literature and open datasets. PetroMap makes no claim on Aramco's ~90 years of proprietary data. In an in-Aramco pilot, any proprietary data stays inside Aramco's environment under Aramco's controls; we never exfiltrate it, and our public corpus is never mixed with it. This separation is what lets us cite external method provenance that a proprietary-trained internal model cannot.

A SACS-002 CCC/CCC+ certificate is valid for two years from issuance, provided the third-party classification does not change, after which re-assessment is required. We commit to maintaining a valid certificate for the life of any engagement, re-scoping if the classification changes (for example, if a pilot moves from standalone to network-connected), and providing evidence packages to Aramco's authorized audit firms on request.

Not yet. We understand that Aramco does not publish open upstream-software RFPs and that transacting requires onboarding to the SAP Ariba e-Marketplace after supplier registration and prequalification. We are prepared to complete Ariba registration once we have the prerequisite in-Kingdom entity. Because novel software rarely enters through cold Ariba bidding, we propose starting with a pilot (see the soft-entry answers) and formalizing the Ariba/AVL path in parallel.

Not yet, and we are transparent that this is on the critical path. A foreign vendor needs a MISA (Ministry of Investment) license first, then a Commercial Registration from the Ministry of Commerce, to become an in-Kingdom entity eligible for Aramco vendor onboarding. We have an established foreign parent, which MISA requires. We would establish the entity as part of committing to a Saudi engagement rather than speculatively.

As a pre-entity vendor our current iktva score is effectively zero, and we do not pretend otherwise. iktva is mandatory for Aramco suppliers and materially raises award probability, so we would establish a baseline score and a joint action plan with Aramco. Our credible localization levers are Saudi hires for domain and support roles, in-Kingdom hosting and training, R&D collaboration with Saudi geoscience institutions, and supplier-development spend, aligned to Aramco's 70-to-75 percent local-content trajectory.

A pilot first. For novel software the honest path is a paid proof-of-concept through a soft-entry channel such as Wa'ed Ventures (Aramco's $500M VC arm, which runs a 12-month incubation) or Aramco Digital's supplier-relationship route, then formal vendor qualification (MISA/CR, Ariba, prequalification, AVL) in parallel. Cold AVL bidding on a gated Ariba marketplace is the slowest, lowest-probability route for an unproven external product.

A pilot is a fixed-scope, fixed-fee engagement on a single high-fit use case, for example Rub' al Khali literature-derived prospectivity screening, with an agreed success metric defined jointly with your explorationists (such as usefulness of the shortlist and citation quality) rather than a fabricated accuracy number. It runs in an isolated, public-data-only environment or in-Aramco under your controls. We deliberately avoid vanity metrics; the pilot's job is to let your experts judge whether the screening layer earns a place in the workflow.

Etimad (portal.etimad.sa) is the Ministry of Finance's public procurement portal for government entities; Aramco itself procures through SAP Ariba, not Etimad. We monitor Etimad only for adjacent public-sector geoscience or data opportunities (for example, Saudi Geological Survey work), and we use its openly published tender listings and Open Data, never scraping behind authentication. We keep the Aramco (Ariba) and government (Etimad) channels clearly separated.

We give honest ranges, not promises: MISA/CR entity setup a few months; SAP Ariba registration roughly 6-12 weeks; company-to-AVL prequalification roughly 4-9 months; and a novel-software award cycle longer still because it typically runs pilot then proof then procure. This is exactly why we lead with a pilot: it delivers value to your teams while the multi-month vendor-qualification track matures in parallel.

PetroMap is a screening and hypothesis-generation aid with four parts: a cited petroleum-geology retrieval-augmented knowledge base (Arabic and English) over public literature; an interactive field map; a 3D subsurface explorer; and a literature-derived prospectivity-lead scoring layer (our OverCaml engine). It shortlists plays, methods and analogs with citations for your explorationists to validate against their own seismic and wells. It is decision support, not an interpretation engine.

Yes, all public. The corpus is peer-reviewed petroleum-geology literature plus open datasets: public field and project inventories, national open geoscience databases, and government survey data. We store embeddings and cite provenance rather than redistributing copyrighted text. No proprietary or subscription data enters the authoritative corpus, and lower-quality chatter is quality-gated out and never treated as authoritative.

No, and we are explicit about this. GeoDRIVE is EXPEC ARC's seismic-imaging platform and Metabrain is Aramco's 250-billion-parameter industrial LLM trained on decades of proprietary data. PetroMap does not image seismic, does not train on your proprietary data, and does not try to out-predict Metabrain. It is complementary: a literature-grounded, citable second opinion and method-provenance layer over external peer-reviewed knowledge, which is precisely what a proprietary-trained internal model cannot cite.

This is our sweetest honest fit. Rub' al Khali is one of Earth's most underexplored basins, with new unconventional potential being chased, and it is comparatively data-poor, so literature-derived screening adds the most value there. PetroMap triages source-rock and play-fairway hypotheses from public petroleum-systems literature and presents them in the 3D explorer for your explorationists to test against proprietary seismic. The output is a cited screening shortlist, not a reserves statement.

As an early-pilot literature-triage layer. Jafurah's challenges include frac design and water sourcing/recycling in an arid basin. PetroMap runs RAG over public tight-gas and shale-completion literature and public water-treatment and produced-water-recycling research to shortlist candidate techniques and analogs for your engineers to evaluate. Jafurah is newer and less analog-constrained, so we frame this as decision-support screening, not a completion-design tool.

Yes, as a knowledge and visualization support layer. The Jubail hub targets large-scale CO2 injection into a saline aquifer requiring robust monitoring and MRV. PetroMap can scan public literature on CO2-plume monitoring methods, monitoring-well design and MRV protocols, and present candidate approaches in the 3D explorer for your team. We found no named public MRV tender, so we position this honestly as pilot-grade decision support inferred from the announced project, not a response to a specific solicitation.

Every prospectivity lead carries an explicit, per-target confidence score and the citations behind it, so a reviewer can trace why a hypothesis surfaced and reject it. We do not present a single deceptive accuracy figure for the system as a whole, because a screening tool over public literature cannot honestly claim predictive accuracy against your proprietary subsurface. Confidence is a triage signal to prioritize expert review, not a probability of discovery.

Only as a public-literature screening aid, and with no Ghawar proprietary data. Advancing water fronts and conformance across a peripheral seawater flood are continuous optimization problems. PetroMap can rank published conformance-control and EOR techniques (polymer, gel, smart or low-salinity water) against public analog reservoirs to feed your engineers a cited candidate list. The tuning against Ghawar's actual behavior stays entirely inside Aramco on Aramco data.

From public, attributable sources only: open project inventories such as the Global Oil and Gas Extraction Tracker, the Saudi Geological Survey's National Geological Database, USGS energy-resources data, and peer-reviewed literature. Each mapped feature is traceable to its open source in the data room. We do not present digitized proprietary Aramco maps, and where public sources disagree we surface the discrepancy rather than silently pick one.

No, and this is the single most important honesty point. Leads are hypotheses generated from public literature, meant to prioritize where your explorationists look next. They are not reserves, not resources, not discoveries, and not a claim to have found hydrocarbons. Only your validation against proprietary seismic, wells and testing can turn a hypothesis into anything real. We reject any framing that markets leads as booked volumes.

Authoritative public statistics only. For Saudi national proved reserves we cite the U.S. EIA and OPEC (roughly 267 billion barrels of proved crude reserves), and we attribute the figure rather than presenting our own estimate. PetroMap does not compute or claim national reserves; any headline number in the product is a cited restatement of an official public source, kept separate from our literature-derived screening leads.

No. The knowledge base stores vector embeddings and citation metadata, not redistributable full text. Answers quote short passages with attribution and link users to the original source to obtain it legally. This is why we can offer citable method provenance without infringing publisher rights, and the licence and provenance trail for every corpus item is documented in the data room.

With an enforced quality gate and a no-invented-metrics rule. Incoming chatter is scored and flagged unverified, and it never enters the authoritative geology corpus. We publish no fabricated traction, accuracy or ROI numbers; claims in the product are cited to public sources or clearly labelled as hypotheses. If a metric cannot be sourced or honestly measured in a pilot, we do not state it.

Via an enterprise API and standards-based data exchange. We target OSDU-compatible interfaces (the open subsurface data standard Aramco participates in) so that outputs can flow into your platforms without bespoke glue, and we deploy in-Kingdom (Saudi cloud region or on-prem inside Aramco) to satisfy residency. Integration keeps the boundary intact: PetroMap consumes public data and emits cited shortlists; your proprietary interpretation stays in your environment.

PetroMap retains ownership of its platform and the OverCaml scoring engine (a private engine). Data you provide, and any interpretations produced against your proprietary data inside your environment, remain yours. Screening outputs produced from public data during a pilot are delivered to you for internal use under the pilot agreement. We do not assert rights over your subsurface data, and we do not reuse it to train models for other clients.

For a pilot we provide direct engineering support with agreed response targets; for production we would stand up in-Kingdom support staffed by Saudi hires as part of our iktva commitment. Our presence roadmap follows the vendor path: establish the MISA/CR entity, host in-Kingdom, obtain SACS-002 CCC/CCC+, then scale local support and training. We would rather commit to a realistic staffing ramp than overpromise a 24/7 Saudi operations center on day one.

Three priorities. First, deepen the Arabic-and-English cited RAG and the Rub' al Khali and Jafurah play coverage. Second, harden the in-Kingdom deployment for PDPL and NCA CCC-2:2024 and complete SACS-002 certification. Third, add OSDU-compatible export and CCS-MRV literature coverage for the Jubail hub. Every roadmap item stays inside the complementary, public-data, leads-are-hypotheses framing; we are not building toward replacing EXPEC ARC, GeoDRIVE or Metabrain.