By: Amit Kumar Mondal, Sr. Consultant, Oil & Gas

Cost pressures and market dynamics are perennial factors impacting the O&G upstream business value chain. The best response to these challenges could be streamlining O&G portfolios and operations and reducing unproductive time to seek sustainable business profitability in every facet. A larger problem for streamlining the business model would be managing large datasets generated during business operations combined with large historical data. Additionally, there are several owners and users of this data such as operators, operating partners, service providers, contractors, equipment suppliers, regulators, and software and hardware vendors. To maintain smooth interoperability, enhance the safety of industry operations, assure quality, reduce costs, and minimize waste, a standard Data Model is essential.

Data models for the O&G industry

A 2015 issue of EPMAG has listed a group of 11 standards bodies that define a data model for the O&G industry. These organizations are coordinated by the Standards Leadership Council (SLC). They are:

• Energistics, International Association of Oil and Gas Producers (IOGP),
• MIMOSA, Open Geospatial Consortium (OGC)
• Object Management Group (OMG), OPC Foundation (OPC)
• POSC Caesar, PIDX International, Pipeline Open Data Standard Association (PODS)
• Professional Petroleum Data Management Association (PPDM)

Society of Exploration Geophysicists (SEG)

Among these, Energistics, IOGP, PPDM and SEG are focused on technical data exchange standards specifically for the O&G industry.

The flagship standard models for Energistics are:

1. Drilling, Completions and Interventions SIG- WITSML
2. Reservoir Model and Interpretation SIG- RESQML
3. Production Data SIG- PRODML

Energistics furthermore developed a common foundation shared technology called Common Technical Architecture (CTA) that allows for cross-functional workflows combining any or all the above.

The PPDM Data Model is a relational model specification used by the O&G industry as the function for effective management and stewardship of data related to upstream exploration and production. The latest version of the model is V3.9 released on May 2014. It has 53 subject areas intended to give executives a model for a master data management. Other standard models developed by the association are PPDM Lite 1.1, What is a Well? Well Status, Well Identification, Taxonomy Dimensions.

SEG is the Technical Standard Committee who develops and maintains specifications for geophysical data set. SEG-D and SEG-Y are the most familiar standards for storing digital tape and post-stack seismic data.

IOGP is an upstream forum, responsible for almost 40% of the world’s O&G production. This group has identified and shared best practices to achieve improvements in HSE, security, social responsibility, engineering and operations. IOGP maintains the geodetic transformation registry. The Geomatics Committee of IOGP has developed SeabedML for seafloor data model standardization. IOGP also look after the suite of seismic positioning standards or “P-standards” originally developed by SEG.

Benefits for operators
A standard data model has several benefits for E&P operators as well as for business stakeholders. Following are some of the benefits of adopting these standards:

• Data governance: Ease of data availability, accessibility, usability, integrity and security
• Data quality: Accuracy, completeness and reliability of the data
• Data conversion and exchange: Ease of navigation and sharing of different data formats
• Data maintenance & support: Simpler process of cleansing, correcting and verifying data on an ongoing basis
• Enhanced intelligence & decision-making: Understanding the inherent value of data and leveraging it for maximum value

The O&G industry is a complex system involving multiple players. A standard data model can enhance the business value chain by minimizing complexities to increase productivity, improve safety, reduce costs and ensure regulatory compliance.