About POSC

About POSC

Mission Membership

Focus Sponsors

Solutions for E&P Computing

Mission

Petrotechnical Open Software Corporation (POSC), a not-for-profit corporation, is dedicated to facilitating integrated business processes and computing technology for the exploration and production (E&P) segment of the international petroleum industry. It was founded to gain business benefits in the E&P industry which arise from integrating business processes across the life-cycle of a field, from discovery through divestment. Improved use of information technology and information management are POSC's vehicles for these gains.

Focus

POSC has developed and delivered specifications for a software integration platform for E&P technical applications. This platform is formed by a set of standard interfaces between petrotechnical software applications, database management systems, workstations and the users. POSC focuses on development of interface specifications, prototype implementations and test suites that allow verification of compliance with a particular specification. POSC is also initiating a program to certify compliance and to foster trust between buyers and suppliers.

Sponsors

Incorporated in October of 1990, the founding sponsors of POSC are:

BP Exploration
Chevron Corporation
Elf Aquitaine
Mobil Corporation
Texaco Inc.

In 1995, two member companies, Den norske stats oljeselskap a. s (Statoil) and Aramco Services Company, a subsidiary of the Saudi Arabian Oil Company, upgraded their participation in POSC to the level of sponsorship, entailing a five year funding commitment and representation on the POSC Board of Directors.

See the POSC Membership List for a complete list of current sponsors and member companies/organizations.

Membership

Membership is open to all. Membership today includes petroleum companies, E&P service companies, software suppliers, computer manufacturers, government agencies, research institutions, and other standards organizations around the world. Membership fees are tiered to allow participation by all relevant organizations. With a staff of about thirty, POSC is headquartered in Houston, Texas with an additional office located in the United Kingdom in London.

Solutions for E&P Computing

Petroleum companies have long struggled with problems of disparate data formats, different database systems, in-house developed and purchased applications that do not communicate with each other, and diverse workstations that have specialized capabilities but differing operational requirements and application interfaces. Thus, they have been unable to take advantage of new computing opportunities in a timely or cost-effective manner. This long list of problems also directly affects software and hardware vendors as they develop and market to this industry segment. They face difficult economic trade-offs of what languages, communications protocols, software and hardware interfaces to develop and/or support.

The advent of sophisticated data modeling tools, better database management systems, and the need to deploy cross-discipline methodologies for technical and business solutions, gives upstream businesses a new, more focused desire to maximize information management.

The open systems environment provides the oil industry with a gateway to advances surfacing across the computing world. Advances allowing engineers and scientists to concentrate on problems of the oil business versus problems of data processing include:

The rapid development of computing technology, from very large supercomputers to massively parallel computers to powerful workstations
The growth and acceptance of open systems, distributed computing across wide and local area networks
The emergence of a standard graphical user interface

The POSC standard software integration platform will minimize or eliminate many information management problems by providing common data-application, software-hardware and user-application communications. POSC seeks to:

Empower E&P professionals to concentrate on the business of exploring for and producing hydrocarbons
Allow vendors and application developers to concentrate on specific application expertise
Enable computer manufacturers to more rapidly expand their install base in the petroleum industry

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Updated: March 11, 1998. Send questions and comments to webmaster@posc.org

Mission
Petrotechnical Open Software Corporation (POSC), a not-for-profit corporation, is dedicated to facilitating integrated business processes and computing technology for the exploration and production (E&P) segment of the international petroleum industry. It was founded to gain business benefits in the E&P industry which arise from integrating business processes across the life-cycle of a field, from discovery through divestment. Improved use of information technology and information management are POSC's vehicles for these gains.
Focus
POSC has developed and delivered specifications for a software integration platform for E&P technical applications. This platform is formed by a set of standard interfaces between petrotechnical software applications, database management systems, workstations and the users. POSC focuses on development of interface specifications, prototype implementations and test suites that allow verification of compliance with a particular specification. POSC is also initiating a program to certify compliance and to foster trust between buyers and suppliers.
Sponsors
Incorporated in October of 1990, the founding sponsors of POSC are: BP Exploration Chevron Corporation Elf Aquitaine Mobil Corporation Texaco Inc. In 1995, two member companies, Den norske stats oljeselskap a. s (Statoil) and Aramco Services Company, a subsidiary of the Saudi Arabian Oil Company, upgraded their participation in POSC to the level of sponsorship, entailing a five year funding commitment and representation on the POSC Board of Directors. See the POSC Membership List for a complete list of current sponsors and member companies/organizations.
Membership
Membership is open to all. Membership today includes petroleum companies, E&P service companies, software suppliers, computer manufacturers, government agencies, research institutions, and other standards organizations around the world. Membership fees are tiered to allow participation by all relevant organizations. With a staff of about thirty, POSC is headquartered in Houston, Texas with an additional office located in the United Kingdom in London.
Solutions for E&P Computing
Petroleum companies have long struggled with problems of disparate data formats, different database systems, in-house developed and purchased applications that do not communicate with each other, and diverse workstations that have specialized capabilities but differing operational requirements and application interfaces. Thus, they have been unable to take advantage of new computing opportunities in a timely or cost-effective manner. This long list of problems also directly affects software and hardware vendors as they develop and market to this industry segment. They face difficult economic trade-offs of what languages, communications protocols, software and hardware interfaces to develop and/or support. The advent of sophisticated data modeling tools, better database management systems, and the need to deploy cross-discipline methodologies for technical and business solutions, gives upstream businesses a new, more focused desire to maximize information management. The open systems environment provides the oil industry with a gateway to advances surfacing across the computing world. Advances allowing engineers and scientists to concentrate on problems of the oil business versus problems of data processing include: The rapid development of computing technology, from very large supercomputers to massively parallel computers to powerful workstations The growth and acceptance of open systems, distributed computing across wide and local area networks The emergence of a standard graphical user interface The POSC standard software integration platform will minimize or eliminate many information management problems by providing common data-application, software-hardware and user-application communications. POSC seeks to: Empower E&P professionals to concentrate on the business of exploring for and producing hydrocarbons Allow vendors and application developers to concentrate on specific application expertise Enable computer manufacturers to more rapidly expand their install base in the petroleum industry

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