POSC Data Store Solutions SIG 
Recommendations
December 2002

The POSC Data Store Solutions (DSS) Special Interest Group (SIG)  is an affinity interest group of E&P industry organizations that study and promote ways to positively impact the definition, movement, and storage of E&P data, information, and knowledge. This document describes the recommendations that resulted from the work of this SIG from July through December 2002. 

The organizations that participated in the DSS SIG and contributed to the preparation of this document are:

• Oil Companies: Anadarko, Eni Agip, ExxonMobil, ONGC, Pioneer Natural Resources, Shell, and Statoil

• Government Agencies: Norway NPD, UK DTI , and US MMS 

• Service, Software, and Consulting Companies: Flare Consultants, Halliburton/Landmark, IMS Corporation, Oilware, Paras Consulting, Petris Technology, and Schlumberger 

• POSC 

Five central recommendations are being published now. POSC and the SIG participants will promote and refine the recommendations with the ultimate goal being their adoption and the realization of the associated benefits. Here are brief statements of the recommendations:

1. E&P organizations should use a high-level catalogue based on standards that are published and maintained by POSC. Doing so can improve significantly the process of finding and assessing the value of stored data, information, and knowledge. Catalogue standards and best practice guidelines will help establish disciplined but pragmatic procedures for storing external acquisitions and internal results in terms of catalogue attributes and valid attribute vocabularies. 

2. E&P organizations should commit strongly to the use of industry standards for sets of reference values, including those developed and maintained by POSC. The recommendation highlights several to be considered first, namely those addressing cartography, country, currency, units of measure, well elevation, types of well logs and curves, well naming system, well purpose, and well status. The use of standard sets of reference values will significantly improve the ability to share and understand data across organization, discipline, and time boundaries.

3. E&P organizations should agree on and adopt practical guidelines and best practices for the process of publishing results from active projects and ongoing operations. It is anticipated that such guidelines will address quality control, minimum content, retention criteria, and the forming of suitable catalogue entries (as proposed in #1). Agreement and use of publishing guidelines can greatly enhance the ability to confidently apply analytical results and, moreover, to re-use past or outside results.

4. E&P organizations should develop and use an annotated directory of inter-company information transfer standards to be published and maintained by POSC. Such a directory would help ensure awareness of not only the existence of transfer standards, but also of the characteristics, capabilities, and constraints of each. The availability of such a current and maintained directory can expedite the use of the best means of moving data between organizations. It also can help the industry take the collaborative actions necessary to define new or improved transfer standards where they can have the greatest positive impact.

5. E&P organizations should support the development and use of data transfer standards specifically designed to support data previewing, especially Internet-based data previewing. The recommendation focuses on graphical previewing of production volumes, well log data, well schematics (mechanical) data, and well test results. The publication of previewing data transfer standards will contribute to the ability to efficiently and economically examine and competently evaluate the fitness for purpose of candidate data from a wide variety of sources -- internal and external.  

By their nature, some these recommendations call for further clarification, analysis, and details. The participants will report progress along with refined and/or expanded recommendations in the next DSS SIG document due for publication during the summer of 2003. 

POSC SIGs aim to foster dialogue within the industry to identify areas where collaboration can improve industry performance. Implementing SIG recommendations will expand product and service markets while contributing to reduced risk, cost, and cycle time for operators. POSC SIGs have the unique ability to set out propositions, examine them from many viewpoints, and expeditiously determine the best opportunities for collaboration. 

Please give consideration to the set of recommendations presented here. Contact POSC or any of the DSS SIG participants for further information. Comments and submissions should be directed to the POSC DSS SIG, c/o Alan Doniger at Doniger@POSC.org.