The Open Group and IOGP aim to bring technology standards to the next level

In October 2020, The Open Group, a global consortium that enables achievements of business objectives through technology standards, and IOGP entered into a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) that will foster more oil and gas industry collaboration for the development of common standards. “IOGP and its Members will benefit hugely from this collaboration as it will help subject matter experts to better understand the areas of strategic overlap and digital use cases,” says Diane Gonsalves, IOGP’s Standards Committee Manager.

One of the key areas of collaboration is The Open Group Open Subsurface Data Universe^TM Forum (OSDU), which intends to reduce data silos for subsurface data through the creation of an open, standard-based ecosystem that drives innovation and accelerates the deployment of emerging digital solutions for better decision making. IOGP is currently working to develop an “Industry Digitalization Roadmap”, which has significant touchpoints with the strategic direction of the OSDU Forum. “The partnership with The Open Group will help us to deliver the Roadmap in an even more efficient manner and will help to lift oil and gas technology standards to the next level”, says Diana Khatun, Committee Manager with responsibility for the Digitalization & Information Standards Subcommittee.

The MoU also covers collaboration on appropriate terminology, models, and systems for describing and managing spatial referencing of geospatial data. “This is an incredibly promising partnership in the field of Geomatics. We will work together on how spatial integrity is maintained during workflows of loading, integration, manipulation, visualization, and transferring of such data. The Geomatics Committee very much looks forward to working with The Open Group OSDU Forum,” says Lucyna Kryla-Straszewska, IOGP Geomatics Committee Manager.

Gordon Ballard, IOGP Executive Director, added: “This collaboration will bring together IOGP’s industry knowledge and technical standards expertise with the Open Group’s open source and technology expertise to accelerate the concept of open standards-based ecosystems for oil and gas. Together we can tackle critical industry challenges.”