Multivendor Data-Exchange Format To Support Digital Oil Fields
Authors: Denney Dennis 
Published: February 2015

This article, written by Technology Editor Dennis Denney, contains highlights of paper SPE 99707, "A Multivendor Data Exchange Format To Support Digital Oil Fields," by B.C. Weltevrede, Shell Inti. E&P B. V.; R. Foreman, SPE, BP; R. Morneau, Chevron; B. Rugland, SPE, Statoil ASA; J. Foreman, ExxonMobil; S. De Vries, Invensys; T. Little, Halliburton; L. Ormerod, Weatherford; and A. Doniger, SPE, POSC, prepared for the 2006 SPE Intelligent Energy Conference and Exhibition, Amsterdam,11-13 April.
During the past decade, rapid evolution of information technology (ITI enabled oil companies to exploit hydrocarbon reserves more effectively than was possible before. These technologies rely on an extensive set of instrumentation and controls. This oilfield management is of value only by use of appropriate IT infrastructure and data-exchange protocols. A proposed data-exchange mechanism-production extended markup language (referred to here as PRODML)-can facilitate integration between software tools that are used in combination to turn raw production data into control actions.

Introduction
The overall approach follows the successful example of the wellsite-information-transfer standard-markup-language (known as WITSML) project, which established a similar set of specifications for the drilling domain. BP, Chevron, ExxonMobil, Shell, and Statoil initiated PRODML jointly in early 2005. Halliburton, Invensys, OSisoft, Petex, Schlumberger, Sense-lntellifield, Tietoenator, and Weatherford have since joined the initiative.
Many oil companies now use highly instrumented fields for optimizing asset operations. This approach relies on much-increased use of data streaming from field to office. Service providers and independent software companies provide many of the software tools used to process and monitor data flowing from the field. Most of these tools are not standalone and require information from other tools. An efficient means of interoperability between these tools is essential.
Establishing a viable open-industry standard for a data-exchange format is in the interest of both users and providers of tools. Such a standard would ensure a level of compatibility between vendor products. From an operator's perspective, the standard would accelerate delivery of integrated solutions to end users and decrease the costs of connecting and supporting the various parts.
The Internet has affected the manner in which data are processed. Technologies have matured such that they can be used for routine operations. Internet-based IT architectures are adopted by most companies and will be incorporated in the PRODML design.
The new markup language should improve operations performance, improve collaboration and data sharing, integrate data transfer between operating companies or between an operating company and its vendors, provide interorganization communication and analysis, reduce cycle time required to capture benefits associated with highly instrumented fields, enable rapid deployment of internal tools, and increase capabilities of applications available in the marketplace.
Although it is difficult to quantify the value, there is potential to realize both an increase in recovery efficiency and a reduction in costs by developing an industry wide data-exchange standard for production data.