POSC Caesar
Encyclopedia
POSC Caesar Association (PCA) is an international, open, not-for-profit
, member organization committed to promote the development of open specifications to be used as standards for enabling the interoperability of data, software and related matters.
PCA is the initiator of ISO 15926
“Integration of life-cycle data for process plants including oil and gas production facilities" and is committed to its maintenance and enhancement.
Nils Sandsmark has been the General Manager of POSC Caesar Association since 1999 and Thore Langeland, Norwegian Oil Industry Association
, is the Chairman of the Board.
The original focus was on standardizing technical data definitions for capital intensive projects at the handover from the EPC
contractor to the owner/operators of onshore and offshore oil and gas production facilities. The program was sponsored by The Research Council of Norway
, two EPC
contractors (Aker Maritime
and Kværner
), three owners/operators (Norsk Hydro
, Saga Petroleum
and Statoil
) and DNV as service provider and project owner.
), and changed its name to the POSC Caesar Project.
In 1995 the project was joined by BP
, Brown and Root and Elf Aquitaine
and in 1997 by Intergraph
, IBM
, Oracle
, Lloyd's, Shell
, ABB and UMOE Technologies.
During that time, POSC Caesar also became member of European Process Industries STEP Technical Liaison Executive (EPISTLE) where it collaborates with PISTEP (UK), and USPI-NL (The Netherlands) on the development of ISO 10303
, also known as "Standard for the Exchange of Product model data (STEP)".
POSC Caesar Association serves an international membership and collaborates with other international organizations. It has its main office in Norway.
Albeit the name of POSC Caesar Association still hints to its past as a project within the Petrotechnical Open Software Corporation (POSC) (now Energistics
), from 1997 onwards, the organization has been completely independent. Energistics and POSC Caesar Association do collaborate (see the Collaborations chapter below), and are formally member in each other's organization.
In general, the organization holds three membership meetings a year; one in January / February in North-America (typically USA), one in April / May in Europe (typically Norway) and one in October in Asia (typically Malaysia).
, it was decided in 2003 (some say already in 1997) that for modeling-technical reasons it was better to discontinue the development of ISO 10303
and to initiate the development of ISO 15926
“Integration of life-cycle data for process plants including oil and gas production facilities".
Over the years, the scope of the standard has increased from the initial capital-intensive projects in the upstream oil and gas industry
, to include also relevant terminology for downstream oil and gas industry
applications and to deal with real-time data related to the actual oil and gas production.
ISO 15926
has also over the years evolved from a dictionary (a list of terms with definitions), over a taxonomy
(added hierarchy) to an ontology (a formal representation of a set of concepts within a domain and the relationships between those concepts). ISO 15926
is therefore sometimes nicknamed the "Oil and Gas Ontology", for some considered to be an essential prerequisite together with Semantic Web
technologies
to get to better interoperability, an optimal use of all available data across boundaries and an increase in efficiency. This is what some call the next generation of Integrated Operations
.
standard in different application areas.
Finalised projects include:
Non-profit organization
Nonprofit organization is neither a legal nor technical definition but generally refers to an organization that uses surplus revenues to achieve its goals, rather than distributing them as profit or dividends...
, member organization committed to promote the development of open specifications to be used as standards for enabling the interoperability of data, software and related matters.
PCA is the initiator of ISO 15926
ISO 15926
The ISO 15926 is titled: "Industrial automation systems and integration—Integration of life-cycle data for process plants including oil and gas production facilities" is a standard for data integration, sharing, exchange, and hand-over between computer systems.This title is regarded too...
“Integration of life-cycle data for process plants including oil and gas production facilities" and is committed to its maintenance and enhancement.
Nils Sandsmark has been the General Manager of POSC Caesar Association since 1999 and Thore Langeland, Norwegian Oil Industry Association
Norwegian Oil Industry Association
The Norwegian Oil Industry Association is an employers' organisation in Norway, organized under the national Confederation of Norwegian Enterprise.The current director-general is Gro Brækken. Chairman of the board is Steinar Våge....
, is the Chairman of the Board.
Caesar Offshore
The first predecessor of POSC Caesar Association, the Caesar Offshore program, started in 1993.The original focus was on standardizing technical data definitions for capital intensive projects at the handover from the EPC
EPC (contract)
EPC stands for Engineering, Procurement and Construction.It is a common form of contracting arrangement within the construction industry. Under an EPC contract, the contractor will design the installation, procure the necessary materials and construct it, either through own labour or by...
contractor to the owner/operators of onshore and offshore oil and gas production facilities. The program was sponsored by The Research Council of Norway
The Research Council of Norway
The Research Council of Norway is a Norwegian government agency responsible for awarding grands for research as well as promoting research and science. It also advises the Government in matters related to research, and is subordinate the Norwegian Ministry of Education and Research...
, two EPC
EPC (contract)
EPC stands for Engineering, Procurement and Construction.It is a common form of contracting arrangement within the construction industry. Under an EPC contract, the contractor will design the installation, procure the necessary materials and construct it, either through own labour or by...
contractors (Aker Maritime
Aker Maritime
Aker Maritime is a defunct Norwegian petroleum industry supply company. Listed on the Oslo Stock Exchange it was controlled by Aker RGI, owned by Kjell Inge Røkke. The company was created in 1996 when Aker's oil and gas division was merged with Maritime Group...
and Kværner
Kværner
Kværner was a Norway-based engineering and construction services company in existence between 1853 and 2005 when it was merged with Aker ASA. The Kværner name was used in the subsidiary Aker Kværner until April 3, 2008 when it changed name to Aker Solutions. Kværner re-emerged on 6...
), three owners/operators (Norsk Hydro
Norsk Hydro
Norsk Hydro ASA is a Norwegian aluminium and renewable energy company, headquartered in Oslo. Hydro is the fourth largest integrated aluminium company worldwide. It has operations in some 40 countries around the world and is active on all continents. The Norwegian state holds a 43.8 percent...
, Saga Petroleum
Saga Petroleum
Saga Petroleum was a Norwegian upstream petroleum company established in 1972 that was acquired by Norsk Hydro in 1999. Since October 2007 it is a part of Statoil. The company was the only fully private oil company in Norway. It had partial ownership in 60 oil field licenses and was operator of 18...
and Statoil
Statoil
Statoil ASA is a Norwegian petroleum company established in 1972. It merged with Norsk Hydro in 2007 and was known as StatoilHydro until 2009, when the name was changed back to Statoil ASA. The brand Statoil was retained as a chain of fuel stations owned by StatoilHydro...
) and DNV as service provider and project owner.
POSC Caesar project
During the period 1994-96, Caesar Offshore Program was defined as a project of Petrotechnical Open Software Corporation (POSC) (now EnergisticsEnergistics
Energistics is a global industry consortium that facilitates an inclusive user community for the development, adoption and maintenance of collaborative, open standards for the energy industry in general and specifically for oil and gas exploration and production.- Overview :The open standards that...
), and changed its name to the POSC Caesar Project.
In 1995 the project was joined by BP
BP
BP p.l.c. is a global oil and gas company headquartered in London, United Kingdom. It is the third-largest energy company and fourth-largest company in the world measured by revenues and one of the six oil and gas "supermajors"...
, Brown and Root and Elf Aquitaine
Elf Aquitaine
Elf Aquitaine was a French oil company which merged with TotalFina to form TotalFinaElf. The new company changed its name to Total in 2003...
and in 1997 by Intergraph
Intergraph
Intergraph Corporation is an American software development and services company. It provides enterprise engineering and geospatially powered software to businesses, governments, and organizations around the world. Intergraph operates through two divisions: Process, Power & Marine and Security,...
, IBM
IBM
International Business Machines Corporation or IBM is an American multinational technology and consulting corporation headquartered in Armonk, New York, United States. IBM manufactures and sells computer hardware and software, and it offers infrastructure, hosting and consulting services in areas...
, Oracle
Oracle Corporation
Oracle Corporation is an American multinational computer technology corporation that specializes in developing and marketing hardware systems and enterprise software products – particularly database management systems...
, Lloyd's, Shell
Royal Dutch Shell
Royal Dutch Shell plc , commonly known as Shell, is a global oil and gas company headquartered in The Hague, Netherlands and with its registered office in London, United Kingdom. It is the fifth-largest company in the world according to a composite measure by Forbes magazine and one of the six...
, ABB and UMOE Technologies.
During that time, POSC Caesar also became member of European Process Industries STEP Technical Liaison Executive (EPISTLE) where it collaborates with PISTEP (UK), and USPI-NL (The Netherlands) on the development of ISO 10303
ISO 10303
ISO 10303 is an ISO standard for the computer-interpretable representation and exchange of product manufacturing information. Its official title is: Automation systems and integration — Product data representation and exchange...
, also known as "Standard for the Exchange of Product model data (STEP)".
POSC Caesar Association
In 1997, POSC Caesar Association was founded as an independent, global, non-profit, member organization. It states as its mission that it:
[...] shall promote the development of open specifications to be used as standards for enabling the interoperability of data, software and related matters.
POSC Caesar Association serves an international membership and collaborates with other international organizations. It has its main office in Norway.
Albeit the name of POSC Caesar Association still hints to its past as a project within the Petrotechnical Open Software Corporation (POSC) (now Energistics
Energistics
Energistics is a global industry consortium that facilitates an inclusive user community for the development, adoption and maintenance of collaborative, open standards for the energy industry in general and specifically for oil and gas exploration and production.- Overview :The open standards that...
), from 1997 onwards, the organization has been completely independent. Energistics and POSC Caesar Association do collaborate (see the Collaborations chapter below), and are formally member in each other's organization.
Membership
POSC Caesar Association has with its current 36 members from around the world established an international footprint (although with a clearly strong membership in Norway) that includes a wide range from academia, solution providers to engineering contractors and owners/operators. The members are (subdivided by organization type):- Associations: Energistics (USA) and The Norwegian Oil Industry Association (OLF, Norway)Norwegian Oil Industry AssociationThe Norwegian Oil Industry Association is an employers' organisation in Norway, organized under the national Confederation of Norwegian Enterprise.The current director-general is Gro Brækken. Chairman of the board is Steinar Våge....
, - Universities and Research InstitutesResearch instituteA research institute is an establishment endowed for doing research. Research institutes may specialize in basic research or may be oriented to applied research...
: Research Institute of Stavanger (IRIS, Norway), Norwegian University of Science and Technology (NTNU, Norway)Norwegian University of Science and TechnologyThe Norwegian University of Science and Technology , commonly known as NTNU, is located in Trondheim. NTNU is the second largest of the eight universities in Norway, and, as its name suggests, has the main national responsibility for higher education in engineering and technology...
, Korea Advanced Institute of Science and Technology (KAIST, Korea)KAISTKAIST , is located in Daedeok Innopolis, Daejeon, South Korea. KAIST was established by the Korean government in 1971 as the nation's first research oriented science and engineering institution. The QS-The Times World University Rankings in the year of 2009 placed KAIST 69th overall and 21st in...
, SINTEF (Norway)SINTEFSINTEF , headquartered in Trondheim, Norway, is the largest independent research organisation in Scandinavia. Every year, SINTEF supports research and development at 2,000 or so Norwegian and overseas companies via its research and development activity....
, University of Bergen (Norway)University of BergenThe University of Bergen is located in Bergen, Norway. Although founded as late as 1946, academic activity had taken place at Bergen Museum as far back as 1825. The university today serves more than 14,500 students...
, University of Oslo (Norway)University of OsloThe University of Oslo , formerly The Royal Frederick University , is the oldest and largest university in Norway, situated in the Norwegian capital of Oslo. The university was founded in 1811 and was modelled after the recently established University of Berlin...
, University of Stavanger (Norway)University of StavangerThe University of Stavanger is located in Stavanger, Norway and has about 8,500 students and 1200 administration, faculty and service staff. It is organised in three faculties, including two national centres of expertise. It includes 107 professors, and more than 150 of the academic staff hold...
, University of Tromsø (Norway)University of TromsøThe University of Tromsø is the world's northernmost university. Located in the city of Tromsø, Norway, it was established in 1968, and opened in 1972. It is one of eight universities in Norway. The University of Tromsø is the largest research and educational institution in northern Norway...
and Western Norway Research Institute (Norway), - Oil and Gas CompaniesPetroleum industryThe petroleum industry includes the global processes of exploration, extraction, refining, transporting , and marketing petroleum products. The largest volume products of the industry are fuel oil and gasoline...
: BP (UK)BPBP p.l.c. is a global oil and gas company headquartered in London, United Kingdom. It is the third-largest energy company and fourth-largest company in the world measured by revenues and one of the six oil and gas "supermajors"...
, Petronas (Malaysia)PetronasPETRONAS, short for Petroliam Nasional Berhad, is a Malaysian oil and gas company that was founded on August 17, 1974. Wholly owned by the Government of Malaysia, the corporation is vested with the entire oil and gas resources in Malaysia and is entrusted with the responsibility of developing and...
and Statoil (Norway)StatoilStatoil ASA is a Norwegian petroleum company established in 1972. It merged with Norsk Hydro in 2007 and was known as StatoilHydro until 2009, when the name was changed back to Statoil ASA. The brand Statoil was retained as a chain of fuel stations owned by StatoilHydro...
, - Engineering contractors and consultants: Akvaplan-niva (Norway), Aker Solutions (Norway), Asset Life Cycle Information Management (ALCIM, Malaysia), CAESAR systems (USA), Bechtel (USA)BechtelBechtel Corporation is the largest engineering company in the United States, ranking as the 5th-largest privately owned company in the U.S...
, Det Norske Veritas (DNV, Norway)Det Norske VeritasStiftelsen Det Norske Veritas is a classification society organized as a foundation, with the objective of "Safeguarding life, property, and the environment". The organization's history goes back to 1864, when the foundation was established in Norway to inspect and evaluate the technical condition...
, Information Logic (USA) and iXIT Engineering Technology (Germany). - Solution providers: Aveva (UK), Bentley Systems (USA)Bentley SystemsBentley Systems, Incorporated is a software company that produces solutions for the design, construction and operation of infrastructure. The company’s software serves the building, plant, civil, and geospatial vertical markets in the areas of architecture, engineering, construction and operations...
, Jotne EPM Technology (Norway), Epsis (Norway), Eurostep (Sweden), International Business Machines Corporation (IBM, USA)IBMInternational Business Machines Corporation or IBM is an American multinational technology and consulting corporation headquartered in Armonk, New York, United States. IBM manufactures and sells computer hardware and software, and it offers infrastructure, hosting and consulting services in areas...
, Siemens - Comos Industry Solutions (before Innotec) (Germany), Intergraph (USA)IntergraphIntergraph Corporation is an American software development and services company. It provides enterprise engineering and geospatially powered software to businesses, governments, and organizations around the world. Intergraph operates through two divisions: Process, Power & Marine and Security,...
, Invenia (Norway), Keel Solution (Denmark), Noumenon (UK), NRX (Canada), Octaga (Norway) and Tektonisk (Norway).
In general, the organization holds three membership meetings a year; one in January / February in North-America (typically USA), one in April / May in Europe (typically Norway) and one in October in Asia (typically Malaysia).
Initiator and custodian of ISO 15926
In consultation with the other EPISTLE members and the International Organization for Standardization (ISO)International Organization for Standardization
The International Organization for Standardization , widely known as ISO, is an international standard-setting body composed of representatives from various national standards organizations. Founded on February 23, 1947, the organization promulgates worldwide proprietary, industrial and commercial...
, it was decided in 2003 (some say already in 1997) that for modeling-technical reasons it was better to discontinue the development of ISO 10303
ISO 10303
ISO 10303 is an ISO standard for the computer-interpretable representation and exchange of product manufacturing information. Its official title is: Automation systems and integration — Product data representation and exchange...
and to initiate the development of ISO 15926
ISO 15926
The ISO 15926 is titled: "Industrial automation systems and integration—Integration of life-cycle data for process plants including oil and gas production facilities" is a standard for data integration, sharing, exchange, and hand-over between computer systems.This title is regarded too...
“Integration of life-cycle data for process plants including oil and gas production facilities".
Over the years, the scope of the standard has increased from the initial capital-intensive projects in the upstream oil and gas industry
Upstream (oil industry)
The oil and gas industry is usually divided into three major components: Upstream, midstream and downstream, though midstream operations are usually included in the downstream category....
, to include also relevant terminology for downstream oil and gas industry
Downstream (oil industry)
The petroleum industry is usually divided into three major components: Upstream, midstream and downstream. Midstream operations are usually included in the downstream category....
applications and to deal with real-time data related to the actual oil and gas production.
ISO 15926
ISO 15926
The ISO 15926 is titled: "Industrial automation systems and integration—Integration of life-cycle data for process plants including oil and gas production facilities" is a standard for data integration, sharing, exchange, and hand-over between computer systems.This title is regarded too...
has also over the years evolved from a dictionary (a list of terms with definitions), over a taxonomy
Taxonomy
Taxonomy is the science of identifying and naming species, and arranging them into a classification. The field of taxonomy, sometimes referred to as "biological taxonomy", revolves around the description and use of taxonomic units, known as taxa...
(added hierarchy) to an ontology (a formal representation of a set of concepts within a domain and the relationships between those concepts). ISO 15926
ISO 15926
The ISO 15926 is titled: "Industrial automation systems and integration—Integration of life-cycle data for process plants including oil and gas production facilities" is a standard for data integration, sharing, exchange, and hand-over between computer systems.This title is regarded too...
is therefore sometimes nicknamed the "Oil and Gas Ontology", for some considered to be an essential prerequisite together with Semantic Web
Semantic Web
The Semantic Web is a collaborative movement led by the World Wide Web Consortium that promotes common formats for data on the World Wide Web. By encouraging the inclusion of semantic content in web pages, the Semantic Web aims at converting the current web of unstructured documents into a "web of...
technologies
to get to better interoperability, an optimal use of all available data across boundaries and an increase in efficiency. This is what some call the next generation of Integrated Operations
Integrated operations
In the Petroleum industry, Integrated operations refers to new work processes and ways of doing oil and gas exploration and production, which has been facilitated by new information and communication technology. Multi-discipline collaboration in plant operation is one example...
.
Reference Data Services
Placeholders:- Flow scheme of WIP - RDS - ISO and role of SIGs
- RDS
- Standards in database pilot (ISO)
Special Interest Groups
Placeholders:- Overview of SIGs
- Drilling and Completion
- Reservoir and Production
- Operations and Maintenance
Projects
There are a number of projects (co-)organized by POSC Caesar Association working on the extension of the ISO 15926ISO 15926
The ISO 15926 is titled: "Industrial automation systems and integration—Integration of life-cycle data for process plants including oil and gas production facilities" is a standard for data integration, sharing, exchange, and hand-over between computer systems.This title is regarded too...
standard in different application areas.
Capital Intensive projects application domain
The following projects are running at the moment (August 2009):- The ADI Project of FIATECH, to build the tools (which will then be made available in the public domain)
- The IDS Project of POSC Caesar Association, to define product models required for data sheets
- A joint collaboration project between FIATECH POSC Caesar Association is the ADI-IDS project is the ISO 15926 WIPISO 15926 WIPThe ISO 15926 is a standard about interoperability in the process industry. An important part of it is the Reference Data library, which holds technical class descriptions of all the main equipment items, pipe, instruments, buildings, activities and anything else used in engineering, constructing,...
Upstream Oil and Gas industry application domain
The following projects are currently running (August 2009):- The Integrated Operations in the High North (IOHN)Integrated Operations in the High NorthIntegrated Operations in the High North is a unique collaboration project that during a four year period starting May 2008 is working on designing, implementing and testing a Digital Platform for what in the Upstream Oil and Gas Industry is called the next or second generation of Integrated...
project is working on extending ISO 15926 to handle real-time data transmission and (pre-)processing to enable the next generation of Integrated OperationsIntegrated operationsIn the Petroleum industry, Integrated operations refers to new work processes and ways of doing oil and gas exploration and production, which has been facilitated by new information and communication technology. Multi-discipline collaboration in plant operation is one example...
. - The Environment Web project to include environmental reporting terms and definitions as used in EPIM's EnvironmentWeb in ISO 15926.
Finalised projects include:
- The Integrated Information Platform (IIP) project working on establishing a real-time information pipeline based on open standards. It worked among others on:
- Daily Drilling Report (DDR) to including all terms and definitions in ISO 15926. This standard became mandatory on February 1, 2008 for reporting on the Norwegian Continental ShelfNorwegian continental shelfThe Norwegian continental shelf is the continental shelf over which Norway exercises sovereign rights as defined by the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea...
by the Norwegian Petroleum Directorate (NPD)Norwegian Petroleum DirectorateThe Norwegian Petroleum Directorate or OD is a Norwegian government agency responsible for the regulation of the petroleum resources on the Norwegian continental shelf. Based in Stavanger it is to ensure that the petroleum resources are allocated in an optimal at the same time as they incur...
and Safety Authority Norway (PSA). NPD says that the quality of the reports has improved considerably since. - Daily Production Report (DPR) to including all terms and definitions in ISO 15926. This standard was tested successfully on the ValhallValhall oil fieldValhall is an oil field in the Norwegian sector of the North Sea. Discovered in 1975, production began in 1982 and is expected to continue until 2050. Valhall is located in 70 metres of water.- Development :...
(BPBPBP p.l.c. is a global oil and gas company headquartered in London, United Kingdom. It is the third-largest energy company and fourth-largest company in the world measured by revenues and one of the six oil and gas "supermajors"...
-operated) and Åsgard (StatoilHydroStatoilHydroStatoil ASA, trading as Statoil and formerly known as StatoilHydro, is a Norwegian energy company, formed by the 2007 merger of Statoil with the oil and gas division of Norsk Hydro. The Government of Norway is the largest shareholder in Statoil with 67% of the shares...
-operated) fields offshore Norway. The terminology and XML schemata developed have also been included in Energistics’ PRODMLPRODMLPRODML is a family of XML and Web Services based upstream oil and natural gas industry standards from Energistics and its PRODML Special Interest Group ....
standard.
- Daily Drilling Report (DDR) to including all terms and definitions in ISO 15926. This standard became mandatory on February 1, 2008 for reporting on the Norwegian Continental Shelf
Collaborations
POSC Caesar is collaborating with a number of standardization bodies, including:- Mimosa: collaboration on open information standards for Operations and Maintenance mainly for the downstream oil and gas industryDownstream (oil industry)The petroleum industry is usually divided into three major components: Upstream, midstream and downstream. Midstream operations are usually included in the downstream category....
, - FIATECH: collaboration on open information standards for life cycle data of capital projects,
- Energistics: collaboration on information standards for the upstream oil and gas industryUpstream (oil industry)The oil and gas industry is usually divided into three major components: Upstream, midstream and downstream, though midstream operations are usually included in the downstream category....
, including WITSML and PRODMLPRODMLPRODML is a family of XML and Web Services based upstream oil and natural gas industry standards from Energistics and its PRODML Special Interest Group .... - OASIS: collaboration on e-business standards,
- ISO TC184/SC4ISO TC 184/SC 4ISO TC 184/SC 4 is an international standards organization responsible for industrial data. ISO TC 184/SC 4 develops and maintains ISO standards that describe and manage industrial product data throughout the life of the product...
: the host of the ISO 15926 standard.
See also
- ISO 15926ISO 15926The ISO 15926 is titled: "Industrial automation systems and integration—Integration of life-cycle data for process plants including oil and gas production facilities" is a standard for data integration, sharing, exchange, and hand-over between computer systems.This title is regarded too...
, “Integration of life-cycle data for process plants including oil and gas production facilities" aka "the Oil and Gas Ontology".
External links
- POSC Caesar Association website