GPS World

Tag: oil & gas

  • OGC announces oil spill response recommended practice

    Oil-spill

    A new recommended practice has been issued for GIS and mapping professionals responding to an oil spill.

    The document — the final report of a joint project — guides professionals in using GIS technology and geospatial information to form a “common operating picture” for a spill response, so various organizations can deal with it effectively.

    According to the report, the 2010 Deepwater Horizon spill in the Gulf of Mexico showed the need for a coordinated response based on timely geographic data.

    The International Association of Oil & Gas Producers (IOGP) through the Geomatics Committee and IPIECA (the global oil and gas industry association for environmental and social issues) issued the recommended practice in cooperation with the Open Geospatial Consortium (OGC) and Resource Data.

    Officially named the OGC IOGP/IPIECA Recommended Practice for a Common Operating Picture for Oil Spill Response, the document is the final report of the IOGP/IPIECA Joint Industry Project to produce a recommended practice for GIS/mapping in support of oil spill response and for the use of GIS technology and geospatial information in forming a Common Operating Picture (COP) for management of the response.

    “The report lays the groundwork for coordinated activities by multiple stakeholders that need to come together quickly to respond to a spill,” said Rob Cox, Technical Director, IPIECA. “Having the report endorsed as an OGC Best Practice gives it the authority it needs to act as a focal point in support of that coordination.”

    As stated in the report:

    “Responding to an oil spill requires access to and understanding of many types of information. Effective, coordinated operations for the response are based on a shared, common picture of the situation. Interoperability provides shared situational awareness of the crisis and the response activities. What is needed is a common picture of reality for different organizations that have different views of the spill so that they all can deal with it collectively.

    “Recent oil spills have provided lessons learned and recommendations on forming a Common Operating Picture for oil spill response. Through a joint project, industry is responding to the call, moving from recommendations to reusable best practices supported by open standards that can be deployed quickly in any region of the globe.

    “This architecture report is part of the IOGP and IPIECA Oil Spill Response – Joint Industry Project (IOGP–IPIECA OSR-JIP) to produce a recommended practice for GIS/mapping in support of oil spill response and for the use of GIS technology and geospatial information in forming a Common Operating Picture to support management of the response.”

    About the players

    The Open Geospatial Consortium (OGC) is an international consortium of more than 515 companies, government agencies, research organizations, and universities participating in a consensus process to develop publicly available geospatial standards. OGC standards support interoperable solutions that “geo-enable” the Web, wireless and location-based services, and mainstream IT. OGC standards empower technology developers to make geospatial information and services accessible and useful with any application that needs to be geospatially enabled.

    The International Association of Oil & Gas producers (IOGP) is a unique global forum in which members identify and share best practices to achieve improvements in every aspect of health, safety, the environment, security, social responsibility, engineering and operations. IOGP encompasses most of the world’s leading publicly-traded, private and state-owned oil & gas companies, industry associations and major upstream service companies. IOGP members produce more than half the world’s oil and about one third of its gas.

    IPIECA is the global oil and gas industry association for environmental and social issues. IPIECA was formed in 1974 following the launch of the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP). IPIECA is the only global association involving both the upstream and downstream oil and gas industry on environmental and social issues. IPIECA’s membership covers over half of the world’s oil production. IPIECA is the industry’s principal channel of communication with the United Nations. When IPIECA was set up in 1974 the acronym stood for the International Petroleum Industry Environmental Conservation Association. In 2009, recognizing that this no longer accurately reflected the breadth and scope of the association’s work, IPIECA stopped using the full title. The association is now known as IPIECA, the global oil and gas industry association for environmental and social issues.

    Resource Data, Inc. (RDI) has been supporting the oil & gas industry with information technology for spill response since 1989. RDI brings unparalleled experience to oil spill response, leading the geographic information system (GIS) and database teams for the Exxon-Valdez spill and more recently the GIS response team in the Macondo/Deepwater Horizon spill. RDI has developed numerous spill response data systems, participated in multiple drills, and developed risk analysis systems for major pipeline networks. Our depth and breadth of expertise in spill preparedness and response uniquely positions RDI to assist in the development of a Common Operating Picture for the oil and gas industry.

  • DigitalGlobe’s Geospatial Big Data Platform Enabling New Commercial Solutions

    DigitalGlobe, Inc., has agreed to provide another commercial customer access to its Geospatial Big Data (GBD) platform, paving the way for new analytic products serving the insurance, forestry, oil & gas, and mining industries, the company said.

    Exogenesis is a provider of advanced analytics, algorithm development, and predictive modeling and simulation. The company has subscribed to DigitalGlobe’s GBD service to facilitate new product development enabled by large-scale data analysis.

    The agreement includes access to algorithms, expertise, and petabytes of high-resolution satellite imagery collected over the past 15 years. DigitalGlobe customers Orbital Insight and Cuende have also subscribed to the service and are introducing unique products to their commercial markets.

    DigitalGlobe’s cloud-based GBD offering is a “platform as a service” model that provides access to DigitalGlobe’s vast image library. It is designed to create a new ecosystem in which partners and developers can leverage their expertise and API’s to create new customer solutions without the cost of owning and operating costly IT infrastructure, DigitalGlobe said.

    The GBD platform is one of the strategic initiatives propelling DigitalGlobe toward its vision of becoming the indispensable source of information about the planet, the company said.

    “Exogenesis is thrilled to have the opportunity to work with DigitalGlobe, the biggest name in commercial satellite imagery,” said Sean Anklam, president of Exogenesis. “As an early adopter of DigitalGlobe’s Geospatial Big Data platform, we will be able to provide the most advanced decision support information derived from source imagery of the highest quality.”

    “It’s a privilege to bring our Geospatial Big Data capabilities to the market with an innovative partner like Exogenesis,” said Shay Har-Noy, DigitalGlobe’s Senior Director for GBD. “We are committed to investing in Geospatial Big Data in order to create a living digital inventory of the surface of the earth, enabled by our unmatched satellite constellation, commitment to ecosystem partners, and ability to convert imagery at scale into searchable, analytics-ready information layers.”

  • CoreLogic Makes Available Land Records Management Solution

    CoreLogic, a global property information, analytics and data-enabled services provider, has introduced a new land records management solution to provide a single source of location information and property characteristics data for the oil & gas, utilities and telecommunications industries. SpatialRecord by CoreLogic integrates CoreLogic parcel-level spatial data with the company’s vast property-level database to provide expanded data analysis and more granular information.

    The patented technology used to create SpatialRecord technology converts raw data into easily digestible information that can be leveraged to make more informed exploration, planning, serviceability and compliance process decisions. SpatialRecord, appends and normalizes location information and property characteristic data that is often otherwise dispersed across a variety of sources so that it’s ready for client use quickly and without further analysis required.

    “Whether managing field infrastructure, planning the path of a new transmission line, or managing legal compliance and risk, it’s vital for oil & gas, utility and telecommunications companies to have access to complete information to make critical decisions quickly and accurately,” said Jay Kingsley, senior vice president for CoreLogic Spatial Solutions. “This integration of location information and property-specific data, combined with the quick turnaround and comprehensive front-end analysis, puts crucial information at a users’ fingertips, reducing the time and resources required and allowing a greater focus on core business activities.”

    SpatialRecord provides highly granular data that is updated daily from more than 4,700 sources on 99 percent of properties throughout the U.S. In addition to combining the data sets into a single, ready-to-use resource, the expanded integration of CoreLogic spatial and property-level data includes:

    • Land property use, as well as the actual and effective year a structure was built on the property
    • Land, structure and property valuation and tax information
    • Property and structure area
    • Construction and structure details, including specifics on the type of foundation, roof covering used, the number of bathrooms and the number of fixtures in each
    • Mailing addresses that coincide with site addresses, which can help prevent delays and mistakes in compliance processes and communications
    • Both first and last names of primary property owners, as well as first and last names of secondary property owners to increase accuracy in identifying and communicating with land owners

    “Combining the most granular property characteristics with parcel-level accuracy not only saves time and money, but also improves efficiencies in the complex processes of planning, exploration and compliance,” said Kingsley. “And the benefits extend to land and property owners as well. With a more comprehensive record of a property in hand, these companies are better positioned to work more effectively, minimize errors or disruptions and provide a higher level of service to individual land owners.”