Experts explore role of digital technologies in oil and gas business optimisation

PRODML: A Shared Solution for Upstream Oil and Gas Companies to Optimise their Production
PRODML to Deliver an Open Industry Standard

A group of energy companies have launched an initiative to help producers independently optimise their oil and gas production.

The PRODuction xML, or PRODML™, Work Group, of which Invensys is a member, is seeking the development of commercial software products within a twelve-month work effort that will improve data exchange and work process efficiency in production optimisation.

PRODML will build on the earlier success of WITSML™, a similar XML-based standard for drilling information. WITSML™ (Wellsite Information Transfer Standard Markup Language) is now an open industry standard maintained by POSC (Petrotechnical Open Standards Consortium). PRODML will extend the results of the ongoing WITSML™ standards development efforts to include data needed for field production optimisation.

Production optimisation involves integrating real time data from specialty, multi-vendor software applications and streamlining work processes to enable oil and gas field operational efficiencies. PRODML will develop the necessary XML-based data exchange solutions as an open industry standard. After a working PRODML pilot is launched, POSC will maintain the standard and make it publicly available.

Up till now, oil companies and service providers have wasted a lot of time and effort converting common data for in-house custom-built systems. PRODML will allow the transfer of production data more easily, saving huge amounts of money across the industry, and allowing us to concentrate on the real business of making our wells and production facilities work better and more efficiently.

Since the initial meeting in August 2005 PRODML, the Work Group has specified the fundamental data requirements to enable generic production optimisation work flows. This work has highlighted the data elements that are the PRODML focus for delivering an XML-based open standard for the E&P industry.

The data exchange requirements are based on these generic production optimisation work flows:

• Gas Lift Optimisation
• Optimising Free Flowing wells based on real-time measurements and
  network models
• Field Wide Optimisation based on real-time measurements, network models
  and reservoir simulation
   

An aggressive development schedule includes pilot tests for these three initial flows by early summer. The PRODML open standard should be available to software developers and Oil and Gas producers by late 2006.

The PRODML Work Group includes: BP (NYSE: BP), Chevron, ExxonMobil, Shell, Statoil, Halliburton, Invensys, OSIsoft, Petroleum Experts, Schlumberger, Sense Intellifield, TietoEnator, Weatherford and POSC.

For further information about PRODML, please visit http://www.prodml.org/, http://www.posc.org/ or http://www.witsml.org/