POSC/CAESAR Project
	Information and Status - January 1998
	"A joint industry project for creating standards for electronic data exchange and sharing"

Contents

1. Status	Contacts
2. CAESAR Offshore and POSC
3. Purpose	POSC/CAESAR Project Page
4. Project History

1. Status

The POSC/CAESAR Project is an industry driven research project that was initiated in 1993 by the Norwegian Research Council, Aker, Kværner, Det norske Veritas, Norsk Hydro, Saga Petroleum and Statoil. The purpose of the project was to benefit the oil and gas industry by developing a Product Model for life cycle information. The project was reorganised in 1994 and became international by signing a collaboration agreement with Petrotechnical Open Software Corporation (POSC). Since 1995 the project has also been sponsored by Brown & Root, BP and Elf, and as from 1997 Intergraph, IBM, Oracle, Lloyd's, Shell, ABB Technology and UMOE Technology joined the project as sponsors.

The status of the project today is that a large part of the planned data model is completed and the class library contains more than 10 000 classes. The project has a close collaboration with other standardisation initiatives in Europe, Japan and the USA and the ISO STEP community.

The POSC/CAESAR Project completed the original scope of work by the end of 1996 as planned. But in order to respond to industry requirements to develop the class library further and extend the Data Model, the project was extended with one more year.

BP, Shell and Brown & Root have decided to use the POSC/CAESAR Reference Data Library as basis for their data warehouse in the offshore development project ETAP. Statoil has decided to use POSC/CAESAR technology in the development project Åsgard B. Norsk Hydro and Saga will also implement the technology in new projects. Statoil, Hydro and Saga, in a joint project called VÅV, have developed technology based on POSC/CAESAR for an asset information warehouse.

The main objectives for 1997 were:

• Product Model Concept proven by year end
• ISO
  • New work item accepted by ISO
  • Working draft finalised by year end
• Future organisation and funding secured

The new work item to ISO has been approved, i.e. "ISO 15926 Integration of life-cycle data for oil and gas facilities" were approved and registered by ISO in August 1997.

The VÅV Project is now completed. The project has not only proven the POSC/CAESAR Product Model concept, but has also resulted in commercial software. The following is a sum-up of the result of the project:

• IBM August 1997: "The POSC/CAESAR Product Model is mature"
  • the reference data library is an excellent idea which should ensure a long life for the data model
  • the Product Model is very flexible and generic
  • it meets a broad range of requirements for the asset life cycle for the oil and gas industry
  • enables organisations to manage the change history at a very fine level of detail

• POSC/CAESAR implemented as PDM core technology
  • Intergraph NOTIA = AIM POSC/CAESAR Data Warehouse (PCDW)
  • Commercial available now

• IBM Mapping tool to speed up the data transfer process. Will be commercially available next year.

The results from the VÅV Project are now being implemented in the 3 billion $ Åsgard Development Project. The first phase of transfer of data into the POSC/CAESAR based data warehouse was completed in November last year. The next phase will cover facilities information. The database developed during the development phase of the project will also be used for the operation phase meaning no translation of data before handover to the operation organisation.

The POSC/CAESAR and the VÅV Projects have produced significant results in a short period of time in providing the industry with specifications, tools and software for sharing of life-cycle information across the oil and gas industry. These have been important first steps. But to really change the way the industry does the business, there is a need for a permanent organisation that can promote, develop, maintain, enhance and assist in the take-up and implementation of the new data sharing technology within the oil and gas industry.

Two different organisational bodies have therefore been established:

1. The POSC/CAESAR Association, an industry driven standardisation association to co-ordinate the industry needs for information sharing and interoperability specifications and to create a forum for discussion, a vendor neutral, non profit member standardisation association.

2. POSC/CAESAR Services AS, a technology services company that can continue the development of the standard for the POSC/CAESAR Association, and provide knowledge and expertise on a revenue earning basis. This company should be a real cybercorp and provide specifications and services to appropriate industry (such as process plant industry, energy industry, pharmaceutical, chemical industry, and so on) based on implementing and using the specifications.

The next implementation project is very likely to be a "Common Equipment Database" for the industry supporting POSC/CAESAR. This will be based on the work undertaken last year by the VÅV and Åsgard Projects. The Common Equipment Database will be vital instrument in the goal to reduce engineering time and cost and to improve the quality of information to be handed over to the operation phase.

2. CAESAR Offshore and POSC

The POSC/CAESAR Project is a collaboration between Petrotechnical Open Software Corporation (POSC) and the CAESAR Offshore Project to develop specifications for efficient electronic exchange, sharing and integration of oil and gas facility life-cycle information.

CAESAR Offshore is a joint industry data standardisation project initiated in 1993 to reduce the life-cycle cost and development time of offshore oil and gas production facilities. The initial sponsors of the project were Aker, BP, Brown & Root, Det norske Veritas, Elf Aquitaine, Kværner, Norsk Hydro, The Research Council of Norway, Saga and Statoil. From 1997 IBM, Intergraph, Lloyd's Register and Oracle have also become sponsors. The initiative was reorganised in 1994 and a collaboration agreement was entered into with POSC. The POSC/CAESAR Project was funded by the CAESAR Offshore sponsors.

Petrotechnical Open Software Corporation (POSC) is a not-for-profit, vendor neutral membership corporation founded in 1990. Major sponsors are BP Exploration, Chevron, Elf Aquitaine, Mobil, Saudi Aramco, Statoil and Texaco. Its mission is to benefit the Exploration & Production (E&P) industry by establishing, maintaining and promoting specifications to be used as standards for the sharing of information through the asset life-cycle. The benefits of using international industry standards are better business decisions through sharing and collaboration and reduced cost and time.

POSC is now a 130 member organisation representing large and small vendors and suppliers of products, services and data, government agencies, universities and research centres, other standards organisations and oil companies. POSC, which has a staff of about 28, with offices in London and Houston, uses an open process to bring together the expertise available amongst the industry.

POSC has devoted the last six years collaborating with its members and other industry standards groups (PPDM, PIDD, SEG, API, SPE, etc.), computer standards groups (XOPEN, OSF, ODMG, ANSI, SQL, etc.) and other industry groups (STEP, CADDETC, PISTEP, EPISTLE, PLANT STEP, etc.). POSC uses existing specifications and technologies where appropriate, and invites contributions from the industry where additional ones are needed.

The POSC deliverable products, publicly available are:

3. Purpose

The initial project was designed to achieve:

• Solutions that will meet industry requirements for data sharing as well as exchange
• Useful results within two years (industry have already started implementation)

The project focus has been on requirements for technical information used in engineering, construction and operation of upstream oil and gas facilities. Provision will also be made to include some cost, administration and planning information where it is required to support technically based life-cycle activities.

Three priority areas of work have been identified:

1. Produce agreed standards for digital descriptions of facility products
2. Understand and facilitate the use of available technology for implementation of the standards
3. Encourage and assist take-up of the standards and technology by the business

The project has been international in scope and has used the POSC open process to ascertain requirements and agree on the necessary standards. The project will develop demonstration implementations based on the standards and provide support to organisations involved in take-up and implementation. The main technological basis for the project is the relevant parts of ISO/STEP and POSC/Epicentre.

4. Project History

To establish the requirements for the standard, a "Request for Comments" (RFC) document was issued to the industry which was reviewed by approximately 250 companies and organisations world-wide. The industry also responded to the "Request for Technology" (RFT) which has been used as part of the basis for development of the project. The first pilot data model, "Snapshot A" was issued in December 1995 to member companies of the POSC/CAESAR Project and to other organisations who had expressed interest in the business area. The scope of Snapshot A focused on a 3-phase separator containing process, piping, mechanical and instrument information utilised in the design, engineering and maintenance life-cycle phases. The deliverables consisted of two parts containing the Product Data Model and a Reference Data Library (previously called "class library").

Snapshot B, which was issued in July 1996, extended the scope of Snapshot A to include types of equipment and facilities for main process, process support, safety & facility and instrument systems. The snapshot also included revisions and changes made as a result of the comments about Snapshot A.

Snapshot C/D, which was issued in January 1997, was a further extension of Snapshot B. Only minor changes had been made to the Data Model. The Reference Data Library has been greatly extended in structural and material (construction and process material) areas. The other areas had gone through a further detailing and new systems had been included. Some minor adjustments had taken place in the piping area. No changes had taken place on rotating equipment. Snapshot C/D is available on World Wide Web from POSC's Home page, http://www.posc.org and on a CD ROM.

The purpose of Snapshot C/D was to inform about the direction of the work and to allow interested parties to comment on and contribute to the definition of requirements.

Snapshot C/D was also the basis for the "New Work Item" proposal to ISO TC184/SC4. The proposal was issued from ISO in February 1997. In addition Snapshot C/D was the basis for the VÅV (Visund, Åsgard and Varg Development Projects) data warehouse implementation.

There is close ongoing co-operation and harmonisation with related ISO/STEP projects, especially by being an active participant in the process industry forum EPISTLE meetings and work groups. The project has an agreement with the process industry ISO/STEP AP221 project to have a common Reference Data Library. The POSC/CAESAR Project will be the administrator of the library.

Contacts

See also the full List of Contacts for the POSC/CAESAR Project.

POSC/CAESAR Association and POSC/CAESAR Services AS
	Phone: + 47 67 57 30 00
	Mailing address:			Visiting address:
		c/o Statoil			Hamangskogen 60
		P.O.Box 910			1300 Sandvika
		N-1301 Sandvika, Norway
	Johan Skutle, Project Manager
	Phone: +47 67 57 29 91			E-mail: johan.skutle@posccaesar.com
Petrotechnical Open Software Corporation
	David Archer, Chief Operating Officer			Phone: + 1-713-784-1880
	10777 Westheimer, Suite 275			Fax:     + 1-713-784-9219
	Houston, TX 77042			E-mail: info@posc.org
	USA			E-mail: archer@posc.org
POSC (Europe) Ltd.
	Michael Ring, Managing Director			Phone: + 44 181-607-5950
	Status 4, Status Park			Fax:     + 44 181-759-0465
	3 Nobel Drive			E-mail: ring@posc.org
	Hayes, Middlesex UB3 5EY
	UK

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Updated: March 17, 1998. Send questions and comments to webmaster@posc.org

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