Oil and gas standards organization, Energistics (formerly POSC) and the supply-side e-commerce trade body OFS Portal have teamed to form an oil and gas chapter within the Electronic Commerce Code Management Association, ECCMA. The Oil & Gas Content Standard Council (www.OGICSC.org) ‘manages and governs a consensus process that ensures that a common industry standard is ratified through a process of collaboration with participating global stakeholders, customers and ECCMA.’ Interested parties currently include API/PIDX, SparesFinder, POSC Caesar and Suncor Energy.
eOTD
One ECCMA deliverable is the NATO-backed ECCMA Open Technical Dictionary (eOTD), first unveiled in 2005. The eOTD is an XML representation of the NATO codification system for product parts. The public domain eOTD is used in NATO’s procurement and is currently being extended for use in CAD/CAM programs. Another ECCMA project involves the Management Resource Group (MRG) and is in the process of creating a ‘Maintenance, Repair and Operations Content Standard Council (MROCSC).’
PIDX
Upstream involvement in ECCMA began last year with the intent of harmonizing product and services classifications. According to the member bodies, the proprietary classification systems used to date have only had marginal interoperability success. The intent is therefore to leverage the API’s Petroleum Industry Data eXchange Subcommittee’s (PIDX) set of product classification templates. These cover oil country tubulars, valves, bearings, belts and electrical equipment. The main task ahead of the OGICSC is to align these PIDX templates with the wider eOTD, thereby ensuring that the oil and gas industry uses standard, public domain terms for procurement.
Mini pilot
A ‘mini pilot’, led by SparesFinder is underway to investigate the feasibility of linking the eOTD with the PIDX templates and the ISO 15926 Reference Data Library. If this is successful, a larger pilot will likely be scoped for early 2008.
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