For those of you who may have been misled by our 2021 report on the ‘soon-to-be-shuttered’ Energistics organization, Ross Philo (ex-Energistics CEO, now with Bardasz) has kindly provided the following update that we have edited.
First, to correct a commonly-held misconception, Energistics is not now ‘part of OSDU’ or ‘under the control of OSDU’. Energistics is a stand-alone legal entity, with its own board of directors, etc. and exists to serve its members in the pursuance of data standards. Energistics is now also an independent affiliate of The Open Group. OSDU, on the other hand, is a Forum underneath The Open Group with no legal standing on its own. The two communities clearly tap into the same pool of members, but they are distinct and different. OSDU is implementing a standards-based data platform, while Energistics is focused on defining industry standards that can be used in OSDU and elsewhere, i.e. it’s all about definition vs. implementation which are complementary but separate activities.
The recently announced ‘OSDU-compliance’ of WITSML 2.1 focused on a number of key areas. Fields have been added to Witsml 2.1 objects that mirror the OSDU schemas for object types, such as Well, Wellbore etc. Energistics pore pressure fracture gradient objects are now available in OSDU. The OSDU ‘integration type’ is now available in the 2023 Energistics Common Technical Architecture that is shared by the latest Witsml, Resqml and Prodml standards. Energistics standards can now carry OSDU object metadata in any object.
The operators participating in the Oil & Gas Data Quality group have stated that they want to move to WITSML 2.1 as soon as possible, and have asked service companies to confirm when they will be able to offer that capability.
Personally I would say that the Energistics standards are alive and well, and that TOG is proving to be an excellent custodian. However, the community as a whole is still coming to grips with not having the Energistics admin team to take care of many of the tasks required – such as promulgating the standards, developing JSON schemas, updating websites, handling certifications, developing and publishing documentation, developing use-cases, handling donated code. These are expected to be done as volunteer activities.
There is a strong push to increase participation from the OSDU community in the Energistics effort, since that benefits both sides. The standards are a key part of what OSDU is implementing, so it makes sense that the OSDU members take a more active role in helping to define how those standards may need to evolve. The Open Group has made it easy for companies to participate in Energistics – essentially, those joining OSDU can take part in the Energistics community at no additional cost, thus giving them a 2-for-the-price-of-1 membership benefit. The idea was that the people most interested in contributing to the development of the Energistics standards would come from the OSDU membership, so we wanted to make it easy, and cheap, to participate.
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On the topic of Witsml 2.1, Philo also reported that his company, Bardasz is ‘first-to-market’ with a Witsml 2.1 solution that can convert on-the-fly from between different versions of Witsml. The Bardasz Witsml 2.1 SuperStore (also said to be ‘OSDU compliant’) brings the increased speed of 2.1 to legacy applications running on earlier Witsml versions. Philo observes, ‘Despite such clear advantages, there has been something of a chicken-and-egg situation. Operators and service companies want the benefits of the new standard, but they have lots of existing applications and data stores that were created around earlier versions. Companies were concerned that adoptingWitsml 2.1 would mean having to update and rework all those legacy applications and data stores. This is where the Bardasz Witsml SuperStore can help move the industry forward. The SuperStore is the first commercially-available solution that offers the benefits ofWitsml 2.1 and ETP 1.2’. More from Bardasz.
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