Wayland, MA, 26 August 2013. The Open Geospatial Consortium (OGC®) along with the International Association of Oil & Gas Producers (OGP) through the Geomatics Committee, IPIECA (the global oil and gas industry association for environmental and social issues) and Resource Data, Inc. have issued a Request for Information (RFI) to solicit input on an Oil Spill Response (OSR) Common Operating Picture (COP) recommended practice.

 

This RFI is part of the OGP/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 COP for management of the response. 

 

Organizations are encouraged to respond with recommendations for procedures, technology, and open standards that should be considered in a recommended practice for an OSR COP.

 

The RFI seeks input on three topics:

Responses to the RFI should describe technologies and open standards feasible in a distributed information environment. A series of workshops is planned to discuss submitted RFI responses. Compilation of the RFI responses and the workshop outcomes will be documented in a report that can serve as the basis for consensus adoption of a standards-based COP best practice for OSR.

 

Rob Cox, IPIECA Technical Director said, “I anticipate the RFI process will be a basis for creating a COP recommended practice that will contribute greatly to globally coordinated operations for oil spill response.” 

 

Responses to the RFI are requested by 30 October 2013. The RFI includes instructions for how organizations can respond. Please contact George Percivall at gpercivall@opengeospatial.org with any questions.

 

The Open Geospatial Consortium (OGC)1 is an international consortium of more than 480 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 (OGP)2 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. OGP encompasses most of the world's leading publicly-traded, private and state-owned oil & gas companies, industry associations and major upstream service companies. OGP members produce more than half the world's oil and about one third of its gas.

 

IPIECA3 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)4 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 & gas industry.