OGP Registry

Shell Oil & OGP — Geodetic Parameter Registry

Managing the World’s Natural Resources

“Drill an exploration well in the wrong place and you could be looking at tens of millions USD in costs”

Problem Overview

“Location, Location, Location” is the key to resource management value as much as it is to commercial real estate. Drill an exploration well in the wrong place and it could cost tens of millions of dollars.

Given its importance, how is location appropriately determined and recorded? How can the diversity of measurements used in locating the drilling rig all be made to make sense relative to one another? The answer is to understand and relate all of the different coordinate reference systems that are used.

More specifically… most GIS systems and other geospatial software incorporate internal coordinate reference system definitions, which are wrapped in the actual code. The problem is that they are largely based on proprietary data. As a result, there are often conflicts and even errors that arise when comparing one GIS database to another. In June 1994, the European Petroleum Survey Group (EPSG), a professional communication forum of the survey departments of the major oil companies published a list of coordinate reference systems, used in the oil industry around the world in order to share standard CRS definitions and related information. This data set is now offered in the form of an Access database. In 2005, the EPSG was absorbed in the International Association of Oil & Gas Producers (OGP), and now includes all major oil & gas companies worldwide. However, the data set retained the name ‘EPSG’ as a brand name.

Solution Statement: Get Coordinated!

In the age of GPS, many believe that all one needs are latitude, longitude, and elevation without giving much thought to how to those numbers are obtained. In reality, these values are not unique, but depend on which coordinate reference system, or earth model, is used. In addition to GPS, that is world geodetic systems (WGS) 84, a large number of other coordinate reference systems are being used in many different countries and regions on earth. Historical, legal, technical, and accuracy reasons may add to this variety. Thousands and thousands of datasets have been created and are routinely maintained in a wide variety of different coordinate reference systems.

Today, OGP is in the process of replacing their Access database with an online dictionary of Coordinate Reference Systems based on the INdicio™ Web Registry supplied by Galdos Systems. This project is part of OGP’s application to the International Standards Organization (ISO) to obtain ISO accreditation for the EPSG dataset. In connection with this project, Shell International Exploration and Production B.V, located in the Netherlands contracted Galdos Systems’ Professional Engineering Services department to develop a geodetic registry for both freely accessible and private geodetic parameters, based on the Galdos INdicio™ Web Registry Service (WRS).

The purpose of these developments is to create single access points for public and private CRS definitions and related geodetic information. The public geodetic registry allows oil & gas companies and many other organizations to freely access useful CRS definitions, while the private geodetic registry can provide companies, like Shell, a system to better manage their private data. Given the value of oil these days, it is not hard to imagine how important it is to ensure that such data is kept secure and accurate.

Galdos management, as well the fourteen international oil companies that actively support this project, believe that an interoperable geodetic registry will provide oil & gas companies with some of the necessary information to make better decisions – perhaps even the difference between finding oil and hitting a dry well.