HOUSTON, Feb. 19, 1999 — Five leading energy software and service providers have launched
“COM for Energy”
(www.com4energy.com), a new nonprofit industry initiative to improve exploration and production business performance on an enterprise scale by accelerating technical and business process integration. Driven by intense economic pressure in the energy industry, COM for Energy will develop software interface specifications for interoperability of technical and business applications to support petroleum exploration and production. These open business object specifications will be based on Microsoft Corp.’s Component Object Model (COM) architecture.
“It’s well known that our company is a strong supporter of industry standards and open computing architectures to provide interoperability between applications and platforms, and this initiative has particular promise to create new value for the industry,”
said Christine Connelly, vice president, Upstream IT, BP Amoco.
“This initiative complements our company’s vision of a networked world that removes barriers all along the energy value chain.”
These new open specifications, which have been under discussion for more than six months, are being specifically designed to complement existing industry standards.
“We encourage and support all activities that enable effective informationsharing through open standards,”
said David Archer, POSC president and CEO.
“COM for Energy is committed to building on and to be compatible with the foundations that the industry has established through POSC and other related initiatives. I look forward to a close collaboration, in support of broad industry needs, to enable new levels of overall enterprise effectiveness.”
COM for Energy specifications will focus on integrating operational, financial and management processes to create a better understanding of the financial and business implications of operations throughout the oil and gas value chain. Oil and gas companies will be able to make more informed business decisions while controlling costs, reducing risk and shortening the cycle time from finding to retailing hydrocarbons.
“Statoil has been a leader in the development of industry standards as a major contributor to cost reductions and productivity gains throughout our exploration and production activities,”
said Randi Grung Olsen, senior vice president, E & P Technology, Statoil.
“We are pleased that this initiative to advance the integration of technical and business systems for a complete upstream system is being driven by leading companies that are known for developing and delivering high-performance commercial applications.”
COM for Energy is being developed to help companies position themselves to thrive in a low-cost environment. Along with proven COM-based initiatives focused on the downstream sector, such as OLE for Process Control (OPC), the Microsoft® Windows® Distributed interNet Applications architecture for Manufacturing (Windows DNA for Manufacturing), and the Microsoft ActiveStore
™
retail technology architecture, COM for Energy provides a critical link for integrating information systems from the oil field to refining, distribution and retail. This initiative will also drive the SAP Business Application Programming Interface standards, which are conveniently accessible through COM, to further meet the requirements of the exploration and production business.
As a result of this developing standard, the E & P sector will have new capabilities to quickly respond to emerging business opportunities and will be able to exchange information across boundaries both within organizations and between companies. This open business object specification is scheduled to be widely available and eventually managed by an independent third-party organization with the participation of industry software developers.
COM for Energy is a nonprofit initiative that is open to additional energy software and service vendor members, as well as petroleum companies that want to serve in advisory roles. Contact the following individuals for more information on membership or visit the initiative’s Web site at www.com4energy.com:
Landmark Graphics Corporation, a business unit of the Halliburton Company. (
“HAL: NYSE”
), is the leading supplier of integrated exploration, drilling, production and data management solutions that enable petroleum companies around the world to find, produce and manage oil and gas reserves more effectively.
Microsoft is an industry-leading software platform provider committed to supporting the technology interoperability needs of the energy industry.
PricewaterhouseCoopers’ Energy Consulting Services helps global clients maximize their business performance by integrating technology, strategic change and business process improvement.
SAP AG is a market and technology leader in client/server application software, providing comprehensive solutions for companies of all sizes and industry sectors. SAP products are open business solutions that can easily be accessed by any application on the basis of open, object-oriented industry standards.
Schlumberger GeoQuest is the E & P industry leader in integrated software systems, data management solutions, and processing and interpretive services to assist petroleum companies in optimizing the value of their oil and gas reservoirs.
Microsoft, Windows and ActiveStore are either registered trademarks or trademarks of Microsoft Corp. in the United States and/or other countries.
Other product and company names herein may be trademarks of their respective owners.
