Essential Trends from PIDX 2019 International US Spring Conference

PIDX provides a global forum for delivering the process, information and technology standards that facilitates seamless, efficient, electronic business within the oil and natural gas industry and its trading community.

The Accelerating Oil and Gas industry

The SEEBURGER team recently attended the conference in Houston on May 2nd and 3rd. Various topics in business and IT were discussed during the event and the four main Oil, Gas and Chemical industry trends were:

• Standardization in a world of standards
• eInvoicing outside the box
• Blockchain and the challenge of new technologies
• APIs and the need for a digital platform

Standardization in a world of standards

Developing the PIDX standard is a complicated process. For it to gain more acceptance throughout the whole industry requires constant effort and development. Specialist workgroups review the processes, messages, classifications and the catalog. If they realize, that something needs to be added, they present a next iteration.

The existence and adaptation of other standards coming from IoT devices was a big part of the discussion during this yearʼs conference. Especially, how  information from sensors in the field, from trucks and trailers can find their way into electronic formats. Standards are not only being discussed and designed for the Oil and Gas industry. The adaption of new requirements does not always result in enhancing an existing standard. More often it leads to competing standards that result in more effort for all companies involved. The ever rising amount of data that will be generated in all the different areas of the industry will be one of the biggest upcoming challenges.

eInvoicing outside the box

With the rapid expansion of B2B and B2G eInvoice regulations, the companies in the industry face new challenges. Emerging standards like PEPPOL (Europe), FatturaPA (Italy) or CFDI (Mexico) trigger questions on how to stay compliant. “Do we need to expand the PIDX standard?” or “How can we leverage other invoicing standards?”. Finding answers is part of the ongoing discussion in the PIDX workgroups and initiatives across the industry.

To reduce costs and simplify day to day business, companies can look into cloud offerings. They offer integration with governmental agencies and are capable of keeping compliant to the law. Using cloud solutions results in quicker implementation times and lower operations risk. It also leads to reduced costs from an IT investment perspective.

Blockchain and the challenge of new technology

Companies like ConocoPhillips are discovering how they can leverage the Distributed Ledger technology. The blockchain technology can help optimize process performance, data accuracy, data transparency and costs. Several companies including ConocoPhillips, Chevron, ExxonMobil, Equinor, Shell, MarathonOil formed a consortium to establish use cases and pilot projects. They formed teams, plan to share knowledge and build technical committees evaluating the ideas.

Current pilots involve the following business areas:

• Truck ticketing – digitalize truck ticketing on water hauling from well sites to disposal sites
• AFE balloting – digitalize the ballot sharing and approval process
• JIB Exchange integrated joint with the interest – digitalize billing receipts and automate the payment process
• Seismic Data Management – automated digital rights and ownership for seismic data

APIs and the need for a digital platform

API’s are on the rise across the industry. They become more common and more companies see the value of API integration. Using standards like PIDX is not the only possibility to exchange data electronically. Instead of using e-mail or sending files, many companies switch to API-based data exchanges and integration. Thanks to the low file size most connections with cloud vendors and services are facilitated using API’s. To accomodate this change, the PIDX process and messaging workgroup is looking into cloud integration.

Following best practices by PIDX and SEEBURGER, Oil and Gas companies can succeed in creating the switch to API based integration. The SEEBURGER BIS platform supports the Full Life Cycle API management process including,

• Planning and Initial Design
• Implementation and Testing
• Deploy and Run
• Versioning and Retirement

Summary

The industry faces a variety of challenges in its strive to become more digital. Other EDI standards need to be analyzed to ensure the PIDX standards can be extended and improved.

SEEBURGER can help enable this using our agile and scalable platform. The SEEBURGER Business Integration Suite (BIS) helps to faster onboard new solutions and partners while reducing onboarding times and costs. SEEBURGER fulfills the standardization needs for PIDX and is capable of covering upcoming needs for digital services and APIs using REST or JSON webservices. The solutions are available on-prem, in the cloud and as hybrid solutions and together with the SEEBURGER professional services team and agile methodology, we help you go to market faster.