Data Sharing Requirement

Data Sharing Requirement

PipelineML is an open industry data standard designed to help midstream pipeline operators share information about their assets and the various construction and maintenance activities performed on them. The following are some common reasons why pipeline asset information needs to be shared:

• Service Provider Support – Most operators engage the services of numerous vendors to conduct maintenance and construction on their assets. This requires information to be shared between the operator and the service provider as to the exact location and nature of the work to be performed. Once the work is completed, the vendor must submit detailed information on the work conducted. Each operator and vendor uses different standards, media and formats to share this information. As a result, this process tends to require a person to interpret its meaning and rekey it into their various data management systems. This introduces unnecessary time and financial overhead. Developing an open industry data interchange standard can make this exchange fast and economical while significantly reducing potential errors.
• Internal Availability – Operators need to share asset data between internal departments over the lifecycle of those assets (design, parts acquisition, construction, line lowering, surveys, operations, line location, public awareness, observations and measurements, integrity, rehabilitation, divestiture, etc.). Typically, each department uses different software and systems to manage their data, activities, and decisions. When information is shared between departments, it typically must undergo extensive transformation, remapping and sometimes manual recoding. This can lead to loss of data and introduce errors. It is also costly in terms of time and money. As a result of these barriers, information may not be shared across departments as often as could be beneficial to the organization as a whole. All these factors can be mitigated through the use of a common data interchange standard.
• Regulatory Submissions – Operators must submit information about certain assets and activities to regulatory agencies on an annual basis. Since there are no fully open industry data interchange standards, each agency requests submissions in different formats and specifications. As a result, operators must invest significant efforts to transform that data into numerous formats to meet the requirements of each agency. This situation could be addressed with an open industry data interchange standard.