The Standards Leadership Council Hosts a Successful Forum in London

HOUSTON, TX and CALGARY, AB--(Marketwire - Mar 20, 2013) - The Standards Leadership Council, formed in 2012 and represented by senior executives from nine leading oil and gas industry standards bodies, hosted a Standards Leadership Council Forum at the end of February in London. This was the first such forum to be held in Europe and over sixty industry representatives attended the all-day event at the Heathrow T-4 Hilton. The SLC mission is to encourage collaboration on open standards and develop best practices for the benefit of the global oil and gas industry.

Malcolm Fleming, CEO of Common Data Access (CDA), was the keynote speaker and presented a collaborative project creating a professional qualification based on five levels of E&P data management core competencies -- with a view to enhancing the standing of data managers within the industry. CDA is working with members of the SLC on this project.

Subsequent to the inaugural forum in Houston in June 2012, ten initial projects have been identified and initiated with interim results presented at the Forum. Information about these projects as well as all the presentations from the forum will be made available on the SLC website at www.oilandgasstandards.org. Following a "get to know the standards organizations" speed-dating exercise, there was much lively discussion about SLC objectives and what challenges might lie ahead.

Jerry Hubbard, President & CEO of Energistics and joint chair of the SLC, said, "The SLC will continue to meet on a regular basis to achieve better collaboration amongst the standards bodies. These projects represent just the beginning of a long-term effort to benefit the industry."

Trudy Curtis, CEO of PPDM and also a joint chair of the SLC, commented, "The organizations involved, far from being in competition as was perceived a little over a year ago, are now coalescing into a group of like-minded organizations who are already individually providing a service to the industry. We are delighted at the turnout here in London, and anticipate significant, tangible benefits arising from the formation of these workgroups to progress the projects we have identified as a priority."

The SLC plans to hold two open forums per year, and invite representatives from other industry standards organisations to join with them on the Council.

About the Standards Leadership Council
The Standards Leadership Council (SLC) was formed in 2012 by standards organizations serving the oil and natural gas industry to avoid duplication in development projects through collaboration and to address the mutual challenges of determining business value metrics for standards adoption, enhancing membership benefits and maintaining financial sustainability. The SLC is planning joint industry events to deliver its standards adoption message across the industry. The SLC includes: Energistics, MIMOSA, Open Geospatial Consortium (OGC), OPC Foundation, PIDX International, Pipeline Open Data Standard (PODS), POSC Caesar Association (PCA), Professional Petroleum Data Management Association (PPDM) and Society of Exploration Geophysicists (SEG). For more information visit www.oilandgasstandards.org.