1990
The predecessor of Energistics was formed in October 1990 by five founding sponsor oil companies: BP, Chevron, Elf (since merged into Total), Mobil (since merged into ExxonMobil), and Texaco (since merged into Chevron) under the name Petrotechnical Open Software Corporation (POSC). The mission of the new organization was defined as developing, supporting, evolving, and promoting open standards for the scientific, engineering, and operations aspects of the oil and gas exploration and production industry. In the early years, the organization established an open process, acquired resources, and pursued a set of deliverables. The use of the specifications was intended to enable greater quality, consistency, and integration of data and data use. The initial deliverables were known as the Software Integration Platform (SIP) Specifications.
1996
In 1996, the Board of Directors commissioned a study of the benefits of using the SIP specifications, which projected savings of from 1 to 3 USD per barrel of oil gained through improvements in data quality, data accessibility, and exploitation of information and knowledge.
2000 and 2001
The SIP Version 2.3 incremental update came out in 2000 and 2001, along with the first XML data schema specifications for basic well data (WellMasterML) and well log display parameters (LogGraphicsML) as well as a series of XML-oriented public seminars. The future course of the organization was shifting from data store and middleware specifications to subject matter data exchange specifications.
2002
This transition progressed in 2002 with the agreement to receive custodianship of the WITSML Standards for drilling data exchange based on XML and Web Services technologies. In the same year, the first of a number of member Special Interest Groups (SIGs) was organized as the user community for subject-specific standards. The subject matter of the first SIG was E&P data stores and their use.
2004
During 2004, the organization decided to improve the alignment of its name with its mission by redefining the meaning of the name POSC to mean the Petrotechnical Open Standards Consortium.
2005
The second XML and Web Services family of standards was initiated in August 2005 with the agreement to host the first year of the PRODML, Production XML Markup Language initiative, after which the PRODML SIG was formed.
2006
Building on the most valuable initiatives and an increased emphasis on wide-scale standards adoption, the organization rebranded itself as Energistics in November 2006.
2007
In 2007, a WITSML-based electronic permitting XML schema specifications was published following a multi-year collaboration with US state regulatory agencies in cooperation with API PIDX's REGS EC User Group.
2009
2009 saw the formation of the RESQML SIG to address reservoir characterization standards development as a natural successor to the RESCUE Work Group's C++ Class Library.
2011
In 2011, the Standards DevKit developed by ExxonMobil was licensed to Energistics for maintenance, support and administration. The DevKit supports the latest versions of WITSML, PRODML and RESQML.
2015
In 2015, a game changer standard was published - Energistics Transfer Protocol (ETP) v1.0 was release to the industry. ETP enables the efficient transfer of data between applications and is a key component of the Common Technical Architecture (CTA) that is used by WITSML, PRODML and RESQML.
2016
In 2016 the 2.x versions of WITSML, PRODML and RESQML were released. These versions share a common technical architecture (CTA) which makes it possible to create transfers that mix data from 2 or 3 of the domains. This is also the first release with the expanded metadata that allows for the transfer of crucial information on how measurements were obtained, what may have been done to them in terms of processing or other transformations, and their conformity or not to given business rules.
2018
In 2018 Energistics was the first non-operator to be invited to join the Open Group OSDU Forum ™ in October 2018. The project of building a reference data platform, initiated by major operators and joined by hundreds of other actors in the industry, rests heavily on the use of existing standards, and WITSML as well as RESQML are center-stage in the first commercial-grade release due early 2021. Energistics staff is actively developing data loaders and other components as open source contributions to the OSDU Data Platform™.
2020
In 2020 Energistics celebrates its 30th anniversary of service to the industry. The contraction of the upstream industry has affected the activity and budgets of all actors across the ecosystem. To better address the needs of our members and remain a strong resource for standards, Energistics has closed its Houston office and from this point forwards will work purely as a virtual organization.
2022
January 1, 2022 the Energistics Consortium Inc transitions into an affiliate status organization in The Open Group .