The Classification Work Group Ramps Up in 2007

2007 is shaping up to be a busy year for the PIDX Classification Work Group (CWG)! First, PIDX leadership and members would like to thank Rob MacEwan of Riversand for his years of service as CWG chair and to welcome the new Chair, Davis Wallis of OFS Portal and Vice-Chair Paul Mayer of sparesFinder.

Dave Wallis brings more than 35 years of worldwide experience in the oil and gas industry and more than seven years of eCommerce experience to his new role. In addition to leading the Classification Work Group, Dave is an Executive Committee member and also chairs the PIDX Global Business Practices Work Group. More information about both work groups may be found on the PIDX website.

Paul Mayer has worked in a number of industries before getting involved with the oil and gas sector. Paul has been with sparesFinder since 2000 and has worked in a number of roles; he is now the Sales and Marketing director. He was instrumental in the development of products focused on data cleansing and standardization. Paul’s management of international projects implementing global standards will be particularly relevant to the classification work group.

For those unfamiliar with the Classification Work Group (CWG), the purpose of this work group is to develop and manage commodity and services classification standards for the oil and gas industry. Since its inception in 2001, PIDX members have collaborated to develop 2100+ product templates and to build out UNSPSC Segment 71 defining services for Mining and Oil & Gas.

At the Spring 2007 General Meeting, Greg Ardoin of ConocoPhillips (COP), after joining PIDX in 2006, announced that ConocoPhillips has adopted the PIDX product classification standard after an extensive review of other classification standards. Since the beginning of this year, COP has submitted over 700 new templates to PIDX with more to come. Greg also gave an overview of their current SAP material master cleanup project which includes data cleansing and classification.

ConocoPhillips's adoption of the PIDX standard has brought new energy to the work group and it was agreed that there is more to be done. Future plans include:

* Continue to define and update product and services classification standards

* Increase membership involvement in the Classification Work Group

* Update and refine classification standard development tools and processes

* Market the benefits of the PIDX classification to the oil & gas industry

Anyone who is interested in joining CWG or who would like more information is encouraged to contact Dave Wallis at: dwallis@ofs-portal.com or (+44) (0) 7780 700782 or Paul Mayer at: paul.mayer@sparesfinder.com or +44 (0) 20 86146014

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PIDX Supports Industry with New and Refreshed eCommerce Standards

PIDX Announces Significant Accomplishments.
After almost 20 years, PIDX continues its commitment as the oil and gas industry’s leader for open eCommerce standards committee. The Downstream Subcommittee has successfully completed their project ratifying three standards (Inventory XSD, PDXR v 4.0 and RECON 3.1) that facilitate the exchange of information between business partners. In addition to updating existing standards to better reflect the needs of the petroleum industry, as in the PDXR 4.0 and the RECON 3.1 upgrades, new standards are being developed which further address industry shifts in data exchange requirements. As described below, the first new standard issued is the Inventory XSD, which, exemplifying the constant diligence to remain up-to-date, leverages the XML platform for data exchange. More standards are under way which will enable the exchange of prevailing business critical information such as product allocation status.

Inventory XSD
The Inventory XSD is a standard defined to facilitate the exchange of product inventory balances. Shipping facilities today maintain inventories on which products are owned by which stock or position holders. They also maintain physical inventories of what products are contained in which tanks in their facilities. The former is the purpose for defining the Inventory XSD. Today there is no standard which provides consistency in acquiring and sending the inventory information. The formats and methods by which product owners of product through the terminal facilities receive this information varies with the shipping facility, as well as, by the capabilities of their rack automation systems or the service they subscribe to. Typically this information is available through the rack automation system, however, nothing precludes the shipping facility's ERP from providing the information, possibly in yet another format. This XSD defines the attributes that are necessary to properly report a position holder's product inventory at a particular facility at a specified effective date.


PDXR version 4.0
The PDXR V4.0 standard is a flat file record format and communications protocol defined for use by the rack automations system who need to authenticate and monitor allocations utilization with a vended service. The standard is implemented to provide a common format for real-time communications, regardless of the vended service or the flavor of rack automation system. Contained within the protocol, is a request from the rack automation system for approval or authentication, a corresponding approval or denial notification and, if approved, the results of the loading process. The loading process yields a bill of lading transaction that contains all the pertinent information necessary to describe the activity. Among the data captured is the product, customer, shipper, volume and many other attributes specific to the transaction.


RECON (Version 3.1 of the EDI Standard)
The "RECON" EDI Standard is used by oil industry "Exchange" partners. It defines the format of the month-end text file that should be provides to each exchange partner. the data in the file represents the monthly exchange activity between the partners and is intended to be used to reconcile (by exchange contract) the 2 partners exchange transactional activity for the month.

Attached (below) is the latest version 3.1 - (this modified version has been sent out for review and comments and incorporates changes requested by industry users of the standard).

The RECON version 2 is the primary standard in use today.

The version 3 update was put into place to extend the record to allow the inclusion of individual exchange fees rates with more decimal places (version 2 was limited to 3 fee rates with 7 decimal places - with implied decimal point). However, with the expansion of ethanol usage and the relatively high price of ethanol, in 2006 we had the scenario arise where exchange fees exceeding $1, which the "RECON" standard could not handle.

The changes made in version 3.1 (from version 3.0) are the addition of 2 digits and a fixed decimal point to the exchange fees fields (Rate 1 through Rate 7). The changes are due to the decimal point from an implied decimal point to a fixed, included decimal point (only for Rate 1 through Rate 7). These changes were made to the exchange fee rate fields (Rate 1 through Rate 7) located in the Type 2 record and starting in column 113 and beyond. These changes were necessary because some companies recently experienced exchange fees greater then $1.00. The original "RECON" standard assumed that all exchange fees would be under $1.00.

* Any comments or concerns regarding these standards should be sent to the Downstream eBusiness Chair, Jean-Yves Albert.

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PIDX Standards - A Growing Demand in London
The PIDX International, Europe Subcommittee held its latest meeting in London on June 5, 2007 to continue to spread the word about open standards, and to spearhead a workgroup on capturing eBusiness requirements in many other countries.

A series of speakers presented topics covering implementing eBusiness projects, new and innovative solutions to complex billing procedures and how other global standards bodies manage the headache of master data synchronization. The day concluded with a panel of industry experts presenting their views on how the oil and natural gas industry’s approach to eBusiness will evolve over the next 5-plus years and answering questions from the attendees. The session was hosted by BP at its Sunbury–on-Thames campus. The subcommittee has been holding such meetings in London since 2003.

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Based in Wichita, KS, Rotunno brings more than 22 years of petroleum industry experience to DTN. Working in the product managment team, Rotunno is responsible for delivery and managment of comprehensive supply chain managment solutions for today’s volatile fuel marketplace with increasing costs and risks.

Her flagship product is DTN TABS™ , which gives customers robust and flexible desktop control over product allocation and credit for customers and trading partners. DTN TABS delivers real-time information and email alerts about loads, customer allocations, and terminal inactivity to give customers the ability to manage their business, and remain customer focused. DTN is actively promoting the use the latest PIDX terminal protocol and inventory protocol to enable order-based loading and multiple authorization options for customers. DTN also works to provide more data-rich bills of lading for fuel suppliers, marketers, carriers and other participants.

Prior to DTN, Rotunno spent 11 years with Mobil Marketing Refining, in Dallas, TX. She has an extensive background in product supply and information technology. While at Koch Industries as a business systems analyst for three years, and most recently, as a product manager of GE PetroDEX services.

Additonal DTN subcommitte members include Bev Thompson, Chair of Fuel Supply Workgroup and past chair of Downstream subcommittee. Having completed the terminal and inventory protocols, Fuel Supply Workgroup focus is now on Exchange positions at product terminals. Scott Fleck, CTO, Senior VP, is also working on the PIDD Petroleum Industry Data Dictionary.

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Registering for PIDX lets your partners, vendors and suppliers know that you have the right software to communicate effortlessly and securely around the corner or around the world, saving everyone time and money.

PIDX is sponsored and supported by API, the leading petroleum industry trade association.

PIDX is the future of eBusiness, and it’s spreading quickly. Don’t be left out – or you just may find yourself waiting at the station. Can your company afford to be left behind?

Self-register for PIDX today (it’s free through the end of the year)!
For more information, visit www.pidx.org

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