Geomatics committee pre-releases
OGP P1, P2 and P6 format revisions

Leen Boer (Shell International), Tony Blackburn (BP Exploration), Sigrid Matthes (Statoil ASA), Tom Owen (Mid Point Geo Limited)

Since the early 1990s, all marine seismic position data collected in the field have been recorded using the ‘P' formats, commonly P1/90 and P2/94. These formats, originally developed by UKOOA and then adopted by the industry for use worldwide, have been in use ever since. In 2006, UKOOA transferred ownership of the formats to the International Association of Oil & Gas Producers (OGP) Geomatics Committee. In 2009, the Committee, following industry consultation, formed a P1/P2 Revision Task Force. Its aim: to address the fact that existing formats were becoming obsolete due to advances in acquisition and processing technologies and to deal with the issue of an increasing number of non-standard variations and "add-ons" being used.

Discussions with the Society of Exploration Geophysicists (SEG) led to an agreement that the revised formats would benefit from other changes that would complement the revisions then underway within the SEG-D revision process. The decision was also made that the aging SEG-P1 format would be deprecated and replaced as part of this process. This facilitated the use of P1 for land seismic as well as marine.

Since its formation in October 2009, the Task Force has worked extensively to bring the formats fully up-to-date, adopting common practices.

Notable changes include the definition of a Common Header, which appears at the beginning of each revised ‘P' format file and contains survey summary and configuration data. Other enhancements include the definition of Coordinate Reference Systems, the handling of pre-plot data and the definition of positional information and its accuracy. These and other improvements are now allowing greater flexibility in dealing with today's survey configurations and those in the future.

The updating of the formats, known as OGP P1/11 and OGP P2/11, is essentially complete. They are now undergoing a thorough testing and review process before being formally ratified and released later this year.

In parallel with the P1/P2 revision, the Geomatics Committee convened a 3D Seismic Bin Grid Task Force to review the geo-spatial integrity issues currently being faced with re-projection of 3D seismic bin grids. This has incorporated many of the learnings from the P1/P2 Task Force to revise the existing P6/98 exchange format for the definition of 3D seismic binning grids and their associated data exchange. As a result, the revised P6 will now replace the P1 in this area of data exchange.

In order to keep the industry fully informed of the changes and allow all interested parties the maximum opportunity to implement the handling of the new formats, the three ‘P' formats are now available for industry-wide preview.

Alongside the P1 format documentation, a user guide will soon be available. The P2 user guide will follow. The P6 format documentation will also be supplemented later in the year with specific guidance on handling and exchange of bin grid data.

Format documentation should be available during May 2012. All companies and individuals with an interest in receiving a copy of the new format preview documentation for P1, P2 or P6, or wanting to query or comment on the formats, are invited to email the OGP Geomatics Committee Manager lks@ogp.org.uk.

As this is a preview of the format revisions, all the information contained within the documents and the associated format content is subject to change before the final version is ratified and released.

With a view to implementing and rolling out these new formats, the P1/P2 and P6 Task Forces are currently developing ‘P' format seminar and training material, and organising seminars to roll out P1/11, P2/11 and P6/11 in the UK, US and SE Asia. Details will follow. The revised formats will also be presented in a paper due to be given at EAGE Conference in Copenhagen (4 - 7 June 2012).