Theory
A common platform for subsurface data
The OSDU (Open Subsurface Data Universe) Forum, hosted by The Open Group, is the energy industry's answer to decades of siloed, vendor-locked subsurface data. It is open, and it is as much a data platform standard as an ontology — a standard data model plus reference architecture so operators and software vendors interoperate.
- Standardised entities — OSDU defines Well Known Schemas (WKS) for the core nouns of the subsurface: Well, Wellbore, WellLog, Seismic surveys, production data, and more, plus governed reference data (units, coordinate reference systems, classifications).
- Master data vs work-product — OSDU separates durable master data (the well that exists in the real world) from work-product components (the files, logs and datasets produced about it) — a clean modelling split that keeps identity stable while artefacts proliferate.
- Cloud-agnostic — OSDU is designed to run on any major cloud, so the schema and APIs are the standard, not a single vendor's platform.
- Why now — the energy transition multiplies data sources (subsurface, wells, increasingly renewables and carbon storage); a shared model is what lets that data be found and trusted across companies.
Use Case Example: An operator licenses seismic from one vendor and logging software from another. Because both speak OSDU's Well / Wellbore / WellLog schemas and reference data, a new analytics tool queries all of it through one standard API — instead of a bespoke connector per data silo.