What is a Facility

In mid-2020, PPDM and interested members ran a 10 week Feasibility Study to understand what would be required to disambiguate the term “Facility.” The Feasibility Study Work Group found that a universally understood and recognized definition of “Facility” does not currently exist within the upstream, onshore Oil and Gas (O&G) industry. Regulators, operators, and software products all have their own perspectives, values, and uses. These varying discrepancies result in far-reaching impacts including:

INTERNAL IMPACT	EXTERNAL IMPACT
Poor integration at stakeholder intersections	Poor integration at stakeholder intersections
Operational efficiency loss (more/differing definitions = more work)	Increased probability of a penalty or loss of credibility with regulators
Data attenuation due to changing definitions as data records are moved	Decreased environmental compliance (emphasis on air permits)

Regulations are changing while public and regulatory scrutiny is increasing. The demand for operational efficiency requires the development of an industry standard. Regulators are increasingly referencing and cross-referencing company facility registries under compliance reporting programs including:

• National greenhouse reporting
• Federal New Source Performance Standards
• State-level Emissions Inventory (e.g., TX, OK, CO, WY, CA)

The PPDM Association Board of Directors has approved the Terms of Reference to move forward with this initiative. This project will be done in a phased approach with Phase 1 planned to commence in early Q3 2021 pending resource allocation and member interest. The volunteer committee will apply the “What is a Well?” and “What is a Completion?” methodology to clarify the term “Facility” and provide supporting materials that can be deployed by industry to help achieve better clarity and communication. If you would like further details on contributing to this project, please contact us.

Download the Work Group’s Summary Finding