What is OSDU?

OSDU is a collaborative project facilitated by The Open Group. Its goal is to develop a standard data platform that brings together the energy sector's diverse and siloed data into a single, cloud-native environment.

This initiative focuses on the subsurface drilling and wells domain, aiming to facilitate innovation, increase efficiency, and reduce costs through data integration and accessibility.

graph TD subgraph before ["Before OSDU"] direction TB W1["Wells data"]:::silo --> S1["System A"]:::red S2["Seismic data"]:::silo --> S3["System B"]:::red R1["Reservoir data"]:::silo --> S4["System C"]:::red S1 -.->|"manual export"| S3 S3 -.->|"different formats"| S4 end subgraph after ["With OSDU"] direction TB W2["Wells"]:::data --> OSDU["OSDU Platform"]:::green S5["Seismic"]:::data --> OSDU R2["Reservoir"]:::data --> OSDU OSDU --> API["One API, one format"]:::blue end classDef silo fill:#fff3e0,stroke:#e65100 classDef red fill:#ffebee,stroke:#c62828 classDef data fill:#f3e5f5,stroke:#6a1b9a classDef green fill:#e8f5e9,stroke:#2e7d32 classDef blue fill:#e3f2fd,stroke:#1565c0

Note

Some documentation on external OSDU sites requires a free account with The Open Group. Create an account here.

Key ideas

Unified Data Platform: All subsurface and wells data stored, accessed, and analyzed in one place, regardless of original source or format.

Open Standards: Built on open standards for interoperability across technologies and vendors.

Cloud-Native: Scalable, flexible deployment across cloud providers. Equinor uses Microsoft Azure Data Manager for Energy (ADME).

Data Governance: Framework for managing data according to industry standards and regulatory requirements.

Secure Access: Mechanisms for managing data access and permissions, safeguarding proprietary information.

graph LR subgraph platform ["OSDU Platform"] direction LR CORE["Core Services<br>Storage, Search, Schema"]:::blue DDMS["Domain Services<br>Wellbore, Seismic, Reservoir"]:::purple GOV["Data Governance<br>Entitlements, Legal tags"]:::orange end USERS["Users & Applications"]:::user --> platform platform --> DATA["Unified subsurface data"]:::green classDef user fill:#f3e5f5,stroke:#6a1b9a classDef blue fill:#e3f2fd,stroke:#1565c0 classDef purple fill:#ede7f6,stroke:#4527a0 classDef orange fill:#fff3e0,stroke:#e65100 classDef green fill:#e8f5e9,stroke:#2e7d32

Background

A brief history and overview of earth science, drilling software, data models, and OSDU by Einar Landre:

• The OSDU data platform — A Primer (Part 1)
• The OSDU data platform — A Primer (Part 2)

OSDU platform overview

• OSDU Platform documentation and building blocks
• Key OSDU platform components (OSDU members only)

Key documents and code resources

• OSDU Forum home page
• OSDU collaboration portal
• All standard OSDU schema definitions
• Domain specific services (DDMS)
• OSDU User guides
• OSDU Data definitions
• OSDU Reference architecture
• OSDU Open Source GitLab

Data loading and data model resources

• OSDU Schema usage guide
• OSDU data loading overview
• OSDU Core services
• Data definition and standard schema
• Worked object examples

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Last update: 2026-03-02