The Open Geospatial Consortium (OGC) along with the International Association of Oil & Gas Producers (OGP) through the Geomatics Committee, IPIECA (the global oil and gas industry association for environmental and social issues) and Resource Data, USA, have issued a Request for Information (RFI) to solicit input on an Oil Spill Response (OSR) Common Operating Picture (COP) recommended practice.

This RFI is part of the OGP/IPIECA Joint Industry Project to produce a recommended practice for GIS/mapping in support of oil spill response and for the use of GIS technology and geospatial information in forming a COP for management of the response.

Organisations are encouraged to respond with recommendations for procedures, technology, and open standards that should be considered in a recommended practice for an OSR COP.

The RFI seeks input on three topics:

•Defining a COP and its use for Oil Spill Response (OSR)

•The scope of the geospatial information which shall be part of the OSR COP

•Formats, media and methods for delivering COP information to organisations involved in OSR

Responses to the RFI should describe technologies and open standards feasible in a distributed information environment. A series of workshops is planned to discuss submitted RFI responses. Compilation of the RFI responses and the workshop outcomes will be documented in a report that can serve as the basis for consensus adoption of a standards-based COP best practice for OSR.

Responses to the RFI are requested by 30 October 2013. The RFI includes instructions for how organisations can respond.

 (Spill-international, Edited by Topco)