The International Association of Oil & Gas Producers’ digital transformation agenda is increasingly being shaped by a simple idea: the industry will not get full value from new technology unless it also improves the quality, governance and interoperability of the information underneath it. That message came through strongly at the IOGP Digital Transformation Committee meeting in The Hague from 21 to 24 September, where experts from the digital transformation, safety, geomatics a...
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nd standards communities gathered to align work that has often progressed in parallel.
According to IOGP, one of the clearest outcomes was the decision to move towards a more integrated operating model, with stronger coordination between committees, clearer ownership of tasks and greater reuse of existing industry capabilities. The aim is to accelerate delivery while avoiding duplication, an increasingly important issue as the sector grapples with artificial intelligence governance, Digital Twin assurance, standards adoption and digital interoperability.
The meeting underlined how closely these issues are now connected. A joint workshop involving the Digital Transformation Committee, the Information Standards Subcommittee and the Requirements Digitalization Expert Group looked at the relationship between technical requirements, data and information standards, and verification across the asset lifecycle. Participants reportedly found strong alignment around interoperability, the adoption of standards and information management, as well as the role digital transformation can play in enabling wider organisational change. They also pointed to the need for better coordination and decision-making across the groups involved.
Digital Twins remained a central theme, but the discussion has moved on from architecture for its own sake. IOGP said participants increasingly see value in a twin that is “sufficient, not complete”, meaning one that is designed to support real operational and business decisions rather than to satisfy every possible technical ambition. In that framing, the key question is not how elaborate the model looks, but whether the information behind it can be trusted, reused and assured.
That shift has brought renewed attention to data quality, governance and lifecycle assurance. Participants also highlighted long-running problems around data ownership, metadata, interoperability and fragmented systems. The recommendation was to combine IOGP’s operational knowledge with established external approaches, including Digital Twin Consortium frameworks and testbeds, geomatics foundations and DNV’s risk-based assurance method, in order to build on proven tools rather than starting again from scratch.
Geomatics was identified as a particularly important enabler. A survey on the topic drew 15 responses from 13 companies, and the answers pointed to geodetic integrity, coordinate reference systems, metadata, provenance and interoperability as essential foundations for trustworthy Digital Twins. Two early workstreams have been prioritised: one on coordinate reference system and geodetic governance, and another on minimum spatial metadata and provenance.
Safety applications were also given a prominent place in the week’s discussions through the Digitally Enabled Safer Sites Initiative, a joint effort by the digital transformation and safety committees. After IOGP published its Vision-AI guidance for health, safety, security and environmental applications in Report 816, members reviewed how computer vision is already being used to identify hazards, unsafe conditions and high-risk activities earlier. The guidance, developed by an expert group from both committees in a matter of months, sets out a common approach to Vision-AI adoption, with a strong emphasis on human performance principles and workforce trust.
The next phase of that work is already being considered. Options for a further Vision-AI release include a shared use-case catalogue, more detailed classification of detections, performance benchmarking, interoperability measures and a cross-company pilot to speed up learning and adoption. IOGP’s core team is aiming to publish the first annual update to the guidance in 2027.
More broadly, the DESSI programme continues to explore how Digital Twins, robotics, predictive analytics, AI-assisted process safety, smart wearables and immersive technologies might support safer work, safer sites and safer processes.
Artificial intelligence itself remained a recurring topic throughout the meeting, reflecting both its potential and the governance questions it raises. Discussions focused on practical adoption, including accountability, risk management and organisational readiness, as well as the rise of more autonomous agentic AI systems and the need to preserve trust and transparency as their capabilities expand.
The Responsible Use of AI Expert Group set out its latest progress. Six principles were published in April 2026 in IOGP’s Principles for Responsible use of AI with guidelines for implementation, and a companion guideline on AI risks and mitigations is now being revised after detailed review by the Safety Committee. Publication is targeted for the end of 2026, with a further guideline on AI governance models to follow. The expert group also plans to study how members are applying the principles in practice, in order to identify where further guidance may be needed.
Behind these headline topics, the meeting repeatedly returned to the less visible but crucial foundations of digital transformation. The Digital Platforms workstream reported progress on data modelling and common terminology, both of which are seen as important for improving information exchange across organisations and systems. Such work underpins a wide range of current initiatives, from automation and AI to Digital Twins and digital engineering.
The committee also reviewed work on seismic data automation, a project led by the Geomatics Committee with the Society of Exploration Geophysicists to create a vendor-neutral industry specification. The planned publication is intended to allow seismic data to be loaded into the OSDU platform without losing positional accuracy, supported by consistent standards and quality-control processes. A dedicated expert group is expected to begin work in 2026.
IOGP said the meeting also made clear that the industry’s digital ambitions are increasingly being translated into equipment and supply-chain processes. Members reviewed Revision 1 of the Material Digital Passport system specification and the Data Hub for IOGP Parts and Equipment, known as HIPE. The revised passport specification adds a Digital Manufacturing Passport, extending traceability beyond the physical part to include the digital product definition, the manufacturing route and the qualification evidence behind it.
Taken together, the Digital Manufacturing Passport and the Material Digital Passport are intended to create a trusted information layer linking qualified digital definitions to physical assets. That, in turn, should improve traceability, repeatability and auditability through the lifecycle. HIPE’s Low Voltage Motor minimum viable product has already been delivered and validated by industry, providing an example of how digitised requirements, standardised specifications and interoperable data can replace document-heavy equipment specification processes.
Participants also agreed that HIPE offers a useful environment in which to test and scale digital passport capabilities, while advancing a broader shift towards machine-readable specifications, digital supply chains and more efficient collaboration between operators, suppliers and engineering contractors. Related discussions around the Industrial Data Ontology showed growing interest in semantic technologies as another route to interoperability and automation.
The broader strategic direction is becoming clearer. IOGP’s refreshed Digital Programme 2026–2028 builds on three years of engagement across member companies and sets out a more coherent view of the work now under way. In practice, that means the industry is moving away from isolated initiatives and towards a more connected model in which standards, data, governance and technology are designed to work together.
That was perhaps the main conclusion of the week in The Hague: digital transformation in energy is no longer just about adopting new tools, but about establishing the trusted, interoperable foundations that allow those tools to produce lasting operational value.
Source: Noah Wire Services
