ONG-IT: Superior GIS based Pipeline Information Management Systems

Utilizing geo-database capabilities and GIS, the oil and gas industry can today safely operate and manage pipelines—the energy backbones of the world. With exceptional expertise in GIS, ONG-IT, an Austria-based firm with offices in Abu Dhabi and Cairo, offers Pipeline Information Management Systems (PIMS) for comprehensive data management during design, construction, and operation. Through PIMS, ONG-IT provides customers situational awareness and decision support based on technical documentation and monitoring with respect to critical infrastructure projects. “With accurate and reliable documentation of pipelines and their related assets, oil and gas organizations are able to build apt technical documentation within an enterprise GIS,” states Karim Elhanafi, Founder and General Manager, ONG-IT. Based on the pipeline asset’s geospatial and attributive-data, further records in respect of In-Line Inspection (ILI) data, pipe book data, cathodic protection and visual inspection, maintenance and repair, and potential documentation of future pipelines can be documented.

The company spatially enabled the Pipeline Open Data Standard (PODS) to store the huge amounts of information and data being generated during the lifecycle of a pipeline. To make the most of the spatially enabled PODS data model, ONG-IT has registered all feature classes within an Esri environment. “We use geographic information systems in order to meet the requirements of our customers and assure advanced data and information management of assets. The geo-database represents a digital copy of the real assets out there,” says Elhanafi.

The company offers a customized WEB GIS front-end for accessing pipeline information and supporting daily workflows in an effective way, facilitating sharing with customers and partners. It is imperative to have users and their roles defined to grant read-write or read-only access to the stored information and data. The company’s PIMS, based on WebOffice, offering assures sharing of updated information among the project stakeholders—irrespective of their geographic location and without any data redundancies. “Modules are distributed via ONG-IT’s WEB GIS platform and is secured through data encryption,” he adds.