API PUBL 3855

Abstract

The WELLSITE INFORMATION TRANSFER SPECIFICATION (WITS) is a communications format used for the transfer of a wide variety of wellsite data from one computer system to another. It is presented as a recommended format by which Operating and Service companies involved in the Exploration and Production areas of the Petroleum Industry may exchange data in either an online or batch transfer mode. <br> WITS is a multi-level format which offers an easily achieved entry point with increasingly flexible higher levels. At the lower levels, a fixed format data stream is employed, while, at higher levels, a self-defining customizable data stream is available. <br> A WITS data stream consists of discrete data records. Each data record type is generated independently of other data record types and each has a unique trigger variable and sampling interval. The rig activity usually determines which records are applicable at any given time such that only appropriate data is transmitted. <br> WITS also incorporates the means for a remote computer system to send instructions to the sending system in order to set or change certain parameters, induding the type of data transmitted and the interval for transmission. <br> As well as specifying a format for data transmission, WITS also defines a basic set of record types to which user-defined record types may be added.