Development of the OpenSpirit Application Framework began in 1997 as a project funded by the OpenSpirit Alliance, a consortium comprised of oil companies and software vendors seeking to address inefficiencies and high costs related to the poor integration capabilities of E&P applications and their related data stores.

With research and development funded by consortium members, a multidisciplinary team of technologists delivered a prototype of an application integration framework in 1999. While it was met with great support among consortium members and the E&P community as a whole, it became apparent that to best serve the industry, it would need to be offered by a commercial entity responsive to market needs.

The OpenSpirit Corporation, based near Houston in Stafford, Texas, began operations in July 2000 as an independent software company focused on providing integration solutions for upstream applications and data. The OpenSpirit application integration framework allows interoperability between multiple vendors' applications and data.

Giving energy companies the ability to manage and access sub-surface data regardless of application or platform remains the driving force behind OpenSpirit.