Executive summary

A comprehensive set of international standards for a wide
selection of vital oil and gas industry materials, equipment
and offshore structures is emerging from the international
standards organization, ISO. These standards are primarily
the responsibility of ISO Technical Committee 67. They are
developed using a consensus process that includes more
than a thousand O&G industry experts from around the
globe and an international review and approval process.
Over 100 ISO standards have now been issued, including
21 revised or new publications in 2003. A further 15 are
planned for revision/publication this year. Many of these
standards are based on familiar API specifications and
other industry documents. IEC is also publishing impor-
tant standards for the offshore industry.
The international O&G industry and national standardi-
zation organizations support these standards for world-
wide applications. American, Chinese, European and other
standards bodies are now adopting them for regional and
national use. For industry, they will reduce costs and deliv-
ery time, and facilitate trade across national borders. For
regulators, they offer support for goal-setting and func-
tional regulations, while achieving higher levels of safety
through better design.
These standards are now being implemented widely in
oil and gas provinces around the world, replacing existing
industry, regional and national standards, and eliminating
or reducing the need for company-specific specifications.
For details, see inside.

China adopts ISO/TC67 standards

China is continuing to develop its economy and tech- transfer 100 ISO standards, adopt 100 foreign advanced
nology. Technical standards of all aspects are playing an corporate standards, integrate 100 Chinese petroleum
increasingly important role in this development, including industrial standards, and develop 50 Chinese-English
the adoption of ISO standards. Currently nearly one-half bilingual standards. ISO/TC67 published standards are
of China’s 19278 national standards are reportedly based central points of this strategy.
on international standards. China’s goal is to have more At the 2003 ISO/TC67 annual meeting, CPSC an-
of its national standards based on international standards nounced its full participation in its activities and most of
within 5 years. ISO/TC67 standards will be simultaneously reviewed and
Guided by the China state policy of adopting interna- transferred as China national standards or petroleum in-
tional standards and foreign advanced corporate stand- dustrial standards. A workshop of international standardi-
ards, the Chinese petroleum industry started as early zation will be held in April 2004 by CPSC with dedicated
as 1990 in sending representatives to participate in the input and support from the OGP Standard Committee.
standardization activities of ISO/TC67. For over ten years,
it has been a goal of the Chinese petroleum industry to
link directly with ISO/TC67. All contacts are processed
through the Chinese Petroleum Standardization Technical
Committee (CPSC), which is authorized by the Chinese
government to administer the petroleum standardization
in China and to work with international and foreign stand-
ards. CPSC covers all sectors of oil and gas exploration
and production, pipeline transportation, oilfield construc-
tion, trade and commerce, equipment and material, safety
and environmental protection.
Mr Qin Changyi (Terry), Vice Chief Engineer of Tubular
Goods Research Centre of China National Petroleum Cor-
poration, reports that some twenty ISO/TC67 published
standards besides its large program of standard develop-
ment, have been transferred to China national (GB) or
industrial standards (SY). About another forty are in the
process of transfer.
Along with the adoption of more ISO standards as
the Chinese national standards and petroleum indus-
trial standards, the Chinese petroleum industry planned
a strategy in three phases. With the accomplishment of
such a strategy, the Chinese petroleum industry shall

—2004: Standards Bulletin No. 5—

American adoption
As a result of close operation between API & ISO, API has adopted and co-
published many of the ISO standards shown above. See the API Catalogue at
www.api.org. Many more ISO standards are in the process of being adopted.
European acceptance
The goal of the Oil & Gas Industry has now been well accepted by the Euro-
pean Community, and most of the New Work Items of ISO TC67 and most of
the ISO standards are now part of the European collection of the CEN TC12
and a number of other committees (CEN TC69; ECISS TC29 etc.).
Revision of EN ISO standards which are more and more numerous are now
automatically reintegrated into the CEN TC12 programme as soon as voted
at ISO level for revision. The European collection now includes 59 EN ISO
standards and 3 EN (ISO modified for pipeline standards with exclusion of
gas supply industries).
Russian interest
Last year Russia established a new federal law on technical regulating which
opens up for use of international standards and a wider industry participation
in the Russian standards work.
OGP Standards Committee arranged a workshop in Moscow in November
last year to discuss international standardisation and promote the use of IEC
and ISO standards for the Russian oil & gas industry.
The workshop was well attended by some 80 participants from the oil & gas
industry, institutes, authorities etc. From the Russian side it was informed that
the GOST state standards will become voluntary national standards and when
making the new set of standards, priority would be given to using available
international standards. See presentations on the OGP website.
STANDARDS CAN BE OBTAINED FROM YOUR NATIONALSTANDARDS BODY - CHECK THEIR WEBSITE FOR ELECTRONIC COPIES!
Quick revision of ISO 10423
Late in 2002 a number of users of the 400 page standard for wellhead
and christmas tree equipment, also co-branded as 18th edition of API 6A/ISO
10423 and EN ISO 10423:2001, identified errors in the text, tables and fig-
ures of the standard. The majority of the errors originated from conversions
between the US customary units and the SI units (the standard contains both
unit systems). These were collated in May 2003, the corrections were agreed
and backtyped. A revision of the standard was sent for international ballot in
August 2003 and published in December 2003. Both API and CEN have with-
drawn their co-branded versions, and are balloting the ISO revision for their
next edition of the co-branded standard. Appreciation is shown to all involved
in the international industry cooperation that led to this quick solution.
International cooperation bears fruit
ISO 15156 Materials for use in H2S-containing environments in oil and gas
production is published.
Hydrogen sulphide (H2S) is a killer gas that can cause cracking corrosion
and sudden failure of metallic materials used in equipment for “sour” oil and
gas production. With the publication of all three parts of ISO 15156, the new
global standard for the qualification and/or selection of metallic materials,
suitable for use in such environments, is complete. It results from a seven-year
cooperative effort by the international experts of ISO, NACE, EFC and CEN.
ISO 15156 has been adopted by NACE and when sold in the USA will be
known as NACE MR0175 / ISO 15156. It has also been adopted by CEN as
EN ISO 15156.
The ISO 15156 Maintenance Panel, established by ISO and NACE in April
2003, helped to manage and complete the transition from NACE MR0175-
2003 to ISO 15156 and it will continue to provide answers to inquiries con-
continued on back page…

About OGP
The International Association of Oil & Gas pro-
ducers (OGP) encompasses most of the world’s
leading publicly traded, private and state-owned oil
& gas companies, oil & gas associations and major
upstream service companies. OGP members oper-
ate in more that 80 different countries and produce
more than half the world’s oil and about one third
of its gas.
The association was formed in 1974 to develop
effective communications between the upstream
industry and an increasingly complex network of
international regulators.
An essential part of OGP’s mission is to represent the interests of the
upstream industry to international regulators and legislators.
OGP also helps members achieve continuous improvement in safety,
health and environmental performance, and in the engineering and
operation of upstream ventures. OGP’s extensive international mem-
bership brings with it a wealth of know-how, data and experience. OGP
committees and task forces manage the exchange and dissemination
of this knowledge. OGP additionally promotes awareness of Corporate
Responsibility issues such as transparency of revenues and combatting
corruption.
The OGP Standards Committee monitors, co-ordinates and influences
the development of international standards to meet the needs of OGP
members. There is close communication between the national associa-
tions, particularly the API. The Committee also monitors and influences
European standards under CEN. Information on the activities of the
OGP Standards Committee and other OGP committees, including freely
downloadable publications produced by the OGP, can be accessed via
the OGP website at www.ogp.org.uk.
OGP position on standards
OGP has been a catalyst for change in the industry’s approach to
standards and strongly supports the internationalisation of key stand-
ards used by the petroleum and natural gas industries.
OGP’s position on standards is:
• development and use of ISO and IEC international standards should
be promoted;
• standards should be simple and fit for purpose;
• international standards should be used without modification wher-
ever possible;
• development of standards should be based on a consensus of
need;
• duplication of effort should be avoided;
• company specifications should be minimised and written, where
possible, as functional requirements;
• “users” should be represented on standards work groups.
The adoption of this approach is expected to minimise non techni-
cal barriers to trade, enable more efficient worldwide operations, and
improve the technical integrity of equipment, materials, and offshore
structures used by the petroleum and natural gas industries.
—2004: Standards Bulletin No. 5—
…continuation of “International cooperation bears fruit” from centre spread
cerning interpretation of the new standard. The Panel is also respon-
sible, together with its peer review group, for the formulation for ISO
approval of proposals for amendment to ensure the document remains
up-to-date. More information can be found on the new standard, its
background and its maintenance at: www.nace.org
This successful co-operation of ISO, NACE, EFC and CEN has pro-
vided a global standard that will benefit all involved in the supply and
safe use of materials in “sour” oil and gas production.
Quality management system for the
oil and natural gas industry
A successful partnership between ISO and the international oil and
natural gas industry has resulted in the publication of a new technical
specification for implementing ISO 9001-based quality management
systems (QMS).
ISO/TS 29001:2003, Petroleum, petrochemical and natural gas in-
dustries – Sector-specific quality management systems – Requirements
for product and service supply organizations, specifies supplementary
requirements that are envisaged to become the common and unique
basis for the industry’s QMS requirements worldwide, thereby helping
to avoid multiple systems that would, if each needs to be certified,
require multiple audits.
A key element in the assurance of appropriate products being sup-
plied is the QMS operated by the goods supplier and service contrac-
tor. The experience of previous editions of API Q1 has proven that
requirements additional to ISO 9001:2000 are necessary to provide
assurance with respect to quality of products and services on a consist-
ent and global basis.
The new document was the result of a collaboration between API and
ISO/TC 67. The QMS part of API Q1 is now an adoption and identical
to ISO/TS 29001.
ISO/TS 29001 is available for use by manufacturers of oil industry
equipment and materials (upstream and downstream), service provid-
ers to the oil and gas industry, purchasers of equipment, materials and
services and organizations who could use the standard for assessments
and certification.
CAPTURE THE VALUE ADDED!
MAKE USE OF WELL OVER 100 NEW ISO AND IEC STANDARDS FOR YOUR OWN BENEFIT
FOR UP-TO-DATE NEWS, SEE
WWW.TC67.NET
This bulletin is developed by the OGP Standards Committee which
includes members from: API, BP, ConocoPhillips, DONG, ENI/Agip,
ExxonMobil, ISO, Mærsk, Hydro, Petrobras, Petro-Canada, Repsol-YPF,
Shell, Total, & WEG.
OGP, 209-215 Blackfriars Road, London SE1 8NL, UK
Telephone: +44 (0)20 7633 0272 | Fax: +44 (0)20 7633 2350
web: www.ogp.org.uk | email contact: don.smith@ogp.org.uk