Steven Poruban
Senior Staff Writer
Oil & Gas Journal
HOUSTON, Apr. 30 -- The increased globalization of the oil and gas industry has brought the need for cost-effective, international safety and environmental standards.
An industry panel debated the successes and failures of international standards Monday at the Offshore Technology Conference in Houston. Panelists comprised representatives from operating companies, service and supply firms, and governmental regulatory bodies.
Currently, the International Organization of Standardization Technical Committee 67 (ISO/TC67) is charged with the preparation of standards for materials, equipment, and offshore structures for the oil and gas industry. ISO/TC67 is represented by 380 oil and gas companies, 402 venders and suppliers, and 168 other certifying and regulatory entities. The group -- which published 22 standards in 2000 and has issued 22 so far this year -- aims to publish 13 additional guidelines before yearend. During the years 1993-99, ISO/TC67 only published 38 international standards covering some of the main elements of oil and gas production.
Industry voices
The process of bringing a standard to life can be "glacially slow," admitted Neil Reeve with Shell Global Solutions International. He hopes that will change in the near future. "There's no reason why it can't be a quick process," he commented.
One of the biggest challenges remaining for ISO/TC67 is the actual implementation of the existing standards, Reeve said. Shell has incorporated some of the standards within the company, making additions where warranted to customize the standard to the company's needs.
From a service and supply company's point of view, the strength of creating an international set of standards is the ability to capitalize on the lessons industry has learned over the years, noted Houston-based Cooper Cameron Corp.'s Gary Devlin. Also, such standards would create "safe interchangeable products, sound technical practices, and improved product and service reliability and performance," he said.
And Devlin added that a set of international standards would, by default, encourage advancements in technology.
Echoing Shell's Reeve, Devlin agreed that the process of breathing life into each standard can be a "painfully slow process" in some cases. "And, the work agenda is very crowded right now," he added, which translates into the group being pressed for resources.
One idea for offering some incentive to speed the process of developing standards, Devlin suggested, is to place a dollar amount on the cost savings brought about by the standards, once implemented.
Graham Bagnell, with drilling contractor Rowan Cos. Inc., Houston, said that despite the hurdles left to surmount in creating standards, ISO/TC67 should be reveling to some extent in its successes to date. "The benefits go way beyond cost savings," he said, noting that overall worker morale improves when a standard proves to be beneficial toward workers' safety.
Taf Powell, head of the offshore division of the UK Health and Safety Executive, noted that due to the limitation of resources in many cases, the process of creating international standards should be "proactive, rather than reactive."
And Powell, like Cooper Cameron's Devlin, added that the development of standards inevitably contributes to technological advancement.
Some shortfalls remain in the standardization process, Powell said. The reluctance to deviate from American Petroleum Institute standards, for one, remains to be a hurdle. Numerous current API standards have been used as templates for working over ISO/TC67 versions. Like many of the other panelists, Powell also is concerned with the length of time to issue a standard: "Will they stay current?" he asked.
Resources were another major concern of the panelists, to which Reeve said, "For those things that matter, resources appear." He noted an example of a service company that was not very involved in the standardization process until one standard had made 40% of their inventory out of spec; the company shortly afterward became involved in the standardization process, he said.
