API Offshore Structures Standards: Changing Times
Authors: Wisch David J. , Mangiavacchi Andrea 
Published: October 2008

Two instrumental series of events in the past several years have provided the impetus for API Subcommittee 2 (SC 2) to action a new strategy for the API Series 2 standards. Beginning in the early 1990's, with the formation of ISO TC 67 / SC 7 and subsequent development of the ISO 19900 series of standards for offshore structures, API started to map a long term strategy for the API documents, while actively participating in the preparation of the ISO suite. As a part of the Gulf of Mexico infrastructure response to the hurricanes Ivan, Katrina and Rita, API chartered the Hurricane Evaluation and Assessment Team (HEAT) to assess adequacy of existing standards and provide recommendations for modifying provisions in the standards. While aggressively pursuing in 2006 and 2007 the publication of six documents related to hurricane issues, and in consideration of the progressive publication of the ISO 19900 series documents. API SC 2 leadership developed a strategy to restructure the content of its standards to align more closely with the ISO document portfolio subdivided in general standards and the structural form standards, and providing thus a more straight forward approach in making updates to the technical provisions impacting multiple standards.

The ISO Offshore Structures suite of standards consists of more than a dozen documents organized in two categories, first, guidance and requirements for technical disciplines common to more than one functional concept and secondly, guidance and requirements for the various concepts. With more than half the standards now published and nearly 80% to be published by 2009, baseline practices for many offshore structural facilities will utilize these standards in the near future. In fact, following the publication of the ISO standards, many regions of the world are expected to adopt them as a basis for offshore platform design. This paper outlines the plan to be implemented over the next few years concerning the restructuring sequence, alignment and merging of the ISO standards and API standards, and highlights benefits and challenges of this strategy.

Introduction

The development of offshore structures standards is an interesting and complex blend of pushing new technical boundaries, reacting to the consequences of some significant natural events and aligning with economic and safety initiatives. In the case of the offshore structure standards, some of the work has piggy-backed upon the more general standards initiatives while other activities are more specifically related to offshore conditions, e.g. damage due to hurricanes passing over a number of offshore facilities.

Standards have often become a focal point of interest following a defining event, such as Hurricane Hilda in the 1960's, or in conjunction with the time when a product or industry has headed toward commodity status, as illustrated by the initiation of the API standards activities in the 1920's. In the past half-century, standards have often been driven, either directly or indirectly, by legislative or regulatory directives. The offshore structures standards were event driven in the beginning and both event and legislative/economic driven today.

The path to having a single set of globally applicable standards is an outgrowth of the political and legislative process establishing the European Union. This " event?? drove what were initially regional standards with some global applicability to collaboratively bringing regional efforts into a single coherent direction. Though regional activity still exists today in the European Union, much of it is coordinated to produce a single set of standards.