International Standardization in the Petroleum Industry Status From the Subsea Sector
Authors: Inderberg O. 
Published: October 2008

The use of standards in subsea production systems and how the standards should be developed has been a debate for some time in the industry. The initial standardization work springs from the work performed in the API 17 series of recommended practices and specifications.

The development within this sector of the industry is still happening rapidly since it is a relative new area.

The standardization effort is happening both on national, regional and international levels.

This paper will give status of the international standardization 1S0 work ongoing in the subsea area and give some background for the work. The importance of the work to the industry will be highlighted.

INTRODUCTION

1S0 (the International Standards Organization) is a world wide federation of national standards bodies, at present in the order of 89 countries. This is the world's largest non governmental system for the voluntary industrial and technical cooperation at the international level.

The ISO Technical Committee 67 (TC 67) handling "Materials and equipment for petroleum and natural gas industries" was re-established in 1988. It will be developed 1S0 subsea standards in a WorkGroup 6 (WG 6) under Sub Comity 4 (SC 4) under the (TC 67). These reflect to a large degree the 17 series of API recommended practices and specifications.

The 1S0 standards will be formatted in the 1S0 format and will be more focused on functioned and performance requirements and not include as much tutorial text as someof the API documents.

PRESENT SITUATION

There is ongoing standardization work both on regional and national levels within this area presently. It is in the best interest of the industry to ensure a Coordination of this work and possibly avoid doubling of work. The industry is an international industry and the number of key people with experience within the oil andgas subsea sector is limited. The industry experts need to share the information about the changing standards scene worldwide. The industry has to a large extent relied on API Standards, and these, are changing. Strong regionalpressures, and a needed industry drive for cost reduction have brought this international industry together in 1S0, to develop standards that will cater for the regional needs as well,, and be common for global application. This willminimize the need for company specials and the accompanying cost with such specials.

The main effort is in the North Sea region is the CRINE initiative in UK and the NORSOK initiative in Norway. The NORSOK work has brought forward an initial set of Standards for this sector of the industry. The overallNORSOK set of standards today covering the main areas of offshore industry is a set of 88 standards. The NORSOKstandards are brief documents giving the requirements for a total subsea system and some of the main sub systems. This standards do depend upon the existence of e. g, API specifications for more detailed descriptions of somerequirements for elements like flanges etc.

The CRINE standards are possibly going to be even more focused upon functional requirements than the NORSOK standards.