Petrochem/Utilities Industry Trends

Focusing on Offshore Standards: Q&A with Bruce Reynolds

Issue Table of Contents

Ensuring Offshore Safety Focusing on Offshore Standards: Q&A with Bruce Reynolds Operating in Sensitive Offshore Environments Deepwater Exploration & Safety Standards and Related Publications

Bruce Reynolds has more than 27 years of experience in the petroleum industry. He has worked with the American Petroleum Institute (API) for over ten years, and has served as chairman of the API Sub-Committee on Drilling Equipment. He is now in his second year as chairman of API’s Executive Committee on Standardization of Oilfield Equipment and Materials.

Q: What is the focus of your committee?
This committee concentrates on standards for oil equipment and materials used in upstream drilling and production operations. We currently maintain about 175 different standards that are all on five-year renewal cycles and continue to develop new standards to meet the needs of the oil and gas industry. One of the key things we’ve been doing for the past 10 years is trying to increase the application of API standards in the international arena.

API is comprised of 400 U.S.-based companies working primarily U.S. policy and advocacy issues. For the last 75 years or so in oil and gas operations, U.S. needs primarily influenced the standards development efforts in API. With the continued globalization of our industry and the increasingly challenging environments that we must explore and produce in, the need for international standards has grown well beyond the early U.S. borders within which API was focused. Many different standards have emerged that address similar equipment and material applications and our focus now is on building more consistency between these standards around the world. In the mid to late 80s, through the efforts of the American National Standards Institute, there was an agreement made to jointly develop international standards. API, being the worldwide leading source for oil and gas standards at the time, was called on to work with the International Organization for Standards, or ISO, to fulfill this agreement.

Q: What do you think some of the benefits are of moving towards a more
international focus?
The key benefit we’re after is trying to do anything that’s going to improve the safety and reliability of the equipment and materials that we use in upstream oil and gas operations. Generally speaking, the more times you can build something the same way, the more you benefit from learning what works well and what doesn’t work and making the necessary corrections. So if we can take the similar equipment or material requirement, then design and build it the same way for worldwide applications, we have a much better opportunity to improve reliability and the quality of that equipment or material.

Q: What are some key challenges your committee is facing?
With respect to the upstream equipment and materials standards, which is the focus of our committee, the key challenge that this group is facing is taking these 175 or so standards, putting them in an order of priority relative to benefits to the industry, and then working with the international community, through the ISO, to try and enhance their global applicability. If manufacturers can build equipment to the same standards and same specifications multiple times, we have the benefit of being able to learn how the design and manufacturing standards are influencing the performance of the particular equipment or material. From this, we can make changes to the standards to improve its reliability. This, in turn, has a direct correlation with the safety of the industry. Plus, being able to design and manufacture a piece of equipment or material to the same standard repeatedly makes it less of a special order, and more of a commodity, which in addition to improving safety and reliability helps lower costs in our industry.

Q: How are these standards used by the industry?
In addition to the safety and reliability benefits already mentioned, other key benefits to our industry include cost reduction and inventory management enhancements. Many of the oil and gas producers no longer have to retain large internal staffs to develop unique design and quality assurance specifications because we’ve been able to adopt an industry standard that reflects the knowledge of all the key participants, not just the single company. Nor do they have to stock as much specially designed equipment and materials because the manufacturers are able to more readily produce and stock equipment and materials that meet a broad range of needs versus a single company’s unique need.

Many manufacturers who participate in the development of the standards are certified by the API monogram program. This is an audit-based quality assurance program used to determine if the manufacturer is applying the manufacturing quality requirements that are included in API standards. The benefits of the API quality program are realized by everyone in the industry as they serve to increase the overall quality of the design and manufacturing processes, leading to less failures and lower total costs for the manufacturer.

Q: So companies setting up operations for deepwater exploration can purchase equipment that has the API stamp of approval?
It’s their choice on whether they want to purchase it or not, but I would say that where standards are available, the vast majority of equipment being built is based on the standards. And companies are taking advantage of purchasing equipment from manufacturers who are API-certified. At present within the API monogram program we have over 1,500 certified manufacturers in 65 countries.

The number is growing all the time. These are companies that have applied to use the monogram in their pursuit of designing and manufacturing equipment and materials to API standards and have been audited by the API quality program auditors to ensure their processes meet the requirements of the particular API standards. They are then certified to use the monogram for that particular type of equipment or material that they are manufacturing. The API monogram certification is many times a requirement set by the companies involved in purchasing equipment and materials for use in deepwater.

Q: Is your committee working on new standards that address safety concerns?
In a way, most of the standards are related to safety because reliable performance of equipment and materials is directly linked to avoiding incidents. So the list would be pretty long for the number of things we’re working on that address safety. With our current inventory of 175 standards in upstream, there are probably one-third or more that are significantly impacting the reliability of the equipment and materials that are being used in the industry and therefore having a direct impact on safety.

API also has a committee developing “Drilling and Production Operations” standards that has significantly focused its efforts on deepwater operating procedure safety over the past few years. This committee has recently published Recommended Practice 70, Security for Offshore Oil and Natural Gas Operations.