ISO/TC 67 has been established to develop and maintain a set of new international standards for the oil and natural gas industries. The aim is that these standards will form the basis for design, construction, procurement, maintenance, etc., for the exploration, production and refining industry on a worldwide basis. This will allow a significant reduction of the large number of various company, industry, national, and regional standards in use today with significant cost savings to the industry. Standards development bodies (SDBs) such as API have offered to ISO/TC 67 a number of Specifications, Standards and Recommended Practices as basis for new international standards. Individual work group experts have contributed specifications, technical reports etc. The new international standards are therefore based on a wide range of relevant documents. As a follow-up of the needs expressed by various parties, the following clarification is made relative to the SDB’s interrelationship with the work of ISO/TC 67. The US primarily through API and other SDBs support the work of ISO/TC 67 by provision of resources and technical input to the work. From US, this input are on behalf of ANSI (American National Standards Institute), which is the US member to ISO. Other national input to ISO/TC 67 work comes via National TAG Organization by the participating nations’ ISO member bodies. The US and other SDBs aim through their national bodies to seek a suitable representation in the ISO/TC 67 committees and work groups, and use these committees and subcommittees to provide input to the ISO work. SDBs seek to influence the new international standards so they are suitable for use locally and in businesses around the world. The standards are built by the consensus process which is vital for the success of any international standard. Finally, the standards are voted to become ISO standards according to the rules of ISO. This process will yield international standards which are further developed than its base documents. Therefore there is no reason to insist on, or maintain, compatibility with a base document that will be replaced by the new ISO standard. Only one set of international materials and equipment standards are required for the oil and gas industry. Regional standards may continue to have currency due to regulatory issues. Naturally each standard could include various performance and quality levels, regional variations etc. to meet the wide ranging needs of the industry. National standards organizations may import the international standards into their own national documents to make these International Standards available on a national basis. National standards organizations may identify them as e.g. API/ANSI/ISO or DIN/ISO standards. One reason for this is to show national acceptance of the ISO standards, another may be to provide national translations, e.g. to the german language. Provided the requirements of the standard is exactly the same as in the original ISO version, the same ISO number may be used, otherwise ‘ISO’ shall not appear in the number reference and another national standard number shall be shown. ISO standards adopted by CEN will now show the same number as for the ISO standard, e.g. EN/ISO 9000. The key to success of this worldwide, oil and gas standardisation effort is one set of words, i.e., one set of good, usable, international standards, that have been developed through consensus building, and that meet the worldwide needs of the industry. The goal is to avoid duplication of work at a national or regional level and assure the oil and natural gas exploration and development industry the best international standards. |