Australia’s oil and gas industry participates in global standards work

Australia’s Oil and Gas Industry is participating in global standards work through ME-092 — Australia’s mirror committee to ISO TC-67.

ME-092 was established by Standards Australia in 2017 following a proposal from NERA, with the support of the Australian oil and gas industry, to mirror the International Standards Organisation (ISO) Committee for oil and gas industry standards, TC-67.

The foremost objectives of NERA’s proposal were to support improved productivity, facilitate global trade and deliver significant cost savings and efficiencies for the oil and gas operators and their supply chains, whilst ensuring the highest standards for safety and environmental performance.

ME-092 aims to adopt ISO standards under TC-67 as Australian Standards. As at November 2019, ME-092 is getting closer to alignment with TC-67, which will help to make the mirror committee more effective.

Aligning ME-92 with TC 67

ISO / TC-67’s scope is the standardisation of the materials, equipment and offshore structures used in the drilling, production, transport by pipelines and processing of liquid and gaseous hydrocarbons within the petroleum, petrochemical and natural gas industries. 

ME-092 mirrors this scope and sub-committees, which includes a liaison link with the previously established mirror committee ME-038 Petroleum Pipelines to TC-67 sub-committee (SC2) ‘Pipelines transportation systems’. This liaison enables co-operation between the two work programs and priorities. 

ME-092 has already established Australian mirror Working Groups for Conformity Assessment (WG2) and Reliability Engineer (WG2) and is looking develop a new group for Materials (WG7) and Coatings (WG11).

Additionally, ME-092 has established a sub-committee to (SC7) ‘Offshore structures’ and is currently finalising further sub-committees, priorities and a local work program. These developments have enabled Australian representatives to participate at the International level in all these areas and on the overall TC-67 Management Committee.

The immediate aim is the adoption of issued ISO oil and gas standards under Standards Australia and, where appropriate, facilitating workshops with industry and regulators to achieve consistent application of standards to be applied to Australian oil and gas activities. The first focus will be on standards related to offshore facilities.

Supporting the global harmonisation of standards

In November 2018, NERA and Woodside Energy hosted a four-day International Standards Showcase, which gathered delegates from 16+ countries to participate in the annual International Oil and Gas Producers Standards Committee (IOGP) meeting and the 38th ISO TC-67 Plenary Meeting with ME-092 participation.

The successful showcase celebrated Australia’s role in unlocking a massive US $60bn productivity prize for the global oil and gas industry identified by the World Economic Forum. An ISO communique on the plenary events in Perth can be found here.

In May 2019, NERA was pleased to welcome the establishment of the ME-093 Hydrogen Technologies Committee, which mirrors the ISO Technical Committee 197 to help ensure that the option to transition to a low-carbon economy by the utilisation of hydrogen can be achieved safely and the economic, environmental and social benefits of the new industry fully realised. Read more about it here.

NERA looks forward to continuing to support communication and collaboration to further standards harmonisation and unlock future opportunities for Australia, ensuring that our country remains globally competitive through the transition to low carbon emissions.

For more information or if you would like to get involved please contact Miranda Taylor.