ISO standards for oil and gas pipelines have not been widely used in the past and typically most countries operate under their own primary pipeline standard. The benefit of course for having one’s own pipeline standard is that the standard is able to be moulded to suit some specific conditions prevalent to that country’s industry.

While there are perceived benefits of having a standard unique to each country, the industry worldwide has recognised that having these differing standards makes it difficult for the players in the pipeline industry to both supply and consult to these many varying standards.

ISO TC67 is an international technical committee devoted to the harmonisation of international standards in the petroleum and natural gas industries. The sub-committee number 2 (SC2) is primarily focused on transmission pipeline systems.

While harmonisation is the primary goal of SC2, the emphasis is also on achieving a high level standard. ISO recognises that there are a number of merits to countries’ unique pipeline standards that should not be overlooked. These merits have been developed through individual research and learnings over the years.

While the standard for pipelines (ISO 13623 ‘Pipeline Transportation Systems’) is the governing standard of this committee, the emphasis is on many of the sub-standards that support pipeline transportation systems. Such standards include linepipe, coatings, cathodic protection, mechanical fittings, as well as pipeline valves and actuators. These standards are developed by forming different working group committees made up of country-nominated ‘experts’ in that particular field. These committees do the primary work developing and improving these standards for international ballot.

Where is the ISO harmonisation process today?

There are 26 countries who are participating members of ISO TC67 SC2, including Germany, France, Italy, the Netherlands (Chair and Secretariat), UK, Brazil, Denmark, Australia, the United States and Canada.

A ‘Plenary Meeting’ is held annually to discuss the progress of these standards, with the last meeting held this year in Sydney, Australia. Attendance at the meeting was strong considering the financial situation worldwide, with a total of 24 delegates in attendance. New participating member countries were also in attendance, being Malaysia and Kazakhstan.

While consensus is sometimes difficult between differing nations, particularly for some key contentious standards, the general status at these meetings is that most groups are well progressed in working toward harmonisation. Standards that have achieved harmonisation include those to do with linepipe and pipeline valves, but it is still a slow process.

Most countries are still committed to their own well-loved primary pipeline standard and have not fully adopted the ISO 13623 as their primary code. However, these countries are gradually incorporating the ISO TC67 subset of pipeline standards where applicable. In turn, these standards are progressing further toward not only harmonisation, but also to being recognised as a standard of integrity to support the pipeline industry worldwide. This ensures that when these ISO standards become more well-known and implemented, they can accommodate the varying unique aspects of these different ‘pipelining’ nations while still demanding a high standard of supply to each industry.

Jennifer Ward is a pipeline engineer at APA Group, an Australian pipeline owner and operator.