Companies Take Tutorial on Oil and Gas Certification
BOARDMAN, Ohio – David Hughes can't understand why a two-day introductory course on how companies go about obtaining the American Petroleum Institute's certification to do business with the oil and gas industry wasn't packed.
"Right now is the time to get in on this," said Hughes, president of Specialty Fab Inc. in North Lima. "A lot of people who are going to try to get into this work later are going to find out that they're nine months to a year behind because they weren't here."
Hughes reports that his company does considerable work related to the oil and gas business, but as a subcontractor. To expand into doing direct business with oil and gas exploration companies, Specialty Fab needs API certification. "We know the importance of what certification means," he says, noting his company possesses ISO 9000 and ISO 9001: 2008 certifications.
API Spec Q1 certification -- the quality standard that measures the products and performance of manufacturers supplying the oil and gas industry -- is practically mandatory for any company doing business directly with the industry, emphasized Ed Durante, president of Texas International Engineering Consultants, Houston.
"It's the baseline criterion for manufacturers that produce products used in the oilfields," Durante says.
The Youngstown/Warren Regional Chamber invited Durante to conduct a two-day seminar on what it takes to earn API certification. The course centered on API's quality policy, customer focus, planning, management review, design and development as well as how to go about integrating API-approved control monitoring and measuring systems into the manufacturing process.
Nine representatives from eight companies – six of them from the five-county region – attended the seminar, which kicked off yesterday and concludes today at the Holiday Inn-Boardman.
Eric Planey, chamber vice president of international business attraction, relates the class is geared toward manufacturers looking to play a part in the oil and gas supply chain, as drillers expand their reach in Ohio's Utica shale.
"It's really meant for a company that manufactures a product, that refurbishes products, does machine work on products and contractors that do assembly on pad or onsite," Planey adds.
Another certification, API Q2, is in development for the service industry.
Adopting API systems within a company means that the manufacturer has the capability to produce components to industry specifications, such as wellheads, couplings and large derrick substructures, Durante says.
Implementing such a system requires validation of a product's design, personnel training and production methods according to API standards, and once these processes are put in place, an application is completed and sent to Washington, D.C., for approval.
The process is then audited by API to verify that the company has the capability to manufacture the products properly. Once it passes the inspection, then the API monogram can be used alongside the company's name.
The time it takes for a company to obtain API credentials depends largely on the nature of the business and its products, Durante states. "It varies by size and the complexity of the products, but typically it's anywhere from six months to a year," he says.
Achieving API certification is more critical than ever for companies that want to do business with the oil and gas industries, especially in the wake of the BP Deepwater Horizon disaster in the Gulf of Mexico in 2010.
"Mostly oil companies require specific types of products to be API monogrammed," he notes. "It puts a system in place, takes information, formalizes it, documents it and creates efficiencies in organizations."
For Specialty Fab's Hughes, API certification means his business can expand its service to the industry.
"It allows us to target more vendors and future customers," he says. "It gives us a very solid foundation to begin with."
Copyright 2013 The Business Journal, Youngstown, Ohio.
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