As the leading authority globally for publishing standards, the publication of ISO 29001 represents yet another big moment for an industry. For oil and gas organisations, there are several challenges in the form of supply chains and operations, not least in the current economic climate and the onset of a global pandemic. Luckily for the petroleum industry, the International Organization for Standards (ISO), have not stopped working on ISO 29001; the flagship management standard for oil and gas organisations.
ISO 29001, the newest standard for oil and gas organisations outlines the quality management system requirements in the form of products and service supply for actors in the field. The petroleum, petrochemical and natural gas industries can now all benefit from management leadership in the form of the new standard, which is ready to be implemented by any organisation operating with a management system standard (MSS). The new regulation has been designed to work well together with another of the ISO staples; ISO 9001, one that is likely familiar with many oil and gas businesses already. Replacing the previous technical specification ISO/TS 29001, ISO 29001 is a game changer in the way it can work together with other standards to create safe and smart best business practice. Ted Fletcher, Convenor of the Working Group for ISO 29001 claim that the standard builds on previous standard bases, through defining additional requirements to promote standardising of quality requirements with supporting guidance. Jarno Dakhorst, the group Secretary, notes that the underlying principles of the standard are rooted in the increased focus on risk management and performance objectives by many businesses, which provided a necessary platform and reasoning for ISO 29001 to be developed.
As many oil and gas organisations are operating in hazardous environments, it is important that new standards such as ISO 29001 continue to be developed to set the tone for effective management practices. The increased publication of oil and gas standards through digital means is testament to the increased use of mobile devices in the inspection of oil and gas processes and operations in organisations in the field. Many are choosing to use intrinsically safe (IS) devices in the form of mobiles or tablets to carry out site audit, pre-start checks or general safety inspection. With this standard, these paperless inspection solutions just got another weapon in their stacked arsenal of tools. Already many inspection officials are using ISO standards such as ISO 9001 or ISO 45001 to inspect the safety or risk of operations before commencement or just on a regular daily basis. ISO 29001 now provides such personnel with another avenue to report data and conform to the industry standards.
