I attended an American Petroleum Institute (API) Equipment Standards meeting recently and was impressed with the number of years of experience and knowledge in the room as different issues were being discussed. This thought also occurred to me–“How many people are really using this wealth of information?” With the everyday workload for most people in industry it is difficult to set aside much time for reading a standard or recommended practice even if its important to your job. However, if you consider the knowledge and potential learning available to you and your team in these documents its worth taking note; particularly if your new to industry.
Several API documents were written in response to a major industry incidents and were put in place to prevent similar incidents– IF followed. However, if we don’t know what is in the document then how do we learn from our mistakes. Unfortunately, that continues to be a common theme in the oil and gas industry that we don’t do a good job of learning from each other’s mistakes. I think this is vitally important as many highly experienced employees reach retirement age and turn over the reigns to the younger less experienced employees.
If you look at most of the smaller companies that don’t have the inhouse subject matter experts available to them, the knowledge related to any topic must be learn the hard way through mistakes. However, a much better and more proactive approach is to learn via training or self-teaching. The following list is a small sample of API documents/subjects available on Fixed Equipment and Rotating Equipment. The overall list of API documents available for learning in a vast range of industry topics is much larger.
- API 510 – Pressure Vessel Inspection Code
- API 570 – Piping Inspection Code
- API RP 571 – Damage Mechanisms Affecting Fixed Equipment
- API RP 572 – Inspection of Pressure Vessels
- API RP 573 – Inspection of Fired Boilers and Heaters
- API RP 574 – Inspection Practices for Piping System Components
- API RP 575 – Inspection of Atmospheric and Low-Pressure Storage Tanks
- API RP 576 – Inspection of Pressure Relieving Devices
- API RP 577 – Welding Inspection and Metallurgy
- API RP 578 – Material Verification Program for New and Existing Alloy Piping
- API RP 579-1 – Recommended Practice for Fitness-For-Service
- API RP 580 – Risk-Based Inspection
- API RP 582 – Supplementary Welding Guidelines
- API Std 653 – Standard for Tank Inspection, Repair, Alteration, and Reconstruction
- API Std 610 – Centrifugal Pumps
- API Std 611 – General Purpose Steam Turbines
- API Std 613 – Special Purpose Gear Units for Petroleum, Chemical and Gas Industry
- API Std 614 – Lubrication, Shaft-sealing, and Control-oil Systems and Auxiliaries
- API Std 616 – Gas Turbines for the Petroleum, Chemical and Gas Industry Services
- API Std 617 – Axial and Centrifugal Compressors and Expander-compressors
- API Std 618 – Reciprocating Compressors for Petroleum, Chemical, and Gas Industry
- API Std 619 – Rotary-type Positive Displacement Compressors
- API Std 673 – Centrifugal Fans for Petroleum, Chemical, and Gas Industry Services
- API Std 674 – Positive Displacement Pumps-Reciprocating
- API Std 675 – Positive Displacement Pumps-Controlled Volume
- API Std 676 – Positive Displacement Pumps-Rotary
- API Std 677 – General-purpose Gear Units for Petroleum, Chemical and Gas Industry
- API Std 681 – Liquid Ring Vacuum Pumps and Compressors
- API Std 682 – Pumps-Shaft Sealing Systems for Centrifugal and Rotary Pumps
- API RP 687 – Recommended Practice for Rotor Repair
If you have a problem or a topic that you’re in need of additional information, there is likely an API document available related to the subject. Although difficult from a time management perspective, we must take the time for learning for ourselves and our employees.
Actions to Take:
1) Complete a quick review the API documents above and identify where additional knowledge might be warranted.
2) Do you have access to the API standard? If not, discuss with your supervisor.
3) Consider that you or one of your employees present an overview of an API document or small section of a document for their area during a weekly meeting. The employee and those present will all learn from this type of exercise.
4) Consider attending an API event.