Digital Feature: How consensus-based standards are shaping the future of oil and natural gas worldwide

With its cross-border projects, interconnected supply chains and technical systems spanning continents, the global oil and natural gas industry is indeed complex. And while managing safety, sustainability, efficiency and reliability across these diverse environments has never been simple, the challenges continue to grow as expectations rise and technologies evolve.

It is in this context that companies, governments and regulators are increasingly embracing a common set of voluntary consensus standards to support the global harmonization of operations and equipment. These best practices are developed through collaboration between public and private sector experts.

The American Petroleum Institute (API) has been a global leader in this effort, developing and maintaining more than 800 standards that span all segments of the oil and natural gas industry. API standards are widely used by companies and are also referenced by foreign governments to help shape regulatory frameworks around the world.

From West Africa to South America to the Middle East and to Asia, on offshore platforms and across national infrastructures, API standards are adopted as national standards, referenced in national laws and integrated into regulatory systems. They inform design, strengthen safety systems and support operational consistency across nations.

This growing alignment reflects a shared industry understanding that a consensus-based standards development process involving thousands of stakeholders is essential to advancing safety, efficiency and sustainability in today’s energy landscape.

That need and the momentum behind it are captured in API’s latest API Standards: International Usage Report (Report), which provides detailed insights into where API standards are being referenced around the world and what that means for the future of our industry.

The Case for Global Standards. The need for globally harmonized standards isn’t new. For decades, our industry has operated under a patchwork of national and regional specifications. Some countries maintained well-established frameworks while others relied on legacy documents or defaulted to systems used by their trading partners. This approach worked in a less connected world. Today, it doesn’t.

In today’s global economy where infrastructure and supply chains cross borders regularly, varying national requirements can delay projects, drive up costs, impede trade and introduce unnecessary risk. And as operations scale and diversify, the inefficiencies of a fractured standards environment become even harder to ignore.

That’s why the movement toward consistent standards has gained such momentum. API standards, for example, are developed by committees made up of a balance of interests including operators, manufacturers, service suppliers, government representatives, researchers and technical experts. API is

accredited as a developer of national standards by the American National Standards Institute (ANSI), ensuring the process is transparent, open to public comment and designed to ensure broad alignment.

By the Numbers. The report identifies 1,395 references to API standards across 40 international markets, a 20% increase since the last reporting cycle in 2022. These 40 markets span Europe, the Americas, Central Asia and the Middle East, the Indo-Pacific and Sub-Saharan Africa. Countries like Indonesia, Canada, Brazil and India rank among the top adopters, reflecting both geographic breadth and regulatory maturity. API standards are also referenced 379 times in International Organization for Standardization (ISO) publications, further reinforcing their role in global standards harmonization.

The referenced API standards extend across all industry segments, with the adoption breakdown as follows:

• 37% in upstream activities
• 29% in downstream operations
• 17% in midstream and transportation
• 17% in areas such as petroleum measurement, fire safety and environmental protection

Why the Shift Is Happening. A closer look reveals several converging trends behind this increasing adoption of API standards. First, many emerging energy markets are actively modernizing their regulatory environments and infrastructure. To that end, Ghana and Guyana (among many others) have signed memorandums of understanding with API to support their voluntary adoption of internationally recognized standards.

Second, national regulators are increasingly seeking to ensure safe operations. Indonesia’s Ministry of Energy and Mineral Resources issued a regulation in 2018 allowing the use of international standards, including API standards, where national standards are unavailable. And India’s energy industry references dozens of API standards across their frameworks.

Third, multinational operators, suppliers and regulators are seeking greater consistency across borders. Harmonized standards reduce economic inefficiencies and ease regulatory compliance, critical advantages in complex projects that span jurisdictions.

The Proof is in the Process. Part of what makes API standards so widely accepted is the breadth of their scope (industry stakeholders are continually assessing evolving needs) and the rigor of their development, carried out through a consensus-based process grounded in openness, balance and due process.

Each standard is developed or revised by a working group composed of industry experts across disciplines, including more than 2,000 participants based outside of the United States, bringing valuable international perspectives to the process. API standards development undergoes one or more ballots, public comment periods and rounds of review and deliberation prior to publication. Many standards incorporate the latest research to align with current technologies and meet industry needs.

The result is a living document that is regularly maintained, technically sound and broadly supported. And as technologies evolve, API’s committees bring new subject matter experts and perspectives into the process, ensuring the standards remain relevant.

A Collaborative Future. The rising global adoption of API standards signals a growing alignment around shared technical expectations. International operators, manufacturers, regulators and other key industry stakeholders increasingly view these standards as essential tools for modernizing their infrastructure, strengthening supply chains and integrating new technologies.

As API’s leadership in the international arena continues to grow, its standards will play an even greater role in advancing safety, efficiency and environmental stewardship, helping the global industry navigate the demands of a rapidly evolving energy landscape.

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