Doha: More than 70 experts and representatives from Qatar and other GCC countries attended the 14th Meeting and Workshop of the Gulf Standards Technical Committee for the Oil & Gas Industry in GCC Countries (GSO TC 7).
The event, which was held last week at the Four Seasons Hotel, was organised and hosted by Qatar Petroleum‘s HSE Regulations and Enforcement Directorate. The workshop was also attended by the Ministry of Environment – Department of Standardization and Laboratories, the Gulf Standardisation Organisation (GSO), and the European Standards Technical Committee for Materials, Equipment and Offshore Structures (CEN TC 12).
Saif S Al Naimi, Director of QP’s HSE Regulations and Enforcement Directorate, chaired the workshop and his address focused on the essential issues related to the adoption of standards and regulations, as well as their development and compliance within the oil and gas sector. His speech was followed by an overview of the GSO TC 7 activities and achievements, which were presented by the Committee Secretary Dr Muayad Ajjawi, Head of Regulations & Standards Development at QP.
Nawaf Al Mana, Director of the Standards and Metrology Department of the Ministry of Environment (Qatar Standards), then presented a comprehensive overview of the development and application of standards and technical regulations, and the agreements with the international standards organisation in Qatar.
Gilles Trican, Chairman of the European CEN TC 12, discussed the importance of international standards and regional regulations from the European perspective and he lauded the excellent progress made by the ISO TC67 WG11, which is chaired by Qatar. He also gave an overview of the standards development process in CEN TC 12 and the process of harmonising the CEN standards with European regulations, specifically with regards to the safety of offshore structures. He also explained the progress on International standards development and the current efforts by the International Association of Oil and Gas Producers (OGP) and the American Petroleum Institute (API) to have one set of global standards.
The second part of the workshop, which was mediated by Al Naimi, discussed the importance of unifying the standards and technical regulations for the oil and gas industry in the Gulf region and the proper way to engage the regulators in standards development and the standards developers in regulation development, thus achieving the objective of having good standards for regulators to use.
The Peninsula
