Standards Development in Support of Low Carbon Activities

Abstract

Abstract As the global energy supply continues to diversify to meet growing energy demands and climate goals, operators and other stakeholders in the natural gas and oil industry are innovating and evolving to help provide affordable, lower-carbon energy. Part of that challenge requires development, adoption, and deployment of new technologies in the field of low carbon energy. With the advent of these new technologies, it is important to consider their impact through the lens of health, safety, and environment (HSE), which provides our industry its license to operate. An integral foundation of that license is the industry's use of standardization, and that too must be applied to the implementation of these new technologies. Advancement of new technologies is foundational to API's Climate Action Framework's initiative to accelerate technology and innovation to reduce emissions while meeting growing energy needs. Given the growing interconnectedness of the global economy, this presents a prime opportunity for industry to drive standards harmonization in the growing low carbon field. In 2019, the American Petroleum Institute (API) established the Global Standards Strategy (GSS), a concerted effort to drive standards harmonization on a global scale, and this methodology can be instructive in the field of low carbon activities. While many of API's standards are used globally, national standards developing organizations and regulators often develop competing or duplicative standards and regulations applicable to the oil and natural gas industry. This creates inefficiencies and divergences that result in unnecessary barriers and reduced economic competitiveness. By working with our international partners, such as IOGP, API has been developing industry publications and standards on low carbon activities, while avoiding duplicative efforts through coordination of work in this area. The industry, through API with significant experience in standardization, can channel its collective experience to drive swifter deployment of new low carbon technologies while maintaining the same level of engineering and scientific rigor on which our industry relies.