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QMS for Oil and Gas Operators

Discussion in 'ISO 9001:2015 - Quality Management Systems' started by Anpa Sockalingam, Oct 10, 2016.

  1. Anpa Sockalingam

    Anpa Sockalingam Member

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    G'day! Recently I was tasked to propose a QMS framework for a small to mid-sized oil and gas operating company and my first question was if there's much value for an oil and gas operator to pursue QMS ISO 9001 (instead of just the ISO14001 & AS/NZS 4801). I especially struggle with the relevance clauses related to 'customers' in the QMS standard. However an integrated management system picking and choosing relevant clauses appears to be most sensible as the company is not interested to be certified to those standards. Appreciate feedback from those have experience developing QMS for O&G operators
     
  2. Paul Simpson

    Paul Simpson Member

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    Hi, Anpa. ISO 9001 certainly has a lot of relevance in the Oil & Gas industry. The major oil companies and E & P contractors all want confidence that their contracts will be met and their contractors will have systems in place to capture requirements, mobilize teams and deliver the services they pay for. You are right that they also expect environmental and health & safety management as well and you may choose to produce a business management system that addresses each of the standards (sometimes called an integrated management system). BTW there is an oil industry specific standard you may want to have a look at. ISO / TS 29001.

    Hope this helps
     
  3. Anpa Sockalingam

    Anpa Sockalingam Member

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    Many thanks Paul (sorry for the late reply!)
     
  4. MCW8888

    MCW8888 Well-Known Member

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    ISO9001:2015 would be a nice standard for O&G. The benefit of having a management system I place are: ensure effective training is provided to ensure the service meets customer requirement and there is a formalized corrective action in place to correct nonconforming products and services. Start with your company's business plan and develop a management system from there. I agree with Paul, that the ISO/TS 29001 might be a better fit for your organization. What does your customer require?
     
  5. Anpa Sockalingam

    Anpa Sockalingam Member

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    We mainly do offshore exploration and operate just a few upstream oil and gas production facilities. The various departments already have most of the processes (including NC management) in place but not standardized across the company. 'Customer' requirement has not been the 'focus' of the process though! In any case, the company is not interested to go for certification, just want to have a robust management system in place.
     
  6. Paul Simpson

    Paul Simpson Member

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    My pleasure, Anpa. Your approach to developing a robust management system for internal benefits is refreshing. The benefits of standardization are in getting best practice, sharing knowledge and ensuring people can move from one rig / production facility to another with minimum retraining. Another couple of things you can use internally to 'sell' the benefits.
     
  7. Anpa Sockalingam

    Anpa Sockalingam Member

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    Those are definitely excellent selling points! In fact only today I emphasized in a company survey that unification of business processes, work culture, HSEQ practices etc. of the various departments should be the key focus. Thanks again.
     
  8. pkfraser

    pkfraser Active Member

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    Anpa

    In which region of the world do you operate? In the North Sea, I am not sure who "the customer" of an O&G operator actually is, which must make the interpretation and application of 9001 a challenge...
     
  9. Anpa Sockalingam

    Anpa Sockalingam Member

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    We are an Australian operator. I think the concept of the 'customer' is beyond the conventional definition as illustrated by these simple English definitions below by http://www.praxiom.com. Note that 'internal' customers and the introduction of 'interested party' in the standard influences the 'Context of Organization'.

    A customer is anyone who receives products or services (outputs)
    from a supplier. Customers can be either people or organizations
    and can be either external or internal to the supplier organization.
    Examples of customers include clients, consumers, users,
    guests, patients, purchasers, and beneficiaries.

    Interested party
    An interested party is anyone who can affect, be affected by, or
    believe that they are affected by a decision or activity. An interested
    party
    is a person, group, or organization that has an interest or a
    stake in a decision or activity.
     
  10. pkfraser

    pkfraser Active Member

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    The reason I asked was that when I developed a system for one of the UK operators, they were not sure who their "customer" was(!) Were they producing for the government, or for their marketing department, or for a jv partner? In relation to 9001, terms such as "customer satisfaction" have to be read in that context. Which is why the term "internal customer" is plain daft in this context - yes, it can be useful to appreciate that others are affected by individual actions, but the rest of the standard is purely about the "external customer".

    Bear in mind that the operators tend not to be certiifed themselves but expect their suppliers to be.