Between September 14 and 15 Moscow is hosting the 31st plenary meeting of the Technical Committee for Standardization – ISO/TC 67 “Materials, Equipment and Offshore Structures for Petroleum, Petrochemical and Natural Gas Industries”.

Today Vlada Rusakova, Member of the Management Committee – Head of the Strategic Development Department of Gazprom delivered a speech at the meeting.

She informed the audience on Gazprom's project focused on the Arctic shelf and the Yamal Peninsula development as well as creating the necessary gas transmission facilities.

It was noted that the new oil- and gas-bearing regions featured severe natural and climatic conditions. The harsh Arctic climate demands absolutely new approaches and technical solutions and, therefore, new standards. By now, no company has a track record of oil and gas production in such environment.

Vlada Rusakova noted that launching a program aimed at elaborating international-level standards for developing the Barents Sea shelf as part of the Barents 2020 project will be the first step towards meeting this goal.

At the same time, it will be expedient to establish a permanent international entity for standardization to form a comprehensive legal framework for the Arctic region development. Setting up a new subcommittee named “Arctic Operations” and managed by Russia (Gazprom) could be the best option. The speaker noted Gazprom's success in shaping corporate standards to ensure safety and efficiency of the Company's business. They are based on Gazprom's long-standing track record combined with the best skills of global oil and gas industry leaders.

Background

Founded in 1947, the International Organization for Standardization (ISO) is composed of representatives from more than 150 countries. ISO is a non-government organization having a consultative status at the UNO.

The 31st plenary meeting of the Technical Committee for Standardization – ISO/TC 67 “Materials, Equipment and Offshore Structures for Petroleum, Petrochemical and Natural Gas Industries” was established by the Federal Agency on Technical Regulating and Metrology jointly with Gazprom. Taking part in the plenary session are over 60 leading experts for the oil and gas complex standardization from 23 countries worldwide.

The Technical Committee ISO/TC 67 is responsible for standardization of materials, equipment and offshore structures used in drilling, production, transmission and processing of hydrocarbons. At present, the ISO/TC 67 comprises representatives from 30 countries of the world. The TC holds its plenary meeting every year.

By the beginning of 2011, ISO/TC 67 has developed and approved 171 ISO standards. 64 standard projects are at various stages of development.

Gazprom is taking large-scale actions in the area of technical operations standardization aiming to extend the applications of innovative products and solutions.

Since 2010, one of the ISO/TC 67 subcommittees – SC Pipeline Transportation Systems has been chaired by a Russian representative from Gazprom VNIIGAZ.

Barents-2020 is a joint Russian-Norwegian project focused on ensuring safety and environmental protection while developing the Barents Sea.