David J. Wisch

Offshore Standards: The Impact of Hurricanes Ivan/Katrina/Rita

Prior to the 2004 Hurricane Season, offshore practices and standards continued evolving incorporating new technology and experience. The disruption of the industry from damaged facilities and infrastructure was unprecedented. A critical review of the production disruption was undertaken to identify where standards may need to be adjusted to increase robustness in the future, where gaps may exist and what elements are outside traditional scope. The industry stakeholders responded with several interim guidelines coupled multi-year programs of investigation and update of standards. This paper will provide an assessment of the damage reviews, initial interim standards and the long range plans for upgrading infrastructure performance.Copyright

API Offshore Structures Standards: Changing Times

aggressively pursuing the publication of several API documents related to hurricane issues in 2006 & 2007, and in consideration of the progressive publication of the ISO 19900 series documents, API SC 2 leadership developed a strategy to restructure the content of its standards to align more closely with the ISO 19900 series. Following the publication of the ISO standards, many regions of the world are expected to adopt them as a basis for offshore platform design. Against this background, API has mapped out a plan to be implemented over the next few years concerning the restructuring sequence, alignment and adoption of the ISO standards as API standards. What was once a Gulf of Mexico only focus has been expanded to other US coastal waters and to co-operative development for global standards under the ISO umbrella. executIve Summary