Identification and Traceability for Oil & Gas Production

M

mcnulty1

My organisation produces oil and gas (our product) and pumps (delivers) this continuously (i.e. not in "batches") via pipelines to the refineries of our external customers. In my opinion, ISO 9001, 7.5.3 requirements are not appropriate. Comments please.
 

RoxaneB

Change Agent and Data Storyteller
Super Moderator
My organisation produces oil and gas (our product) and pumps (delivers) this continuously (i.e. not in "batches") via pipelines to the refineries of our external customers. In my opinion, ISO 9001, 7.5.3 requirements are not appropriate. Comments please.

I believe identification and traceability is applicable to your industry and product. If a defect was found to be within your product (e.g., not meeting specifications), would you be able to trace it back to a batch and identify potentially impacted customers?
 

somashekar

Leader
Admin
Welcome to the COVE mcnulty1 ~~~

My organisation produces oil and gas (our product) and pumps (delivers) this continuously (i.e. not in "batches") via pipelines to the refineries of our external customers. In my opinion, ISO 9001, 7.5.3 requirements are not appropriate. Comments please.
If there is a way that your customer can come back to you and say that he used your product between certain periods of time and they were good / bad, and this you concur with your customer., there is established identification and traceability.
if not, then there is no requirement of these.....
 
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F

Falco

Great question MC, before we get into how to do this we might start with why do this. Besides the ISO requirement (never a good reason to do something). Is there a reason your company may need to know where the product went or a regulatory reason to track its whereabouts on the way to its destination?

Perhaps you could consider treating your material like other 'mined' raw materials. For example track its path from well, to pumping station, to truck, to refinery.
 
M

mcnulty1

If we pump our oil from our offshore platform to an oil tanker, then as soon as the oil is onboard the tanker it is contractually owned by our customer. We can trace the dates oil was started/finished pumpingto the tanker before it sailed from the platform to offload ashore.
Regarding gas, this is more tricky. If we say that in the gas pipeline from the offshore platform to land-based refinery there is a metering valve which measures volume flowrate, then as soon as the gas passes that meter it contractually belongs to our customer. In this, I see no reason to need to trace the gas as it is in continuous flow to our customer. We only have one customer for this gas.
 

harry

Trusted Information Resource
If we pump our oil from our offshore platform to an oil tanker, then as soon as the oil is onboard the tanker it is contractually owned by our customer. .................

Welcome to the Cove.

Thanks for the clarification. Traceability can come in many forms. In this case, the product is unprocessed and natural occurring crude - so there is nothing much to trace back to 'process' but as a minimum, there should be traceability back to the source from your shipping documents, which it seems you have.

Do you carry out continuous sampling (and keep records) of the oil pumped? If you do, these can be useful for tracing purpose too.
 

Big Jim

Admin
I think you can answer your own question if you take another look at the standard.

7.5.3 "Where appropriate, the organization shall identify the product by suitable means throughout product realization. . . . Where traceability is a requirement, the organization shall control the unique identification of the product . . . "

If it isn't appropriate or not a requirement, traceability is not necessary.

In your application is traceability appropriate or required?
 
M

mcnulty1

"In your application is traceability appropriate or required?"

I was hoping for suggestions of criteria by which I could judge the appropriateness - maybe from personnel with experience in the oil & gas industry.
 

Big Jim

Admin
"In your application is traceability appropriate or required?"

I was hoping for suggestions of criteria by which I could judge the appropriateness - maybe from personnel with experience in the oil & gas industry.

It is always good to ask for help, and I hope someone may have some suggestions, but for the most part if you can't see where it is appropriate, it probably isn't.
 

Sidney Vianna

Post Responsibly
Leader
Admin
Welcome to The Cove, mcnulty1.

Identification is always a requirement. The product must be identified, even it is an amorphous raw material. Remember, the oil and gas coming from the well will undergo some low level processing, scrubbing, filtering, monitoring (H2S) etc. before pumped downstream.

Traceability is another story. If you don't have to be concerned with the hydrocarbons coming from a specific well or field, you could claim a valid exclusion.

Remember that oil comes in many varieties and some fetch much higher prices per barrel. It behooves you to properly identify the oil grade so you get properly reimbursed for the commodity.
 
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