15 leading offshore-related companies have signed a memorandum of understanding (MOU) to establish engineering industry standards at the Offshore Technology Conference, Houston.
The companies involved in the signing are McDermott, Wood Group Mustang, DNV Korea, Technip, Samsung Heavy Industries, Daewoo Shipbuilding and Marine Engineering, Hyundai Heavy Industries, Royal Dutch Shell, Chevron and MODEC International. Classification societies and associations signing the agreement were American Bureau of Shipping, Bureau Veritas, Korea Offshore & Shipbuilding Association, Korea Marine Equipment Research Institute and Lloyd’s Register.
Known as the Standardization Unified Joint Industry Project (JIP), the one-year agreement sets out the terms and conditions upon which the signing parties shall establish industry standards for offshore engineering. The objective is to reduce cost and increase predictability without compromising safety in international offshore oil and gas engineering, procurement and construction (EPC) topside projects by using standardized bulk materials and equipment, construction and qualification procedures, and documentation requirements.
As part of the agreement, all parties also agreed to comply with all applicable laws, rules and regulations in the performance of the MOU and in particular with all applicable anti-trust, anti-competition and anti-bribery laws.
“As the industry moves to arrest and reverse the cost and schedule inflation of the past decade, a core element is offshore and subsea product standardization with a move to agnostic solutions which are industry specific but operator independent,” commented Vaseem Khan, Vice President, Engineering for McDermott.
