NORSOK standards are a set of guidelines specifically designed to ensure efficiency, safety, and quality within the petroleum industry in the Norwegian continental shelf and have been adapted worldwide due to their quality. In this article, we'll be discussing why these standards are vital for the value and cost-effectiveness of oil and gas projects and how Proarc engineering document management software can help maintain compliance with NORSOK standards.
What is NORSOK?
NORSOK stands for Norsk Sokkels Konkurranseposisjon—or "the Norwegian shelf's competitive position" in English—and was originally developed in 1994 by the Norwegian petroleum industry to improve competitiveness and reduce expenses on oil and gas projects developed within the Norwegian continental shelf.
Now managed by Standards Norway, there are 79 active NORSOK standards in use to formalize best practises in oil and gas projects not just in Norway, but internationally. NORSOK compliance provides the benefits of increased safety, better reliability of equipment and systems, and streamlined processes that make projects more cost-effective and reduce related risks.
Challenges Maintaining NORSOK Standards
With 79 active standards that cover a broad spectrum of rules, regulations, and policies, maintaining compliance with NORSOK can be complex. Some common challenges our customers within the oil and gas industry have shared over the years are:
- Subject to changes: NORSOK standards are periodically revised and updated
- Unifying with international standards: Projects that collaborate internationally need to adapt to NORSOK to different regulatory frameworks
- Project management: Managing and tracking modified equipment and relevant technical information in large-scale projects can be complex
- No document control system: If you're using Microsoft SharePoint or OneDrive, the lack of traceability and poor visibility of documents can make NORSOK compliance difficult
Proarc's NORSOK Compliance Support
Document control functionality is essential to consistently meeting NORSOK standards. Proarc helps maintain all NORSOK standards by validating information for quality, accuracy, and completeness, making technical information exchange between companies in a major capital project quicker and simpler.
The level of compliance can then be modified by the Proarc team to the specific NORSOK specifications your petroleum project needs to comply with, as well as additional attributes or values you want to track in addition to NORSOK.
Which NORSOK Standards Does Proarc Support?
Focusing on coding standards rather than equipment, Proarc helps standardise document types. Specifically, Proarc is designed to support compliance with the following NORSOK standards:
Z-001 Documents for Operation (DFO)
This standard aims to ensure the availability of information necessary for the safe, effective, and rational operation, maintenance, and modification phases of a petroleum installation. It emphasizes that all project information should be managed by a single source of truth to ensure data consistency throughout the project's development. Proarc EDMS acts as this single source of truth.
Z-DP-002 Coding System
The goal of this standard is to formalize the identification and coding of equipment and documentation on offshore oil and gas installations in order to ensure efficient communication, traceability, and reuse of information. Proarc's flexible metadata coding allows you to configure attributes that are using NORSOK standards.
Z-018 Supplier's Documentation of Equipment
NORSOK Z-018 specifies the documentation process and deliverables for equipment used in the petroleum industry, ensuring it covers the entire lifecycle from bid evaluation to decommissioning. In Proarc, EPCs can request documentation from a supplier using the supplier document requirement list (SDRL).
Conclusion
NORSOK standards have been helping increase efficiency, safety, and value in the petroleum industry for nearly 30 years and are set to expand their coverage; this year, NORSOK entered a Joint Industry Programme initiative—commonly referred to as JIP33—to build upon existing NORSOK standards with supplementary specifications for procurement.
Proarc's NORSOK compliance support focuses on three key standards for document control and can be configured to comply with all current NORSOK standards (including JIP33) upon request. Download the Proarc EDMS brochure today to learn more about this industry-leading document control solution that has been helping major projects and operations stay compliant for over 30 years.
