The API Monogram program is a globally recognized success story, with a proven track record of recognizing natural gas and oil equipment manufacturers that meet API’s best-in-class safety and sustainability standards.
“API Monogram plays an important role in the production of the equipment required to sustainably supply the world’s energy needs,” said Kevin Ferrick, API Monogram Program Senior Director. “With its licensing and certification programs, API Monogram helps ensure that the equipment the industry relies on meets rigorous manufacturing requirements.”
API Monogram licenses manufacturers that demonstrate that they are consistently producing sustainable products, tools and equipment that conform to API specifications and operational safety standards.
Under the program, licensed manufacturers are authorized to use the API Monogram registered mark. Around the world, the Monogram mark has become synonymous with natural gas and oil products and equipment that conform to stringent safety and environmental protection standards.
“The industry has to work in the most challenging environments, where reliability is essential to meeting the market’s demand for continuous supplies of energy,” said Sonia Vahedian, API Vice President of Product Management. “The Monogram mark enables manufacturers to warrant to their customers that everything from bolts to flow pumps will meet the safety requirements and performance specifications the industry expects in the field.”
To achieve this, the facility must conduct its manufacturing in accordance with API Specification Q1, 9th Ed., Quality Management for Manufacturing Organizations for the Petroleum and Natural Gas Industry. This commitment to quality is verified through third-party audits. Each aspect of the manufacturing process must be assessed against API Spec Q1 before a company is licensed to use the mark.
Meeting the Mark under API Spec Q1
There are a number of key criteria a facility must meet in order to receive an API Monogram License. A licensee must:
- Possess a Quality Management System (QMS) that has been operational for at least four months and is compliant with API Spec Q1;
- Describe the QMS in a quality manual, which must recognize and describe each requirement of API Spec Q1;
- Maintain the technical capability to manufacture products compliant with the applicable API product specification in addition to meeting API Spec Q1;
- Conduct annual internal audits required under API Spec Q1; and
- Have a facility management representative demonstrate the facility’s compliance with API Spec Q1 through an annual review delivered to the facility’s management team.
API Support
API strives to make the auditing and licensing process as transparent as possible for the facility seeking a Monogram license. A step-by-step description of the licensing process and its requirements are provided in the API Monogram Licensing Program document. This document contains all the requirements as well as what a licensee can expect from API during the process.
The guide also provides specific guidelines on how the Monogram mark should be used once a facility becomes licensed.
Process of Continual Improvement
At all times, licensed manufacturers must maintain the capabilities, resources, processes and technology required to manufacture products that fall within the scope of their Monogram license.
Licensees must also implement, maintain and continually improve their QMS. To comply, licensees must pass an initial audit of their QMS, followed by annual subsequent surveillance audits along with renewal every three years to ensure the requirements are being met by the manufacturing facility and the product itself.
The Customer Benefits
Complying with these requirements can be challenging but the assurances API Monogram licensing provides to the customer and the associated benefits to the facility outweigh these challenges.
For example, the cement manufacturer LaFargeHolcim spent over a year retooling its plant in Theodore, Alabama to pass an audit to earn the API Monogram.
“Our energy customers have complex needs and must contend with extreme conditions of temperature and pressure,” said Jamie M. Gentoso, Chief Executive Officer of U.S. Cement Operations at LaFargeHolcim. “We are deeply committed to meeting those standards, and more – by committing to the API’s ongoing, rigorous quality management system and producing the best well cements on the market.”
The benefits that natural gas and oil customers receive from Monogram licensed manufacturers, include:
- Verification that the products meet the requirements of API specifications and standards.
- Confirmation that manufacturers have implemented a QMS that facilitates consistent manufacturing of conforming products.
- Assurance that manufacturers have implemented processes and controls to identify and address customer requirements, customer complaints and product issues.
- A method to trace products back to the original manufacturer, design and performance requirements.
The importance of Monogram certification is also readily apparent outside the United States. After retooling its facility in Romania to meet API Spec Q1 requirements, the company Odfjell Well Services (OWS) said it was “extremely proud” to achieve API certification because of what it meant to its customers.
“Our highest priority is to support our customers to drill wells in a safe and timely manner by eliminating the risks and non-productive time associated with drill strings and tubular connections,” said Alexandru Gomoescu, OWS’ Regional Manager, in Energy Industry Review. “This accomplishment provides them with further assurance that our equipment and know-how comply with the highest global standards,” Gomoescu added.
After receiving certification in April, the Indian company Sealtech stated that registered API Spec Q1 companies “demonstrate to their customers that they consistently produce reliable products and manufacturing-related processes.”
It is the need for safety, reliability, environmental protection and sustainability that has made so many manufacturers around the world, like LaFargeHolcim, OWS and Sealtech, turn to API Monogram. Manufacturers increasingly understand the inherent importance of meeting best-in-class requirements in producing equipment, tools and materials that benefit their customers and the natural gas and oil industry as a whole.
To learn more about API Monogram, visit www.API.org/Monogram.