API 2008 Spring Refining Meeting

Over the years many in the oil and gas and chemical industry inspectors, engineers and managers have asked, “What happens at API meetings?” With the important regulatory and business initiatives in place and developing it is a good time to answer that question.

In fact, the growing existance of critical issues in many countries associated with operating aging facilities safely and reliably, coupled with the pressures to ensure reliability at an optimized cost, makes this a great time to share the information in this editorial. Why? Because the standards, codes, informational documents, initiatives and interactions associated with the API Fall and Spring Refining Meetings provide most of the answers needed to enable owner operators to overcome these challenges successfully. Generally speaking, globally, these are the most referenced documents, by regulators and owner operators for managing safety and reliability associated with in- service fixed equipment reliability (FER) in the oil and gas and chemical industries.