API Spec Q1 · Quality management for oil and gas product suppliers
API Spec Q1 certification consulting for products the oil and gas supply chain will accept.
Get registered to API Specification Q1 by API's own registrar, APIQR, and licensed to apply the API Monogram where your customers require it, on a timeline your operators can plan around. Sterling's expert and experienced consultants build the Q1 system with your plant and quality teams, run it for the months API expects before an audit, prepare the evidence and stay with you through the API audit and after it, in 60+ countries. We ensure successful certification for our clients.
- Fixed scope, one proposal: consulting, Effivity software, Sterling Academy access and internal auditor training, as applicable to your standard, in one proposal
- A team of expert and experienced oil and gas quality consultants, advising on management systems across sectors and countries since 2003
- The Sterling Promise: 100% on-time completion, 100% success, 8,100+ client engagements. Sterling does not certify; API's registrar audits and decides
8,100+ client engagements in 60+ countries.
API Spec Q1 client experience
What it is
What is API Spec Q1 and what is it used for?
API Specification Q1 is the American Petroleum Institute's quality management system standard for the upstream supply chain. Its 10th Edition is titled Quality Management System Requirements for Organizations Providing Products for the Petroleum and Natural Gas Industry, a scope that covers the manufacturers of wellhead, valve, tubular, drilling and production equipment and the facilities that machine, weld, heat-treat, coat, distribute or repair those products. API describes Q1 as meeting most of the requirements of ISO 9001 with further requirements written for the risks of oil and gas.
What Q1 adds is the discipline an operator wants to see before a component goes downhole or under pressure: risk assessment, contingency planning for the events that would stop delivery, management of change with the people and customers affected told, supplier evaluation tiered by the criticality of the purchase, product quality plans, validated special processes such as welding and NDE, calibrated measuring equipment, preventive maintenance, release under defined authority and records kept for years. Exclusions are tightly limited, a management representative is mandatory and internal audits are annual.
Current edition. API Spec Q1, 10th Edition, published in September 2023, replaced the 9th Edition and took effect in September 2024; the transition has ended. API has since issued errata and addenda, and the auditor works from the current consolidated text, so your system has to as well. The companion standard for service supply organisations, API Spec Q2, reached its 3rd Edition in September 2026; its effective date and transition arrangements are confirmed with API. What changed in the 10th Edition and what it means for your system
Who it is for
Who needs API Spec Q1 certification?
Q1 applies to any organisation that provides products for the petroleum and natural gas industry, whether it designs and manufactures them, performs a manufacturing-related process such as machining, welding or heat treatment, or distributes and repairs them. The registration scope names the products, processes and sites assessed; a Monogram licence is granted per facility and per product specification. Organisations come to Sterling for API Spec Q1 from four starting points:
- An operator's or contractor's approved vendor list requires Q1 registration or the API Monogram. Clarify which one, for which products and product specifications, and at which facility, before you invest; the answers decide the scope and the timeline.
- You are moving into the oil and gas supply chain. A general engineering or fabrication business with an ISO 9001 certificate finds that tenders for wellhead, valve, tubular or drilling equipment expect Q1, and that ISO 9001 alone does not open the door.
- You already hold a registration or a Monogram licence and the system is a burden. Procedures were written for an auditor, an API audit produced findings nobody expected, or the 10th Edition errata and addenda were never worked through. The system needs rebuilding around how the shop floor runs.
- Nobody has asked, and you want the plant to run better. Nonconforming product is found late, suppliers, equipment or key people change without assessment, and traceability depends on a few experienced hands.
Business benefits
How API Spec Q1 supports conforming product and operator confidence
A Q1 system should make the plant more predictable, not more bureaucratic. We start where an unreviewed contract, an unqualified supplier, an uncontrolled change or a late inspection has cost a rejection, a delay or a customer.
- Access to operators and contractorsA registration on the API Composite List, and the Monogram where customers specify it, answer the supplier-qualification question before it is asked.
- Fewer nonconformities reaching the customerQuality plans, inspection and test status, defined release authority and controlled measuring equipment catch problems in the plant, not in the field.
- Changes that do not surprise anyoneManagement of change assesses a new supplier, machine, drawing or departing engineer and tells the people and customers affected.
- Suppliers controlled in proportion to riskCritical purchases and outsourced special processes evaluated and verified more rigorously than commodity buys.
- Traceability that stands upHeat, lot and serial identification carried from material receipt to shipment, with records an investigator can follow years later.
- A plan for the bad dayContingency planning for the events that would stop production or delivery, so an outage becomes a managed event rather than a breach of contract.
Choose a few measures that reflect these priorities and review whether the system improves them. A thicker quality manual is no result; under the 10th Edition a quality manual is not even mandatory.
Requirements
What are the main API Spec Q1 requirements?
Q1 does not follow the harmonised clause 4 to 10 structure of the ISO management system standards. Its requirements sit in three sections: section 4 on the quality management system itself, section 5 on product realisation and section 6 on monitoring, measurement, analysis and improvement, with a normative Annex A on the use of the API Monogram by licensees. Contingency planning, one of the requirements that most distinguishes Q1 from ISO 9001, is required in its own right. The table is a plain-language map; your implementation is checked against the 10th Edition and its current errata and addenda, sub-clause by sub-clause.
| Clause | What it requires of you | What it looks like in practice |
|---|---|---|
| 4.1 Quality management system | Establish and maintain the system: quality policy, measurable objectives, planning and communication | A policy management signs up to, objectives with owners and dates, defined communication with staff, suppliers and customers |
| 4.2 and 4.3 Management responsibility; organisation capability | Top-management commitment, defined authority and a management representative; resources, knowledge, competent personnel and a suitable work environment | Quality authority on the organisation chart, a representative who can stop shipment, competence per role and training records |
| 4.4 and 4.5 Documentation and records | The procedures Q1 requires, control of internal and external documents, records retained for the required period | Current API and customer specifications on the floor, controlled drawings, records retrievable years after shipment |
| 5.1 to 5.3 Contract review, planning and risk assessment | Review customer, legal and specification requirements before you commit; plan the processes, criteria and records for each product; identify and assess the risks to conforming product and keep the assessment current | Order reviews naming the specification edition; routings and inspection points set before work starts; a risk register tied to contracts, processes, facilities and suppliers |
| 5.4 Design | Plan and control design: inputs, outputs, review, verification, validation and changes | Design packages that satisfy the product specification, with approvals recorded, unless design is legitimately excluded |
| 5.5 Purchasing | A purchasing procedure, supplier evaluation in proportion to the criticality of the purchase, defined purchasing information and verification of what arrives, including outsourced activities | An approved supplier list with the evaluation behind each entry, orders carrying the technical requirements, receiving inspection scaled to risk |
| 5.6 Control of product realisation | Quality plans, process control documents, validated processes, identification and traceability, inspection and test status, externally owned property, preservation, inspection and testing, preventive maintenance | Travellers carrying heat and serial numbers, qualified welders and NDE personnel, a maintenance schedule that is followed |
| 5.7 and 5.8 Product release; measuring equipment | Release only when planned inspections are complete and recorded; control and calibrate the equipment that proves conformity | A release signature with evidence attached; a calibration register with traceable standards and out-of-tolerance assessments |
| 5.9 and 5.10 Nonconforming product; management of change | Identify, segregate and disposition nonconforming product and tell customers when delivered product is affected; assess and control changes and notify those affected | Hold tags and disposition records with authority; an MOC log covering key personnel, critical suppliers, equipment, processes and specifications |
| 6 Monitoring, measurement, analysis and improvement | Monitor customer satisfaction, audit the system on a planned basis, analyse product, process and supplier data, correct at root cause and hold management review with defined inputs and outputs | An annual internal audit programme, trends on a dashboard, corrective actions closed with evidence, a management review that decides |
What does useful API Spec Q1 evidence look like?
Contract reviews that name the specification edition, a live risk register and contingency plan, supplier evaluations graded by criticality, travellers with traceability intact, welder and NDE qualifications, calibration records, release signatures, nonconformity dispositions, MOC records, the annual internal audit and a management review that decided things. We identify the records your processes need without creating paper for its own sake, and they live in Effivity from the first workshop so the API auditor sees a system that runs.
API Spec Q1 requirements explained, clause by clauseRegistration process
How do you get API Spec Q1 certified?
First implement a working system and run it. Then API audits it. Q1 registration and the Monogram licence are both issued by the American Petroleum Institute, through APIQR and the Monogram Program, after an on-site audit by an API-designated auditor; API calls the outcome registration or licensing rather than certification, and no accredited certification body sits in between. Sterling provides consulting and preparation; the decisions are API's.
- 01Define what the registration and any licence need to cover.Confirm the products, product specifications, sites, in-house and outsourced processes, whether design is performed or legitimately excluded, and whether customers want registration, the Monogram or both.
- 02Gap analysis: review the current system against the requirements.The gap analysis compares what exists, including any ISO 9001 system, with the 10th Edition and its current errata and addenda, preserves what works and agrees actions, owners, dates and resources.
- 03Implement and operate the system for at least four months.API requires a system that has been operational for a minimum of four months before you apply, so controls go into use early and records accumulate from real orders.
- 04Full-system internal audit and management review.API expects both before the application: an internal audit of every element of the system and a management review, with findings raised by us first and closed with evidence.
- 05Apply through myCerts and complete the API audit.API schedules a full-system on-site audit covering all processes, at your expense; for every nonconformity you provide the correction, root cause analysis and corrective action before API completes its review and decides.
- 06Maintain the registration and the licence.API performs surveillance audits at least once every calendar year, Monogram licences carry renewal audits every three years, and renewal applications open within nine months of expiry.
Judge the route by its credibility, not only by the quoted price. Q1 registration and the Monogram are issued only by API and recorded on its Composite List; a certificate that says "API Q1" from any other body is that body's conformity certificate, not an API registration, and never authorises the Monogram. Ask whose audit you are being sold, whether the outcome will appear on the Composite List, and who carries the design-package, supplier-control and validation work. How to choose a credible API Spec Q1 provider · The certification buyer's checklist
Cost
How much does API Spec Q1 certification cost?
There is no useful universal price for a Q1 programme. A machine shop adding Q1 to a working ISO 9001 system needs a different scope from a valve manufacturer building its first system and seeking Monogram licences for three product specifications. What we can promise is a proposal in which every component is visible, API's fees are shown separately and nothing is added later.
| Cost component | What affects it |
|---|---|
| Consulting and implementation | Current maturity, the number of processes and special processes, design-package work, number of sites, and how much of the work your team takes on (Design™ or Drive™) |
| API fees | APIQR registration and Monogram licensing fees, the on-site audit at your expense, annual surveillance, the number of facilities and product specifications, and an additional registration fee where licence and registration are sought jointly |
| Internal resources | Process-owner time, management involvement, training, calibration and maintenance catch-up, supplier requalification and any plant changes the gap analysis reveals |
| Software and learning | Included in a Sterling engagement: Effivity for the system and Sterling Academy access for your people, with users, courses and access period confirmed in the proposal |
| Continued support | Surveillance readiness, internal audits, MOC and supplier reviews, refresher learning and future editions or addenda under Sustain™ |
What moves the price
- Registration only, or the Monogram as well, and for how many product specifications
- Whether you design, and how much design-package work exists today
- Special processes in-house or outsourced: welding, heat treatment, NDE, coating
- Number of facilities, and whether a multi-site registration is possible
- An existing ISO 9001 or ISO 29001 system, and how much of it works
What a Sterling proposal always shows
- Deliverables, responsibilities, assumptions and exclusions set out in writing
- API's registration, licensing and audit fees identified separately, so the full cost is comparable
- Effivity, training and Academy access itemised, at no additional cost
- Payment milestones tied to deliverables rather than dates
- One all-inclusive proposal. No surprises, ever
Timeline
How long does API Spec Q1 certification take?
The realistic timeline depends on your starting point, the availability of your people, the design and supplier work required and API's audit schedule. It is measured in months, not days, typically six to ten: API will not accept an application until the system has operated for at least four months and been through a full internal audit and a management review, and after the on-site audit API reviews files in the order received, at a pace set by audit volume, complexity and how quickly you answer the findings. We plan around that sequence, with milestones tracked in Effivity.
| Phase | What determines the pace |
|---|---|
| Scope and gap analysis | Access to people, sites, product specifications, existing procedures and records, and the customer requirement being answered |
| Build and implementation | Design packages, supplier evaluation, process validation, calibration and maintenance catch-up, training and internal capacity |
| Operation, internal audit and management review | The four months of operation API requires as a minimum, then the full-system internal audit and the management review |
| API application, audit and decision | API's audit scheduling, the time you take to answer nonconformities, and API's review queue |
If an operator's audit, a tender or a purchase order deadline is driving the programme, share it at the start. We will tell you what is achievable and where early decisions on design, suppliers and special processes are needed. A registration date promised before anyone has seen your shop floor is a sales tactic, not a project plan.
Challenges
Common API Spec Q1 implementation challenges
Most Q1 programmes stall for the same five reasons. Each has a practical answer.
The ISO 9001 system exists on paper, but Q1 asks for controls it never had.
We map the existing system to the 10th Edition and add what is missing, such as contingency planning, management of change, tiered supplier evaluation, quality plans and product release, rather than starting again. What works is kept.
Risk and MOC registers are created for the audit and then ignored.
Risk assessment and MOC are built into how orders, suppliers, equipment and people actually change; Effivity raises the record at the moment of change and the register is reviewed at management review, so it stays alive between audits.
Critical suppliers and outsourced special processes are not under control.
We classify purchases by criticality, set the evaluation and verification each class needs, and qualify the welders, heat treaters, NDE houses and coaters you rely on, with the evidence an API auditor asks for.
Traceability lives in people's memories and loose paperwork.
Identification and traceability are designed into travellers, receiving records and release documents, so heat, lot and serial numbers follow the product and the records can be retrieved years later.
Design packages and the Monogram design exclusion are unclear.
We work out whether design is performed or can legitimately be excluded under API's rules, complete the design packages the product specifications require, and make sure the application says what the plant does.
Your engagement
What your API Spec Q1 engagement includes
Your agreed scope brings together everything a functioning Q1 system and a prepared team need before API arrives. Most firms sell one piece and leave you to assemble the rest; Sterling delivers the whole journey, from one team, under one all-inclusive proposal.
Scope, gap analysis and implementation plan
Products, product specifications, sites, design status and the outcome sought, with responsibilities, dates and decision owners agreed before work starts.
Process development and documentation
The procedures Q1 requires and the quality plans, travellers and registers your plant needs, on Sterling's own template sets, built with your process owners.
Effivity ISO & GRC software
Your Q1 system runs in Effivity from day one, included with the engagement at no additional cost.
Training for everyone
Internal auditor training for your audit team, as applicable to your standard, and preferential Sterling Academy access, including complimentary awareness training for your people as part of the engagement.
Internal audit and management review
The full-system internal audit and the management review API requires before you apply, conducted or facilitated as agreed, with findings closed with evidence.
API application, audit readiness and support
Preparation of the myCerts application and of the plant and people for the on-site audit, and support with findings until API issues the registration or licence.
Registration and licensing decisions remain with the American Petroleum Institute.
How we deliver
How Sterling supports your API Spec Q1 implementation
Every API Spec Q1 engagement runs on Sterling OS™, our delivery operating system: five phases with named deliverables, decision owners and evidence at each stage. You choose the level of support your internal capacity allows; the method, the software and the accountability do not change.
- 01Design™Guided implementation: your team does the implementing, with Sterling's structure, templates, workshops and coaching.
- 02Drive™Fully managed consulting: Sterling consultants carry the agreed consulting and documentation work alongside your process owners.
- 03Sustain™Post-registration operation: annual surveillance readiness, internal audits, MOC and supplier reviews, refreshers and new-hire training, year after year.
- 04Automate™The Q1 system running in Effivity: documents, risks, suppliers, calibration, maintenance, nonconformities, MOC, audits and management review in one workspace.
- 05Revise™New editions, addenda and errata of API Spec Q1, new product specifications or facilities, and the addition of the Monogram, ISO 29001 or an integrated QHSE system.
At the start we agree the named lead, the weekly working session, the deliverables and the decision owners, and progress is reviewed against them so gaps are visible early, not when the API auditor arrives.
How Sterling OS™ worksOften combined with
Standards organisations pair with API Spec Q1
- AS9100AS9100 certification consulting for aerospace and defence suppliers: ISO 9001 plus product safety, configuration and FAI, ready for an IAQG scheme audit.
- AWS StandardAWS water stewardship certification to the Alliance for Water Stewardship Standard: what it is, who asks for it and how Sterling prepares your site for audit.
- CHAS, SafeContractor and AchillesCHAS, SafeContractor and Achilles accreditation for UK contractors: what each scheme is, who asks for it and how Sterling prepares your evidence.
- GRESBGRESB assessment explained: Real Estate, Infrastructure and Development components, the annual cycle, validation and ratings, and how Sterling prepares you.
- IATF 16949IATF 16949 certification consulting for automotive part makers: defect prevention, less variation and waste, prepared for an IATF-recognised body's audit.
- IEC 61511IEC 61511 compliance for process plants: the safety instrumented system lifecycle, functional safety management and the evidence your assessors expect.
Effivity · API Spec Q1 QMS software, included in every engagement
How Effivity helps you fulfil, automate and simplify the requirements of API Spec Q1, 10th Edition.
Every Sterling API Spec Q1 engagement includes Effivity, the ISO and GRC automation platform built by the Sterling group and used in 50+ countries. Your consultant configures the QMS workspace within the agreed scope, so procedures, registers, supplier evaluations, quality plans, calibration, maintenance, nonconformities, MOC, audits and management review live in one place, the system runs in daily work, and the API auditor reviews a live system rather than binders opened for the visit. For Sterling consulting clients the Effivity subscription is included with the engagement, at no additional cost.
Policy, objectives, planning and communication
The quality policy, the objectives with their measures, owners and dates, and the communication plan for staff, suppliers and customers, maintained where the people who own them work and reported from the system.
Competence, training and work environment
Competence requirements per role, training and effectiveness records linked to Sterling Academy, welder and NDE qualifications with expiry dates, and the work-environment checks the product needs.
Procedures, external documents and records
Controlled procedures and drawings, the current editions of API and customer specifications, and a records register with retention periods, so a record from an order shipped years ago is found in minutes.
Order review, risk register and contingency plan
Contract reviews that capture the specification and supplementary requirements, a risk register tied to contracts, processes and suppliers, and the contingency plan with its triggers and owners.
Supplier evaluation by criticality
Suppliers classified by the criticality of what they provide, evaluations and re-evaluations recorded, outsourced special processes tracked, and receiving verification recorded against the order.
Quality plans, traceability, calibration and maintenance
Quality plans and travellers with inspection and test status, heat and serial traceability, the calibration register with out-of-tolerance assessments, and preventive maintenance recorded as it is done.
Dispositions, concessions and MOC
Nonconformities raised, segregated and dispositioned with authority, customer notifications on file, and MOC records that assess each change and log who was told.
Internal audit, data analysis and management review
The annual audit programme with findings and follow-up, customer satisfaction and supplier performance on live dashboards, corrective actions closed with evidence, and a management review that records its decisions.
What this means at the audit
The API auditor asks for the risk assessment, the contingency plan, the approved supplier list and the evaluations behind it, the calibration records, the MOC log, the open nonconformities, the last full-system internal audit and the management review. In Effivity each is a screen, with dates, owners and evidence attached, not a folder assembled the week before the audit. After registration, Sustain™ runs in the same workspace, so the surveillance audit finds a system that never stopped.
In your engagement
- Subscription included with the engagement, at no additional cost
- Configured within the agreed scope by your Sterling consultant
- Your procedures, registers and records migrated, not retyped
- Administrator and user training for your team
- Modules for ISO 9001, ISO 29001, EMS, OHSMS and more when you integrate other standards
API Spec Q1 client experience
Client letters on file, available on request.
Signed client letters for API Spec Q1 are available on request. The client feedback wall lists every letter by standard.
Case studies with API Spec Q1 in scope
Real engagements, real outcomes.
- 01Read the case study
Oil and gas: a dependable supply chain and stronger safety across five standards
An oil and gas organisation needed a dependable supply chain and strong safety performance in a complex industry. It implemented ISO 9001, ISO 14001, ISO 45001, ISO 29001 and API Spec Q1. Supplier assessment and procurement moved onto Sterling's software platform, maintenance improved and downtime fell, and early hazard identification, joined-up emergency response plans and a stronger safety culture reduced incidents and their consequences. Its VP of operations said the company had fundamentally improved how it operates.
Sterling Academy · API Spec Q1 e-learning
Train the whole plant on API Spec Q1, not just the quality department.
Sterling Academy trains the plant floor and the people who run the system through short video lessons with practice checkpoints, a final exam and a numbered Certificate of Completion per learner that anyone can verify online. Sterling consulting clients benefit from preferential Sterling Academy course access and special pricing through their Sterling consultant, including complimentary awareness training for their people as part of the engagement.
- API Spec Q1 awareness for every employee, with the competence and training evidence the specification asks for
- Practitioner courses for process owners, the quality lead and the management representative
- Internal auditor training for the people who will audit the system, as applicable to your standard, as part of the engagement
- Learner progress by department and a training status report for the auditor
- New hires trained as they arrive, so evidence is current at every surveillance audit
- A Sterling consultant reachable when a learner needs one
Sterling Academy courses for an API Spec Q1 programme
The courses your people take, and who takes them.
API Spec Q1 Awareness
What the specification asks of the organisation and of each person on the floor, why operators and API insist on it, and how the quality plan, traceability marks, hold tag and release signature work in a normal shift. The competence evidence for the whole workforce.
Coming soon: view the courseDocumented Information Management
Creating and controlling the procedures, process control documents, external specifications and records Q1 requires, with the retention and retrieval an API auditor or a purchaser will test.
View the courseNonconformity Management
Identifying, segregating and dispositioning nonconforming product, concessions and customer notification, root cause and corrective action, and the evidence that shows the fix worked.
View the courseRisk Management
Assessing the risks to conforming product across contracts, processes, facilities and suppliers, building the contingency plan, and running management of change so a new supplier, machine or engineer is assessed before it affects the product.
View the courseInternal auditor training
Delivered by your Sterling consultant for the people who will audit the Q1 system, with practical exercises on your own travellers, suppliers and MOC records and a Certificate of Competence.
Integrating other standards?
Awareness courses for ISO 9001, ISO 14001, ISO 45001, ISO/IEC 27001, ISO 22000 and HACCP, ISO 13485, IATF 16949 and more, so an integrated system trains one workforce on one platform.
See all coursesSterling consulting clients arrange their access through their consultant. Sterling Academy certificates are training certificates; registration of your system and any Monogram licence remain with the American Petroleum Institute.
Keep exploring
Explore more about API Spec Q1
Watch a video on how to implement ISO 29001 and API Spec Q1 here.
Watch a video on API Spec Q1 requirements here.
API Spec Q1 resources
Services for API Spec Q1
Industries
Why Sterling
Want successful API Spec Q1 certification? Come to Sterling.
Whether you are qualifying one plant for an operator's vendor list or aligning facilities in several countries under one system, Sterling helps you establish shared Q1 processes with clear local ownership, working through differences in product specifications, customer supplementary requirements, supplier bases and local regulation without losing sight of how each facility makes its product.
Management systems in 60+ countries since 2003
Quality, environmental and safety systems implemented for manufacturers, fabricators, contractors and energy suppliers across every region we serve, with one engagement team accountable in every country you operate in.
All-inclusive proposal
Consulting, Effivity, training and Academy access in one proposal, with API's registration, licensing and audit fees identified separately. No surprises, ever.
A system the shop floor can use
Less documentation and maximum effectiveness: quality plans, travellers, registers and software connected to how product is actually made, so operators and inspectors adopt the system rather than tolerate it.
Expert and experienced consultants
Consultants who have advised on management systems across sectors and countries since 2003, and who build your Q1 system properly the first time, so the API audit confirms what already works.
The Sterling Promise
What our API Spec Q1 certification success guarantee means
We stay with you until your agreed API Spec Q1 outcome is achieved, supporting implementation, the internal audit and management review API requires, the application and the resolution of audit findings. Clear explanations, practical delivery, included software and employee learning turn the investment into lasting capability rather than a certificate on the wall.
The engagement identifies the specification, the scope, the outcome sought and the responsibilities. Your organisation supplies accurate information, operates the system for the period API requires and puts the agreed controls into use. The American Petroleum Institute audits conformity and retains its registration and licensing decisions. Our commitment concerns the agreed support, not a promise of every future vendor-list approval or of defect-free product.
After certification
What happens after API Spec Q1 certification?
Your Q1 system should keep working as orders, suppliers, equipment, specifications and people change, and management of change is where that shows. Monitoring continues, competence is maintained, nonconformities are corrected and improvements are checked for effect. API returns for a surveillance audit at least once every calendar year, Monogram licences carry a renewal audit every three years, and renewal applications open within nine months of expiry.
As the business takes on new product specifications, facilities or customers, the system should evolve with it. Under Sterling OS™ Sustain™ we review supplier performance, nonconformity trends, MOC records and API's errata and addenda with you, alongside the planned internal audits, management reviews and surveillance preparation, so the system stays alive between audits.
FAQs
Frequently asked questions about API Spec Q1
Is API Spec Q1 the same as ISO 9001?
No. API describes Q1 as meeting most of the requirements of ISO 9001 and adding requirements specific to the petroleum and natural gas industry: risk assessment, contingency planning, management of change, tiered supplier evaluation, quality plans, validated special processes and longer record retention. ISO 9001 is a good foundation, but it does not satisfy a customer who asks for Q1, and it does not give you the Monogram.
Do we need Q1 registration, the API Monogram, or both?
It depends on what your customers ask for. APIQR registration certifies your quality management system against Q1. The Monogram licence authorises your facility to mark newly manufactured products that conform to a specific API product specification, and requires a Q1-conforming system. A facility can hold either or both; joint applications carry an additional registration fee.
Can any certification body certify us to API Spec Q1?
API Spec Q1 registration is issued by APIQR, API's own registrar, and the Monogram licence by API's Monogram Program; both appear on the API Composite List. Another body may audit you against Q1 and issue its own conformity certificate, but that is not an API registration, will not appear on the Composite List and never authorises the Monogram. Ask your customer which they require before choosing a route.
How long must the system run before we can apply?
API requires a system operational for at least four months, a documented internal audit of all its elements and a documented management review before it accepts an application. For the Monogram, the facility must also have the technical capability to manufacture the product and, unless the exclusion applies, a design package for each product in scope.
Is there a Stage 1 audit, as with ISO certification?
API's published programme requirements describe a single full-system on-site audit covering all processes, scheduled after the application is accepted, rather than the two-stage audit of an ISO/IEC 17021-1 certification. Nonconformities are answered with correction, root cause analysis and corrective action before API completes its review and decides.
What are the ongoing obligations once we are registered or licensed?
API performs surveillance audits at least once every calendar year, and Monogram licences carry renewal audits every three years or sooner if API decides so. Registration certificates remain valid until expiry provided the organisation continually meets all requirements, and licensees agree to maintain a Q1-conforming quality programme at all times and to apply the Monogram only to products that meet every API requirement.
Does Sterling issue the Q1 registration or the Monogram licence?
No. Sterling provides consulting, training and audit readiness. APIQR audits the system and decides on registration; the Monogram Program audits and licenses the facility. A provider offering both the consulting and the certificate is offering paper.
Can we combine Q1 with ISO 9001, ISO 29001, ISO 14001 or ISO 45001?
Yes. Q1 is the quality core of many integrated oil and gas systems. APIQR itself offers ISO 9001 and ISO 14001 registration, and states that a Q1-registered organisation may receive ISO 9001 registration at no charge once it demonstrates conformance to all applicable requirements. ISO 29001, ISO 14001 and ISO 45001 certificates come from accredited bodies within the Global ACI arrangement, which replaced the IAF MLA and ILAC MRA, and share the same documents, internal audits and management review.
What do you need to prepare an API Spec Q1 proposal?
The products and API product specifications, the sites, whether you design, which processes are outsourced, approximate headcount, whether a system exists today, whether your customer wants registration, the Monogram or both, and your deadline. That is enough for a scoped, all-inclusive proposal; no quality manual is needed first.
Before the first call
Prepare a useful API Spec Q1 readiness brief
You do not need a quality manual before the first discussion. Bring a short account of what you make, for whom, and where the registration or licence should help. Seven questions are enough:
- Which customer, vendor list or tender is asking, and for Q1 registration, the API Monogram, ISO 29001 or a combination? Or, if nobody has asked, what do you want the plant to do better?
- Which products and API product specifications are in scope, at which facilities, and do you design them or build to a customer's design?
- Which processes are in-house and which are outsourced, especially welding, heat treatment, NDE, coating and machining?
- What do rejections, complaints, late deliveries and supplier problems say about the starting point?
- Which existing procedures, records, calibration and maintenance systems and any ISO 9001 certificate already work well?
- Who can make decisions and contribute time to implementation, the internal audit, the management review and staff learning?
- Is there an existing registration or licence, an operator audit date or a purchase order deadline to plan around?
These answers let us scope the work and prepare a realistic proposal. They are preparation for a discussion, not a scored assessment or an API decision.
Don’t be fooled by certification scams
If it takes ten days, it is not API Spec Q1 certification.
API will not accept an application until the system has run for four months and been through an internal audit and a management review, so a Q1 certificate promised in days is something else. The market is full of it: "API Q1" certificates from bodies that are not API, Monograms applied by facilities with no licence, and consultants who promise to manage everything while your people do nothing.
How to choose a credible API Spec Q1 provider
- Ask whether the outcome will be an API registration or licence, and how you will find it on the API Composite List, searchable by company name, certificate number or specification.
- Distinguish a third-party "Q1 conformity" certificate from APIQR registration. The former may be legitimate work, but it is not what a vendor list asking for API Q1 or the Monogram means.
- Ask how the programme will build the four months of operating evidence, the full-system internal audit and the management review API requires, rather than documents dated the week before the application.
- Identify who carries the design packages, supplier evaluations, process validations and calibration, which API fees are separate, and what support exists when the audit raises findings.
- Ask what your people will be taught and which software the system will live in. No training and no system means nothing survives the consultant leaving, and the surveillance audit finds it.
- Walk away from "API certified in 7 to 10 days", "we manage everything" and one invoice for consulting and certificate. A Q1 system has to be implemented and operated before API will audit it.
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