ISO 29001 case study: quality, safety and supply chain for an oil and gas organisation

The organisation and what it needed

This ISO 29001 case study concerns an organisation working in oil and gas, an industry where a late part, an unplanned stoppage or a missed hazard carries consequences far beyond the site where it starts. The organisation stays anonymous here, as it does in Sterling's own case studies.

Two needs shaped the programme. The first was a dependable supply chain: confidence that what it bought, and the providers it bought from, would perform as expected. The second was strong safety performance in a complex industry. Both needs pointed to the same answer, a management system that treats quality, environment and safety as parts of one way of working.

What was implemented

The organisation implemented five standards as one programme:

• ISO 9001, the quality management foundation.
• ISO 14001, for environmental management.
• ISO 45001, for occupational health and safety.
• ISO 29001, the sector-specific quality management standard for suppliers to the petroleum, petrochemical and natural gas industries.
• API Spec Q1, the American Petroleum Institute's quality specification for product manufacturers.

Within that programme, supplier assessment and procurement were moved onto Sterling's software platform, so that evaluating providers and buying from them ran through one system. Alongside this, the safety side of the system focused on identifying hazards early and on emergency response plans that were joined up across the organisation rather than written in isolation.

What changed

The results the organisation reported fall into three areas.

Supply chain

Supplier assessment and procurement now run on Sterling's software platform, giving the organisation one place to evaluate the providers its supply chain depends on and to manage what it buys from them.

Maintenance and downtime

Maintenance improved and downtime fell, which matters in an industry where an idle asset is costly and a failed one can be dangerous.

Safety

Early hazard identification, joined-up emergency response plans and a stronger safety culture reduced incidents and their consequences.

Looking back on the programme, its VP of operations said the company had fundamentally improved how it operates.

About ISO 29001

ISO 29001 is written for organisations that supply products and services to the petroleum, petrochemical and natural gas industries. It contains every requirement of ISO 9001:2015, reproduced unchanged, and adds sector requirements aimed at supply-chain risk. The current edition is ISO 29001:2020, with Amendment 1:2024 adding the consideration of climate change to the context clauses.

Several of those additions map directly onto the themes of this case, as the table shows. Certification to ISO 29001 is carried out by an independent certification body accredited for the standard. API Spec Q1 is a separate programme: registration to it comes from APIQR, API's own registrar, not from the body that certifies ISO 29001.

How Sterling runs a programme like this

What follows describes how Sterling generally approaches an integrated oil and gas programme; it is not a description of this client's engagement.

Sterling has advised on management systems since 2003, with 8,100+ client engagements in 60+ countries and offices in 21 countries. Every programme starts with a gap analysis against each standard in scope, then the client chooses one of two alternative support levels. Under Design™, Sterling's expert and experienced consultants develop the system and the client implements it under their advice and supervision. Under Drive™, Sterling designs and builds the system under the client's approval, fully managed.

Either way, Effivity, used in 50+ countries, is included at no additional cost, so risks, suppliers, maintenance, audits and corrective actions are managed in one place from the start. The engagement also covers internal auditor training for your audit team, as applicable to your standard.

ISO 29001 for oil and gas suppliers: questions buyers ask