New safety standards may soon be embraced by oil companies around the nation.
Officials with the American Petroleum Institute say those standards – which were developed over the last two years or so – will enhance safety when constructing and maintaining oil pipelines around the country.
API’s Director of Midstream and Industry Operations Robin Rorick says it’s the industry’s job to inform the public how the standards improve safety.
“The opponents of oil and gas are very quick to instill fear in folks about oil spills and natural gas releases,” says Rorick. “I think the public demands, and I believe the public demands zero incidents and that makes sense because as an industry, we also demand zero incidents.”
500-thousand miles of pipeline used for the transportation of oil and natural gas has been placed throughout the country. Those pipes moved 15-billion barrels of crude oil last year.
Companies in the oil and gas industry have worked with the National Transportation Safety Board to help develop the standards. Rorick says it helps ensure the industry isn’t working through the agreements myopically.
“Not only did NTSB and the Department of Transportation provided input into the creation of the document, but then the document was open for public comment and we had to address those comments,” says Rorick.
Indiana plays host to 136-thousand jobs related to the oil and gas industry. About $17-billion in revenue is created from those operations.
Now that the standards have been developed with leading industry, government, and academic minds, the API says those safety standards may eventually be used internationally in the transportation of oil and natural gas products.
