New Standard Drives Innovation and Efficiency in Manufacturing and Strengthens Supply Chain Resiliency

WASHINGTON, October 19, 2021 – The American Petroleum Institute (API) today published a new standard to drive the adoption of additive manufacturing—3D printing—to optimize natural gas and oil component design for drastically reduced lead times and drive efficiency, safety and technological advancements across all segments of the industry.

“This new standard expands API’s best-in-class safety and efficiency requirements and supports cutting edge operations, helping producers to deploy new 3D printing technologies to meet rising global demand for natural gas and oil products,” API Vice President, Segment Standards and Services for Global Industry Services Alexa Burr said. “Employing innovation is one of the many approaches that our industry is taking to reduce carbon emissions, as outlined in API's Climate Action Framework. The ability to deploy innovative technology and bring critical manufacturing closer to the point of use reduces stress in the supply chain while driving down Scope 3 emissions and maximizing production capability.”

The first edition of API Standard (Std) 20S, Additively Manufactured Metallic Components for Use in the Petroleum and Natural Gas Industries, provides requirements for qualification of the manufacturing process, production, marking and documentation of metallic components. The standard introduces three additive manufacturing specification levels (AMSLs), which define technical, quality and qualification requirements to help ensure that metallic components are fit for purpose. Additionally, woven throughout Standard 20S are requirements for training, inspection, monitoring and measuring equipment, as well as materials testing, acceptance and quality control of final products.

API Std 20S is a first-of-its-kind document for the natural gas and oil industry, but only the beginning of the work that will be done in this space, applying transformative technologies to improve operations and accelerate environmental progress. A complementary standard, focused on additively manufactured polymeric components, is also under development by API.

To learn more about API Std 20S and other efforts to advance safety, sustainability and operational integrity, visit www.API.org.

API represents all segments of America’s natural gas and oil industry, which supports more than ten million U.S. jobs and is backed by a growing grassroots movement of millions of Americans. Our nearly 600 members produce, process and distribute the majority of the nation’s energy, and participate in API Energy Excellence^®, which is accelerating environmental and safety progress by fostering new technologies and transparent reporting. API was formed in 1919 as a standards-setting organization and has developed more than 700 standards to enhance operational and environmental safety, efficiency and sustainability.

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