GNBS reports successful first year monitoring oil and gas sector

The Guyana National Bureau of Standards (GNBS) was this year given the responsibility of ensuring the accuracy of measurements of crude being lifted on the Floating Production Storage and Offloading (FPSO) vessels as local oil production got underway.

Public Relations Officer Mr. Lloyd David, while speaking with DPI recently noted that this was one of the most significant achievements for the GNBS this year. He added that the agency continues to provide reliable service to the oil and gas sector.

“It’s not only monitoring and measurements we also work with companies who are actually supplying the oil and gas sector, with implementation of certain international standards and we have managed to do very well this year,” Mr. David said.

Several companies interested in providing services to the oil and gas sector had approached the GNBS for help.

“We actually manage to engage sixteen companies, who are interested primarily in the implementation of safety standards and quality standards that are internationally recognized,” Mr. David explained.

“We have taken three companies to certification readiness, we at the GNBS, we cannot certify a company to international standards but we can offer the technical assistance they need to take them to the ‘door’ of certification,” he noted.

Three companies that the GNBS worked with are now ready to be internationally certified while another three are expected to be ready before the year ends.

Mr. David said many companies are seeing the need to be certified and are approaching the GNBS, which is pleased to assist them with the services they need.

“They want to prove that whatever they are doing are of quality, so they would want to implement the ISO 9001 standard, they want to manage their risk and you want to demonstrate via the standard that you are constantly improving what you are doing as a company,” he said.

Apart from the ISO 9001, which is the international standard for creating quality management systems, the ISO 45001 is also useful to these companies. This is the international standard for occupational health and safety.

Further, Mr. David said, the GNBS Consultancy Services Department is always ready to assist the public to understand its intentions and to recommend the appropriate standards needed for services in the petroleum sector.