American Petroleum Institute - Standards and Certification

Standards and Certification

API distributes more than 200,000 copies of its publications each year. The publications, technical standards, and electronic and online products are designed, according to API itself, to help users improve the efficiency and cost-effectiveness of their operations, comply with legislative and regulatory requirements, and safeguard health, ensure safety, and (perhaps most controversially) "protect the environment". Each publication is overseen by a committee of industry professionals, mostly member company engineers.

These technical standards tend to be uncontroversial. For example, API 610 is the specification for centrifugal pumps, API 675 is the specification for controlled volume positive displacement pumps, both packed-plunger and diaphragm types are included. Diaphragm pumps that use direct mechanical actuation are excluded. API 677 is the standard for gear units and API 682 governs mechanical seals.

API also defines the industry standard for the energy conservation of motor oil. API SN is the latest specification to which motor oils intended for spark-ignited engines should adhere since 2010. It supersedes API SM. Different specifications exist for compression-ignited engines.

API provides vessel codes and standards for the design and fabrication of pressure vessels that help safeguard the lives of people and environments all over the world.

API also defines and drafts standards for measurement for manufactured products such as:

• Precision thread gauges
• Plain plug and ring gauges
• Thread measuring systems
• Metrology and industrial supplies
• Measuring instruments
• Custom gauges
• Precision machining and grinding
• ISO 17025 registered calibration

API has entered petroleum industry nomenclature in a number of areas:

• API gravity, a measure of the density of petroleum.
• API number, a unique identifier applied to each petroleum exploration or production well drilled in the United States.
• API unit, a standard measure of natural gamma radiation measured in a borehole.