The American Society of Mechanical Engineers published the B31Q Pipeline Personnel Qualification Standard on Friday, September 15, 2006. The standard is the result of three years of industry consensus building between major stakeholders within the pipeline industry. The standard does not have code standing at this time because it has not been incorporated by reference into the Code of Federal Regulation CFR 49 192 or 195. The ASME B31Q Pipeline Personnel Qualification Standard is currently non-mandatory from a regulatory compliance perspective. Current regulatory requirements for Operator Qualification are listed in the CFR under parts 192 Subpart N and 195 Subpart G. ASME B31Q Pipeline Personnel Qualification Standard represents industry consensus guidance materials for operators, contractors and others reviewing current OQ programs or persons new to regulatory compliance requirements in the pipeline industry.
Our Vision
MEA’s OQ vision is to deliver OQ products that are recognized as, meeting or exceeding the requirements of OQ Regulation. In keeping with this, the MEA OQ Steering Committee is currently reviewing and revising our OQ products and services. Our initial effort has been to determine which tasks related to B31Q we already have evaluation materials for and which evaluation materials need to be developed.
MEA Revised OQ Material
The committee has taken one task and created a draft of revised evaluation materials with B31Q requirements included. A draft of the revised evaluations material for task 1409.01 Installation of Steel Pipe in a Ditch is available for review and comment. MEA and the OQ Steering Committee are working as quickly as possible to position MEA member companies and customers to be prepared to use the newly developed materials, if they choose to meet the ASME B31Q standard. The committee has also begun the process of reviewing requirements for record keeping and portability.
The completion of the new CERCplus record keeping system is designed to recognize current MEA materials and also switch your OQ to ASME tasks.
MEA encourages operators and contractors to review the draft evaluation materials and discuss the specifics with federal and state regulators. MEA also encourages your feedback as to the direction, material, and content the OQ Steering Committee has taken.
To purchase a copy of the published ASME B31Q Pipeline Personnel Qualification Standard click HERE
