ISO 14224: The Data Strategy for Reliability in Oil, Gas, and Energy
Moving beyond compliance to strategic advantage - embedding the international standard into your SAP systems to cut downtime and boost performance.
By Eugene O'Brien - Lead Solution Architect
In the ever-challenging Oil, Gas and Energy sector, data is more than just numbers – it’s the foundation for safety, efficiency, and long-term asset performance.
Data driven reliability and maintenance practices have become essential to optimise asset performance, reduce downtime, and ensure compliance.
ISO14224, the international standard for collecting and exchanging data, has quietly become a significant change for companies looking to make smarter decisions across the asset lifecycle.
The standard however is more than a compliance exercise – it is a strategic enabler. This blog outlines the approach, key principles, and tangible benefits of embedding the ISO 14224 standard into your SAP landscape.
ISO 14224 in Action: Real-world impact across upstream and downstream
Take for example an upstream operator managing multiple assets with inconsistent asset hierarchies making it difficult to track maintenance costs or pinpoint equipment failures. By standardising the way assets are classified, and data is recorded, operators can gain clarity on where money is being spent and where it is being wasted. Reliability engineers can distinguish between reactive and proactive work paving the way for a shift towards predictive maintenance, a reduction in emergency repairs and improving overall reliability.
In downstream operations, the use of ISO 14224 can be used to define safe operating limits for critical equipment. With these sorts of parameters embedded into maintenance systems, automatic triggers and alerts can be set up to notice when conditions have drifted into unsafe territory.
Across the industry, companies can use ISO 14224 to align data with workflows to create feedback loops where failure trends inform preventative maintenance schedules – boosting uptime and reducing lifecycle costs.
And it’s not just about fixing what’s broken. Surface facility design has also benefited. Analysing historical failure data through the lens of ISO 14224 will enable identification of design flaws in systems and adjust specifications accordingly. The result? Lower capital expenditure and more efficient operations.
ISO 14224 provides a structured methodology for collecting and exchanging data across reliability and maintenance, but its value extends far beyond definitions only – offering a practical and context rich foundation for improving operational decision making.
Key principles and benefits of ISO 14224
- Standardised data collection: A unified set of data across teams and systems for example, collection of failure data for analysis can provide data insight to redesign maintenance procedure and increase the mean time between failures.
- Lifecyle Coverage: from commissioning to decommissioning, upstream to downstream including adjustment to maintenance intervals based on trend analysis.
- Data Quality: structured, validated and digital ready for M&A activity. Helping to evaluate equipment replacement schedules based on actual performance, extending asset life and improving capital allocation.
- Interoperability: Streamlined data exchange between owners, vendors, auditors and contractors.
- Reduce Unplanned Downtime: 15% reduction in real world cases.
Key benefits for the industry
- Improved Decision-Making: Standardised data allows for better analysis, leading to more informed operational and maintenance decisions.
- Enhanced Safety and Environmental Performance: By reducing equipment failures, it helps decrease incidents, minimise environmental impact, and improve compliance.
- Optimised Asset Management: It supports extending the life of existing assets and improving the quality of operations and maintenance.
- Better Resource Planning: Access to reliable data helps organisations plan resources more effectively for maintenance and operations.
In short, ISO 14224 isn’t just a technical standard—it’s a strategic tool. Whether it’s improving data quality, optimising maintenance, or enhancing safety, its real-world impact is clear.
For the Energy sector navigating the pressures of cost, compliance, and performance, it offers a structured path to smarter, more resilient operations.
Ready to transform your asset strategy?
The shift from compliant data to strategic intelligence can significantly reduce your downtime and operating costs. If you're navigating the complexities of implementing ISO 14224 in your SAP environment, or want to explore tailored data and reliability solutions specifically for your Oil, Gas, or Energy operations, our experts are here to help.
