API releases updated safety standards for overfill prevention systems

The American Petroleum Institute (API) today released the fifth edition of the API 2350, a safety standard designed to help oil storage facilities operators implement overfill prevention systems (OPS).

OPS’s ensure that oil and other products are transferred to storage tanks safely, without overfilling or mechanical damage. The fifth edition is titled Overfill Prevention for Storage Tanks in Petroleum Facilities.

“The updated standard will help operators receive petroleum products at their storage facilities, using the latest techniques and technologies to prioritize safety and spill prevention while ensuring safety and environmental sustainability practices are maintained,” API Global Industry Services (GIS) Senior Vice President Debra Phillips said. “This new edition of API 2350 addresses practices at storage facilities, which are increasingly important to the industry as supply and demand trends are affected by the current pandemic, and specifically advances techniques to prevent overfilling.”

This new edition places emphasis on reaction times to overfill alarms, spill prevention programs, management systems, industry experience and improved technology. It also provides a range of offerings to account for operational differences between each storage facility, while providing more options to operators to advance safety and environmental protection.

API standards are developed under API’s American National Standards Institute (ANSI) accredited process.

API, with more than 600 member companies. represents all segments of America’s oil and natural gas industry.