The oil and gas industry operates on a worldwide scale and connects some of the world’s largest countries. As the oil and gas industry evolves we have seen a resurgence in new exploration activity ranging from Greenland, Suriname, Brazil, Venezuela, Angola to name but a few.

This growth has in turn brought a significant demand for oil industry-specific translations in a variety of languages which can cause difficulties for those parties involved.

Selecting an accurate translation expert is critical to companies serving the energy sector, but oil and gas translation is one of the most difficult types of technical translation.

Key points to look out for when seeking a translation company for oil and gas translation services

• A translation company with a proven track record working for oil and gas companies and having experience in the major exploration projects worldwide.

The company shall be able to provide evidence of expertise in the field, such as customer references and projects implemented.

• A translation company with an experienced pool of technical translators, who also have certain economic and legal knowledge.

When translating documents for the oil and gas industry it is essential that only the most experienced technical translators are used.

Translators need to have knowledge on the basic processes in the oil and gas industry such as: mining of gas and oil fields, exploration, drilling, building of pipelines and booster stations, gas processing, oil refining, gas and oil recovery, flow metering, transportation and storage, description of the oil and gas equipment, retail marketing and etc.

Performing oil and gas translations, translators deal with documents such as: operation and maintenance manuals, equipment manuals, drilling expedition reports, performance data of installations, environmental impact assessments, social impact assessments, technical proposals, technical specifications, tender documents, insurance policies, international standards, weight measures and etc.

All those types of documents contain specific and complex technical and financial terminology, along with symbols and abbreviations, which are not standard.

Translators working with legal documents for oil and gas operations must have a general understanding of the rules and laws which govern oil and gas leases, royalties, land ownership and contracts and legal agreements for drilling and pipeline installation and usage,.

Translating terminology and jargon used in the oil and gas industry presents many unique challenges.

For a successful translation, extensive knowledge in technical oil and gas terminology is required, along with certain economic and foreign oil legislation knowledge.

• The languages requested most often by the oil and gas industry are Arabic, Russian, French, English, Spanish, Portuguese and Dutch, meaning a translation company must have specialist translators in all these languages and many more.

Specific issues arise for professionals in the Russian language, who have the added responsibility of ensuring that their work, not only reflects the most commonly accepted terminology for this field, but also adheres to the codes and standards of the Russian Federation.

• A translation company that uses up-to-date glossaries of technical terms, petroleum industry dictionaries, international petroleum terminological standards and terminological databases.

Accuracy is vital to good technical translations and a good glossary of terminology is the key to accurate translations.

• Registered in the global network of First Point and Achilles oil & gas supplier databases in various countries and regions around the world.

• FPAL - UK & Netherlands

• JQS - Norway & Denmark

• RPP - Venezuela

• SICLAR - Argentina

FPAL works to identify, qualify, evaluate and monitor suppliers on behalf of its members.

• A translation company that is able to work to tight deadlines for tenders and provide accurate and precise translations even under strict deadline delivery terms.

Tenders have bid deadlines and in a multimillion pound industry, there is no allowance for poor or late translations.

A translation company shall have a Quality Assurance Department that can tailor a workflow procedure for you so that no matter what language combination or deadline it will not seriously affect the quality of the translation that you receive. An experienced project manager will oversee every aspect of your oil and gas translation project to ensure all of your requirements are met and any unforeseen changes or amendments can be implemented smoothly without causing disruptions to the overall result.