API Spec Q2 is the American Petroleum Institute's quality management system specification for service supply organisations in the upstream oil and gas industry, and its 3rd Edition was published on 10 September 2026. The 3rd Edition takes effect on 1 October 2027, when every Q2-registered organisation must be audited to it.
This guide is for quality managers at drilling, well-service and other well-site service companies that hold a 2nd Edition registration or plan to apply.
What is API Spec Q2 and who is it for?
API Spec Q2 sets the minimum requirements for a quality management system in organisations that perform well-site services. API names those services as well construction, intervention, production and abandonment.
Its sister document, API Spec Q1, covers organisations that provide products, such as equipment manufacturers. Q2 covers the people, equipment and suppliers that deliver a service at or for the well site.
API issued the 2nd Edition on 14 July 2021, and all registered organisations had to implement it by 14 January 2022. API has registered companies to Q2 through its API Quality Registrar (APIQR) programme since 2013. In September 2026 it reported more than 250 Q2-registered companies across Asia, the Middle East, Africa and the Americas.
What changed in the 3rd Edition?
API describes the 3rd Edition as a refinement of the 2nd. The main change is scope. A new applicability section says Q2 was written for well-site services and services tied to well-site activity. It was not written for organisations whose only service is calibration, engineering, design, training or technical consulting, NDE inspection, transportation, project management, software, or manufacturing.
The second big change is that exclusions are gone. Under the 2nd Edition some requirements could be excluded where they did not apply. Under the 3rd Edition every clause must be implemented.
API's announcement of the 3rd Edition lists four more changes:
- Provisions for deferrals or concessions within a preventive maintenance, inspection and test programme.
- A new definition of performance acceptable criteria (PAC).
- Purchasing requirements that put more weight on a risk-based approach.
- A record retention period extended to 10 years.
The new edition also separates Q2 more clearly from API Spec Q1. The 10th Edition of Q1, published in 2023, already covers certain engineering, product-realisation and product-related activities. API now points organisations that do only that kind of work towards Q1.
When must registered companies move to the 3rd Edition?
The APIQR programme published its transition notification on the same day as the new edition. The dates below come from it.
| Date | What happens |
|---|---|
| 10 September 2026 | 3rd Edition published. API stops accepting new applications or scope changes that include ineligible scopes or exclusions. |
| 1 February 2027 | Registered organisations may ask to be audited to the 3rd Edition. Every later audit is then to the 3rd Edition. |
| 5 April 2027 | New applicants must have implemented the 3rd Edition and are audited to it. |
| 30 September 2027 | Last day of 2nd Edition audits for organisations that have not transitioned. Auditors record a concern on each such report. |
| 1 October 2027 | Effective date. All Q2-registered organisations must have fully implemented the 3rd Edition. Those that have not may be suspended or cancelled. |
| 1 October 2029 | Any remaining 2nd Edition certificates are withdrawn. |
To transition, a site needs a full-system audit to the 3rd Edition, answers to every nonconformity with a correction, root cause analysis and corrective action, and then API's certification decision. API warns that this can take several months. Work back from your next audit date, not from October 2027.
Is your service still eligible for Q2 registration?
This is the question to settle first, because API is already applying it. The rule concerns the scope printed on the API certificate, not the scope you define inside your own management system. You may still perform and sell any of the listed activities. What changes is how the certificate describes them.
A standalone engineering, NDE, calibration, transportation or software service can no longer be a scope line of its own. It can appear only as part of an eligible well-site service. The same applies to supplying or renting service-related equipment with no service attached.
API's own example is cementing. A scope of cementing services including engineering and project management is acceptable. Cementing, engineering and project management listed as three separate services is not.
If only part of your scope is ineligible, API will start rewording it at your next annual audit, and the change becomes mandatory after the transition audit. If your whole scope is ineligible, API will withdraw the Q2 registration after 1 October 2027, following the transition audit. API suggests those organisations consider API Spec Q1 and will waive the Q1 application fee on request for applications made before 1 October 2027.
Check your sites as well. Under APIQR Advisory 17, in force for existing registrants since 1 January 2026, a registered site must be where the management system is managed and implemented. Sites where you perform and manage preventive maintenance, inspection and testing must be registered too, through multi-site registration if they are elsewhere. If all of that work happens at customer or supplier sites, API auditors must be given in-person access to them.
What do API auditors look for in a Q2 system?
Q2 adds service-specific elements to a general quality system, and API subcommittee presentations on the first edition, as reported, listed nine. The first six are personnel competence, risk assessment, service design, contingency planning, control of critical suppliers and a service quality plan. The other three are preventive maintenance, inspection and test, service performance validation and management of change. Two of them, maintenance programmes and purchasing, are named again in API's 3rd Edition summary.
In practice an auditor picks a job and follows it from contract review to the field. The records below are AGS's practical list, not API's wording:
- The service quality plan for that job, with the acceptance criteria the crew worked to.
- The risk assessment and the contingency plan agreed with the customer before mobilisation.
- Competence records for each person on the crew, for the tasks they performed.
- Maintenance, inspection and test records for the equipment used, including any deferral and who approved it.
- Supplier criticality ratings and evaluations for the critical suppliers on the job.
- Management of change records showing risk review and customer notification.
Under the 3rd Edition, plan to keep these records for 10 years. Older files on shared drives and paper job packs need a retention rule now.
How do API Q1, the API Monogram and APIQR registration fit together?
APIQR registers management systems to API Spec Q1, API Spec Q2, API 18LCM, ISO 9001 and ISO 14001. Each is a separate registration. An ISO 9001 certificate is not a Q2 registration. If your customers accept ISO 9001, our guide to ISO 9001:2026 and its transition covers the edition published on 16 September 2026.
The API Monogram is different again. It is a licence that lets a manufacturer apply API's registered mark to new equipment built to an API product specification, under a quality system that meets API Spec Q1. Q2 registration does not give the right to use the Monogram. A Q2-registered company may use the APIQR mark in correspondence and promotion about its registered scope, but not on products or reports in a way that suggests API approved them.
Suppliers that make or repair equipment rather than deliver well-site services may compare Q1 with ISO 29001. Our ISO 29001 guide covers that sector standard. More kits are in our quality and accreditation collection.
How AGS can help
The API Spec Q2 (2021) Management System kit contains 69 editable Microsoft Word documents written to the 2nd Edition. It includes a quality manual that cross-references each applicable requirement to the kit, and 20 procedures covering risk, contingency planning, management of change and preventive maintenance among others. It also has a service quality plan, 25 forms and records, and 11 checklists including a Q2 internal audit checklist. It does not cover the 3rd Edition changes.
Frequently asked questions
Is a 2nd Edition certificate still valid?
Yes, during the transition. Organisations that have not transitioned are audited to the 2nd Edition until 30 September 2027, and any remaining 2nd Edition certificates are withdrawn on 1 October 2029.
How long must Q2 records be kept under the 3rd Edition?
API's summary of the 3rd Edition says the required retention period is now 10 years. Check the clause in your copy of the specification for which records it covers.
How can a customer check that a supplier is Q2 registered?
Search the API Composite List by company name, certificate number or specification. It shows current registration status and scope.
Does buying documentation mean the company will be registered?
No. Registration depends on how the system works in practice and on API's audit and certification decision.
AGS provides independent documentation toolkits. This guide and the referenced kit are not affiliated with, endorsed by or approved by the American Petroleum Institute. AGS does not use the API Monogram or APIQR marks, and buying a kit is not API registration.
Reviewed October 2026. Facts checked against the sources current at publication.
