Prequalification in oil & gas has drifted into paperwork. Suppliers submit a pack, a coordinator ticks boxes, and the file is opened again only when something goes wrong on site. The teams that avoid that outcome treat qualification as an evidence exercise: every claim on the form must be traceable to a document a third party issued.
1. Legal standing and beneficial ownership
Start with the trade licence, registration certificate and the activity codes actually listed on it. A supplier bidding for corrosion inhibitor supply whose licence covers general trading only is a compliance issue for your organisation, not theirs. Confirm the signatory has authority and that the bank account belongs to the registered entity.
2. HSE record with numbers attached
- Three years of TRIR / LTIF with man-hours worked, not just a rate.
- Incident close-out evidence for anything reportable.
- Named HSE lead, not an outsourced consultant signature.
3. Quality system and inspection capability
ISO 9001 certification tells you a system exists; it does not tell you the supplier can produce a certificate of analysis per batch. For chemicals, ask for a sample CoA, the test methods behind each parameter and the laboratory that runs them. For fabricated items, ask for the last third-party inspection release note.
4. Financial capacity relative to your scope
The relevant question is not "is this supplier profitable" but "can this supplier fund my scope until first payment". A two-year term contract awarded to a supplier whose working capital covers three weeks of delivery is a continuity risk regardless of price.
5. References that can be called
Named contacts at operating companies, with the scope and dates they can confirm. Borrowed references are common — see the pattern list in vendor verification red flags.
6. Independent verification of what you were told
Everything above is self-declared. Independent verification of supplier, buyer and consultant identity closes the gap between the pack and reality — platforms such as TradLoc.com exist for exactly that check, and running it before award costs far less than discovering the mismatch after mobilisation.
Make the output reusable
Qualification is worth little if the result lives in one buyer's inbox. Store the outcome as a dated record with the evidence attached, and re-run the short version annually. The same discipline applies to what you send outward: see the industrial company profile that survives buyer screening.