National foreword

This British Standard is the UK implementation of EN ISO 3170:2025. It is identical to ISO 3170:2025. It supersedes BS EN ISO 3170:2004, which is withdrawn.

The UK participation in its preparation was entrusted to Technical Committee PTI/13, Petroleum Testing and Terminology.

A list of organizations represented on this committee can be obtained on request to its committee manager.

Contractual and legal considerations

This publication has been prepared in good faith, however no representation, warranty, assurance or undertaking (express or implied) is or will be made, and no responsibility or liability is or will be accepted by BSI in relation to the adequacy, accuracy, completeness or reasonableness of this publication. All and any such responsibility and liability is expressly disclaimed to the full extent permitted by the law.

This publication is provided as is, and is to be used at the recipient’s own risk.

The recipient is advised to consider seeking professional guidance with respect to its use of this publication.

This publication is not intended to constitute a contract. Users are responsible for its correct application.

Compliance with a British Standard cannot confer immunity from legal obligations.

This British Standard was published under the authority of the Standards Policy and Strategy Committee on 30 June 2025.

Foreword

ISO (the International Organization for Standardization) is a worldwide federation of national standards bodies (ISO member bodies). The work of preparing International Standards is normally carried out through ISO technical committees. Each member body interested in a subject for which a technical committee has been established has the right to be represented on that committee. International organizations, governmental and non-governmental, in liaison with ISO, also take part in the work. ISO collaborates closely with the International Electrotechnical Commission (IEC) on all matters of electrotechnical standardization.

The procedures used to develop this document and those intended for its further maintenance are described in the ISO/IEC Directives, Part 1. In particular, the different approval criteria needed for the different types of ISO document should be noted. This document was drafted in accordance with the editorial rules of the ISO/IEC Directives, Part 2 (see www.iso.org/directives).

ISO draws attention to the possibility that the implementation of this document may involve the use of (a) patent(s). ISO takes no position concerning the evidence, validity or applicability of any claimed patent rights in respect thereof. As of the date of publication of this document, ISO had not received notice of (a) patent(s) which may be required to implement this document. However, implementers are cautioned that this may not represent the latest information, which may be obtained from the patent database available at www.iso.org/patents. ISO shall not be held responsible for identifying any or all such patent rights.

Any trade name used in this document is information given for the convenience of users and does not constitute an endorsement.

For an explanation of the voluntary nature of standards, the meaning of ISO specific terms and expressions related to conformity assessment, as well as information about ISO's adherence to the World Trade Organization (WTO) principles in the Technical Barriers to Trade (TBT), see www.iso.org/iso/foreword.html.

This document was prepared by Technical Committee ISO/TC 28, Petroleum and related products, fuels and lubricants from natural or synthetic sources, Subcommittee SC 2, Measurement of petroleum and related products, in collaboration with the European Committee for Standardization (CEN) Technical Committee CEN/TC 19, Gaseous and liquid fuels, lubricants and related products of petroleum, synthetic and biological origin, in accordance with the Agreement on technical cooperation between ISO and CEN (Vienna Agreement).

This fourth edition cancels and replaces the third edition (ISO 3170:2004), which has been technically revised.

The main changes are as follows:

document title amended to reflect the expanded scope of the document for non-petroleum liquids;
inclusion of an equal representation of the closed and restricted sampling devices in addition to the traditional open sampling devices;
expanded Clause 3 and the Bibliography;
added Clause 4.

Any feedback or questions on this document should be directed to the user’s national standards body. A complete listing of these bodies can be found at www.iso.org/members.html.

Introduction

This document can be used in conjunction with ISO 3171.

This document specifies standard conditions and methods for obtaining samples of liquid/semi-liquid hydrocarbons from a tank, drum or pipeline by manual means. If the hydrocarbon to be sampled is non-homogeneous, showing significant variations in composition or containing sediments and water, samples taken manually should not be expected to be representative, but can enable the degree of non-homogeneity to be assessed and estimates of quality and quantity to be made.

The procedures specified in this document are intended to minimize or eliminate losses of light ends from samples. Such losses can occur during the handling or transfer of samples, thereby making them non-representative of the bulk.

The procedures specified provide samples for:

the determination of the liquid/hydrocarbon quality;
the determination of the water content;
the determination of other contaminants that are not considered to be part of the liquid hydrocarbon.

If the sampling conditions for purposes a), b) and c) are in conflict, separate samples are required.

The sampling procedures for tank contents that are not homogeneous specified in this document are intended to enable the degree of non-homogeneity to be assessed and estimates of quality and quantity to be made.

Procedures for the sampling of liquid hydrocarbons from tanks under inert gas pressure are included, together with techniques for sampling from tanks which are equipped with vapour emission control systems.

This European Standard was approved by CEN on 20 March 2025.

CEN members are bound to comply with the CEN/CENELEC Internal Regulations which stipulate the conditions for giving this European Standard the status of a national standard without any alteration. Up-to-date lists and bibliographical references concerning such national standards may be obtained on application to the CEN-CENELEC Management Centre or to any CEN member.

This European Standard exists in three official versions (English, French, German). A version in any other language made by translation under the responsibility of a CEN member into its own language and notified to the CEN-CENELEC Management Centre has the same status as the official versions.

CEN members are the national standards bodies of Austria, Belgium, Bulgaria, Croatia, Cyprus, Czechia, Denmark, Estonia, Finland, France, Germany, Greece, Hungary, Iceland, Ireland, Italy, Latvia, Lithuania, Luxembourg, Malta, Netherlands, Norway, Poland, Portugal, Republic of North Macedonia, Romania, Serbia, Slovakia, Slovenia, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, Türkiye and United Kingdom.

European foreword

This document (EN ISO 3170:2025) has been prepared by Technical Committee ISO/TC 28 "Petroleum and related products, fuels and lubricants from natural or synthetic sources" in collaboration with Technical Committee CEN/TC 19 “Gaseous and liquid fuels, lubricants and related products of petroleum, synthetic and biological origin” the secretariat of which is held by NEN.

This European Standard shall be given the status of a national standard, either by publication of an identical text or by endorsement, at the latest by December 2025, and conflicting national standards shall be withdrawn at the latest by December 2025.

Attention is drawn to the possibility that some of the elements of this document may be the subject of patent rights. CEN shall not be held responsible for identifying any or all such patent rights.

This document supersedes EN ISO 3170:2004.

Any feedback and questions on this document should be directed to the users’ national standards body/national committee. A complete listing of these bodies can be found on the CEN website.

According to the CEN-CENELEC Internal Regulations, the national standards organizations of the following countries are bound to implement this European Standard: Austria, Belgium, Bulgaria, Croatia, Cyprus, Czech Republic, Denmark, Estonia, Finland, France, Germany, Greece, Hungary, Iceland, Ireland, Italy, Latvia, Lithuania, Luxembourg, Malta, Netherlands, Norway, Poland, Portugal, Republic of North Macedonia, Romania, Serbia, Slovakia, Slovenia, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, Türkiye and the United Kingdom.

Endorsement notice

The text of ISO 3170:2025 has been approved by CEN as EN ISO 3170:2025 without any modification.

1 Scope

This document specifies the manual methods used for obtaining samples of liquid or semi-liquid hydrocarbons, tank residues and deposits from fixed tanks, railcars, road vehicles, ships and barges, drums and cans, or from liquids being pumped in pipelines.

It applies to the sampling of liquid products, including crude oils, intermediate products, synthetic hydrocarbons and bio fuels, which are stored at or near atmospheric pressure, or transferred by pipelines as liquids at elevated pressures and temperatures.

The sampling procedures specified are not intended for the sampling of special petroleum products which are the subject of other International Standards, such as electrical insulating oils (covered in IEC 60475), liquefied petroleum gases (covered in ISO 4257), liquefied natural gases (covered in ISO 8943) and gaseous natural gases (covered in ISO 10715).

This document refers to methods of sampling and sampling equipment in use at the time of writing. It does not exclude the use of new equipment, provided that such equipment enables samples to be obtained according to the requirements and procedures of this document.

2 Normative references

3 Terms and definitions

4 Safety

4.1 General

4.2 Safety aspects of equipment

4.3 Safety at sampling points

4.4 Entry into enclosed (confined) spaces

4.5 Electrical safety

5 Sampling

5.1 General

5.2 Typical locations from where samples are drawn

5.3 Restricted opening/vapour trap sampling

5.4 Representative samples

5.5 Homogeneity

6 Equipment

6.1 General

6.2 Types of tank samplers

6.3 Samplers used for open sampling methods in tanks

6.4 Samplers used for restricted and closed sampling methods in tanks

6.5 Other sampling devices

7 Sample container

7.1 General container design

7.2 Sample container material and type

7.3 Container closures

8 Procedures

8.1 General sampling practices

8.2 General principles of sampling

8.3 Tank sampling procedures

8.4 Procedure for manual sampling on pipeline

8.5 Sampling from railcars

8.6 Sampling from road tankers

8.7 Sampling from drums or intermediate bulk containers

8.8 Package sampling

8.9 Sampling from dispensers (retail)

9 Requirements for specific products

9.1 General

9.2 Crude oil

9.3 Naphtha, gasoline and other volatile liquid

9.4 Aviation fuels

9.5 Distillate fuels (excluding jet fuel)

9.6 Residual fuel oil (including marine bunker fuels)

9.7 Bitumen

9.8 Requirements for sampling for microbiological assay

10 Sample handling

10.1 General

10.2 Sample transfer

10.3 Labelling

10.4 Sample transportation

10.5 External influences

10.6 Homogenizing samples

10.7 Verification of mixing efficiency

10.8 Selection of sample mixing method

10.9 Compositing samples

10.10 Retained samples

Bibliography

BS EN ISO 3170:2025

Hydrocarbon Liquids. Manual sampling

Current

Published:

30 Jun 2025