Measurement requires the highest level of ethical integrity in an industry that relies on ethical integrity at every level. A measurement professional is the provider of data to all the other professionals involved in the petroleum industry. If the measurement professional fails at their assigned duties, all the other branches of this industry make decisions based on poor data, or, in the worst case, false data.

Ethics, Morals, and Habits

Nomenclature

The problem with the words ethics and morals is that they are generally interchangeable. Admittedly there are subtleties in their use and connotation but generally they both mean a system of standards for good and evil, right and wrong, and the condition of being in harmony or disharmony with them (ethical, unethical, moral, immoral).

In the study of ethics we need a common set of definitions..

Ethics is a system of rules for behavior. As such, every individual, group, or subgroup has ethics. It represents the individuals’ choices for their behavior or, for a group or subgroup, an agreed upon set of rules for behavior. Implied in this is that the individuals over themselves, or the group or subgroup over its members or those under its authority, have the right to enforce those rules.