Questions

1. Where do you work and what is your role? 2. How did you get into the pipeline industry and what was your first job in the industry? 3. What do you enjoy most about working in the pipeline industry? 4. What do you think the wider world should know about the pipeline industry? 5. Do you have a classic pipelining story you would like to share? 6. What do you think are the biggest challenges facing the pipeline industry? 7. What do you believe are the major opportunities for the industry?

Marie Malaxos

1. ARC Energy Limited, Chief Operating Officer. 2. My first job was working on the telecommunications systems on the Dampier to Bunbury Pipeline. 3. The diversity of work and opportunity to be a part of a global industry. 4. There is little understanding of the industry, its complexities and challenges. Any way we can educate the wider world on our industry should be investigated. 5. Not sure if I can tell any of the good ones in polite company! Recently when surveying the potential route of a proposed pipeline my colleagues and I drove straight onto a mud flat and became bogged. The 4WD was hired and had little equipment to get us out with. However, ingenuity prevailed and we dug ourselves out with sticks and used rocks to build a causeway. 6. The lack of skilled personnel in the industry. The difficulties in land access. The ownership changes in Australia have taken the focus off responsible asset management. 7. It’s endless…In the current resources boom here and overseas there are limitless opportunities for all facets of the industry.

Murray Durham

1. Director of Oil & Gas Marketing for Apache Energy Limited in Perth, WA. 2. I became involved in the pipeline industry when I took on my first commercial role in the Australian gas industry managing the Minerva Gas Field Development in southwest Victoria. 3. I particularly enjoy meeting new people and reacquainting myself with old friends via my activities in the industry. I also enjoy the challenge of developing and implementing commercial arrangements that are fit for a purpose and effective. 4. The key role that pipelines play in ensuring comfort and convenience in day to day life. 5. I wish I had a classic story to share. The challenge is to create the next classic story. 6. Maintaining safe and reliable operations of aging infrastructure and achieving timely, cost effective and efficient expansion to meet growing energy demand. 7. Playing a key role in addressing climate change by providing the means for achieving meaningful reductions in greenhouse gas emissions.

Peter Cox

1. National Pipelines Manager for WorleyParsons. 2. In the early 90s I was installing gas compression packages on the platforms in Bass Strait for WorleyParsons. This detailed knowledge proved very useful in the installation of compressor stations on gas pipelines hence my entry into the industry. My first role was on the design of the South West Queensland Pipeline for WorleyParsons. 3. I enjoy the dedication, commitment and sense of belonging that I detect in almost everybody that I deal with in the pipeline industry. 4. I think that we need to be portraying the message of both the importance of pipelines in supporting future economic growth and also the diversity of the industry in order to attract new players. It is more than just a buried pipe in the ground. 5. The one aspect of this industry that does not agree with me (or rather my stomach) is the initial route selection from a helicopter! I don’t need to go into any more details but suffice to say I am very happy with the latest technology that allows us to virtually fly the route sitting in front of a computer. 6. The need to attract and train new people into the industry is the most important. With sufficient committed people, every other challenge can be overcome. 7. The opportunities revolve around finding energy solutions to the growing global crisis rather than simply trying to install more pipelines the same way that we have always done.

Mark Harper

1. Currently a Consultant on Energy Infrastructure. Prior to that Chief Executive of Agility. 2. I first became involved in the industry about 12 years ago when I was heavily involved in the development of the gas pipeline to Dubbo, referred to as the Central West Pipeline. At the time I was in Business Development for AGL. I became much more seriously involved in the industry in the Agility role about 6 years ago. 3. It is a great industry with a lot of soul. I think this comes from having so many people that have been involved for a long time. It is technically interesting and very challenging from many perspectives. 4. I think it would be good for them to know that it is a very reliable and safe way of transporting energy and other products around the country. However in a way the fact that they know very little is actually a credit to the industry, because when we are unnoticed it means we are doing our job very well. 5. The most significant challenge facing the pipeline industry is the same as it is for any of the industries involved in energy – that the energy we use and how we use it is going to change and change relatively quickly and significantly. 6. I believe that the immediate future for the industry has never been brighter. I think there will be a significant increase in the use of natural gas over time and that this will generate a great deal of activity for the industry. Similarly I think that water will continue to increase in value and that this too will create increased demand for the capabilities of our industry.

Mick McCormack

1. Managing Director of APA Group (formerly Australian Pipeline Trust). 2. My first exposure to the pipeline industry was as a contractor locating dig-up sites along the Moonie to Brisbane oil pipeline subsequent to running a metal loss intelligent pig. This then lead to being offered a full time job which was patrolling the same pipeline. 3. Two things – firstly knowing that the pipelines we build have a significant and very long lasting benefit to the community. Secondly, over the years I have mixed with and learnt from some tremendous people, all of whom have been more than happy to pass on their experience to me when I asked for help. 4. It is a safe, reliable and efficient way to deliver product to market whether that is hydro-carbons, slurry or water. 5. Nothing in particular stands out – but I think I’ve had most of the usual mess-ups happen to me from getting pigs stuck, lost or broken through to doing some cut-out work only to find that the replacement ‘pup’ piece of pipe was cut too short for the job (the old ‘measure twice and cut once’ adage). They seem funny now looking back, but at the time I wasn’t laughing. 6. I think the main challenge is encouraging more younger people into the industry. I can’t let the question go without adding that for the regulated parts of the industry, we need to get the regulatory settings right so as to encourage building more pipelines. 7. I believe gas is a transition fuel to a cleaner energy burning future, so this should see many opportunities arising for our industry to build the necessary infrastructure to deliver the growing gas demand. Similarly, in respect for water pipelines, there is likely to be a growing demand as the country tries to ‘drought proof’ itself.

Leigh Fletcher

1. I am the Principal of an unincorporated sole trader entity called Welding and Pipeline Integrity. I’m chair of the APIA Research and Standards Committee. I also act as a consulting engineer specialising in pipeline industry issues. 2. I began my career in the manufacture of high pressure penstocks for the Murray 1 pipeline on the Snowy Mountains Scheme. It was very challenging. I learned about hydrogen cracking, facture, and such very early in my career, and it stimulated me to go on to further studies. 3. I like working in the multi-disciplinary environment that pipelining provides. You need to understand the spectrum and context of problems that are involved and to appreciate the priorities and drivers that need to be taken into account in developing appropriate solutions. 4. I think the wider world only becomes interested at times of bad news stories. In general I think we are doing a good job while pipelines remain out of sight and out of mind. 5. Some people mightn’t think it is a pipelining story, but for me it is very much so. Some years ago, a British metallurgist called Brian Jones was presenting to an audience in the US capital Washington D.C. Brian introduced himself, thanked the Chair, and said what an absolute privilege and pleasure it was to be there, and how he thought that it was most appropriate for a conference on the metallurgy of line pipe to be held in the District of Niobia. The multi-disciplinarians will understand! 6. I think that the biggest issue is the lack of skills to meet the increased demands that will arise from the rapid growth in the use of gas as a transition fuel. 7. The need to build the infrastructure to cope with increased demand and to do it in a way where there is room for capacity growth within each new pipeline as it is built.

Ashley Kellett

1. South East Australia Gas Pty Ltd (SEA Gas), General Manager. 2. Initially by association 19 years ago, as part of the Government team that negotiated gas supplies for South Australia. I later joined the Pipelines Authority of South Australia (PASA) as business development manager. 3. The knowledge that it is an industry that carries out a critical role virtually seamlessly, but most of all it is the people, their professionalism and their humour. 4. That it is an industry run by professionals who put the highest priority on safety and the environment. That it is the pipeline industry that provides security of gas supply and the potential for gas supply competition. 5. The only one I think can be shared is that of the old hand who, while commending the young recruit on his safety awareness in filing a NMI report upon sighting a kangaroo as he drove up the easement road mid-afternoon, also pointed out that the recruit would need a glove box full of report sheets if he still intended to leave at dawn the next morning. 6. The availability of human resources and materials and how future regulators will interpret the new legislation 7. The use of higher pressures in pipelines to provide even greater efficiencies, the likelihood of convergence with water transportation, and the use of pipelines in waste gas relocation.

Steve Banning

1. CEO of Epic Energy 2. Originally worked in industrial water treatment focussing on corrosion, scaling and biofouling of heating and cooling systems, including pipelines. 3. The people 4. I don’t think the majority of people appreciate where their fuel source is coming from – they just expect the heating, hot water and power to be there when they hit the switch or turn on the tap. 5. Maintaining a safe working environment in what is, by its very nature, a hazardous work space. Ensuring investment occurs at an appropriate time and of an appropriate scale – regulators and owner/operators need to ensure that a positive outcome for all stakeholders is achieved. 6. Increased use of gas as a fuel to reduce carbon emissions.

Mark Twycross

1. McConnell Dowell Constructors (Aust) Pty Ltd, Director/General Manager Pipelines 2. In Perth as a kid I was involved in pipelines through a family company (I knew Bruce Wolfe in those days) and my first big pipeline was in 1975 with the MACDOW Saipem JV on the Mau pipeline in NZ, a 36 inch gas pipeline from Oanui to Huntly – 300 km through some serious country. 3. Working with your colleagues to achieve deadlines and budgets in all parts of the globe – hence our motto – Work Hard Play Hard. 4. No other type of infrastructure puts as much effort and dollars into first understanding the environment the pipeline is to interface with and then spends money to ensure the environment is put back together usually better than before so that no one knows there is a pipeline. 5. Funny you should ask – Wendy Oldham from NT Gas kindly sent me a collection of DVDs on the NT Gas Pipeline which was my last pipeline as a Project Manager. It showed the grand occasion when the MACDOW welding spread met up with the Saipem welding spread at the spread interface north of Elliot. Keith Potter, then Construction Manager with Williams Bros CMPS on the Saipem spread, had initiated an idea – “Come on Mark lets get the two spreads to weld out together, great film opportunity!” To do this the MACDOW guys had to weld 350 joints. I organised beers for the two teams for when they came together late that day. However, quite early in the afternoon, Saipem came roaring up to the finish line, drank all the beer and sat back and waited as the MACDOW guys struggled to the end some two hours later. We had to restage the finishing together for the film crew, I had to organise more beers and Keith trumpeted how his spread had got there first! As the MACDOW guys tiredly drank a few beers we couldn’t work out how Saipem had finished so early in the day. The next day we drove along the Saipem spread and lo and behold there was the Saipem welding team completing another day’s work – Keith had organised Saipem to skip a day’s work to ensure Saipem finished before MACDOW! 6. Attracting young professionals to the project situation, ensuring we maintain our high standard of health, safety and environmental practices and a meeting of the minds between owners/consultants and contractors on contract conditions and risk and opportunity management. 7. Involvement in other forms of pipelines, like water, and continuing our pipelining overseas.

Andy Lukas

1. Executive director of AJ Lucas Group Limited. 2. In 1968 I was a young engineer at a consulting group then known as MacDonald Wagner & Priddle which, together with Gulf Interstate Engineering, was asked by Caltex to examine the feasibility of building an oil products pipeline from Sydney to Newcastle. I was able to get myself assigned to that project and I’m still in the industry. 3. There is great diversity and opportunity. It is very satisfying to witness so much getting done in such a short time. 4. That the industry is very efficient, and that our costs have been significantly reduced in real terms over time. 5. I think that the achievements of the industry are a great story in themselves. 6. The shortage of skilled managers, engineers and personnel is a big challenge. We have seen an improvement in contracting strategies by pipeline owners in recent times. Let’s hope they continue. 7. The major opportunities deal with helping each other to achieve the results with minimum hassle and maximum co-operation.