Richard Robinson began his career with Esso Australia and his first involvement with the pipeline industry was as Project Engineer on the replacement of the first 88 km of Esso’s 28 inch diameter Longford to Long Island Point Oil Pipeline in the late 1970s. Since then, he has worked extensively in the industry, including involvement with major pipeline developments in Papua New Guinea (PNG).

Mr Robinson says challenging experiences encountered while working for Oil Search in PNG have helped him to learn more about “the people issues”, which are central to the completion of a successful project.

History of meeting challenges

In-depth knowledge of the complex operating environment in PNG has assisted Mr Robinson to meet the many challenges of his various roles at Oil Search.

“The challenges in PNG have not changed materially in my 22 plus years in the country. They include managing community expectations, ensuring effective government interface, terrain, weather, ground conditions and logistics.”

As PNG Operations Manager for Oil Search, Mr Robinson oversaw the operatorship transition of PNG oil production assets from Chevron to Oil Search. He says the key lesson learned from this experience was that the combination of people and places result in interesting highs and lows. “The people issues create the most stress, and provide the best rewards,” Mr Robinson says.

Mr Robinson cites his time as Design Manager for the original Kutubu onshore oil export pipeline in PNG, from 1989 to 1992, as one of the roles that challenged traditional notions of pipeline practice in the Australasian region.

“It was real frontier work, with a number of people believing that the development of such a pipeline was not practical, yet we brought it in 2 per cent under budget and one day ahead of schedule.”

Operating continually in PNG since 1929, Oil Search is now “part of the fabric of the country”, according to Mr Robinson. He says that the company has continued to evolve alongside the development of PNG as a nation, and that Oil Search will continue operating in the region for many decades to come – particularly through its 29 per cent interest in the PNG LNG Project, a proposed two-train 6.6 MMt/a LNG processing facility integrating gas from the Hides, Angore and Juha gas fields, as well as associated gas from the Oil Search-operated Kutubu, Agogo, Gobe and Moran oil fields.

Mr Robinson notes that “the pipeline challenges associated with this project are immense given the lack of infrastructure, terrain, weather and community issues that will need to be dealt with, and the difficulties of working adjacent to the existing oil pipeline for a significant part of the route”.

Turning experience into training

Mr Robinson says “Oil Search has extensive internal technical and job skills learning programs for all of our personnel.

“In PNG, we do not have the luxury of being able to rely on external learning service providers, and thus have developed this expertise in-house including gaining accreditation under the Australian TAFE system.”

Mr Robinson says the sector as a whole needs to ensure that new entrants to the industry are working in an attractive environment. He says that this process involves “ensuring that people have good opportunity for personal and professional growth”, and making sure that the industry is seen as a “vibrant and value-adding place to work” through ongoing training and development.

“The APIA initiative on the development of the pipeline engineer competency framework has been a great start to filling the skills gap in the industry that has begun to appear over the past 10 to 15 years,” Mr Robinson says.

“I feel that the combination of the learning that is available from existing APIA member service providers, the high-end technical skills learning that will be available through the EPCRC and the use of mentoring by experienced industry personnel to our younger participants can provide a great platform for ongoing skills development in the industry.”

Mr Robinson says the two stand-out industry achievements during his time as an APIA Board Member thus far have been gaining whole-of-industry support for an engineer training program, and the endorsement of the EPCRC by the Federal Government.

A vision for APIA: past, present and future

Mr Robinson says that a constant factor that has stood the test of time in the industry is the “amazing characters” who are willing to continually improve and innovate their sector; a tendency which he says reaches its apex with the capacity of APIA to effectively ‘bridge’ across industry sectors and participants.

He says that, over the years, the application of reliability-based inspection programs and risk-based maintenance have lead to improved cost performance for the industry without any reduction in the outstanding record of operational safety and security of supply.

“This remains a fine balance, and one that we do not always get right, but the track record of the Australian pipeline industry is outstanding and thus we must be doing a lot of things right.”

Moving forward, Mr Robinson says that it is important that the industry recognises its position within a global marketplace.

“We are now operating in a truly global market, and it is essential that we think in a global sense when it comes to procurement [of materials] both in terms of sourcing and selling,” he says.

In addition, he notes that the industry must ensure that the impact of Australian economic regulation on industry is ‘light-handed’ so that it does not distort normal commercial decision-making or stifle innovation.

Mr Robinson is looking forward to addressing the above issues through his role as an APIA Board Member, as well as “ensuring that APIA is well set up to serve our members for a long time into the future”.