Jemena’s Ed Gaykema led the Melbourne AS2885.3 launch as Part 3 Committee Chairman, explaining that the revision had passed ballot and there were no further changes to be made apart from minor editorials. At the time, the standard was in the process of being finalised. There had been delays in the process due to the fact that Part 0 and Part 1 changes had to be finalised prior to Part 3 being published.
Throughout his introductory presentation, Mr Gaykema reflected on history, referring to the Greeks, the Naboteans, and the Romans. He said that these were all great civilisations that accomplished great engineering feats, but ultimately they all faded into oblivion. Mr Gaykema warned attendees that they should not allow the pipeline industry to become like these once-great civilisations.
Mr Gaykema also quoted Australian cricket test captain Michael Clarke, who said “we were victims of our own success”. The cricket team had been so successful that they saw no need to look for underlying problems in their systems until their greatest players retired and the team was left with less experienced players that were unable to maintain the team’s winning streak.
Mr Gaykema drew an analogy between the cricket team and the pipeline industry’s need to mitigate the knowledge gap between the more experienced pipeliners and the newer entrants to the industry, saying that the industry needs to be able to adapt to changing environments.
He also spoke about the need to harmonise all the parts of AS2885, to ensure that all the various safety and pipeline management systems involved could operate effectively and efficiently together.
After morning tea, Ian Haddow highlighted the importance of regulators to the pipeline industry and its success, and how they are the ones who are on the “˜frontline’ when any incidents occur.
Woodside Energy’s Adrian Lim spoke about anomaly assessment and defect assessment, as well as key changes and additions to AS2885.3 Section 9.
APA Group’s Geoff Callar also discussed Section 4 – Safety. He explained that these were developed by learning from incidents and work practices in Australia and overseas, and that some of the new safety requirements in AS2885.3 addressed work hours and fatigue, remote travel, first aid, job hazard analyses, permits to work and environmental management.
Mr Haddow returned to the stage with an inspiring and different kind of presentation entitled “˜One incident too many’. With the help of Mr Gaykema, Mr Haddow enacted a scripted scenario of a pipeline explosion. The pair acted as media, with Mr Haddow harassing pipeline owners, demanding how they were going to deal with the incident, while Mr Gaykema trailed with a camera, video camera and microphone.
The final speaker for the day was Jemena’s Mike Peoples who discussed integrity management in AS2885.3. He spoke about the Pipeline Integrity Management Plan (PIMP), which forms the basis for technical management of pipelines in Part 3 of the standard, and about managing the many changes that may occur to operating conditions. Mr Peoples also outlined the requirements for the newly introduced remaining life review.
Mr Gaykema concluded the seminar by saying that the standard is expected to be published in early 2012. He said that Part 3 of the standard is relevant to the longest part of the pipeline lifecycle, and that all organisations needed to consider how to carefully manage the pipeline lifecycle process.
Finally, he underlined how important AS2885 and compliance to the standard is for the industry’s sustainability, and possibly to its survival, stating “Are you ready?”