The first meeting of the International Gas Union’s (IGUs) Working Committee 3 (WOC3) was hosted by Dutch gas transmission and storage company Gasunie, with 52 representatives of gas transmission operators and owners from 22 countries attending the three-day meeting.
Chaired by Eric Dam from Gasunie, with assistance from Vice Chair Jorge Bennetto from TGS in Argentina, the first meeting provided an opportunity to learn about Gasunie’s operations, as well as progress WOC3 research.
The committee successfully achieved its aims for the initial meeting, which included defining the research scope, establishing a schedule for the three-year period, setting milestones and establishing the member-composition of the following three study groups:
1. Strategic gas infrastructure projects (led by Enno Frees from Gasunie, Netherlands)
The objectives of this study group are to look at cross-border pipeline systems, and identify lessons learned from the construction of pipelines under extreme conditions, including pipelines in deep water (>1,000 m), high mountains, marshy areas, permafrost, covering long distances (>1,000 km), in protected areas and in areas of dense population.
2. Integrity of gas transmission systems and footprint reduction (led by Nazmi Mohd Ali Napiah from Petronas, Malaysia)
The purpose of this study group is to identify external threats affecting the integrity of pipelines and assess measures to reduce these threats. The group will also enquire into the increasing influence of governmental bodies with regard to design, construction and operation of gas transmission systems (safety and environmental issues), and look at the social responsibility to measure our environmental footprint and define measures to reduce emissions.
The research will look at the most important threats to the integrity of pipelines in different parts of the world to obtain more insight into the effectiveness of threat reducing/mitigating measures. This will include mitigation measures to reduce the risk of threats to integrity from legislation, data collection/management, and leading and lagging key performance indicators.
There will be a focus on methane, carbon dioxide, nitrogen oxide, and noise generated from gas transmission systems, including buried pipelines, compressor stations, valve stations, and metering and regulating stations. A comparison will be made of the practices, methodologies andtechnologies amongst committee member countries and their practical application.
3. Securing sufficient expertise to safely and adequately operate gas transmission systems (led by Barbara Jinks from GHD, Australia)
The objectives of the third study group are to investigate resourcing of qualified expertise, which is in increasingly short supply, for the purpose of safely and adequately operating and maintaining gas transmission systems. The group will investigate ageing gas transmission systems, and consider the requirement of more personnel and other expertise to operate and maintain these systems.
The scope of this group has been limited to include the technical side of operations and maintenance (engineers/technicians) only, excluding commercial and new project design, construction and management.
“˜Transmission system’ was defined as including all equipment and facilities connected to a pipeline, including pipe, valves, compressors, SCADA, control system and the operations centre.
This research will be undertaken within the following four tasks:
* How to determine the required expertise level of personnel;
* The determination of other organisational models necessary to provide for skills shortages;
* What other equipment/systems exist that require less expertise (or less personnel); and,
* A consideration of whether ageing gas transmission systems require more personnel or other expertise.
Barbara Jinks attended the meeting as a committee member and as leader for one of the study groups under the committee.
The trip was funded by the Australian Gas Industry Trust, who is the Australian chartered member of the IGU.
For more information about WOC3 contact Barbara Jinks at
barbara.jinks@ghd.com or visit the IGU’s website www.igu.org