With an opportunity rarely afforded to young engineers, the generous APIA bursary and assistance from the young pipeliners’ companies to attend the 2010 International Pipeline Conference (IPC) provided the group with an invaluable experience, enabling them to compare the state of the Australian pipeline industry with those in other countries, explore new pipeline technologies and expanded their network of contacts.
The conference program was structured as a series of concurrent tracks, which enabled delegates to tailor an individual itinerary as diverse or concentrated as desired. Tracks covered all aspects of the industry, from design to construction, maintenance, integrity management, standards and regulations, materials and joining, and environmental management. With such a wide array of technical tracks delegates often had to choose between multiple papers of interest that may have been running concurrently.
“˜Pipelines in a changing world’ was the theme for the conference and that is exactly what was delivered, never more so than during Thursday’s luncheon address by Susan Cole of Enhance Energy. Ms Cole pointed to a time when natural gas was flared off into the atmosphere as it was seen as a waste product of oil production. Put into context, venting or flaring large quantities of a useful and environmentally harmful by-product would be deemed economically foolish today, not to mention environmentally and socially inappropriate.
Now faced with the issue of CO2, Ms Cole suggested that history is repeating. However she noted that the focus on carbon capture and storage (CCS), capabilities for utilising CO2 for enhanced oil recovery (EOR), sequestration and other industrial applications are continually emerging. Ms Cole said that regardless of whether CO2 produced by industry is to end up in storage or be used, it must be transported safely and economically and therefore the era of CO2 pipelines is upon the industry.
CO2 is such a significant growth area to the worldwide pipeline industry that a full-day panel session was devoted to the topic. It was the scale of discussion at the conference, scope of worldwide research and development, and future possibilities for CO2 related pipeline projects that Anthony Trantino found most absorbing.
Russell Carroll, currently involved in pipeline construction, focused his attention on papers addressing welding and mechanical properties of X80 and higher grade materials. Although X80 has been on the Australian market for approximately 30 years and grades up to X120 have been available for approximately ten years, traditionally in Australia we have not gone beyond X70 as there has been no need for the higher grades due to the relatively small
diameters of Australian pipelines. With grades above X70 presenting increasingly complex fracture mechanics issues of parent materials during pipe forming and pipeline operation, and welding, the young pipeliners recognised that many of the papers within this track were of particular importance to the ever-expanding Australian pipeline industry.
Peter Kneale was interested in expanding a broad base of pipeline knowledge. With only three years of experience in the pipeline industry, there are still many aspects of the industry in which he is yet to become involved. Having attended a variety of paper presentations addressing details of mechanical damage analysis and strain-based design, to more holistic tracks on project management, construction and operations, the conference gave him insight into where his career may take him within the industry. The stand out papers for Peter included “˜Multi-objective optimisation of natural gas power trains’ and a paper investigating the effect of boron in SMAW weld deposits.
Anthony Cicchini found it most exciting to learn about the scale and breadth of pipeline research being undertaken globally, to discover how this research is leading to new technologies, and the timelines of their commercialisation. As IPC was coupled with the International Pipeline Exposition (IPE), where companies from regions as diverse as China, Brazil, USA and of course Canada were exhibiting, Anthony saw it as an opportunity to discover unique companies and specialisations of which he had been previously unaware, and to compare differences in approaches between Australia and other countries. He looks forward to the time when he can specify the technologies he discovered at the IPC and IPE on new projects.
Donovan Kirk-Burnnand found the opportunity to meet and relate with both international and YPF industry peers was invaluable. Discussions were as varied as the delegates. A morning of work prioritisation in asset integrity management with Dutch delegates led into leak detection over lunch with Finnish attendees and an afternoon concerning bridging communication gaps within work parties with German peers. Donovan said that coming away knowing that his peers in companies around the world struggle with the same issues and concerns as Australia, helped make global knowledge contacts accessible. He can imagine that events such as the IPC will provide future kick-off points for many new research directives and technological undertakings. The numerous papers on project and asset management, portfolio prioritisation and pipeline automation provided him with practical information applicable to his position at APA Group.
The young pipeliners’ experiences at IPC 2010 were educational and inspirational as it gave them the opportunity to raise their vision beyond their day-to-day focus and responsibilities. It reinforced the importance of sharing acquired inspiration and knowledge, both within their own companies and across the broader pipeline industry and especially with our fellow young pipeliners.
Special thanks to Peter who was able to arrange a tour of an Enerflex facility for some members of the group, and to Cheryl Cartwright and Donovan for organising a visit to TransCanada’s pipeline control centre. TransCanada put on a presentation and afterwards the group spoke openly with Gary Stephen, Director CNG Business Development for TransCanada who willingly took time out of his busy last day before retirement!
APIA, the young pipeliners’ employers, and all other companies who nominated an applicant for a bursary should be congratulated on showing such initiative, especially for demonstrating their commitment to the professional development of their young pipeliners. The group certainly hopes APIA is able to continue the scholarship in coming years to give other young pipeliners such a great opportunity. Regardless of whether such assistance can be offered by APIA we encourage any company within the pipeline industry who could find the means to send a young pipeliner as an IPC delegate to seriously consider such an investment in the future. You never know what knowledge or inspiration they might return with.