The seminar, “Managing Ageing Assets”, was held on 13 April at the same venue as last year’s seminar, the Brighton Beach Novotel in Sydney. Rosen, as it has done on many previous occasions, sponsored the event.
Once again, Sydney proved to be a popular venue and the seminar was particularly well attended given that it was held only a few days after Easter and in an unusually busy period on the APIA calendar. It was especially pleasing to see the number of interstate participants. The presenters represented the operators of major pipelines from all over Australia and New Zealand. They promoted best practice, which was a great help to those with older pipelines in being better-equipped to manage those assets to the benefit of the industry as a whole. All assets age and for those pipeliners with newer pipeline assets, the seminar created an awareness of upcoming ageing issues and how they could be addressed.
After Cheryl Cartwright’s welcome, Craig Bonar, GasNet, set the scene, delivering an introduction outlining the history of Australian transmission pipelines. During the course of the day many diverse aspects of pipeline and easement integrity were addressed. Mike Liddell, Esso, in a paper prepared with Chris Yoxall, Rosen, explained how Esso conducts its inline inspection program in Victoria. On a similar theme, Mukesh Bhatia, GasNet, discussed the ongoing trials and tribulations of pigging the Lurgi Pipeline, constructed in 1956 in Melbourne, well before the era of intelligent pigs, to a 1937 standard (SAA 33 Structural Steel Plate). Michael Brown, Agility, called on his considerable knowledge of stress corrosion cracking (SCC) to provide some very clear guidelines on how to establish a program to find and monitor SCC. Craig Connor, Alinta, addressed the issue of the management of ageing human resources in the pipeline industry not only from the perspective of the utilisation of the skills of the more mature workers but in the establishment of career development programs to allow those skills to be acquired by a new generation and retained in the industry.
Two speakers from South Australia looked at the decommissioning of ageing assets. Vaughan Hirschausen, Epic, discussed the mothballing of compressor stations. Paul Corletto, Origin, provided a very detailed case study of the process to abandon a small pipeline. Another to present was Neil Weatherly, Alinta, who looked at the issues surrounding the urbanisation of the route of a 40 year old pipeline and the benefits of a GIS management system. Finally, Grant Chamberlain, Vector, our only international speaker, gave a very interesting presentation on the refurbishment of the pipe bridge crossing the Waikato River in New Zealand.
Aside from the very informative program, the day provided a great opportunity for pipeline operators from all over the country and from across the Tasman to get together and to share common issues. We’re looking forward to next year’s seminar already.