March 29, 2019

This year is off to a busy and productive start! During our January 31 Industry Team meeting in Washington, DC, we thanked Shawn Lyon, Marathon Pipe Line, for his fantastic tenure and leadership as Industry Team Chair and Ann-Marie Hodes, Marathon, for all of her tireless hard work over the last four years. We also thanked Scott Collier from Buckeye Partners for his expertise and leadership in the development and implementation of RP 1173 and Tony Cockshutt with Enbridge, whose leadership as Effectiveness Subteam Chair was instrumental in the development of critical tools to support our industry’s implementation of SMS. We also welcomed our new Chair, Angie Kolar from Colonial Pipeline, and Vice-Chair John Hill from Black Hills Energy. The Industry Team met again last week in Alpharetta, GA to map out our 2019 focus areas, establish work groups and develop action items moving forward. This year, the Team aims to focus on increasing industry participation, ensuring proactive external engagement, providing ongoing support for operator journeys and strengthening governance and oversight to the Team. Focus area workgroups will progress on action items and report out to the full Team during conference calls and in-person meetings.

The next SMS learning opportunity is just around the corner with our Pipeline SMS panel at the 2019 API Pipeline Conference in Phoenix, AZ! For those attending the conference, the Pipeline SMS panel will take place the afternoon of Tuesday, April 9 and will feature liquids, gas transmission and gas distribution operators sharing their company’s perspectives implementing Pipeline SMS. Please stop by and join the discussion!

Please feel free to send this newsletter to anyone in your organization participating in Pipeline SMS, and I welcome any thoughts, feedback or sharing any of you would like to provide as we progress along our journey of Pipeline SMS implementation.

Thank you,

David Murk
API Pipeline Manager

DEMONSTRATING PROGRESS

Pipeline SMS Third-Party Pilot Assessment Underway

This week, API’s Global Industry Services (GIS) conducted a pilot of its third-party assessment program with Colonial Pipeline. The team of five assessors and four experienced observers spent the week working alongside Colonial to pilot the assessment process and protocols and ensure that the assessor training and qualifications are appropriate. After the pilot, the Team will collect debriefs from assessors and participants and apply lessons learned to adjust tools, processes and training as necessary. The pilot will ensure that the GIS third-party assessment is fit-for-purpose and the processes yield expected outcomes from which to build off of. To ready the program for additional assessments and formal roll-out, GIS will also ensure the program is applicable for other operator types and expand the assessor pool. API plans to launch the full program by the fourth quarter of this year.

January & March Industry Team Meetings

The Pipeline SMS Industry Team met January 31 in Washington, DC after the Team’s December 2018 meeting was rescheduled. The meeting provided a great opportunity to thank Shawn Lyon and Ann-Marie Hodes from Marathon Pipe Line, Scott Collier with Buckeye Partners and Tony Cockshutt with Enbridge for their leadership and hard work in driving the industry to commit to and begin implementation of Pipeline SMS. We were even fortunate enough to have a visit from Rocky Balboa! With Shawn’s departure, we welcomed new Industry Team Chair Angie Kolar from Colonial Pipeline and Vice-Chair John Hill from Black Hills Energy. During the meeting, there was an initial discussion on the potential revisions or reaffirmation of RP 1173 in 2020, along with a review of the 2018 Pipeline SMS annual survey results and a discussion on the 2019 path forward. Thank you to AGA for hosting the Team meeting!

The Team met again March 19 and 20 at Colonial’s offices in Alpharetta, GA to continue the important progress made to date. In our March meeting, the group galvanized around four focus areas for 2019: increasing industry participation, ensuring proactive external engagement, providing ongoing support for operator journeys and strengthening governance and oversight. Attendees broke into small workgroups around these focus areas and developed action items and work plans moving forward. The goal is to have these workgroups drive activity and provide regular report outs to the full Team for validation and review. The March meeting was a great opportunity to maintain our momentum and establish a strategy and plan to drive progress for the year. Thank you again to Colonial for hosting us!

COMMUNICATING PIPELINE SMS

2018 Pipeline SMS Annual Report released in April

The 2018 Pipeline SMS Annual Report will be released in early April in conjunction with the API Pipeline Conference. This year’s report highlights the important progress the Industry Team had in making implementation real for pipeline operators, including publishing implementation tools, conducting webinars and workshops to train operators and communicating implementation progress to key external stakeholders. It also contains four pages of quotes from liquids, gas transmission and gas distribution operators on making implementation real in their own words, a testament to the commitment and progress all segments of the pipeline industry are making. The report provides highlights of the 2018 Pipeline SMS annual survey for additional implementation progress and lays out the Industry Team’s 2019 focus areas. The report will be available on the www.PipelineSMS.org website when published.

TOOLS & TRAINING

2019 Pipeline SMS Webinars and Workshop

To support operators in their journey of Pipeline SMS implementation, the Industry Team is planning several webinars and an in-person workshop for training and peer-to-peer information exchanges. On May 21, from 11:00 am – 12:00 pm ET, the Team will hold a webinar for “Beginners on the Journey”, and on June 4, there will be a webinar from 11:00 am – 12:00 pm ET for “Practitioners and SMS Program Managers.” The Team is also tentatively planning to hold an in-person workshop December 4-5, with an exact location to be determined. We will send out calendar invitations for these upcoming events shortly, so please be on the lookout for save the dates!

AGA Management Systems Workshop

AGA held their Management Systems Workshop March 5-7 in Tampa, FL. The workshop featured presentations, expert panels, small group discussions and case studies on Pipeline SMS implementation, tools and lessons learned. Companies of various sizes and at different stages of their SMS journey were shared their best practices, challenges and questions with the audience. The workshop covered key topics including operational controls and management of change, risk management, safety assurance, management systems in field operations and effective practices in implementing SMS. Pipeline SMS Industry Team Chair Angie Kolar gave a presentation, along with API Global Industry Services staff Aaron Duke.

API RP 1173 & RP 1175 eLearning Training

The RP 1173 eLearning training modules have been completed. The eLearning modules are designed to provide an overview of the importance and requirements of the RP for a wide range of audiences, from executives to Pipeline SMS practitioners. The modules will also soon be available on the API learning management system. Additionally, eLearning for RP 1175, Pipeline Leak Detection – Program Management, have also been completed and will be added to the site.

UPCOMING EVENTS

Pipeline SMS Panel during 2019 API Pipeline Conference

During this year’s API Pipeline Conference in Phoenix, AZ, there will be a panel on Pipeline SMS and operator journeys on Tuesday, April 9, from 1:35 – 2:40 pm. Industry Team Chair Angie Kolar will give introductory remarks on the Team’s 2019 focus areas, and Kevin Finley from Colonial will provide an update following the third-party pilot assessment. The panel will focus on operator perspectives implementing Pipeline SMS and will feature liquids, gas transmission and gas distribution operators. Please feel free to stop by our panel on Tuesday to learn more about the journeys operators from all segments of the industry are embarking on to implement Pipeline SMS!

Distribution Contractors Association/American Gas Association Utility Contractor Workshop

The Distribution Contractors Association (DCA) and the American Gas Association (AGA) will hold their Utility Contractor Workshop on April 22-24, 2019 in Chicago, IL. Previous Utility Contractor Workshops have brought together more than 150 attendees from local distribution companies, construction contractors and manufacturers, labor unions and federal and state government representatives. The workshop aims to increase communication and cooperation between gas distribution utilities and the contractors who work alongside them. For more information, please visit the website and registration page.

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