THE PRESIDENT’S LETTER

By Danny Molyneux, Quest Integrity, UK

Since our last Newsletter, the 35th Pipeline Pigging and Integrity Management (PPIM) Conference and Exhibition in Houston marked a welcome return to in-person events for many PPSA members.
Unfortunately, commitments in Europe prevented me from attending but, by all accounts it was wonderful to see the industry reunited after a few years of disruption.

Ahead of PPIM, we held our PPSA annual general meeting. One agenda item was to reappoint our Board and I am delighted to welcome our new Directors, Neil McKnight of T.D. Williamson and Mark Olson of Entegra. Alas, while we welcome new friends, we must say goodbye to others as their colleagues Dr Mike Kirkwood and Koty Bogle depart after 4 and 2 years’ good service respectively – thank you both for your efforts during this time and your continued support.

Thanks also to Rosen’s Jan Frowijn for presiding this past year. I am thrilled to now take my turn at the helm and am glad to have Odd Reidar Boye of IKM Testing serving as Vice President, who is already bringing great ideas and energy to boost the benefit we bring to our members. Of course, the biggest thanks of all go to Diane Cordell for the fantastic work she does every day for PPSA.

I would like to give a huge “THANK YOU” to the sponsors and players who made our annual Golf Tournament at PPIM a great success. Through the event, we raised $4,000 to donate to Young Pipeliners International (YPI). As a YPl Fellow and former Chair, I am delighted to continue PPSA’s strong support for young pipeliners, for instance by being a proud sponsor of the upcoming YPP USA Symposium on 18-19 May in Houston.

Part of the donation will fund a YPI social gathering at the upcoming Pipeline Technology Conference (PTC), which is sure to be a great event with 114 technical presentations. If you are one of the 800 attendees expected 8-11 May in Berlin, please drop by the PPSA booth to say hello.

The PPSA exists to provide benefits to its members, so please do not hesitate to contact us with any recommendations on what we can do to bring more value. Looking ahead to November and our annual Technical Seminar in my hometown of Aberdeen, I strongly encourage pipeline operators to submit papers about interesting challenges that they have faced to boost knowledge sharing and continue to push the capabilities of our industry towards zero incidents. The recent leak of reservoir fluid from a pipeline at Wytch Farm served as a reminder that infrastructure is not getting any younger, so proper pigging practices and integrity management are more important than ever.