THE PRESIDENT’S LETTER

By Odd Reidar Boye, IKM Testing, Norway

A warm welcome and hello to all our readers. Summer should now be finished for most of us here in the northern hemisphere and we are moving into autumn with many highlights to look forward to.

Since last time PPSA has been busy providing support and assistance to its members in addition to preparing for upcoming events. Enquiries via the PPSA home page for assistance and support relating to solutions for technical challenges with pipelines have picked up. Many interesting queries are received from Clients all over the world, which subsequently are passed on to our Full members. Most noticeable in that respect were perhaps the ones for assistance in removing both cheese and glue from pipelines (not the same systems though).

Also, The Buyers’ Guide & Directory of Members is now available for download at https://ppsa-online.com/publications or as a free of charge copy that can be requested by emailing PPSA’s Secretary Diane at ppsa@ppsa-online.com

The Offshore North Sea (ONS) Conference and Exhibition took place in Stavanger in week 35. This is not a dedicated pipeline gathering, however - a lot of our members were present and took part in this event that is one of the industry’s largest conventions. Energy transition was also here high on the agenda, and transport of energy in the future was actively discussed – particularly in relation to Hydrogen and Carbon Dioxide transmission. In that respect, we see a great demand for the services our members provide and PPSA will continue to promote pipeline services and inspection technology for the important steps onwards with conversion of old pipelines and installation of new pipelines for such service.

Looking ahead, PPSA will be exhibiting at the International Pipeline Conference Exposition (IPCE) in Calgary between 23rd to 27th September. We are looking forward to meeting up with the Member companies and meeting new people!

PPSA continues to support Young Pipeliners in the Industry – using the 4K USD raised at the PPSA golf tournament Houston in February 2024. So far this year we have sponsored the YPP Networking event at PTC in Berlin, the OSUIT Pipeline Integrity Course graduate luncheon, the YPPE Mini Conference Best Paper Awards taking place in Rotterdam on 31st October 2024 and we are Bronze Sponsor of the YPP Malaysia Conference in Borneo on 1st-3rd October 2024.

Furthermore, registration has now also opened for the PPSA Pigging Seminar taking place in Aberdeen, UK in November. The event starts on the 19th November 2024 with two tutorials that should suit both an experienced and a not so experienced audience:

• “Integrity management of anthropogenic CO2 pipelines in a low-carbon economy” presented by Daniel Sandana of ROSEN Group
• “Introduction to Pipeline Pigging” presented by PPSA Member companies as a general description of the most common methods and equipment applied in pipeline pigging.

We are also looking forward to our NEW initiative: Presentation skills coaching for Pigging Emerging Professionals (PEP talks) where we are supporting young pipeliners to improve their Presentation Skills. Their presentations will also take place on Tuesday 19th November, in the afternoon.

Tuesday’s tutorials/presentations are followed by a free of charge reception in the exhibition area. All are welcome to attend the reception.

The Main PPSA Seminar takes place the following day (November 20th) and consists of 10 interesting technical papers. Details of the presentations and how to enlist can be found at www.ppsa-online.com/seminar.

As usual YPP members receive a discounted rate at the PPSA Pigging Seminar in Aberdeen in November.

Upon completion of the seminar, we continue with last year’s success and invite you to a traditional Scottish Ceilidh (dinner and dancing to a live band). Partners welcome to attend too!

In summary, the autumn of 2024 contains a lot of events and arenas to meet, discuss and celebrate the very exciting times for pipeline pigging services!