The seminar was held at the Adelaide Hilton on Wednesday 9 April and was once again sponsored by ROSEN. APIA is highly appreciative of the long-term relationship between ROSEN and the POG seminar.

As with previous POG seminars, the presenters represented the operators of major pipelines across Australia and New Zealand. The topics covered were designed to provide an insight into the various facets of pipeline operations and maintenance, in this case, focussing on above ground facilities. The aim of the seminar was to promote industry-wide discussion to assist pipeliners become better equipped to manage pipeline assets, for the benefit of the industry as a whole.

With APIA Chief Executive Cheryl Cartwright unavailable for the seminar, APIA President Ashley Kellett, from SEA Gas, took the reins to provide the opening address and welcome. Mr Kellett set the scene for what turned out to be a valuable and informative day for all of the participants.

Alan Burt from the APA Group kicked off the proceedings by analysing the importance of incorporating safety instrumented systems into regulator station designs. Steve Ilkovics from Vector Gas in New Zealand had travelled from New Plymouth to provide his fellow pipeline operators with some interesting insights into the performance of the Grove Flexflo regulator.

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Following morning tea, three presentations focussed on the very important area of compressor stations. Firstly, Quentin Stewart from Solar Turbines took the delegates through the logistics of the basic design and maintenance of centrifugal compressors, all without the aid of a PowerPoint presentation. He was followed by Vaughan Hirschausen from Epic Energy who provided a project update on the QSN link and how Epic dealt with the compressor station layout considerations. To round the morning out, Michael Cave from the APA Group gave a comprehensive overview on the re-commissioned Young Culcairn compressor.

The afternoon session began with Mark Draca, a pipeline engineer from Esso, using the example of the Perch Monopod to Longford pipeline to explain strategies that can be used to effectively execute a challenging in-line inspection. Anthony Trantino from Alinta followed with an interesting presentation on water bath heater inspections and Michael Peoples from SEA Gas took the delegates to afternoon tea with a presentation based on the SEA Gas experience of the handover of rotating plant from the construction crew to the operating team on a transmission pipeline.

The final two presentations on the day were from Scott Mitchell of the APA Group and Kelvin Wright from Vitech who spoke about in-house maintenance versus vendor-provided maintenance and online vibration monitoring techniques respectively. Unfortunately, Kelvin had to battle with technology late in the day; however, he still managed to keep everyone attentive and interested.

Once again, the POG seminar provided a wonderful opportunity for our pipeline operators, including a large contingent of our younger pipeliners, from Australia and New Zealand to get together and discuss issues of common interest in another example of the industry seeking to share and transfer important knowledge.