Author: PRCI
PRCI staff and member company representatives played a significant role in the proceedings at the 2013 Banff Pipeline Workshop, which was held from April 8-11, 2013, in Banff, Alberta, Canada. The workshop was attended by nearly 800 pipeline professionals and included a series of tutorials on the initial day of the workshop followed by 2 ½ days of presentations, discussion, and debate on specific topic areas that have a high level of interest and impact on the pipeline industry. The topic areas were managed through Working Groups, each of which captured detailed notes and action items from the discussions and provided a report out to all of the workshop attendees at the close of the session.
The theme of the 2013 Banff Workshop was Performance and Perception. Each of these topics was addressed by keynote speakers in an opening plenary session, including Art Meyer, COO of Enbridge Pipelines and former PRCI Chair of the Board of Directors, who addressed industry performance measures and the drive for continuous improvements and zero incidents. The presentation emphasized the role of research and technology development to achieve the goal of zero-incident pipeline operations. Each of the Working Groups used the workshop themes as the basis for the session content and session-specific agendas and to guide the discussions throughout the Workshop proceedings.
The topic of perception generated a substantial level of discussion. The discussion focused on the current general negative perception of the pipeline industry by the public and in most media communications, and what measures if any the industry should take to shift public opinion through an effective communication and advocacy strategy. It was noted that the industry has gone from being virtually unknown in the public eye to one of the most discussed and contentious issues of the past few years, driven by the recent high-profile pipeline failures that have occurred over the past several years and the substantial, and at times even national, debate over the Keystone XL pipeline. From the opening plenary presentation, by Ed Whittingham of the Pembina Institute, through all of the working group sessions there was a substantial interest and level of discussion on the role of the industry in effectively communicating on the excellent record of performance and safety for the transportation and delivery of energy products via pipelines. One outcome of the workshop may be the formation of a Task Force to begin the process of evaluating how the communications would be developed, coordinated, and managed. The topic is relevant to PRCI as we strive to communicate and advocate the benefits and value of pipeline R&D and deploy the research results to the end users. As such, PRCI would be a member of any Task Force formed to address public perception of pipelines.
There were a number of PRCI member company representatives that served as Working Group co-Chairs and Facilitators for the 2013 Banff Pipeline Workshop, as listed below. There were many references to PRCI projects and funded work, and several Working Groups included presentations that were based on PRCI R&D, including Working Groups on Aging Infrastructure, Human Factors, SCC, and Geohazards. PRCI sends our thanks to all those member company representatives that volunteered their time to support such an important event and deploy the results of PRCI-funded R&D to the pipeline operating community.