00:00:00 Speaker 1
This episode of The Energy Pipeline is sponsored by Caterpillar Oil and Gas. Since the 1930s, Caterpillar has manufactured engines for drilling, production, well service, and gas compression. With more than 2, 100 dealer locations worldwide, Caterpillar offers customers a dedicated support team to assist with their premier power solutions.

00:00:26 Speaker 2
The Energy Pipeline is your lifeline to all things oil and gas to drill down deep into the issues impacting our industry. From the FRAC site to the future of sustainability, hear more about industry issues, tools, and resources to streamline and modernize the future of oil and gas. Welcome to the Energy Pipeline.

00:00:49 KC Yost
Hello, everyone, and welcome to this episode of the Energy Pipeline Podcast. Today, we're fortunate to have Russel Treat, CEO at EnerACT Energy Services, and host of the Pipeliners Podcast is our guest. By the way, cool name for a podcast, Russell. Well done. Welcome to the Energy Pipeline Podcast. Russel, thrilled you took time to visit with us. I know that you are a proud Aggie. Would you mind taking a few minutes and give us your full background with 45 years in the industry?

00:01:20 Russel Treat
Well, thanks, KC. I appreciate it. Yep, graduate of Texas A& M back in the ancient days of 1980, worked as a civil engineer in the Air Force, and as a combat engineer in my last assignment, did civil engineering long enough to know that that wasn't really my passion. The part of civil engineering I liked was messing with the computers and figuring out software. So, got out of the military. I worked in cryogenics for a while, liquid CO2, liquid nitrogen, that sort of thing. Then after about three years out of the military, I started my first business, and merged into a company called Software Marketing, and would look for software products that we could commercialize. I've been doing software in the engineering world ever since. I've been doing nothing but oil and gas since '98, and nothing but pipelining since about 2005.

00:02:23 KC Yost
Now, you have a strong background in gas measurement, correct?

00:02:29 Russel Treat
Yeah. One of my jobs, it started in the early '90s. I ran a software company that was building software for back office measurement accounting, so bridging between the measurement in the field and the final numbers going to the general ledger in the accounting systems. From there, I started doing work in the field, and commissioned meter sites, and set up telemetry systems, and gathered electronic flow meter information. Over the years, I not only did gas. I've done a lot of liquid stuff, particularly around NGL, a little bit around crude and refined products, but I started out in measurement, and migrated into SCADA, and that because I had those two things, that took me into leak detection, and been around the block a bit.

00:03:24 KC Yost
One thing begets another begets another begets another.

00:03:27 Russel Treat
Right. Well, leak detection is one of those things that you got to know a lot of things to be able to do leak detection. It's a very hard thing to start early in your career.

00:03:38 KC Yost
Sure, absolutely. Absolutely. Maybe we can talk a little bit about that. I know mass balance isn't exactly the fine art that someone thought it might've been back in 1978, but anyway, we can pursue that in a minute. Let's talk a little bit about EnerACT for a second. As I understand it, we basically have three software provider components in EnerACT. You've got all of it under the umbrella of POEMS, P-O-E-M-S. You've got EnerSys for control room operations, CGI for field measurement operations, and then the P. I. Confluence for support integrity management. So, am I close in describing?

00:04:24 Russel Treat
I'll walk through for you what we do. The whole vision of EnerACT is to provide systems and solutions to help pipeliners operate more effectively and with a higher degree of safety performance. So, that's the whole mission. EnerSys is a company that I started in 1998, and it focuses on the control room. Originally, the company was a control systems integration company, and when the control room management rule came out, which was 2007 when it started to make its way through the rulemaking process, 2010 is when it was published, we really started diving deep into what all that was. So, EnerSys is now a leading provider of tools for control room management. So, it's all the things that are needed to be done in the control room that are not SCADA, so log books, tracking, abnormal operating conditions, scheduling the controllers, monitoring for deviations for fatigue purposes, and all that. Gas Certification Institute, GCI, started in 2000, and it started out as a company doing training of measurement fundamentals for technicians, and then evolved into writing standard operating procedures to document the procedures that need to be followed. One of the things in measurement is to get a good mass balance. Your field practice has to be consistent across your operation, and that can be very challenging when you cover a lot of geography. So, one of the ways around that is really good and very specific standard operating procedures for the field practice. Then we also have a product called Muddy Boots, which enables you to schedule and do all the record creation around all those field activities. Then lastly, P. I. Confluence, I actually bought P. I. Confluence from its founder in 2020, and it has process management and stakeholder engagement tools that address the program aspects of transmission integrity, distribution integrity, storage integrity, damage prevention, stakeholder awareness, and those other safety programs.

00:06:59 KC Yost
The industry is head and shoulders above where I was back in 1976 when I worked at Gas Control out at Hockley for Tennessee Gas Pipeline on the graveyard shift, or remember when I was a kid, and CNG was building their gas control systems, four stories below the old... I think it was the old municipal building in Clarksburg, West Virginia, because they were worried about the Cold War and all of that kind of stuff.

00:07:31 Russel Treat
I've been in both of those control rooms.

00:07:34 KC Yost
Yes. One of the things I loved about being out at Hockley and working the midnight shift, I could get a round of golf in before I drove back to Houston. So, it was always enjoyable.

00:07:45 Russel Treat
The golf course is still there, but the control room is gone.

00:07:49 KC Yost
No, fair enough. Fair enough. When we talk about your software and control rooms, are we talking about that type of situation gas control? Are we talking about controllers at MCC buildings and that type of thing or-

00:08:04 Russel Treat
Primarily, our tools are designed for those guys operating regulated pipelines that have to conform to certain regulatory requirements. So with the EnerACT Energy Services and POEMS, and so POEMS is the umbrella software brand that stands for Pipeline Operations Excellence Management System. You might find this funny, because I know you have a little quirky sense of humor. My whole idea there was I could do all the marketing in limericks. There once was a pipeline from Nantucket, take it from there. But anyway, so the whole idea is what we call natural compliance. Natural compliance means I write my program and then build my systems such that my systems cause me to follow my procedures, and create the records I need for compliance. Then operations' effectiveness builds on that, and says, "And I have the ability to analyze those records to determine my performance, both in terms of getting the outcome I'm looking for, and ensuring I'm not getting the outcomes I don't want."

00:09:14 KC Yost
At the end of the day, in operations, if you don't have a document that says a task was performed during a PHMSA audit, the task wasn't performed, because you don't have the documentation to prove that it was done, and you help a great deal with that review.

00:09:36 Russel Treat
Yeah, really, the whole idea, I believe that our industry is going to get to its next order of magnitude improvement in safety performance through management systems. I think we are going to continue to see improvements in all kinds of inspection technologies, image technologies, other things, but those are going to be incremental improvements around integrity management. If we want to step change improvement in safety performance, that's got to go to management systems. So, that's really what our vision is. That's what we're trying to do, and we're looking for ways to constantly looking for ways to, "Where's the research opportunities? Where's the new development opportunities? Where are the problems that we think we can solve through management systems?" So, when you think about compliance, yes, you've got to have a policy. The policy's got to say the right things. You got to create records, and the records got to demonstrate that you're following the policy and the procedures right. Everybody's doing that some way, but there's efficient ways to do that, and inefficient ways to do that. Then lastly, if you're really going to improve performance, you need those records to capture data that you can analyze in order to improve performance. So, just having a piece of paper is not enough. You got to get it someplace where you can do analysis on the data.

00:11:04 KC Yost
Oh, I totally get it. Totally get it. So with this and talking about the control room with your software offerings, that carries over into integrity management as well.

00:11:14 Russel Treat
Yeah. Well, now to be clear, our software and the integrity management world is process centric, so it's process management. So if you think about, "Well, what is the inspection process?" Well, I have to determine when I need to run a tool. I've got to run a tool. I've got to do data analysis. I've got to identify features. I've got to analyze features requiring excavation. I've got to excavate those features, so on and so forth. So, our tools are designed to make sure that you're following a structured process in a structured way, and that each step of the way, you're capturing the records and data that are required.

00:11:59 KC Yost
Now, there are... Caveats may not be the correct word, but ways where certain operators of regulated pipelines do not have to run ILI tools. They have to follow certain procedures to not do that, and it's a very difficult and tedious process from what I gather. Are you seeing anyone follow that or is-

00:12:29 Russel Treat
Oh, yeah, absolutely. Absolutely. I mean, I'm just using one example of a ILI tool, because it's something that a lot of people can wrap their mind around easily, but all of the safety programs require companies to put in place processes and all of those processes require certain records to get created. So, ICAM, which is our product for compliance management at the process level, what it is designed to do is to document the process, and then ensure that it's being followed, and that the right records are being captured, and the right questions are getting asked. That works across ILI. That works across direct assessment. That works across distribution integrity, damage prevention. All those safety programs have multiple processes, and all of that stuff can be done through ICAM.

00:13:33 KC Yost
Wow. Very, very detailed. Very powerful software you're talking about there. This carries over to field operations then. You said something about Muddy Boots.

00:13:46 Russel Treat
Yeah, that's interesting. I'll tell you a little bit of the story around that. Muddy Boots, I came across through one of the organizations I'm involved in in gas measurement. They showed up at one of the measurement schools. I was really fascinated by what they were doing. They built a software product that... Well, in Canada, there's this thing called Title XVII. Title XVII requires that you have a schematic drawing, a process flow diagram basically for every oil and gas site that's operated. They built software for that. Then after they had that working, people started saying, "Well, I've got these drawings here. Why can't I use this same software to track all of my maintenance activities and my site visits and all that sort of thing?" So over time, it's become a very comprehensive field activity management system. We were looking at building something to provide that, and came across Muddy Boots, and we were looking for something that we could apply to pipelining. Make a long story short, we negotiated a relationship with Muddy Boots, and became their exclusive distributor of the software in the United States. We integrated our control room management tool. So if I have an alarm, I can automatically generate a work order, and it shows up in the to be scheduled part of Muddy Boots. So, the field guys go, "Oh, hey, the control room needs this done," and it just seamlessly drops into their system. Then Muddy Boots is all designed to work offline on a smart device, so a tablet, but you can do it on a laptop, but it's all internet based. It's all browser based. If I drop my internet connection, I can still collect all my data, and then as soon as I get back into an internet connection, it sinks it all back up to the host. So, it's all optimized for being used in the field. It runs on your phone. It runs on a tablet, it runs on your laptop, and it runs without internet connectivity, which is no small thing in a lot of the places where guys like us work.

00:15:59 KC Yost
Sure. Sure, I got that. We both know that the majority of pipeline leaks are created by third parties, and that I believe it's now all 50 states and X number of provinces in Canada have the law requiring that you call before you dig and do the 811. I assume your software allows for recording that if an operating company went out to mark a pipeline to say that it was done, and then-

00:16:33 Russel Treat
We have customers that are using our software for that kind of purpose. That's a really interesting question, KC. I view that there's different levels of maturity in these kinds of solutions, so if I could talk about Muddy Boots for a second. So, started out as something for diagramming process flow diagrams, and then became a field activity's tracking system. A lot of companies out there will have one system for tracking the things they're doing for regulatory compliance, another system for tracking what they're doing for machinery, another system for tracking what they're doing for meter calibration and sample gathering. The whole idea of Muddy Boots is we put all that together in a single system, but there's a distinction between having the ability to capture a form, and having a well-defined comprehensive process around marking for digs, right, if that makes sense. We have people that are doing it, but where we have a very mature process around control room and control room management, kind of cradle to grave comprehensive. Some places we have things where people are using our tools to do that, but we really haven't matured it holistically yet. I mean, that's part of what we're always trying to do. I mean, I'm taking this down a rabbit hole, but to me, there's a real need for very well-thought-out, seamlessly integrated solutions, because if I'm in the truck, and I'm doing a PSV check, "Well, I can also do a site check, and I shouldn't need to go to two systems to do that."

00:18:20 KC Yost
Sure. Sure. No, that makes perfect sense. I got a telephone call last month from someone who was upset, because the pipeline company came out one time, and marked the foreign pipeline crossing that these people were working around. They were disappointed that they wouldn't come back after they cleared and grubbed and graded the site. They said, "No, these operating companies want to come out and mark the pipeline," but then it becomes your responsibility as construction goes on to note where that is, and they've done their job. They've got a record of them doing their job. Now, it's up to you to maintain that until you finish construction. The liability is yours. So, it's just not so much a regulatory issue as a liability issue from the operating company perspective.

00:19:14 Russel Treat
This is one of the things that I have found, particularly in doing the Pipeliners Podcast, and talking to a lot of folks that do things I don't do. There are so many highly vertical, very technical disciplines in our business that all need to work together, and they all have very unique requirements about how they do their jobs, and the data they need to collect. It's really quite complex.

00:19:41 KC Yost
Absolutely. Absolutely. Let's go ahead and talk about the podcast for a second. If you go to your website, Pipeliners Podcast, and you look at your guests, all of the guests are listed in alphabetical order, and I find my name on page 28.

00:20:00 Russel Treat
Well, I guess I could do something in the software, and do it reverse alphabetical on alternating days or something like that.

00:20:13 KC Yost
I understand. Well, the point is you've got a well established podcast. I've enjoyed being a guest on your podcast, and I appreciate you thinking of me there, but there's got to be a way that your podcast fits in with the rest of the EnerACT effort that you're doing.

00:20:33 Russel Treat
Well, it's interesting, KC. Prior to rolling out our control room management solution, we were very well-known in the Gulf coast and Permian area for projects we had done in the midstream space, but we weren't broadly known throughout the pipeline world. I knew that for us to really walk into the vision I had for the company, we need to be much more broadly known. The other thing I knew is it was important how we were known. We needed to be known as trusted peers in the industry. I learned measurement by going to measurement schools, sitting in the classes, and then finding the smart dude, carving them out, and quizzing them and quizzing them and quizzing them. As I was thinking about, "Well, how do I get numb, but I don't want this to be promotional. I don't want it to be cheesy. I want it to be meaningful and useful." I said, "I learned measurement this way. I need to learn a lot of other parts of how to walk into the vision. If I want to do that, why don't I just record it?" That would make a good podcast, because then I'm not the only one learning. So, that was really the genesis of the podcast, and it's really way exceeded what I ever had a vision for when I started it back in 2017. There are thousands of people in our business that listen to this regularly. I know there are operators that mine the episodes. They use them for onboarding engineers. They use them for training. There are some episodes we've done on incidents. I know those are used in team training exercises and things like that. It's really become an asset and a resource to the industry. For people that are not familiar with the Pipeline Podcast Network, there's actually three podcasts there. There's the Pipeliners podcast, which is the flagship. There's also the Pipeline Technology Podcast, which is a collaboration with Pipeline and Gas Journal, and there's the Oil and Gas Measurement podcast. All that library is searchable. There's a transcript for every episode. Every episode has a dedicated page with shows and links to resources. There's an area where every crazy buzzword that we use in pipelining is decoded. So, there's definitions for all the acronyms and terms that we use in this business. It's really quite a resource. I've had people tell me that they were new to the pipeline, and they found the podcast, and they were just so grateful that they were able to learn about the business.

00:23:23 KC Yost
Can you give us a link?

00:23:27 Russel Treat
The Pipeliners Podcast is just pipelinerspodcast.com. The show side or the network site is pipelinepodcastnetwork.com.

00:23:39 KC Yost
Excellent. Excellent. Excellent. Okay, good, good. Getting into regulatory for a second, if you don't mind, I know you keep your finger on the pulse of what's happening in the industry. I also know that you keep your finger on the pulse of what's happening from a regulatory perspective. So, do you see some things new in this arena that you'd like to discuss today?

00:24:02 Russel Treat
Well, I think the thing that's probably most topical is the leak detection and repair rule that's currently making its way through the rulemaking process with PHMSA. I've made the comment that this is not really a pipeline safety issue. It's really an environmental issue. Not everybody would agree with me on that, just full disclosure, but there's a lot bound up in this. It's a big rule making a lot of consequences. It's going to require all operators of gas pipelines to have knowledge of all their leaks, and to have a plan for repairing all their leaks. It is basically going to be a zero emissions thing. Now that in itself, I think everybody in the industry would agree that that is a good goal for our industry to aspire to. There's a lot of concern about some things in the rulemaking requiring us to use fifth generation technology when that technology is not yet new, maybe not adequately addressing cost benefit of really doing this level of leak mitigation on lower pressure, lower size lines. So, there's a lot of just push back about, well, not should we do it, but how we do it and what timeframe we do it. It's going to be a big opportunity for a lot of folks. It's going to be a big challenge for a lot of folks, both those things.

00:25:40 KC Yost
Good. Good. Good. Well, we've gone down the list of everything I wanted to talk about, Russel. Is there anything else you want to throw out there?

00:25:47 Russel Treat
Well, I just want to say congratulations for joining the Oil and Gas Global Network, and taking on this podcast. I think you're going to do great. I think you need to talk a lot about your family history and pipelining and your grandfather's drinking pipe on mill chains. If you don't have a podcast on that subject in detail with photographs and everything else, I'm going to be highly disappointed.

00:26:14 KC Yost
Well, I will tell you, I've asked Tom Meissner to come on and visit about the history of pipelining, and I suspect we'll trade stories back and forth.

00:26:24 Russel Treat
That would be good. Well, you got to talk about your dad too, and all the work he did with orifice plate meters, and how he was a pioneer in that business as well. For full disclosure, when I was a young kid in this business, I met Ken Yost, KC's dad, so great man, one of those gurus that I went and talked to and carved out and asked a whole bunch of hard questions of. He knew every single answer I could come up with a question for.

00:26:53 KC Yost
He was very big in the AGA3 committee, and then worked real hard with Bruce Shrake and a number of people here in Houston back in the '60s working on thermal measurement. I mean, that was cutting-edge technology in the '60s.

00:27:11 Russel Treat
Those guys have a huge legacy they left for the industry. We forget their names sometime, but the Gulf Coast Gas Measurement Society and the American School of Gas Measurement, which a few years ago celebrated its 50th anniversary, those are the guys that founded those organizations, and got them going. They have trained, and because of that, they have literally trained tens of thousands of people in the industry and in the business.

00:27:37 KC Yost
I remember as a kid in West Virginia seeing people from Houston fly up into Benidorm Airport, and then drive on up to Morgantown for the Appalachian measurement short course and slash golf tournament/ golf tournament.

00:27:56 Russel Treat
Absolutely. Absolutely. But anyways, what I would say, KC, is, look, congratulations. I wish you all the best. If I can help you in any way to help you be successful with what you're doing, just let me know. I'll be glad to do it. There's lots of need for lots of good content and good information for us pipeliners that are trying to make things better for us and those that come behind.

00:28:21 KC Yost
Thank you, Russel. Thank you. Thank you. Anyway, so if anyone wants to learn more about EnerACT, you can find them on the web at eneractenergyservices.com. Correct?

00:28:34 Russel Treat
Yes, sir. That's a great place to start, and you learn about all the things I got my fingers in.

00:28:42 KC Yost
Very good. Very good. Thanks to all of you for tuning into this episode of the Energy Pipeline Podcast, sponsored by Caterpillar. If you have any questions, comments, or ideas for podcast topics, and Russel's already thrown out a couple for me, feel free to email me at kc.yost@oggn.com. I'm interested in comments, feedback, ideas. I want to expand the horizon. It's very important that we work on knowledge transfer. Russel's done an outstanding job. I hope to someday be as capable as a podcaster as he. I also want to thank my producer, Anastasia Willison Duff, everyone at the Oil and Gas Global Network for making this podcast possible. Find out more about the OGGN Podcast at oggn.com. This is KC Yost saying goodbye for now. Have a great week, and keep that energy flowing through the pipeline. Thank you all.

00:29:43 Speaker 2
Come back next week for another episode of the Energy Pipeline, a production of the Oil and Gas Global Network. To learn more, go to oggn.com.