Pipelines are buried out of sight and out of mind.  

They crisscross our cities and farmlands and deserts.  They carry energy or water or slurries or other liquids and gases from source to destination. 

Pipelines transporting energy have had a stellar century, with millions of kilometers of pipelines now installed all over the world. While this may be a time of uncertainty, those millions of kilometers still need to be operated safely for the foreseeable future.

Designing, building, or operating a pipeline should be straightforward:  dig a trench and put the pipe in it and let the contents flow, right?  And yet it is much more complex than that.

PECS

The Pipeline Engineering Competency System (PECS) has been developed by industry volunteers, for new and even not-so-new players in the industry. The system describes about 240 competencies that a pipeline engineer might want to have. The details are available on the APGA website.

Here on the AS2885 blog, it is a great opportunity to introduce some of the more important competencies, and also to show the links between the competency and the parts or clauses of AS2885 where the knowledge is used. And even better – tie the knowledge buried in the competencies to stories and experiences and lessons learnt by others.

Stay tuned for the next little while and learn something new, or remind yourself about something you thought you knew…