In February 2020, before the U.S. was disrupted by COVID-19, the PHMSA Office of Pipeline Safety held a series of meetings in Houston to discuss recent rulemaking and the impact on pipeline operations. One of the meetings was to discuss…

In 2019, the number of PHMSA Enforcement Actions increased significantly from 2018. Specifically, PHMSA initiated 223 enforcement cases, up 13 percent from 198 cases in 2018. Digging deeper into the PHMSA enforcement activity, there were 13 enforcement actions related to…

Microsoft SharePoint is a popular tool used throughout the oil and gas industry for document storage and management. However, SharePoint is not designed to support the intricate requirements of managing a pipeline control room. SharePoint is a broad-use tool that…

Our company is committed to education and staying ahead of the curve on the latest developments in pipeline safety and control room management to help pipeline operators maintain safe operations. When presented with an opportunity to share lessons learned with…

Pipeline operators can expect to have their control room audited at some point in the next three years, which highlights the importance of control room audit readiness. Following a recent AGA conversation with PHMSA, AGA communicated to its members that…

As we approach 2020, you may be viewing the new year as a fresh opportunity to address your Alarm Management program in the pipeline control room. Specifically, how to address Abnormal Operating Conditions (AOCs). We have heard from control room…

Whether it takes a few hours or an entire day, we recommend that pipeline control room managers sit down at the end of 2019 or beginning of 2020 to evaluate your control room management goals for the new year. Why…

One of the most important aspects of the PHMSA Control Room Management Rule (CRM Rule) is following shift handover (SHO) requirements. Shift handover is a critical area of control room management to ensure safe pipeline operations. Operators that take steps…

Pipeline control room managers know their control room and know their personnel. To reach the next level of insight, though, control room managers need access to quality workload data. One of the most effective uses of workload data is determining…

One of the most important safety aspects of control room management is performing accurate point-to-point (P2P) verification between the control room and the field. P2P verification is also important from a compliance standpoint because of the scrutiny during a PHMSA…