In this episode of the Pipeliners Podcast, Brett Adamcik, chair of the AGA Distribution Integrity Management Committee, joins us at the 2025 AGA Operations Conference to discuss the evolving challenges and priorities in distribution integrity.

The conversation explores risk modeling, data collection strategies, the anticipated Safety of Gas Distribution Pipeline Rule, and how operators are preparing for future regulatory changes. Brett also shares insights on collaboration within the industry and the committee’s work to improve safety and data-driven decision-making.

AGA Distribution Integrity Management Show Notes, Links, and Insider Terms

• Brett Adamcik is the System Integrity & Reliability Director for CenterPoint Energy. He currently serves as the chair for the AGA DIMP committee. Connect with Brett on LinkedIn.
  • CenterPoint Energy is a utility company delivering natural gas and electricity to customers across Indiana, Minnesota, Ohio, and Texas. It serves over 7 million natural gas and 2.9 million electric customers, with a focus on infrastructure modernization and home service offerings.
• AGA (American Gas Association) represents companies delivering natural gas safely, reliably, and in an environmentally responsible way to help improve the quality of life for their customers every day. AGA’s mission is to provide clear value to its membership and serve as the indispensable, leading voice and facilitator on its behalf in promoting the safe, reliable, and efficient delivery of natural gas to homes and businesses across the nation.
• Integrity Management (Pipeline Integrity Management) is a systematic approach to operate and manage pipelines in a safe manner that complies with PHMSA regulations.
• Control Room Management is regulated by PHMSA under 49 CFR Parts 192 and 195 for the transport of gas and hazardous liquid pipelines, respectively. PHMSA’s pipeline safety regulations prescribe safety requirements for controllers, control rooms, and SCADA systems used to remotely monitor and control pipeline operations.
• Alarm management is the process of managing the alarming system in a pipeline operation by documenting the alarm rationalization process, assisting controller alarm response, and generating alarm reports that comply with the CRM Rule for control room management.
• Rupture Mitigation Valve (RMV) is any automatic shut off or remote-controlled valve that an operator uses to minimize the volume of gas released to mitigate the consequences of a rupture.
• Pipeline SMS (Pipeline Safety Management Systems) or PSMS is an industry-wide focus to improve pipeline safety, driving toward zero incidents.
• MOC (Management Of Change) focuses on planning the processes in a system, the type and quality of changes required, the risks associated with the plan for change, and the people that will be impacted by the change so that it is clearly communicated to stakeholders.
• SCADA (Supervisory Control and Data Acquisition) is a system of software and technology that allows pipeliners to control processes locally or at remote locations.
• DOT (Department of Transportation) is a cabinet-level agency of the federal government responsible for helping maintain and develop the nation’s transportation systems and infrastructure.
  • PHMSA (Pipeline and Hazardous Materials Safety Administration) is an agency within the DOT that is responsible for providing pipeline safety oversight through regulatory rulemaking, NTSB recommendations, and other important functions to protect people and the environment through the safe transportation of energy and other hazardous materials.
    • Federal Pipeline Safety Regulations are implemented and enforced by federal and state regulators to support the overall U.S. pipeline safety program. Included are codes of federal regulations (CFRs) pertaining to each mode of transportation.
      • CFR Part 192 defines the transportation of natural gas by PHMSA-regulated pipeline.
      • CFR Part 192 Subpart P resulted in Integrity Management regulations for gas distribution pipelines. The final rule, which was made effective in February 2010, required operators to write and implement distribution integrity management programs (DIMPs).
• DIMP (Distribution Integrity Management Program) activities are focused on obtaining and evaluating information related to the distribution system that is critical for a risk-based, proactive integrity management program that involves programmatically remediating risks.
• TIMP (Transmission Integrity Management Program) ensures the integrity of gas pipelines regulated by the DOT.
• ILI (Inline Inspection) is a method to assess the integrity and condition of a pipe by determining the existence of cracks, deformities, or other structural issues that could cause a leak.
• Leak Survey – A method of inspecting pipeline systems to detect gas leaks, typically used in distribution systems where inline inspection tools (like smart pigs) are impractical.
• Risk Models – Analytical tools used to assess the probability and consequence of pipeline failure, helping operators prioritize maintenance and integrity efforts based on potential risks.
• GIS (Geographic Information System) – A digital system used to capture, store, and analyze spatial and geographic data, including the location and attributes of pipeline infrastructure.
• Mega Rule – The rule, initiated over 10 years ago, expands the definition of a “regulated” gas gathering pipeline that is more than 50 years old. It will—for the first time—apply federal pipeline safety regulations to tens of thousands of miles of unregulated gas gathering pipelines.
• Natural Gas Pipeline Safety Act of 1968 (Pipeline Safety Act) was authorized by the Secretary of Transportation to prescribe safety standards for the transportation of natural and other gas by pipeline, and for other purposes. 
• MAOP (maximum allowable operating pressure) was included in a bulletin issued by PHSMA informing owners and operators of gas transmission pipelines that if the pipeline pressure exceeds MAOP plus the build-up allowed for operation of pressure-limiting or control devices, the owner or operator must report the exceedance to PHMSA on or before the fifth day following the date on which the exceedance occurs. If the pipeline is subject to the regulatory authority of one of PHMSA’s State Pipeline Safety Partners, the exceedance must also be reported to the applicable state agency.
• Safety of Gas Distribution Pipeline Rule – A forthcoming PHMSA rulemaking aimed at enhancing integrity management and safety requirements specifically for gas distribution pipelines.
• GPAC (Gas Pipeline Advisory Committee) – A federal advisory committee that reviews proposed pipeline safety regulations, providing technical input and recommendations before rule adoption.
• LDAR (Leak Detection and Repair) – A regulatory framework focused on identifying and repairing pipeline leaks efficiently, typically associated with emissions reduction and safety compliance.
• Intrastate Operators – Pipeline operators whose systems are located entirely within one state and are therefore regulated by state authorities rather than federally by PHMSA.
• Low-Probability, High-Consequence Events (Black Swan Events) – Rare but catastrophic incidents that are difficult to predict but have severe impacts, often requiring special consideration in integrity planning.
• Advanced Leak Detection – Emerging technologies that enhance traditional leak survey capabilities, often involving sensors, analytics, or satellite and drone data to improve leak identification.
• AI (Artificial Intelligence) – Used in this context to refer to potential applications in data analysis, including scanning legacy records, improving data accuracy, and identifying risk factors not easily found by human review.
• System Integrity – The holistic management of pipeline safety and reliability, including programs that monitor the condition, performance, and risks associated with pipeline assets.
• Asset Replacement vs. Leak Repair – A strategic decision-making approach to integrity management, weighing the long-term benefits of replacing aging infrastructure against the short-term response of fixing detected leaks.
• Digitized Records – Historical pipeline documentation that has been scanned into digital formats like PDFs, allowing easier integration into GIS and analysis tools.
• Cybersecurity – The protection of IT infrastructure, particularly when using AI or digital tools to analyze sensitive operational records within pipeline systems.

AGA Distribution Integrity Management Full Episode Transcript

Russel Treat: Welcome to the “Pipeliners Podcast,” Episode 393, sponsored by the American Petroleum Institute, driving safety, environmental protection, and sustainability across the natural gas and oil industry through world-class standards and safety programs.

Since its formation as a standard-setting organization in 1919, API has developed more than 800 standards to enhance industry operations worldwide. Find out more about API at api.org.

[background music]

Announcer: The Pipeliners Podcast, where professionals, bubba geeks, and industry insiders share their knowledge and experience about technology, projects, and pipeline operations. Now your host, Russel Treat.

Russel: Thanks for listening to the Pipeliners Podcast. I appreciate you taking the time, and to show that appreciation, we give away a customized Yeti tumbler to one listener every episode. This week, our winner is Andy Gray with Marathon Petroleum. To learn how you can win this prize, stick around till the end of the episode.

This week, we speak with Brett Adamcik about the work of the AGA Distribution Integrity Management Committee. I’m sitting here at the 2025 AGA Operations Conference with Brett Adamcik. Brett, you’re on the DIMP Committee, right?

Brett Adamcik: Yeah, I’m the chair of the Distribution Integrity Management Committee.

Russel: Tell me a little bit about who you are, what you do, how you got into pipelining? Give me your story.

Brett: Worked for CenterPoint Energy. I’m the director of System Integrity and Reliability, so I handle our transmission, distribution, storage integrity, as well as some system planning and engineering standards. I’ve been in the industry about 14 years, with the last 12 at CenterPoint.

Russel: How did you end up at CenterPoint?

Brett: Born and raised in Houston. Ended up coming back…

Russel: That explains it. You’re born and raised in Houston. You’ve got a better-than-average chance to end up in oil and gas.

Brett: There you go, yeah. Went to A&M, came right back after school, and it was pretty easy to get into the industry.

Russel: We should do that.

[laughter]

Brett: Next thing you know, I’m at CenterPoint.

Russel: Sorry. I’m having a little fun because I’ve been doing this all day. Tell me what does the DIMP Committee work on? What’s your mission as a DIMP Committee as part of AGA?

Brett: Our main focus is 192 subpart P. A lot of companies now have a separate distribution integrity team. A lot of that is all the distribution assets that you report every year to the DOT. Usually, due March 15th. We manage the integrity for those.

It’s similar to transmission, but different in that it’s a little more operator-based, a little more risk-based, not as prescriptive as transmission. A lot of nuances, a lot of things like that that go along with it.

Russel: Not being an integrity guy, I know I can talk intelligently for somebody that doesn’t understand. I would think that the primary difference between transmission integrity and distribution integrity is the method of inspection.

Brett: Yes.

Russel: Because in transmission, it’s all about smart pigs and data analysis and all that, and in a lot of the distribution assets, you can’t do it that way.

Brett: No. The closest thing we have to an actual inspection is a leak survey. We figure out, is something leaking or not? Other than that, we rely on risk models, which we talk a lot about in our committee meetings, and what other ways we can collect data and try to refine those risk models and see where are leaks going to happen next and what can we do to prevent those or respond faster?

Russel: What things is DIMP working on in that domain right now?

Brett: We’re constantly talking about what types of data we can collect from the field, how people are working with other groups like damage prevention, emergency response, GIS, how can we better collect the data, and then once we have it, how can we make it useful in our risk model.

Russel: To me, that’s an interesting subject. What are you doing? What are the common ways of data collection? I would assume…I’m going to maybe pivot a little bit. Is the Mega Rule affecting that requirement for data collection and getting stuff into GIS and all of that?

Brett: Not the Mega Rule. The Mega Rule is just transmission integrity. For us, though, we do have the Safety of Gas Distribution Pipeline Rule. The proposed rulemaking came out. We think there will be a GPAC coming soon, where we’ll be able to comment on any industry, but that will be like the distribution Mega Rule, basically.

Russel: What are the methods you guys use for data collection?

Brett: What we do versus transmission is we rely on all other teams while they’re already out there doing work in the field, so teams that are installing pipe, teams that are repairing pipe.

When people are processing work orders, we rely on having them collect more data in that process, and then we work on the back end to try to funnel that data into useful risk models and different things for us so we can look at it intelligently.

Russel: Maybe said another way, it’s the guys that are doing leak surveys, the guys that are doing response, the guys that are doing repairs and installations, and all that. You’re relying on them and probably not as much them as the tools they’re using to get the data in a way that it lands in a database that you can look at.

Brett: Yes, absolutely. We try to make it as seamless as possible instead of someone out in the field thinking, “Oh, man, here’s another thing I got to do. I still have to do the same amount of work, and now I’ve got to fill out these extra forms.” We try to make that as seamless as possible. They’re just doing their job and we’re collecting more data along the way.

Russel: I would expect that there’s a lot of interesting discussion in DIMP about different people and techniques and processes for doing that.

Brett: Yeah. A lot of it even goes to who controls the data at different organizations, who controls what data, how good is good enough for your data accuracy, things like that.

Russel: Oh, that’s a big question, man, because I’m sure you could spend hours just on how good is good enough because the devil’s in the details.

Brett: It is.

Russel: Do I need to know where the pipe is? Do I need to know what the pipe is? Do I need to know the pressure it’s operating at? Do I need to know the condition of the metal or the plastic? All of that stuff and how much is enough. You guys have a lot of older assets, as most utilities do.

Brett: Yes.

Russel: It’s one thing collecting that stuff when you’re putting in something new or you’re repairing something. How do you collect that data for the old stuff?

Brett: Interestingly, a lot of companies will go through records research projects over the years.

That’s one of the things we’ve been talking about, especially in the committee recently is, with AI being such a force nowadays, how can we leverage that to go back through those same records we’ve looked at with human eyes and collect data we didn’t have before, or maybe link up multiple documents together that we couldn’t do to find out more information on the pipe.

Russel: I don’t mean you, CenterPoint, but, you, the DIMP, are there still a lot of records that are solely paper or has most of that been digitized?

Brett: I’d say most of it’s been digitized, but we still have the paper records. If we ever need to go back, we can do that, but a lot of it has been scanned in are PDFs at the least.

Russel: Is anybody doing anything, trying to get an AI to actually go through those digitized old paper records?

Brett: We have a few people who are talking about it, AI, that’s something where your IT departments, things like that. They’re still evaluating. A little weary, like, “Let’s just make sure when we do it, we’re not doing something that compromises the safety of our systems.” Yes, we are looking at how we can do that and not compromise our cybersecurity at the same time.

Russel: Right. I’m aware of a couple of companies that have projects where they’ve built AI crawlers and there’s a lot you have to do to make sure that that’s going to be crawling only inside my network and only inside my network.

I’m aware of some people that are doing that. Mostly they’re doing it to identify where are all the policies and procedures and where are all the records. They’re not really trying to analyze things just so much as to locate them.

Brett: Yeah. We’ve looked at that, too.

Russel: Because in a big company, that’s a big dang deal. In a little company, that’s a big deal. We have that problem in spades, man. What else? Other than data gathering and retention, what other things are you guys looking at?

Brett: One of the things, the more rulemakings lately, so I mentioned the safety of gas distribution rule. There was the LDAR rule. I know it’s been frozen for now, but it will come back some point in the near future is, how do we incorporate that into DIMP? A lot of that is at least partially or wholly something DIMP’s going to have to manage.

Then how do we have those conversations with our states? One of the things that’s interesting with us is, since a lot of us, we’re intrastate operators, we have our states regulate us. What you’ll see between the states, they all read the code just a little bit differently, sometimes different enough to where they come up with their own ideas.

There’s a lot of talking through that, trying to talk with other operators, “Hey, are you hearing this? How do you handle this? What do we think about this?” Then where are things where we can come together as an industry and maybe make a white paper to give the regulators guidance.

Russel: We need to put a white paper together, and it’s interesting because the LDAR rule, it made it all the way to the doorstep of the Federal Register and didn’t get into the Federal Register. As usually happens when a new administration comes in, it’s a change of party, they pull all that stuff back and reassess it, so LDAR has been pulled back.

We’ll end up with an LDAR rule. It’s going to be fairly low priority for this administration, and it’ll be fundamentally different. I actually think that’s a good thing. I spent up about half my time in gas control and about half my time in field ops. This came up in field ops, and they were talking about, “Well, what is your strategy given that rule’s not going to happen today?”.

The answer could be framed as, “Well, we’re going to move forward, but we’re going to be more deliberate about asset replacement versus leak repair.” I’ve done several podcasts on this, but that’s one of the big things. If I’ve got cast iron pipe, do I want to spend my resources fixing leaks or do I want to replace the cast iron pipe?

Brett: That’s a good point.

Russel: What people are doing is rather than having a 90-day horizon, “I got to get this done,” now they’re looking at it,” “Well, I got a two to three-year horizon and I can be a bit more strategic and deliberate about the process.” Is that what you all are talking about as well?

Brett: Yeah, I think so. We’re seeing most companies either dipping their toe in the water with advanced leak detection or just jumping right in. Even then, there’s a learning curve, so we do talk through that a lot, what’s it like going from traditional leak survey to advanced?

Then trying to be prepared so whenever we do get that final rule on LDAR, we’re a lot more ahead of the curve and ready to go. We’re not going to be scrambling as much.

Russel: We’re on the exhibition floor. Have you walked around and looked at all of the leak detection tech that happens to be on the floor?

Brett: There is a lot. It’s a lot more than there used to be.

Russel: I was surprised. I’ve only seen one drone, and I remember probably six years ago, half the show was drones.

Brett: You’re right. It does seem like there’s more of a focus to a ground-based leak survey versus the drones, yeah.

Russel: Did you guys happen to talk at all about the various satellite offerings that are showing up in our industry, how does that change leak survey, and all that?

Brett: We talked about that in the committee already this week, and it’s something to where it’s another tool in the tool bag. You can get more of that high-level view of your whole system in a quicker time in one big snapshot.

It’s definitely a good tool. Similar to the drones and you can have the vehicles on the ground. Depending whatever you’re going for. If you’re going to get congested urban area, if you’re trying to get to a rural area, use the tool in the tool bag that makes the most sense.

Russel: Yeah, absolutely. Anything else? Key topics of interest that people might be wanting to know about?

Brett: Yeah. With DIMP, a lot of it is how can we incorporate more and try to stay ahead of the curve and try to make sure we’re all learning the right lessons. One of the things, encourage anybody listening to this, to check out the DIMP Committee in the future is, we’re very open.

We try to help out operators because if somebody has an issue, that’s something that we would love to talk about because we’ve all probably had that issue in the past. We try to help everybody, be on the same page, everybody being safe, it helps everybody else in the industry.

Russel: Nice segue. That’s exactly where I was going to go next. How did you become involved with DIMP, and then how did you end up on the leadership for the committee itself?

Brett: I was a distribution integrity engineer. Went to a few committee meetings, and through participating and helping out, talking when we have round tables, things like that, I got asked to be one of the committee chairs. The committee chair process is you work from the end and you start going until you’re the number one person, so it’s a yearly cycle.

Russel: Most of the committees have either a three or four-year cycle given the officer positions they have for the committees.

Brett: Yeah, same thing for us.

Russel: I’m with you. I’ve been involved with AGA for over 20 years and I’ve been involved over the years in different committees. I have made wonderful friends. I’ve learned a ton. I’m always compelled by how the committee leans in to help one another. Do you all have anything you’re doing in the way of white papers you’re trying to write or any peer review process that you’re doing?

Brett: Yeah. Right now, in anticipation of the safety gas distribution rule, we do have a white paper we’re working on for low-probability, high-consequence events. That’s something to where the Black Swan-type events. It’s hard to always be prepared for those, so try to get our arms around it.

What are the bounds of what we’re thinking that is? Would a hurricane in Nebraska count? Different things like that, and trying to get us all on the same page of when we talk about this, what are we thinking and how are we handling it?

How are we communicating it to our executives? Because it’s easy for them to say, “It’s never happened to us. Why should we dedicate resources to it?”. Trying to help make that process of communicating the message a little bit better.

Russel: That question causes my hackles to come up a little bit. Not like I’m angry. It makes me concerned because if you study incidents, particularly in the pipeline space, we don’t have very many. They’re very rare.

Many of us, if not most of us, could probably work an entire career and never have direct experience with a major incident. However, when they occur, they have exceedingly high consequences. You’re looking for a needle in a haystack.

Brett: Yeah, absolutely.

Russel: In distribution, in particular, presents a really unique challenge because when you’re talking about that in integrity management, you probably ran a tool and you probably have some indication that that feature is there that you need to be concerned about. In distribution, it’s always, what’s out there that I don’t know about, that I need to know about, and how do I know about it?

Brett: Especially if it’s more people process-oriented, that’s even harder to tell how do you know that there was a new tech assigned to perform a task and all of a sudden they were given a test that was a little bit more difficult beyond their knowledge and they just…

Russel: Or they saw an operating condition that’s normal, but really unusual, and how do you know they handled it correctly? That’s not really a reflection on the people in the field. We have very capable, very competent, very well-trained people in the field, but all of us, we all have an edge to what we know.

Brett: Yeah.

Russel: It’s interesting. I would offer that what would be interesting to do is what would it take to build an AI to go through the records and look for the needle in the haystack? That’s an interesting question.

Brett: That’s a great question, and that’s something that we’ll continue our conversations around in the committee for sure.

Russel: If I have a brilliant idea, I’ll be sure to come see you.

Brett: Sounds great.

[laughter]

Russel: Anything else you want to talk about in terms of AGA or the conference? Is there anything particular you’re taking away that you’ll probably take back to CenterPoint and it’s like, “Here’s a little jewel, a little nugget I need to take back.”?

Brett: For me, talking to other operators. One of the things, I heard this from someone a lot smarter than me a few years ago, but the cheapest lessons you can learn are from other people’s mistakes.

Russel: [laughs] So true.

Brett: A couple of those came up. Something as simple as, with our distribution assets, the GIS data is not as accurate as our transmission assets, so it’s hard to overlay things and do intersections to see if maybe you have a tree or a building over a line. It’s harder to tell.

Russel: The level of complexity to get that data really accurate is way different. Plus or minus a foot in transmission has a whole different consequence than plus or minus a foot in distribution.

Brett: Exactly. Leveraging our line locators. They know right now if a building or a structure is over our lines, we need to work with getting that out of there. Even trees that have been planted, things like that that maybe they weren’t there when we first installed it, we didn’t think it would be there. Maybe the homeowner didn’t even intend for it to be there. Not every tree you plant gets planted.

Russel: Not every tree is there because somebody planted it.

Brett: Exactly. Things like that. How can we make it to where we can get an alert, “Oh, hey. This is right over our distribution line. Let’s evaluate it. Let’s make sure it gets an appropriate risk ranking.”

Russel: That’s certainly an area where satellite provides a lot of promise, and that tech is growing really fast. In the 10 years I’ve known anything at all about it, it’s probably gotten exponentially better in terms of just the pixel size and the data quality in the pixel gotten a lot better.

To me, it’s interesting. I don’t know a whole lot about DIMP. I always enjoy talking to you because I always learn something. What I would say about AGA is my biggest challenge is, particularly when I was younger and I was on steep on the learning curve, I would come back and I’d have pages and pages and pages of notes and ideas.

One of the things I learned is, after I got back, I needed to go through all that and pick one, two, maybe three to try to get done this year, and the rest of them, let them simmer till next year.

Brett: That’s a great idea. I had a couple of ideas. I’m on Teams chat with some of my team members and we’re chatting, “Hey, can we do this? Is this easy? Hard? How long would it take? We’re going to evaluate some of those.” We had some others where we could tell that would be a bigger lift. Let’s let it simmer. Let’s see if maybe you have a better opportunity down the road.

Russel: Exactly. Listen, man, great to have you on the podcast. This, we’re trying something new. We’ve typically done these things in the booth like this, short form. I hadn’t done a lot of long-form, so we’re just starting this.

For listeners, we’re dropping this out through YouTube. I’d be very interested to hear your feedback about what you think about the video, should we stick with audio, all that kind of stuff. Anyways, thanks for being like a trailblazer on the Pipeliners Podcast.

Brett: Thank you. Great to be here. Thanks, Russel.

Russel: Hope you enjoyed this week’s episode of the Pipeliners Podcast and our conversation with Brett. A reminder before you go, you should register to win our customized Pipeliners Podcast Yeti tumbler. Visit pipelinepodcastnetwork.com/win and enter yourself in the drawing.

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Russel: If you have ideas, questions, or topics you’d be interested in, please let me know, either on the Contact Us page at pipelinepodcastnetwork.com or reach out to me on LinkedIn. Thanks for listening. I’ll talk to you next week.