In this episode of the Oil and Gas Measurement Podcast, host Weldon Wright speaks with ASGMT leadership about significant updates planned for the 2026 American School of Gas Measurement Technology. The discussion highlights the school’s evolution, a major venue change, and how expanded facilities are enabling new courses and learning tracks. Listeners get a forward-looking overview of what attendees can expect as ASGMT enters its next chapter.

ASGMT Has Big Changes Coming for 2026 and Beyond Show Notes, Links, and Insider Terms

• Evan Harris is the IT Manager, Operations Technology at Sempra Infrastructure, with 17 years of industry experience supporting critical systems at the intersection of technology and energy operations. Connect with Evan on LinkedIn.
• Russell Terry is the 2026 Board of Directors Chairman for ASGMT. 
  • To contact message on LinkedIn. 
• You can also visit the Contact Us page on the ASGMT Website.
• The American School of Gas Measurement Technology (ASGMT) Since 1966, ASGMT has been dedicated to training, education, and creating a better future through the people who learn from us. As the largest gas measurement school in the United States, we are devoted to natural gas measurement, pressure regulation, flow control, and other measurement related arenas.
• Some of the courses we offer include:
  • Fundamental Measurement: These courses cover the basics of natural gas/liquid measurement, including uncertainties, formulas, units, pressure and temperature
  • Gas Sampling, Analysis, and Chromatography: These courses cover the principles and applications of sampling equipment, collection, analysis, reporting, audit/inspection, and how determined values should be applied.
  • Gas Regulation and Control: These courses cover the principles and applications of gas regulation and control, including pressure regulation, flow control, and gas quality.
  • Measurement Audit: These courses cover the principles and applications of measurement auditing, including techniques and measurement uncertainty analysis.
  • Office Procedures and Accounting: These courses cover general office and accounting procedures such as, measurement standard operating procedures (SOPs), measurement guidelines, and Loss and Uncounted For (LUF).
• There are courses are designed for everyone from a student to a seasoned industry veteran in the natural gas and liquids industry who are involved in field and office measurement, regulation, control, and auditing.
• The low-cost school is comprised of a two full-day and one half-day series of hourly lectures and hands-on classes. In addition, there is an exhibit hall filled with 100+ exhibitors plus an option for plant tours.
• Those interested in joining the all-volunteer committee that plans and executes ASGMT should complete a membership application at: https://asgmt.com/application-for-asgmt-membership/
• Gulf Coast Gas Measurement School was the original name of ASGMT when it was founded in 1966, reflecting its early regional focus before expanding into a national program.
• Gas Measurement Fundamentals (GMF) is an extended, multi-day ASGMT track where students remain in one classroom while instructors rotate through structured lectures covering the full lifecycle of gas measurement.
• Liquid Measurement Fundamentals (LMF) is an extended ASGMT track similar to GMF, focused specifically on liquid measurement topics and taught by senior industry instructors over the full duration of the school.
• Continuing Education Units (CEUs) are formal education credits awarded to students who complete GMF or LMF, issued through ASGMT’s academic affiliate, Texas A&M University–Kingsville.
• Hands-On Classes are instructor-led ASGMT courses where students physically interact with measurement hardware, software, and devices to learn setup, calibration, and operational workflows.
• Lecture Classes are classroom-based ASGMT sessions that focus on theory, standards, calculations, and best practices without direct equipment interaction.
• Measurement Auditing refers to the process of validating measurement data accuracy, system integrity, and procedural compliance, emphasized as a critical downstream control in measurement workflows.
• Field Auditing is the practice of verifying measurement equipment, installation, and configuration directly in the field to ensure data accuracy at the source.
• Gas Sampling involves collecting representative gas samples for laboratory or analytical testing to determine gas quality and composition.
• Gas Chromatography is an analytical technique used to determine the chemical composition of gas streams, supporting custody transfer, energy content calculations, and regulatory compliance.
• Production Accounting is the process of aggregating measured volumes into production records that reflect operational output.
• Revenue Accounting is the downstream accounting function that uses validated measurement data to support billing, settlements, and financial reporting.
• Supervisory Control and Data Acquisition (SCADA) systems are used to monitor, collect, and transmit measurement and operational data from the field to centralized control or back-office systems.
• Remote Terminal Units (RTUs) are field devices that collect measurement data and transmit it to SCADA or back-office systems.
• Programmable Logic Controllers (PLCs) are industrial control devices used in measurement and operations to automate processes and manage field equipment.
• Information Technology (IT) refers to enterprise computing systems, networks, and infrastructure that support data storage, processing, and business operations.
• Operations Technology (OT) refers to systems and hardware used to monitor and control physical processes in the field, including measurement and control equipment.
• IT-OT Convergence describes the integration of IT systems and OT systems to improve data flow, cybersecurity, reliability, and operational efficiency in measurement environments.
• OT Network Architecture defines how field networks are structured, including segmentation, redundancy, and communication paths between field devices and centralized systems.
• Cybersecurity in the measurement context involves protecting field devices, networks, and data from unauthorized access, disruption, or data loss.
• Backup and Recovery refers to processes used to preserve and restore configuration data and measurement data from RTUs, PLCs, servers, and databases.
• Flow Computers (Flow COWs) are specialized computing devices used to calculate gas or liquid flow volumes based on measurement inputs and configuration parameters.
• Liquefied Natural Gas (LNG) refers to natural gas cooled to a liquid state for transport and storage, introducing specialized measurement considerations discussed as a growing ASGMT topic area.
• Renewable Natural Gas (RNG) is pipeline-quality gas derived from renewable sources, requiring specific measurement and analytical practices.
• Ultrasonic Measurement is a flow measurement method that uses ultrasonic signals to calculate flow rates, highlighted as an expanding educational topic at ASGMT.
• Exhibit Hall is the dedicated space at ASGMT where vendors display measurement equipment, technology, and services for hands-on learning and industry engagement.
• Hands-On Exhibits are vendor-supported demonstrations that allow students to interact directly with real measurement equipment outside of formal classroom settings.
• Committee Members are industry volunteers who plan, organize, and operate ASGMT, reflecting the school’s practitioner-driven governance model.

ASGMT Has Big Changes Coming for 2026 and Beyond Full Episode Transcript

Weldon Wright:

Welcome to episode 52 of the “Oil and Gas Measurement Podcast,” sponsored by EnerSys Corporation, the provider of Muddy Boots field operations software, assisting oil and gas operators to implement accurate and repeatable measurement activities across their entire operation, while also simplifying data collection from the field.

Find out more about Muddy Boots at enersyscorp.com/software/muddyboots.

[background music]

Announcer: Welcome to the Oil and Gas Measurement Podcast, where measurement professionals, bubba geeks, and gurus share their knowledge, experience, and likely a tall tale or two on measurement topics for the oil and gas industry. Now your host, Weldon Wright.

Weldon:

Hello, I’m your host, Weldon Wright, with FpvPrime Measurement Consulting. Today, we have Russell Terry, the president of the board of directors for the 2026 American School of Gas Measurement Technology, with us. On top of that, we have Evan Harris, the 2026 ASGMT general chairman, the guy that makes all the stuff happen with us today.

We’re going to talk a little bit about some big changes coming to ASGMT for 2026. Before we talk about the changes, Russell, good morning, and give us a little overview of ASGMT, how it got here, and what it does.

Russell:

Thanks, Weldon. Appreciate you having me today. I am honored this year to be the board president. With that, a lot of changes, a lot of stuff that Evan will fill us in on. A little bit of history about ASGMT is ASGMT actually started under Gulf Coast Gas Measurement School back in 1966. Its first location was at the Astro Village. It was at the Astro Village for around 30 years.

Once the school changed its name, back in the day, it changed its name to American School of Gas Measurement Technology. That’s what we currently fly under the name of now. We actually left Astro Village in 1996.

Then starting in 1997, we started meeting at the Marriott Westchase. That era ended last year, which was a great, great time. That location served us very, very well. It was time to move locations due to basically size and room for lectures, hands-on exhibits, things like that.

In 2026 now, we have moved the school to the Marriott Waterway out in the Woodlands, Texas. Very excited about our new venue. Evan will going to go into that a lot more in greater detail.

The one thing that I wanted to bring up about ASGMT is it’s a service to just about any kind of facet that you have within oil and gas measurement, water measurement. We are a fundamentals class. We have basic fundamentals measurement classes. We also have a couple of different tracks that you can get involved in with ASGMT. It’s called gas measurement GFM. Help me there, Evan.

Evan Harris: GMF.

Russell:

GMF and then LMF. Those are fundamental classes you can go into. You stay in those classes the entire time the school exists, and you can get an actual CEU for that. It covers everything from the very start, basics of formulas, all the way through equipment and maintaining of that equipment, data movement, and stuff like that.

Both classes are available, and then Evan will talk about something new that we’re going to have in 2026.

Also, it covers gas sampling, analytics, chromatography, gas regulation and control, measurement audit, which is very important at the tail end of data, understanding that if your data is accurate and an audit is available to teach you how to do that, as well as field auditing, equipment processes, and things of that nature.

We also have office procedures and accounting, which goes hand-in-hand with the auditing, but it’s the processes of how to handle data and move it through the system, all the way into the production accounting, and then into revenue accounting. Those are basically the things that the school does, but that’s a huge area there. It encompasses just about everything you can think of.

That’s the history of ASGMT. I’m going to hand it back over to you, Weldon, and then let Evan talk about what we’re looking at for 2026 because the future is very exciting and very bright for ASGMT.

Weldon:

Evan is chomping at the bit there. We were just joking earlier, we don’t record video on our podcast, but I want you all to understand, the more excited that Evan gets, the more he gestures with his hands, so you all are missing that part of it.

I know Evan has a lot of stuff to talk about. I don’t want to steal any of his thunder. ASGMT has been served well at the old location. We’ve been there at the Westchase Marriott for many, many years. It’s a great location and great folks there, but really, the school had outgrown the Marriott.

We didn’t have enough space in the several different halls we were using for exhibitors. We had a tent outside that, in some years, might not have been the best place for exhibitors. We were really crowded for lecture space, their hands-on space.

Evan, thanks for being here. Russell and I are both retired, so we don’t have to talk about careers anymore. Before you launch into this, tell us briefly what you do for your real job, and how you’re going to work that into all the time you’re going to spend with ASGMT?

Evan:

Time, what is that word, time? ASGMT, if there’s a spare minute, it takes it. I’m willing and more than happy, of course, to devote my time to ASGMT. I’ve been a part of it for 30-some odd years because of course, my dad, Duane Harris, has been a part of the committee and part of the board.

For me, my background is operations. I started off with a company called EnerSys, where I started learning about what measurement is, what’s an RTU, all of that. I had no clue about any of that. I brought in, started from the ground up, understanding this industry. From there, went to SCADA as well as a back office measurement.

Right now, I am the IT manager for operations technology. I’m the person that sits between operations, cyber, and IT to make sure we all get along for simple infrastructure. That is what I currently do. I am on that IT side now, but with my operations background, I make sure we keep the lights on and all that for the operations. It don’t change too much.

Both you, Weldon, and Russell can be talking about different changes coming. First, they started with the first millennial general chair. I don’t know what they were thinking, but it’s time to change it. I’m the first millennial coming in here. With that, they gave me the task of this big move. We’re going through, and our new location is going to be in the Woodlands.

We’re going to Marriott Waterway Hotel. It’s an amazing venue that’s there. With that, you’re talking about the tent. I know that our exhibitors and students, they just love that tent. Especially on those hot September days in Houston. It was just lovely with the AC blaring.

There’s no longer that tent. I know we probably get that a lot. Many have shirts for exhibitors saying, “I survived the tent when we had it.”

Weldon: I like it.

Evan: [laughs]

Evan:

We’re no longer going to have that. There are going to be no more columns that are there in the way of everybody, exhibitors. We have one large exhibit hall. We’re going to have 179 booths that will be there for everyone.

For ASGMT first, keep me honest here, Russell, we’ll allow trailers to be there. We have a section up in the front to allow some trailers and then in the side of the exhibit hall so that we can allow our exhibitors to give our students another experience to learn and educate themselves on the various equipment that serves this industry. We’ll have that.

That’s the huge changes for, of course, the exhibit hall. It’s going to be a little different. If no one’s been to the waterway before, you have that long walk from where the lectures and all that were in the hands-on classes, all the way over to the various exhibit halls and exhibit areas that we had in the tent.

Here, it’s a quick, nice little escalator ride down, and there’s a whole exhibit hall dedicated area for everything. We’re not real spread out. It’s all in one area, really nice, very wide open. With also this change, we now have larger hands-on courses. Our classrooms for the hands-on, those are now larger, so we’ll hold more students.

In addition, it allowed us to have two new classrooms. When you think two new classrooms, like, “Oh, that doesn’t sound like a huge change,” but that allows us to have up to 28 new lecture classes. There, we’re looking at adding more liquid classes outside of LMF, which is Liquid Measurement Fundamentals, looking at LNG, RNG, some additional ultrasonic measurement courses.

Then also, we’re developing an IT-OT track, so your information technology and operations technology track, covering various topics related to the technology that supports field measurement from the field, all the way back to the back office.

There’s a lot that goes on with that. You look at network switches, routers, firewalls. You think of cybersecurity. You think of backup and restore processes.

We have a couple of topics here that we’re working on in, an intro into IT-OT convergence for measurement, OT network architecture, both at a basic and advanced, backup and recovery from the field to the back office.

How are you backing up your RTUs, your PLCs that are in the field? How is that done? Best practices with that. How are you backing up your measurement servers? Your flow COWS that are out there, your databases. Then also, how are you protecting measurement data into those systems?

Then also looking at that AI. It’s growing, it’s moving in this industry. How AI can help with measurement, analytics, and dashboards. We’re working on adding a whole new track. Not like your GMF and LMF. This would just be one track that we’d have in one lecture class.

It’s everyone that can go there and know that it’s in this one room and really look at expanding the technology side of ASGMT.

Weldon: Let me dive in here a second, Evan. Both you and Russell mentioned LMF, liquid measurement fundamentals, GMF, gas measurement fundamentals. Let me clarify that for a minute.

Evan: Sure.

Weldon:

ASGMT is a buffet of one- and two-hour classes, hands-on classes, lecture classes. Then as a subset of that, we have these two special classes that extend the length of the school, the three days of the school. Students go in and sit in one classroom, and the instructors come to you for these classes.

That’s what our LMF, our liquid measurement fundamentals, and our gas measurement fundamentals do, is instructors come to the students. There’s extra charge for that class, but it is the best of the best of our instructors. There is a lot of printed material provided, and those classes are the cream of the crop there.

Virtually, everything you can get in the LMF and GMF classes, those are offered as little pieces in our regular buffet of individual classes. Again, most of our stuff’s going to be one hour long. There’s some two-hour sections. It’s like a buffet if you’re not attending the LMF or the GMF practice.

Evan:

Correct. Real quick to add, in GMF, there’s 11 lecture classes, and then LMF, there’s 13, all in one. As a student, you pay that extra cost for attending GMF or LMF, and then they come to you, which is well said, Weldon.

They come to you. You’re there in that one classroom, you have printed documentation on all the course materials that are there, and we get the cream of the crop related to instructors, 100 percent.

Russell: I’d add to that there, Weldon, is that once you complete that track, you are given a CEU from Texas A&M Kingsville, which is our affiliate college that we’re associated with.

Evan:

There’s a test that you can get certificate as well. I was able to pass both.

[laughter]

Weldon: Another thing that you just brushed over, Evan. You mentioned larger space, larger classrooms for our hands-on classes.

Evan: Yes.

Weldon:

Those that have been to ASGMT before, these hands-on classes, when the vendors bring hardware into the room, bring computers into the room, they go through students that can actually go through the initial setup or the calibration for devices.

Those have been very size-constrained. What that meant is we’ve done the morning mass riot by registration because it’s first-come, first-serve. In the morning, we handed out tickets for admissions to that.

If you weren’t in line early, you might not get a space. I don’t think we’re doing away with that. Most of these hands-on now are going to have more spaces, and more people are going to get into them.

Evan:

Correct. Before everybody knew that, in that Briarpark 1, 2, and 3, Richmond 1, 2, and 3 area, those were limited. I think it was 20, if I recall correctly, about 20 seats in small 24 by 28 rooms.

Here at the Waterway, we still have one area, the far back on the layout, where all of our hands-on will be, those are now 30 by 50 rooms. We have, at the highest level, 87 is what we can sit at those Waterway 6, 7, and 8, and then 82 people at Montgomery A, B, and C. Yes, more than triple.

Weldon: In addition to bigger hands-on spaces for more people in the hands-on classes, in addition to offering maybe up to 28 more courses than we have in the previous years, an addition to banishing the tent, offering a few more exhibitor spaces, what more could you ask for? Evan was going to remind you, no one will be hidden behind columns in the exhibit hall now.

Evan: Yeah, no exhibit halls.

Weldon: There is one big change here that I don’t know is a plus, but we need to talk about it. I don’t know whether Russell or Evan wants to dive into this, but in this first year at the new location, bar 2026 only, ASGMT is moving to a different date.

Evan:

Yes, that is correct. For this move, the wise board knew, for the school and for the future of the school, we needed to move. There’s never an easy time to do that because the impacts are tremendous on everyone. All of us are volunteers. Here for this year alone, August 31st through September 3rd are the dates.

That, we know, is right at closing time. We know that some of our analysts and all that groups that come to the school, they have brought up some concerns that they’re not sure how many people they can send.

We understand that, but we knew that for the school and for the future of the school, this is the move that we needed to make. We backed the board with that. We’ve had a lot of excitement.

That’s also why we’re expanding, like I talked about earlier, the IT-OT track, looking at, “Hey, this could be something that’s for the long term, it’s part of ASGMT,” but also knowing that we may have a slower year, but I really don’t know. Because we have a new venue and everything else that’s going on. People are pumped and excited for this new chapter for ASGMT. We’ll see.

Russell:

To echo a little bit more about what Evan was talking about there, when the board research team went and looked at new locations, we looked at a total of 28 locations throughout the state of Texas. We went all the way up into the Dallas-Fort Worth area, as well as San Antonio, Austin area, Corpus Christi area. We kept it in Houston.

We did some demographics, and about 80 percent of the people that attended ASGMT were from the Houston area because it is the energy capital of the world. That’s the reason we settled back in Houston, and we found the Waterway. That was the reason we made that move to that particular location, not only did it have all the amenities we needed.

Unfortunately, they did not have the normal open date of the second week of September. We were looking long-term because we were at the Westchase for 28 years. We made this move for a long-term outlook when we were doing our negotiations.

The only thing available for 2026, because they’d already had it prior, it was already booked. That’s the reason we had to do the first week of September, to let everyone know a little bit in more detail of the reason that date was picked.

Weldon: 2027, we’ll be back on our old schedule, right?

Evan: That is correct.

Russell: That’s right, for the next 30 years.

Weldon: Anything else either of you would like to add before we go?

Evan:

I hope that with this change here, that everyone can also feel the excitement that we have as a school. It’s something new. We’re looking to expand. We’re going to be shooting out some surveys later, just courses that we’re currently providing and looking to expand on.

We’re going to want some of that feedback coming in because we want to review what we currently have and also look at what we need to expand to, and we have the facility now to do that.

Russell:

Another thing I have to add there is spread the word. The powers and people, and the people that are in our committees, I did a count. When I first got into school back years ago, we might have had 50, 55 committee members. We’re up to 75 committee members now because the school has gotten that much larger.

This new venue is going to require additional committee members. If you are listening to this and you’re part of the committee, spread the word within your company, within relationships you have outside of your company, because we want to have a good attendance this year.

Because it is that first week of September, we know there’s a challenge there a little bit with more of the analytical side of things, but spread the word and get the excitement out because we’re very excited about 2026.

Weldon:

Absolutely. Just to add, Russell, if you’re not on our committee and you think it might be something you’d be interested in helping with, if you and your company would like to help support the ASGMT effort of providing low-cost training in our industry, contact Russell, contact Evan, contact myself, or any other member of the ASGMT committee.

We can tell you how to go about what it involves and how to go about making an application for the committee.

Russell: You can go on to ASGMT’s website. It has an application there if you want to get involved. You can fill that application out, and Evan and I both will receive those emails.

Weldon: Cool. Gentlemen, I appreciate it. Thank you for your time today. We’re looking forward to a great school come August 31st.

Evan: Thank you, Weldon. Looking forward to it.

Russell: Good to talk to you, Evan and Weldon.

Evan: And you as well.

Russell: Appreciate it.

Weldon:

Thanks for listening. Please spread the word by telling your boss, your coworkers, and industry peers about our podcast. We’ll have ASGMT’s contact information for both Russell and Evan, along with a full transcript of this episode, in the show notes on our website, pipelinepodcastnetwork.com.

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Weldon:

Please don’t forget, folks, that podcasts live and die by reviews and feedback. Not only do reviews let our sponsors know that we’re reaching the right folks, but every review improves our placing on the search engines, which makes it easier for new listeners to find the podcast.

Please take two minutes and give us a review on iTunes, Google, or wherever you get your podcast fixes from. If two minutes is too long, maybe just give us a few stars, hopefully four, maybe five, whatever works for you.

If you have comments or questions about this episode, suggestions for new topics, or if you would like to offer yourself up to the podcast microphone as a guest, please send me a message on LinkedIn or shoot me an email at weldon.wright@fpvprime.com.