In this month’s episode, host Weldon Wright is joined by Pipeline Podcast Network producer Greg Dunn to talk about the first two years of the Oil & Gas Measurement Podcast. 

Listen to the episode now for a recap of previous topics, previews of upcoming episodes, and information on the Pipeline Podcast network website, including all the work that goes into putting our resource library together. 

Our First Two Years Show Notes, Links, and Insider Terms

• Greg Dunn is the producer for the Pipeline Podcast Network and the Marketing Coordinator for EnerACT Energy Services. Connect with Greg on LinkedIn.
• Listen to the episode mentioned by Weldon over methane leak detection with Robert Ward here.
• Check out the episode with Dr. Diane Saber about what is renewable natural gas. 
• episode with Jamie Marsden about the chromatography and other analysis challenges around renewable natural gas and how it’s different from the regular natural gas world.
• Eric Estrada on here. He’s given us some great information about liquid sampling and the standards around liquid sampling and analysis.
•  Denis Rutherford talking to us about wireless instrumentation at the wellhead
• Stephen Anson discussing produced water measurement challenges and the industry standards that are currently in the works regarding produced water.
• John Lansing on to talk to us about ultrasonic meters. 
• Mr. Schwartzenburg on here talking to us about the specific challenges around flare measurement. 
• Kevin Warner came on here and talked with us about rich gas sampling challenges.
•  Brian Lund that did a great episode on the care and feeding of our calibration equipment
• Glenn Kelley came on here and shared some great insight about streamlining workflow and some of the software tools available to us
• Michael Thompson, who talked to us about using data analytics to drive validation rules.
• Bruce Wallace, who talked to us about what the future may hold regarding not just validation, but data processing and what new and improved processing technology and software brings to us.
• Matt Holmes discussed data averaging techniques and how that affects VCF.
• Colby Ruff about measurement practices in Canada
• trends toward outsourcing both the field and back office measurement with Jayson Payne
• Dan Hodgson. He provided us with some insight upon how accounting and measurement intersect, how one relies on the other, and how both working together improves their operation and can help improve profitability for your company.
• updates on what our standards organizations are doing. Stephen Anson and Marshall Webb provided some great information on that
• Dean Graves and Carvel Jasmin have had some discussions with us on our podcast about the importance of measurement training, what measurement training means to our industry, and how our nonprofit schools, such as ASGMT and ISHM, contribute and give to our industry.

Our First Two Years Full Episode Transcript

Weldon Wright: Welcome to Episode 28 of the “Oil & Gas Measurement Podcast,” sponsored by GCI, Gas Certification Institute. For more than 20 years, GCI has been providing measurement fundamentals training and measurement standard operating procedures to the oil and gas industry.

Now, they proudly offer the Muddy Boots Online, the field operations platform. Let GCI show you how Muddy Boots can streamline your field measurement operations.

Announcer: Welcome to the Oil & 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 and welcome to episode 28 of the Oil & Gas Measurement Podcast. I’m your host, Weldon Wright with FpvPrime Measurement Consulting. I have Greg Dunn here with me today. Our episode will be a little different today.

Greg works with his marketing magic to take care of all the details behind the Oil & Gas Measurement Podcast as well as the rest of the Pipeline Podcast Network. I’ve asked Greg to come on and talk a little bit about what the podcast network is, the other resources available on it.

Then we’ll talk a little bit about what we’ve done in the last year and what I have planned for the upcoming year. Greg, welcome. How are you today?

Greg Dunn: Hey. I’m good, Weldon. Thanks for having me on.

Weldon: Greg, tell us a little bit about what goes on, what all is required to make this podcast happen. I get on. I talk for a little while with somebody. Then there’s some transcript stuff, but there’s a lot of stuff in the background.

What you take care of is a whole lot more than just the Oil & Gas Measurement Podcast. Can you talk to us about the big picture about the Pipeline Podcast Network?

Greg: Yeah, absolutely. As Weldon mentioned, I’m the guy behind the curtain, getting everybody scheduled and handling all the pre production, the post production, the promotion, all of that stuff.

Just to give a little backstory, the “Pipeliners Podcast,” part of the Pipeline Podcast Network, it’s been around since 2017. I think we just released episode 318, so well over 300 episodes of content.

There’s also the “Pipeline Technology Podcast,” which is a podcast that is done in conjunction with “Pipeline & Gas Journal.” It really highlights some of the more technical conversations and some of the technical articles that they post. The guests on there are industry experts and subject matter experts.

This podcast network was created to serve as a hub of knowledge for pipeline professionals, the pipeline, oil and gas industry as a whole. The infrastructure that’s been built serves as a way to educate folks that are seasoned in the industry, all the way to folks like me who came in…

I knew podcasts. I knew this process, but oil and gas and pipelines, that was something that I was not familiar with at all. The library of resources that exists on the Pipeline Podcast Network website has been a huge help for me.

The shows all serve as a point of conversation. Everything is very approachable. It’s very conversational, with the ultimate goal of connecting professionals in the industry, expanding our knowledge, and learning more about the world we all work in.

Weldon: Thanks, Greg. For the folks that find our podcast, because they clicked on LinkedIn or they Googled or asked Alexa for it, they’re probably not aware that the entire history of all of the Oil & Gas Measurement Podcast shows, as well as the Pipeliners Podcast, the Pipeline Technology Podcast, are out there. They’re searchable. There’s transcripts.

I’ll get you to talk a little bit about that later, about how folks find that information and how they get to it. We’re two years in now. That’s hard for me to believe. This is episode 28. I guess if you distill that, there’s a couple of episodes talking about having episodes. Really, we’ve got probably 25 or 26 real episodes of content out there. It’s hard to believe that two years have gone by.

Over the last two years, we’ve talked about a lot of measurement related stuff, Greg. We talked about methane leak detection with Robert Ward. Then we had a great episode with Dr. Diane Saber about what is renewable natural gas. That’s a very big, very hot topic in our world right now, renewables. She talked with us about renewable natural gas, what it is, rather.

Then we had a great episode with Jamie Marsden about the chromatography and other analysis challenges around renewable natural gas and how it’s different from the regular natural gas world.

We’ve stuck our toe in the liquid waters a couple of times. We’ve had Eric Estrada on here. He’s given us some great information about liquid sampling and the standards around liquid sampling and analysis.

We had Denis Rutherford talking to us about wireless instrumentation at the wellhead. We’ve had several episodes with Stephen Anson discussing produced water measurement challenges and the industry standards that are currently in the works regarding produced water.

We’ve talked about some meter technologies. We’ve had John Lansing on to talk to us about ultrasonic meters. David Bell had a great episode with us about advanced differential pressure measurement and some of the things available there that go beyond the 100 year old orifice plate.

Also, we had Mr. Schwartzenburg on here talking to us about the specific challenges around flare measurement. We’ve talked about operations stuff. I don’t mean the meters and the technology, but how do we get our job done.

Kevin Warner came on here and talked with us about rich gas sampling challenges. We had Brian Lund that did a great episode on the care and feeding of our calibration equipment, things we don’t think about very much. Glenn Kelley came on here and shared some great insight about streamlining workflow and some of the software tools available to us.

What else there? Not to leave the back office folks out. We’ve done several podcasts geared specifically at the back office folks. Our single most commented on episode was with Michael Thompson, who talked to us about using data analytics to drive validation rules.

We also had great discussions around the same area with Bruce Wallace, who talked to us about what the future may hold regarding not just validation, but data processing and what new and improved processing technology and software brings to us.

Then we got Matt Holmes on here fairly recently. We turned the geek meter up to 11 or maybe 12 and a half. We discussed data averaging techniques and how that affects VCF. I got several comments about “That was really deep. We didn’t understand it, but now we know we need to worry about it,” which I thought were interesting discussions.

We also had David Nardella on here to talk to us about the importance of planning and prior planning for measurement software upgrades and even new software implementations, all of those things being very valuable and key to what we do there.

We also had some great discussions this year that have been backed off a little, to the 20,000 or 30,000 foot level. We talked with Colby Ruff about measurement practices in Canada. They do things a little different up there.

I just wish they’d close the door and keep it closed in the wintertime. I hear that, by the time this podcast comes out, it’ll be pretty cold here in Texas. Maybe we’ll be on the back side of the cold.

Colby, keep that cold weather up there, please. We also talked about trends toward outsourcing both the field and back office measurement with Jayson Payne.

Just last month, we had an interesting conversation with Dan Hodgson. He provided us with some insight upon how accounting and measurement intersect, how one relies on the other, and how both working together improves their operation and can help improve profitability for your company.

We’ve also had some updates on what our standards organizations are doing. Stephen Anson and Marshall Webb provided some great information on that. As well as Marshall had a discussion upon some of the challenges facing managers in measurement these days. When I first started in manager roles in this industry, it’s very different than what it is now. That seems to be evolving.

Finally and definitely not least, Dean Graves and Carvel Jasmin have had some discussions with us on our podcast about the importance of measurement training, what measurement training means to our industry, and how our nonprofit schools, such as ASGMT and ISHM, contribute and give to our industry.

We’ve covered a lot of stuff. We have a lot of stuff planned for this next year. Greg, can you back up and tell folks, how do they find these resources? How do they get access, for instance, to the transcripts of these episodes?

Greg: Yeah, absolutely. Just a note on all the content you just went through. I was nodding along and going through my checklist too. I think the thing that has made the show successful and has helped us continue is the approach that we’ve taken as a conversational format. Everything is very approachable.

The episodes are not five hour, super technical discussions. Some of them get pretty far in the weeds, but for the most part, again, as someone that came in as an outsider and didn’t understand, it’s been really nice to jump on it. Listen, by default, I have to listen to these because I have to get them uploaded.

Weldon: [laughs]

Greg: In doing so, at first, I remember, when I first started, all of this stuff was way over my head, but I didn’t mind listening. Again, it was conversational. It felt very natural. I think one of the things that has helped, to your credit…Just the conversational nature of the shows definitely helps and makes them easier to consume, easier to recommend as well.

Jumping into the content, where you find it, and all of that stuff, we’ve built a website around all of these shows. Obviously, with your podcasts, whatever podcast app you use, you can jump on and hit the subscribe button. Then they’ll show up in your feed every time we release.

If you want a deeper dive, you want more information, we’ve got everything housed under the Pipeline Podcast Network website. If you go to PipelinePodcastNetwork.com or you just jump on Google and just search pipeliners podcast, oil and gas podcast, pipeline podcast network, you’ll find us there.

What we’ve done is, for every episode that comes out, we have a dedicated page for that episode. On those pages, you’ll find an overview of the host, the guests. You can click in and learn more about the subject matter expert that’s joined the show for that episode. We’ll have a brief overview of the content just to tee it up and let you know what the episode’s about.

Then as you continue scrolling down that episode page, we’ve got full episode transcripts. This is great for quickly digesting. Or if you want to, again, just search real quick and find an exact specific topic or specific question, you can search through much easier with the transcription.

Then from an accessibility standpoint, it’s great to have those transcripts. Because, again, you may want to share this content with a colleague. Maybe they’re in a position where they can’t listen to a podcast out in the open or throw headphones on. They can read through the transcript and see what the conversation’s about and learn what was talked about.

The other advantage of that is that everything is searchable. When you go to the website, there’s a search icon up in the top right. You can type in just about anything related to the industry.

You’re going to find not just podcast episodes. We try to upload, regularly, resources that are relevant to whatever topic you’re searching for, regulatory notices, big news, or big updates in the industry, things like that.

In addition to the transcript right – that’s helpful for searching and things like that –  our team puts together a full page of show notes for every episode as well, where we don’t just drop the transcript in. We’ve got key terms, definitions, links.

When we talk about organizations or specific lingo or insider terms, those are going to be defined and accessible within the show notes as well. Again, for someone like me who didn’t know about the industry, it was really helpful.

There’s a lot of cross-pollination between all the different areas of expertise. If you find yourself listening to an episode about a topic you want to learn more about, yes, listen to the episode. Sure, read through the transcript. There’s also all of those definitions there. If you are new to that specific area of study, you’re going to have resources available to click into and read more about.

We’ve made everything as available as possible, again, just trying to make it easy to find, make it easy to access, and make sure that it’s a resource that’s readily available for anyone that jumps in to listen.

Weldon: Greg, one thing that surprised me is I get to see, occasionally, some of the back end of what our demographics of our listeners look like. Our demographics…I can’t talk, all of a sudden.

Greg: [laughs]

Weldon: Our demographics are pretty broad. From the Pipeliners Podcast network and the Pipeline Technology network, we inherit listeners that are corner offices, they’re presidents. They’re vice presidents, directors, VPs of these organizations, that don’t necessarily have any measurement background.

We have, of course, as you would expect, measurement managers, measurement foremen, and lots of great listeners out there in the field, but, as you mentioned, it’s easy for us to throw around terms in a normal, conversational mode that may be a little too geeky or too measurement specific.

Those show notes and those definitions really provide a lot of value there. It makes sure that anyone, regardless of whether they’re measurement background, field, or back office or whether they’re folks on the outsides of measurement, they can all find what they need and make sense out of the episodes.

I think that the available show notes and those definitions are a very, very powerful tool. You can find our stuff even by Googling. If you know a guest’s name and Oil & Gas Measurement Podcast, Google does wonders with that.

We have a lot of stuff lined up for this next year. I’ve been batting around several topics. One of which that’s reached the top of my list is getting some information about sampling and analysis data from the lab’s point of view.

We see the challenges in sampling gas, of natural gas liquids, of crude. We see the challenges in sample systems. We’ve had several guests on our show talking about the challenges of capturing representative samples.

What happens when it gets to the lab? We have an episode coming up that talks more frankly about what the lab sees, what are the challenges that the lab has that is caused by things we might or might not do right in the field.

We’ll also be talking, in an episode, about balancing and loss investigation, specifically for liquid systems. Quite a few differences in what we look for and what the concerns are between liquid and gas.

We may also get a gas balancing episode together. The episode I’m thinking about on those terms is not so much how to balance, but what does loss investigation look like on the field side, where should we be focusing our efforts.

A hot topic today, of course, is CO2, CO2 sequestration, CO2 capture, CO2 pipelines being built or trying to be built. We have companies fighting regulatory battles trying to get permitted.

We’ll get at least one, if not two episodes together this year about CO2 measurement and the work that our industry standard groups are doing focusing on helping us, along with guidance on how we measure that CO2.

As I mentioned earlier, how we do loss investigations will probably be an episode. I’m going to put together an episode this year about what auditors look for in the field. That may even turn into more of how do you do a DIY audit yourself. How can you go out and look at your measurement facilities and know that you’re ready for an outside auditor to come in?

I’ve also had a couple of requests to get someone from BLM to come on the podcast. I haven’t reached out to those folks yet, but I plan on doing that in the next month or two and see if we can’t get someone from BLM to talk to us about how operators can work better with it.

Then, of course, some updates on what our standards groups are doing with ultrasonics. API is still out there, plugging along at getting API 21.1 updated. A lot of good things out there that are to come.

With that though, I mentioned that we had a couple of requests for someone to come talk from BLM. I mentioned we’ve had a lot of comments about our episodes on data analytics. We need more input from our audience. We want to hear what you think about the episodes we’ve done. We want to hear about episodes you’d like to see and like to hear.

I’m going to ask Greg, in just a moment, to talk a little bit about how you can provide reviews and feedback to us. Regarding input, again, folks, if there’s topics out there you’d like to hear more about or even a specific person you would like to hear talk on a specific topic, let me know.

We get some feedback, but, in all honesty, 90 percent of what I get by email and Linkedin regarding the podcast is from folks looking to promote their latest product or their latest service.

I don’t want to discourage those folks from reaching out, but the real thing we’re looking for is the folks out there in the field and those field level supervisors and managers, the boots on the ground. Let us know what you want this podcast to be about.

Greg, I know that I am charged with ending every episode with saying, “Leave us a review.” You know what? Leaving a review, I found out, is harder than what I thought it ought to be. Can you talk about that for a minute before we go?

Greg: Yeah, absolutely. First, if you don’t mind, I’m going to back up a little bit and talk about input. One of the best ways to provide input, whether that’s letting us know you like something, letting us know a specific topic you want to talk about, or just joining in on the conversation from the latest episode, follow us on LinkedIn.

If you just search Pipeline Podcast Network on LinkedIn, we post episodes from each of the shows. We’ll post them up when they release. It’s a great way to grab the link and save it for later to listen or to share the post or, again, just join in the conversation. Let us know what you thought, or, if you have anything additional to add, drop a comment.

Then there’s also a Pipeline Podcast Network group on LinkedIn, where folks are encouraged to jump in and have a conversation, talk a little bit deeper about the topics. All of the show hosts are on that group. If there’s a specific question you have or a comment or a thought or whatever, you can jump in, drop a comment on there, tag Weldon or Russel, and start a conversation there in the group.

There’s definitely several different ways to provide input, whether that’s jumping on the website and submitting the form or emailing us. The conversation on LinkedIn is always fun to get engaged with. Definitely recommend anybody listening to go check us out on LinkedIn and make sure you’re following and request to join that Pipeliners Podcast group.

As far as leaving reviews, yes, it can be confusing. Part of the problem is there are so many different podcast platforms out there that the people listen to. You’ve got your default Apple Podcast app, if you’ve got an iPhone. If you’ve got an Android, it’s either YouTube Music or Google Podcasts. There’s a million other platforms out there. Their review systems and rating systems are all similar, but they’re not really connected.

There are instructions on our website, if you want a video walkthrough or almost like blog post walkthrough instructions on how to do it. Reviews are extremely important. They help us with finding new listeners.

When you go search something on one of the podcast platforms and you search for oil and gas, seeing a show that’s got a bunch of episodes uploaded and a bunch of really positive reviews just reinforces the quality and the legitimacy of that show. It’s really helpful to see that feedback when new listeners are searching for content like ours.

If you have an iPhone, if you have an Android phone, regardless, wherever your podcast comes from, whether that’s the default podcast app or you’ve got a third party app, a lot of times, you can just go to their search or their directory and search for the show.

There’s usually… [laughs] I say usually because, again, there’s so many different ones. On the episode’s home page, you’ll find an option to review the podcast. It’s usually a star system. Five stars is extremely helpful. Obviously, if you take the time out to do it, we greatly appreciate it.

Again, it just helps reinforce the message that “Hey, this is a trusted source of information and something where you’re not going to download Episode 1 and waste your time.” Because that’s an important thing to keep in mind. A lot of this stuff is time consuming. We want to find the right content for the right question. Those reviews definitely help us stand out.

Weldon: Thanks, Greg. Appreciate that. The reviews help. The main thing is this podcast is not free to do. It costs to host it. It costs to do the show notes, all of Greg’s time, all the rest of the pieces that go into this. By all means, let our sponsors know if you appreciate this podcast. We couldn’t do it without our sponsors.

GCI has been gracious to host the Pipeliners Podcast and will continue to do so at least as we go into this next year. If your company might be interested in hosting the Oil & Gas Measurement Podcast, reach out to myself, or reach out in the comments on the Pipeliners Podcast website and let us know. Thanks again, Greg, for being here.

Greg: Yeah, absolutely. Thanks for having me. It was a blast.

Weldon: I want to thank each of you for listening for the last two years. I hope you’ll subscribe to our future episodes. If we’re doing a good job, then please share our podcast with your coworkers, your boss, and others in the industry. This month’s show notes will include a complete list of our prior episodes and can be found on our website, pipelinepodcastnetwork.com.

As we just talked about, your reviews increase our search engine rankings, which in turn helps more folks find our podcast, and it lets our sponsors know that we’re reaching the right folks.

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

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Transcription by CastingWords