In this episode of the Pipeliners Podcast, host Russel Treat reflects on the industry’s current state of transition, touching on key topics like artificial intelligence in pipeline operations and shifting regulatory dynamics.

He discusses the potential benefits and risks of AI deployment and notes the evolving regulatory landscape under the new administration. Russel also invites listeners to suggest future guests and topics, making this episode a call for industry insights and collaboration.

Pipelining in Transition Show Notes, Links, and Insider Terms

• Contact Us now to get involved or suggest a topic or guest
• Russel Treat is the CEO of EnerACT Energy Services, as well as the host of the Pipeliners Podcast and the founder of the Pipeline Podcast Network. Connect with Russel on LinkedIn.
  • EnerACT Energy Services is a holding company of oil and gas technology and service companies. EnerSys Corporation is a frequent sponsor of the Pipeliners Podcast. Find out more about how EnerSys supports the pipeline control room through compliance, audit readiness, and control room management through the POEMS Control Room Management (CRM Suite) software suite.
• AI (Artificial Intelligence) is intelligence demonstrated by machines in contrast to the natural intelligence displayed by humans.
• Generative AI is a type of artificial intelligence technology that can produce various types of content, including text, imagery, audio and synthetic data.

Pipelining in Transition Full Episode Transcript

Russel Treat: Welcome to the “Pipeliners Podcast,” episode 381, sponsored by EnerSys Corporation, providers of POEMS, the Pipeline Operations Excellence Management System, operations and compliance software for the pipeline operator to address safety program management, control room management, and field operations. Find out more about POEMS at enersyscorp.com.

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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 Eric Dudley with Marathon Petroleum Congratulations, Eric. Your Yeti is finally on its way. To learn how you can win this signature prize, stick around till the end of the episode.

This week, it’s just me, and if you can’t tell, I’m a little under the weather. It’s springtime, and the allergies are alive and well in Texas, so I’m clogged up and struggling a bit. Here’s what I wanted to talk about. We’re in a significant time of transition, and I’ve been wondering about what would be useful in terms of topics and guests for the podcast.

We’ve talked a lot recently about artificial intelligence. We talked a lot about how it has the promise to change the industry. We haven’t talked much about its deployment, its limitations, how to get the most value, and how to mitigate the risk of using AI, and what those risks are, so there’s a lot of that.

The thing about the AI is they’re getting better, but they can do what’s called hallucinate. They’re only as good as the data they’re fed and the prompts that are built to train them. There’s a lot of limitations and questions there.

Then, likewise, we’ve got a new administration in. There’s a lot of changes occurring. New projects are being talked about that we all thought were over and done and never to be talked about again. The regulatory environment is or appears to be shifting.

I don’t know what all that means, but I certainly would welcome any of the listeners who’d like to refer somebody to me that they think should be a guest on the podcast that the industry would learn from whether it’s about AI, whether it’s about regulatory environment, and all the changes occurring, or any other topic of note.

Consider this episode a shout-out, and I’m looking for some help because I don’t have a lot of energy to finish this and I’m going to go to bed right after I get off this microphone. Anyways, if you have some ideas, questions, or topics you’d be interested in, please let me know.

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Russel: The best way to do that is to go to the website pipelinepodcastnetwork.com, go to the Contact Us page, and fill out a form and submit. I read all those and I respond back to all those. Anyways, I’m making this a short episode. I appreciate you guys, and hopefully, I’ll be doing better, and I’ll talk to you next week.