In this episode of the Pipeliners Podcast, host Russel Treat welcomes Weldon Wright to reflect on his extensive career in oil and gas measurement and his recent transition into semi-retirement. Weldon shares insights from decades of experience across utilities, vendors, and operators, while also discussing his role as host of the Oil & Gas Measurement Podcast. The conversation explores career path considerations within the industry and the differences between roles in various sectors, offering guidance for those navigating their own professional journeys.

Measurement in Retirement Show Notes, Links, and Insider Terms

• Weldon Wright is the host of the Oil & Gas Measurement Podcast. Connect with Weldon on LinkedIn.
• Oil & Gas Measurement – The practice of quantifying the volume and quality of oil and gas products as they move through various stages of the supply chain. This is essential for custody transfer, regulatory compliance, and operational efficiency.
• Flow Computer – A specialized device used in oil and gas measurement to calculate flow rates and volumes using inputs from field instruments such as pressure and temperature sensors. Flow computers can be single-run (monitoring one flow path) or multi-run (handling multiple flow paths).
• SCADA (Supervisory Control and Data Acquisition) – A control system architecture used in industrial operations such as oil and gas pipelines to monitor, gather, and process real-time data. It also provides control over equipment either locally or remotely.
• Midstream – The segment of the oil and gas industry involved in the transportation, storage, and wholesale marketing of crude or refined petroleum products. This sector includes pipelines, compressor stations, and storage facilities.
• Upstream – Refers to the exploration and production side of the oil and gas industry. This includes locating, drilling, and extracting oil or natural gas.
• Back Office – In oil and gas measurement, this term refers to the teams and systems responsible for validating, analyzing, and reporting measurement data. Back-office functions support field operations and ensure data accuracy for billing and regulatory compliance.
• Measurement Analyst – A professional responsible for analyzing and validating oil and gas measurement data, often within a back-office context, to ensure accurate reporting and compliance.
• Measurement Operations – The coordination and management of field and office activities that ensure accurate flow measurement, proper maintenance of equipment, and consistent data reporting.
• Compressor Automation – Control and automation systems that manage the operation of gas compressors, which are critical for maintaining flow and pressure in pipeline systems. These systems often interface with measurement and SCADA systems.
• Polling Systems – Systems used to collect data from remote field devices (e.g., flow computers, RTUs) at regular intervals. These systems are a key component of SCADA architectures.
• RTU (Remote Terminal Unit) – A microprocessor-controlled device that interfaces with sensors and actuators in the field, collecting data and transmitting it back to SCADA systems.
• Acquisition and Merger – Common in midstream operations, these business activities often require integrating disparate measurement systems, standardizing data, and consolidating processes across organizations.
• General Manager – A senior leadership role often overseeing departments or business units, responsible for operations, staff, and financial performance.
• Vendor vs. Operator – A key distinction in the industry. Vendors supply equipment, software, or services to oil and gas companies, often working across multiple clients and technologies. Operators are companies that own and manage assets (e.g., pipelines, processing facilities) and typically focus deeply on internal systems and processes.
• Public Utility – A government-regulated entity that provides essential services like water, electricity, or natural gas. Public utilities operate under different business models and regulatory structures compared to private oil and gas operators.
• Instrumentation Group – A team typically responsible for installing, calibrating, and maintaining field instruments such as pressure transducers, temperature sensors, and flow meters.
• Measurement Data Services – A group or department within a company focused on managing the integrity, flow, and analysis of measurement data. This often includes overseeing software systems like Flow-Cal and coordinating with field teams.
• Custody Transfer – Refers to the transfer of product ownership from one party to another, requiring accurate and auditable measurement.

Measurement in Retirement Full Episode Transcript

Russel Treat: Welcome to the “Pipeliners Podcast,” episode 384, 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 is 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. Make sure and register for the API Pipeline and Control Room and Cybernetics Conference.

Time’s getting short because the event occurs April 28th to 30th at the Marriott and downtown Austin, Texas. It’s a valuable opportunity to collaborate and network with industry professionals, all working to sustain, transform and secure essential needs across the globe. Visit api.org/pipeline for more information and to register.

[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. To show that appreciation, we give away a customized YETI tumbler to one listener every episode. This week, our winner is Kelli Bell with Red Cedar Gathering. To learn how you can win this signature prize, stick around till the end of the episode.

This week, we speak with Weldon Wright about measurement in retirement. Hey, Weldon, welcome to the Pipeliners Podcast.

Weldon Wright: Thanks, Russel, it’s great to be here again.

Russel: You are now an official and fellow podcaster. You have your own podcast. You’re the host of the “Oil & Gas Measurement Podcast.” How is that going for you?

Weldon: First of all, this is one of those things that you’ve told me for some years back, Russel. I was a little hesitant at first, but I really enjoy it. This has turned out to be a great experience and a learning experience.

Now, we’re almost three and a half years into the Oil & Gas Measurement Podcast. 34th episode was recorded yesterday, as a matter of fact, and some of those have been some great episodes.

One of my friends reached out to me the other day and said that my podcast now hits the top 50 list for Oil & Gas Measurement Podcast. The top 30 of that are all, of course, financial investing and trading, so that was pretty cool.

Russel: I think you’ve done well. You certainly put together some great content, and it’s all good. Look, I want you to do a little bit of a deep dive on your background if you would, to tee this conversation up. Could you walk us through your career and all the various things you did?

Weldon: It’s not supposed to be more than a 30-minute podcast.

[laughter]

Weldon: My career is a long way here, Russel. How I got to where I am, I still don’t know the answer to that question.

Went to Texas A&M University with the idea of studying computer science, which was actually a minor in the industrial engineering school way back then. Ended up with a bunch of business admin classes related to that also.

Out of college, I worked for College Station Utilities as the head of their electrical and instrumentation group. Kind of one of those “Got at A&M, didn’t want to leave” kind of stories. I spent 10 years there.

That was in the utility industry, but much more focused on electrical substation metering, oil and gas. I’m sorry. The water and the wastewater control and automation systems. I was still focused a lot on programming and maintenance of those automation systems.

Ended up going to there for work for Bristol Babcock. Intended, when I took the job, I thought I was going to be a field service engineer over their oil and gas. I’m sorry, I keep saying oil and gas — over their water wastewater products.

Very suddenly, in about week three working for them, they said, “Hey, we need you to go see a customer.” I got my deep dive intro into oil and gas. That was a deep dive intro because I showed up on the spot as the expert in single-run flow computers, and I saw my first one on the customer site.

Russel: [laughs]

Weldon: Luckily, the computer itself, the software in it, all of that was the stuff I’d been dealing with for the last five or six years, but it’s the first time seeing it in an oil and gas application. That started quite an intensive learning procedure, as you might believe. I worked for Bristol Babcock for a couple years, more than a couple.

I ended up going to work for a systems integration house where I met this guy named Russel Treat, Strategic Controls Corporation, and worked there almost exclusively in the pipeline world at that time, a little bit on the gathering side but a lot in the measurement equipment, the SCADA, Wonderware systems, polling systems for gas pipelines.

That migrated into a couple of customers in the midstream industry. I decided I really like that midstream industry. There was a lot going on there. I left Strategic Controls and actually worked for Tennessee Gas Pipeline. I guess I didn’t quite get to the midstream industry there.

I worked for Tennessee Gas Pipeline in their compressor automation group. I was the guy doing startups on new control system software projects, the interface between measurement data and compressor control systems, and stuff along those lines.

Then I finally ended solidly in the midstream world, I guess in about 2000. I was in the Hockley bunker for Y2K, that night. The day after, I went to work in Fort Worth for a midstream company and ended up as director of their measurement operations there for a few years.

Again, really love the midstream world. So much more going on in the midstream world, so much more data-wise, so much more intense on the analytical understanding and managing water vapor, those kind of pieces.

That company was acquired by Southern Union which was acquired by Energy Transfer. I ended up as a director at Energy Transfer over their Measurement Data Services group. At one time, I guess I had 30-odd measurement analysts, a measurement engineer, and some back office supervisors and managers working for me.

That was another learning experience. That, of course, combined midstream measurement operations with intrastate pipelines, but on a much larger scale, a lot of meters there. I think we were pushing either 24 or 26 thousand meters just under my group, at the time I left there.

Left there and went to work for Flow-Cal, for Mike Squyres over at Flow-Cal, as a consultant working with his customers on how do they scope measurement projects. You want Flow-Cal. How are you going to scope the project? How big does it need to be? How do you integrate Flow-Cal with your existing systems when you put one in?

I worked with acquisition customers that were merging Flow-Cal systems, so a lot of time in the acquisition and merger stuff related to putting measurement groups together, which is also a lot of what I did with Energy Transfer. Energy Transfer was an acquisition machine.

Left those guys and spent a couple years as the General Manager over at GCI. Again, a lot of midstream work at GCI, but working with customers on training projects, working with customers on consulting projects. Did that a little while.

Then ended up, decided to do the independent consulting thing as an intro into retirement. Did the consulting bit on my own for a couple years. That was a small number of customers with longer-duration products.

Longer-duration projects, I should say. Did that. Loved it, but we finally hit that magic number on the big spreadsheet that says, “Hey, it’s time to retire.” That was one decision that it didn’t take us a long time to make.

About September, probably, of last year — could have been into August — probably, September last year, the wife and I made that decision. My wife was wrapped up by the second week in November. I had a few projects and a few trainings, so I wrapped up in about the week before Christmas.

I now call myself retired, but very, very semi-retired might be the word for it. Still helping a few customers out. If a project comes up that sounds cool enough and exciting enough, I’m definitely on board to do it as well as helping a few of my existing customers. That’s where I am today.

Russel: A couple of things about that. One of the things I want to talk about is, you have the unique experience of working for a vendor and working for an operator. How is that distinct or different?

If you were talking to a young person that’s thinking about a career path, they’re looking at working with an operator or they’re looking at working with a vendor, what would you tell them about that experience?

Weldon: It’s a tad deeper or broader, I should say, than that. I worked for a utility, for a public utility company, but then I worked for an equipment manufacturer in that list also. That combination of, “How do public utilities work experience?” That experience working for an equipment manufacturer.

Bristol Babcock selling distributed control systems, single-run flow computers, multi-run flow computers. They had their own large-scale SCADA system, which used to be called Bristol Enterprise back then, Open Enterprise years ago.

Then, I went from there to working for an operator in the pipeline sector. Then, from there, to working for an operator in the midstream sector, and then working for a software manufacturer.

Russel: What I’m trying to get to in the question, Weldon…

Weldon: How does it get there? I’ll get there.

Russel: How is it different? Yeah, I know. I’m trying to get you back on point.

Weldon: [laughs] The knowledge from all of those pieces, as you said, gave me a unique perspective.

If I was advising someone new getting into the industry, or someone that was in the industry looking for a further direction — because it’s a broad industry — my advice to them is, you’ve got to back up a minute and look at yourself a little bit and what you’re good at. Where do you want to be?

I have seen people that were field employees and at the senior technician field engineer level in the field that didn’t want to be in the field. I have seen folks in the back office that were miserable, cooped up in an office.

To me, the broadest question to ask somebody in the field is, do you see yourself as an office person, or do you see yourself as somebody that gets out in the field or someone that interacts with large groups of people at trade shows? There’s a very big difference in those mindsets.

Then, back to your original question, operator, manufacturer, midstream, upstream, pipeline, those all have very, very, very different personalities to the job itself, if that’s the way you say it.

One thing I can tell you about the transportation pipeline industry, is the transportation pipeline industry — and I don’t want to use the word monotonous. That would create the wrong connotation there — is more predictable.

The transportation pipeline industry work there, whether you’re in the back office or whether you’re in the field, whether you’re in the engineering groups, the transportation pipeline industry is going to be a more predictable job.

Now, that doesn’t mean there’ll be fires to put out occasionally, but the job is more predictable. You normally get within a box that is fairly easy to stay in if you want to stay in that box.

When you look at the midstream world and the upstream world, my take over time can be all over the place. You never know today what you’re going to be doing compared to what you did yesterday.

The upstream world doesn’t drill down into the details as much unless you’re one of the select people in their production efficiency engineering group, or something like that.

Field measurement jobs and back office measurement jobs in the production world are typically around…We have huge numbers of meters for the number of people we have. We’re processing a lot of data, but it’s very much on the…What’s the right word for it?

[crosstalk]

Russel: It’s more about keeping the product flowing.

Weldon: Right.

Russel: It’s more about keeping those product flowing and getting a number. Maybe not a perfect number but a number. My take on this — and I’ve always worked on the vendor side. I’ve never worked on the operator side — but I’ve had people that have spent their career as an operator tell me, he says, “You don’t talk like a vendor. You talk like an operator.”

What I would say is, the thing about the vendor side is you typically get exposure to a greater set of things. You see more technologies. You see more kinds of operations. You see, even within an operation, multiple different approaches. You get experience in a lot of things, but you typically don’t get to do anything deeply.

Where on the operator side, you tend to do things deeply. In the range of operations in the wellhead, I’m doing something deeply but it changes. What I did this month is not what I did last month, because the nature of production is, what’s the thing that moves more product?

Midstream is, there’s a lot of activity, but it’s more about hooking things up and cutting things loose. Then, big pipe is about, “I’m running at 98 percent efficiency, and I want to get to 98.5.”

Weldon: As you said, that midstream world, there’s a lot of variation to that world, tremendous variations. Hooking up new meters, chasing down problems, just the normal reporting, lot of variation in that midstream route.

Between vendor and operator, one thing I took from the two moves, I guess, between vendor and operator is that, on the vendor side, the reward for completion, the internal satisfaction of saying I completed something is not the same as it is as an operator.

In that vendor world completion means, I made a sale or we got the customer using the product and we handed the product off. Or we walked in for a specific consulting project, we did it, we got them a report, and we were out there.

On the operator side, whether it’s pipeline, whether it’s upstream, whether it’s midstream gathering, processing operations that longer-term exposure to the systems, to the problems had a different level of satisfaction to me.

You got to see project through and you got to see how the project benefited your whole company. That project might just be reducing losses unaccountable. I’ve been involved in helping two dozen plus companies reduce their unaccountable as a consultant or a vendor.

Only two cases have I been in a position where I have worked on long-term projects to get to see how did we move this pipeline over 15 years? How do we move the profitability of that pipeline by reducing unaccountable, improving measurement?

There’s a different levels of job satisfaction. Some people are driven by that, needing a sense that they did something that they can look at and see it once it’s finished. Some people are driven by that, “Hey, I like little projects that have it in insight, and I can move on.”

Russel: I call that completion therapy.

Weldon: Yeah. A lot of…

[crosstalk]

Russel: The operator side, oftentimes you’re never really done.

Weldon: Yeah. Back to your original question, I tell people when they want to know what part of the industry should I go into. My answer is, you’ve got to look at yourself to figure out what that is.

Russel: You got to look inside yourself. I think your answer’s right on point. You built a lot of good context. Shifting up a little bit, so you say you’re retired, but you’re continuing to work, you’re still doing the podcast, you’re still involved with the American School of Gas Measurement Technology.

I would assume that you occasionally take a measurement gig if somebody knocks on the door, and it looks interesting and something you want to do.

Weldon: Interesting and short duration is my rule now, [laughs] but yeah, still involved in ASGMT. I’m sitting with my mouth open right now for the listeners — because very rarely am I speechless, but I want to word this right.

I really enjoy and I get satisfaction from being able to share my years of experience — not all good experiences — with new and younger folks coming in. I enjoy the teaching. I enjoy helping bring new folks into our industry because it still is an exciting industry. It may not be glamorous, but to me, it’s an exciting field of work, and it’s going to be around a long time.

I very much enjoy training, the education part, so I’m involved in ASGMT. I haven’t done it this year, but I’ve talked with a couple of people, I will probably get a little more involved with ISHM also. Still doing a training opportunity here and there.

In addition to that, you’re exactly right. I’ve got an email sitting in my mailbox today. That’s my job when I get off this podcast, is to review some notes sent from a customer that is trying to work through some questions about, “Are we meeting contractual terms? Are we reporting right? Are we calculating right?” Still doing some projects like that, so semi-retired is the right word for it.

Russel: What that brings up for me is, if you’re going to do that kind of work, you need to be current on technology and process and people, and all of that. For audio podcast, it’s not helpful, but I’m doing air quotes. How does a person that does air quotes retirement, how do you stay current on everything that’s going on in the industry?

Weldon: That’s a great question, Russel, and it’s one I’m wrestling a little bit myself. I can tell you what I’m doing right now. The continual involvement with ASGMT, showing up at ISHM to talk to folks to stay current, to see what presentations are being done there, the podcast itself.

I got my mind blown yesterday. That podcast will release next Wednesday, and the podcast is on RNG sampling. If you go back and look at my — what is it? 43, 44 podcast, discussions on sampling, sampling problems, and labs are a little bit disproportionate in number. I’ve done quite a few of them

Sampling out in the field is one of those areas that we can get the most gain in improving measurement, reducing losses, improving unaccountable. We can get the most gain for the buck, because let’s face it. Following those procedures, getting the equipment right, it’s something that our industry’s been challenged that.

I thought we had problems just catching a C6+ sample or a liquid sample from a mixing pot. After my discussion yesterday, we have over 500 facilities introducing RNG into pipelines or directly into distribution systems in the US this year.

Russel: 500?

Weldon: Yes.

Russel: Wow.

Weldon: My mind was just blown in the conversation yesterday at the complexity of what the sampling and the analytical looks like to make sure that RNG is safe for the pipeline, for the end user, and for the equipment involved.

The end result of it is, most of the time, when we do initial sampling on a new RNG delivery point, an initial sampling isn’t one sample. It’s repeating for some number of months till they prove they’re good enough.

Those initial sampling, he goes, “Yeah, on most of those, we can finish the sampling in one day, but some take a couple of days.” Just sampling, nothing else, just the sampling for constituents, trace contaminants in RNG could easily take a day of a technician’s time.

On average, probably takes a day of a technician’s time. We complain when it takes us 10 minutes to catch a spot sample.

Russel: That’s a whole lot of analysis for not a whole lot of gas.

Weldon: That and a couple more things, but it’s a great episode. Tune in next Wednesday and listen to it.

Russel: The other thing I would say about…Just because you’re retired doesn’t mean you’re not curious.

Weldon: I read a lot. I spend way too much time in the evenings, late, reading whatever caught my fancy during the day. I make notes on my phone, things I see, things I hear during the day.

Normally, late in the evening, that’s my winddown. I get on the Internet and read through things. A lot of those are measurement-related. Some are not, but I now have a whole new reading list on RNG sampling.

Keep current on the reading. Keep current on what’s going on in the industry and the standards bodies. I’m wrestling right now with how involved I’m going to continue to be with API and GPA and AGA.

Probably going to wind that down from what I had been doing, but I don’t want to cut that out. Being involved with the standards bodies is guaranteed to help keep you current in what’s going on in the industry.

Russel: Yeah, but there’s a lot of overlap in those bodies. Right?

Weldon: Right.

Russel: Picking one and doing only that makes sense to me. It’s tempting to want to do them all because you get to talk to everybody. Not only do you stay current on the tech, but you also stay current on everybody and where they’re at and what they’re doing.

Weldon: Absolutely.

Russel: When you’re retired and you’re paying for all that out of your own pocket, it’s a little different calculation than [laughs] when you’re doing it on somebody else’s nickel.

Weldon: That’s exactly what that struggle is right now. I would like to stay involved in all of it right now, but what makes sense for me. The travel part of it, is what gets…

It doesn’t cost anything to sit on a conference call once a month or twice a month to stay involved in that, but so much of the real work and the real resolution of discussions and issues really takes place in person at the meetings.

Russel: You learn by reading, but mostly you learn by finding the really smart guys and sitting down and having a detailed conversation with them.

Weldon: I can also tell you, Russel, there’s something I’m terrified of, and I want to make sure that I don’t reach that point. I don’t want to become the old burnout retirement guy that roams the halls of GPA conferences, ISHM, ASGMT meetings.

I don’t want to be the old retired guy that maybe roams those halls, that hasn’t been relevant and not staying current in the industry. There’s a point where you got to step away. I’ve known a couple people over the years that have fallen into that category. They’re around because their only friends are in the industry.

Russel: That’s right.

Weldon: If you see me roaming the halls, I’m still making an effort to stay current. I’m still reading. I’m still…

Russel: What you’re saying is, have a conversation, check the look in your eyes, and make sure you’re still all there.

Weldon: That could be it. That could be the way to word it.

Russel: [laughs] I’m just funning with you. You make a really good point. The last question I have for you is, how is it that you’re adding value for the operators? You’ve talked about training and so forth. I get you’re sharing experience. What are some of the specific things that you find that operators really need from those of us that have been around a long time?

Weldon: I just had this conversation in the last two weeks. One of the biggest things going on in our industry right now, we’ve known about it and we’ve talked about it for 25 years. I was involved in the first meeting in middle of 2000, talking about the fact that we should be worried about this great exodus from the industry.

What’s happening is, we have failed to do anything about that. That exodus has happened and continued to happen. The drain of expertise from our industry has become very serious, both in the manufacturers and the vendor side and in the operator side.

One of the things that we can bring there, that I feel like I still bring to the industry, is that we need a balance between…We can’t say, “We’ve always done it this way, we’ve got to keep doing it this way.” That’s never the answer, but you can’t lose the painful experience.

That’s the experience I’m talking about is, so much of what our more mature guys in the industry, the older folks with greater tenure still working as well as the retired folks in the industry, they have learned through the school of hard knocks, many times that information.

There are a lot of ideal priorities in this world, a lot of new folks that say, “We’re going to bring out new tools, new software, new devices.” A lot of those are great. Did a podcast with Michael Thompson a month ago about the use of AI and big data analysis technology in measurement. That’s great stuff.

The same point in time is, there’s lessons that people have already been through with that, that we probably need. That’s one of the things that experience brings to the industry. It’s not just “We’ve always done it this way.” It is “We’ve tried that in some cases, and here’s the experience.”

The other thing is, being able to look back on a broader scope of experience is extremely important in our industry. If you have a relatively young midstream company, a new startup, they’ve been around four or five years.

They have one or two people in their startup group, maybe a director of engineering, that came with years of experience, but they have a young staff out there. They have a young staff. That young staff may know everything about their particular operation, but being able to bring advice and consult on what other pieces of the industry are of what other folks are doing.

I had one project. It actually wrapped up last year. I had one project that was very similar. We had a new group that had some new ideas, but their new ideas were butting heads. It involved some manufacturing, so I’ve got to be a little careful talking about that.

They were butting heads with how we’ve done stuff for the last 50 years. They were somewhat concerned on why don’t we have wide acceptance of our product. It goes, “Well, part of what that is, is that our industry is slow to adopt because we’ve jumped off a cliff a number of times and hit a hard rock and not a pool of water.

Russel: Change is risk, and because of the consequences of what we do, we as an industry are naturally risk-averse. That’s a good thing.

[crosstalk]

Russel: I think this goes to the point you’re trying to make. A lot of the younger guys, while they have a lot of knowledge, they don’t have the experience to be able to ask the critical questions.

Weldon: Good way to put it.

Russel: I find that that’s one of the big things that’s really needed. That’s really an important thing for us to give back to the next generation is…I say this all the time. My wife says, “You got to quit saying this on the podcast,” but I’m going to say it again anyways.

Experience is what you get when you didn’t get what you wanted. Wisdom is what you get when you finally learn the correct lesson from the experience.

Weldon: [laughs] So true.

Russel: What we need to do, is pass along the wisdom, not necessarily the experience. We need to pass along the wisdom.

Weldon: [laughs] So true, Russel. So true.

Russel: I thought you’d appreciate that.

Weldon: I do. [laughs] Again, we’re at a place that we’ve been in for a long time. It’s hard to get young folks enthused about our industry. The industry’s painted as a bad guy. Maybe that’s shifted a little right now. In addition to not being a popular industry, there’s this concept that hydrocarbons are going away.

In the long term, they have to, in some time frame, but it’s not going to be in the career-length time frame of anybody that might enter the industry today.

Russel: I don’t think they’re ever going to go away. The natures of what we use for energy and power and fuel is probably going to change. That’s a good thing. There’s a lot of promise in a lot of technologies, hydrogen, conventional nuclear, nuclear fusion.

There’s lots and lots of promise in these technologies. All of them should be part of the mix, but so much of what we do in this day and age, we can’t make fertilizer without natural gas. We can’t make cars without crude oil because of the plastic and all that.

Weldon: That’s what I was going to say. If you said tomorrow we couldn’t burn any more hydrocarbons as fuel, you still are a long ways away from ending the hydrocarbon industry. The oil and gas industry.

Russel: Yeah, exactly. That’s the point I was making. Look, this has been a great conversation. I appreciate you coming on. I’ve been listening to the Measurement Podcast. I think you’re doing a great job there. Certainly, I find the content really interesting and compelling. Keep up the good work.

As you slowly over the next however many years move into full retirement, I’m going to continue to enjoy working with you and learning what you’re learning.

Weldon: Russell, that brings up a question I want to ask. There’s not much difference in their age. You’ve got a lot things going. You’re still a busy guy. I’m sure you or at least your wife has got to be thinking about a world of retirement.

Russel: I think about it, but I’m like you. I’m having too much fun. I feel like I’m making an important difference with the stuff we’re doing, particularly around pipeline operations and pipeline safety. We have a lot to offer the industry. I’m probably working another 5 years, for sure, and probably more like 10.

I’m 66. We just had a guy retire at the end of January, a guy named Dale Schafer. Dale had been with us for about 13 years, I think, 13, 14 years, and he retired at the age of 76. Now, he’s working for his son selling catering, so go figure.

Weldon: You’ve got to stay busy. You’ve got to stay active.

Russel: Right.

Weldon: Retirement means only doing the fun stuff, to me.

Russel: Retirement means the unlimited ability to say no.

Weldon: [laughs] All right.

Russel: That’s what retirement really is. As you get older, what you realize is every no you say creates the possibility for a different yes. A lot of times, those yeses aren’t work, they’re all the things we want to do in our life that we haven’t got to yet.

Weldon: Thanks, Russel. Appreciate being on the podcast, sir.

Russel: Thanks for being here. I hope you enjoyed this week’s episode of the Pipeliners Podcast, and our conversation with Weldon. A reminder before you go, you should register to win our customized Pipeliners Podcast YETI Tumbler. Just visit pipelinepodcastnetwork.com/win, 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 on LinkedIn. Thanks for listening. I’ll talk to you next week.

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