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Past Chairman's Statement

Winston A. Johnson, II

“PRCI is Looking Forward to a Very Challenging Year”

Following adoption of its business plan in September 2002, PRCI has been moving on several fronts to position the organization for continuing success in the face of a series of challenges confronting the energy pipeline industry generally, and PRCI specifically. Among these challenges, the following are particularly critical:

• Assuring adequate funding for the near-term to mid-term technology solutions in pursuit of the industry goal of incident and error free operations. With the cessation at the end of this year of the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission funding mechanism administered by the Gas Technology Institute, we will need to generate more than $8 million in additional funding sources just to stay even.
• Establishing the basis for an ongoing R&D partnership with pertinent agencies of the federal government, and implementing mechanisms to assure that we optimize the funding available and the deliverables we need to produce.
• Assuring that the PRCI operating model built upon the foundation “of, by, and for the energy pipeline industry” will continue to flourish will require that we engage an even larger number of industry technical and operations experts at a time when mergers and acquisitions threaten to significantly reduce the size of this critical resource.
• A related challenge will be educating the new, younger, less-experienced workforce of the future in the essential elements of safe, efficient, and environmentally sound pipeline operations from design and construction to testing and operations to inspection, monitoring and maintenance.
• Increasingly defining and communicating the value and benefits of the technology development investment for the energy pipeline operator, and assuring that in fact the funds that are made available for R&D are seen as an investment in a sustainable endeavor and not just another cost element on the balance sheet.
• And finally, assuring that the R&D investment is balanced between what the industry needs to do for itself in terms of meeting its business drivers and what it needs to do in conjunction with the government on areas of mutual interest and benefit in the areas of integrity (safety and environmental performance) and reliability (deliverability and security).

Our success in these endeavors will depend on our ability to craft effective strategies to, in the best case, draw benefits from these challenges or, in the worst case, minimize any adverse impacts on our program and its products and our long-term viability. In either case, PRCI will be well-served by broadening our relationships with key constituents and stakeholders of the energy pipeline industry, and optimizing the opportunities to build cooperative arrangements that yield effective and deployable technologies. It is in this spirit that I welcome you to PRCI and the many facets of our website. Here you will learn about the organization – who we are, what we do, and how we do it. In addition, you will be able to access, and where needed obtain, our more than 51 years of technology reports and software and read about events and activities going on in PRCI and the wider energy pipeline industry.

As I conclude my tenure this year as Chairman of this remarkable organization, I am gratified by the progress we have made over the last several years to position PRCI for future success. Although I am leaving the office of Chairman, I will continue to support the organization, its mission, and those who work so diligently to make it the preeminent technology organization of the energy pipeline industry.

Please come back and visit us often, and when you can, please let us know what works well, and what changes you would recommend to assure that we provide you with the information and tools you need.

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