For over 60 years the Pipeline Industries Guild (PIG) has been promoting pipelines, connecting people and advancing pipeline technology. It provides opportunities for all who are involved in the pipeline industry to share best practice, technological development, showcase their work and build relationships with like-minded professionals.
The past two years have provided unprecedented circumstances as the Covid 19 pandemic has certainly had a major impact on the way we all work and has created some difficult trading conditions. Despite these challenges the Guild has continued to thrive and maintain an active role in promoting pipelines and related industries. The pandemic certainly drove a rapid transition to the use of digital platforms to give the Guild the means to continue to provide a full range of services to its members. Establishing this infrastructure allowed the Guild to successfully deliver an industry leading webinar and virtual conference programme that has embraced not only technical content but included industry challenges, business skills, wellbeing and social activities. Many of these presentations are available to view on the Guild’s YouTube channel.
The Guild has also been taking a leading role in addressing the key problems that are faced by our industry and in particular sustainability issues such as climate change, environmental impact, the road to net zero and the introduction of hydrogen to our gas networks. The Guild goes Green initiative was launched in August 2020 and since then a series of webinars and conferences have been held with wide-ranging technical content which have been made freely available to Guild members and the wider pipeline community.
Earlier this year the Guild extended this initiative by establishing the Green Alliance in partnership with UKSTT, as both organisations seek to explore, share and promote industry’s drive towards net zero emissions and reductions in environmental impact. The webinar programme has continued with presentations from the Gas, Water and Power sectors and this is leading to an in-person seminar which will be held on 14 September at No-Dig Live.
Additionally, members of the Guild have recognised the importance of the hydrogen economy and the part it can play in the decarbonisation of our gas networks together with the associated need for carbon capture to mitigate the impacts of climate change and global warming. So, to complement our Green Alliance initiative the Guild has established a Hydrogen and CCUS Focus Group with the aim of creating a focal point for developing and sharing best practice in the safe use and deployment of hydrogen, carbon capture usage and storage and associated technologies for the benefit of the Guild’s members. It is envisaged that this will support skills development, education, and outreach activities within the sector. The Group will look to coordinating news and technical articles, communications, and events where appropriate to promote its objectives and provide forums to engage, consult and influence government and major stakeholders. It will also explore how to provide Guild members with prospects to engage with stakeholders to investigate opportunities within the sector and provide means to introduce their services and innovations.
The Guild continues to celebrate the achievements of its members through its Annual Technical Awards which took place in July. This year despite the considerable challenges faced by Guild members, there was a bumper crop of high-quality entrants in all categories. They certainly demonstrate that our industry is strong with Guild members involved in a diversity of projects and the rise of exciting new technologies.
Congratulations to all the winners including:
Land-based/Onshore Pipeline Project: Irish Water and O’Connor Utilities Limited
Land-based/Onshore Pipeline Technology: Ant Hire Solutions
Utilities Pipeline Project: United Utilities and Mott MacDonald Bentley (MMB)
Utilities Pipeline Technology: Mott MacDonald Ltd (MML) and Continuum Industries Ltd
Subsea Pipeline Project: Yorkshire Water, Royal HaskoningDHV, Van Oord UK, Mott MacDonald, Ward & Burke
Annual Photo Competition: Pipelife Norge AS
