INGAA Foundation Spring Meeting 2008

April 16, 2008 1:00PM   -   April 18, 2008 5:00PM
San Antonio , Texas

The Spring Meeting began with a welcome and opening comment by Dhamo Dhamotharan and then continued with a very interesting briefing by Steve Kirchhoff, Vice President of America's Gas Marketing on ExxonMobil's World Energy Outlook Through 2030.  Prior to the official start of the meeting, we held a briefing on the Foundation’s mission and processes for new members (and not-so-new members who wanted a refresher on how the Foundation works). 

The General Session focused on the changing geography of North America natural gas and continued with the outlook for North American pipeline projects in 2008 and beyond.  Then, Krista Edwards, Deputy Administrator of the Pipelines and Hazardous Materials Safety Administration of the U.S. Department of Transportation addressed the importance of safety culture in the natural gas pipeline industry.   To close the days presentations, a panel examined the opportunities for waste heat recovery in the pipeline industry, with a review of both a technical white paper published by INGAA and reports from ORMAT a developer and Kinder Morgan a company that is implementing such opportunities.  The first day concluded with the Planning and Studies Committee Meeting and implementation of the first steps in the 2009 study development program.  

The Board of Directors of the Foundation met on Friday morning, April 18 to be briefed on budget, study and  membership issues.  The General Session that  followed included a keynote address by Congressman Steve Pearce on energy challenges facing the U.S.  Next, a panel addressed the lessons learned from pipeline construction in 2007 and the solutions to the challenges experienced by the industry.