Transforming Energy Infrastructure: Insights from Anthony Herman

Machine-generated transcript of “Transforming Energy Infrastructure: Insights from Anthony Herman”. Paragraph breaks mark a change of speaker. Click a timestamp to play from that point.

0:02 This is Under Pressure. Compressor Talk by Midwest Compressor. Strategies, systems, and stories from the compressor world. With your host, David Abshire. And now, on to the show.

0:20 Good afternoon. This is David Abshire with the Under Pressure Podcast. Today with me I have Anthony Herman. Anthony, thank you for being on the show today.

0:30 Hi, David. Thanks for inviting me.

0:31 Absolutely. Well, we're excited to have you on. I definitely appreciate your time on a you know a beautiful Tuesday afternoon. So thank you so much. So, Anthony, uh, I have to ask, you know, you've got a geography degree. You started in foresty and hydrology over your 25 years deep in the hole and gas pipelines. How on earth did that happen?

0:54 Yeah, that's a crazy story. I couldn't uh tell you how I got here from one straight line, maybe. So I pivoted into uh energy in 2001 when uh forestry was in decline, and I just kept following opportunities through uh geospatial work. I got into gas training and gas control and moved into technical leadership and then eventually into sense development. So I I don't know how I got you to be honest. I can't answer if that's the story.

1:25 I completely get it. We all have those novels of you know our work history and kind of where we ended up. And sometimes, you know, definitely you look back and that line is very squiggly and very jagged. They always try to tell you coming right out of school, you know, it's a straight path, and you're like, it's never, never that straight path.

1:43 It's never that clear, no.

1:45 Alright, so where does that winding road leave you today and what's your role at Rosen actually look like? Is it Rosson or Rosen?

1:52 It's correctly. Yeah, it's Rosen.

1:54 Okay, Rosen. Okay.

1:57 Yeah, uh currently um I'm in the business development, director of business development for our digital solutions for Rosen North America, and that means I'm bringing uh a bunch of tools to market for our pipeline offer sorry, our pipeline operators to help them reduce risk and run their assessments more efficiently. I would say this most exciting chapter in my career thus far, and then uh really enjoying what we're doing at Rosen.

2:26 Okay, well that sounds cool. So, what's your day-to-day normally look like in that role?

2:30 Yeah, where do I start with that? Um it's a lot about collaboration and engagement with clients, and then on the other side of that, it's engagement internally with Rosen and dealing with uh our global group of expertise, so engineers and developers throughout well, minimally over in Europe, and working with them to develop uh roadmaps and digital solutions that the clients are asking me for. So I'm a bit of a bridge between the two because I have that operational knowledge and I brought it back to the uh vendor side to help them, you know, us all come together essentially.

3:13 Right, nice, nice. So it looks like here uh that it got brought up in your pre-podcast interview. They mentioned that you're the channeler being of your friend group. Nobody knows what what do you do. And then of course, uh, what's the thing people outside the industry really don't understand kind of about your role um on your side of things?

3:34 Yeah, it's a bit of a dating reference, but having been in the industry for 25 years, I got that a lot at the beginning. The way I describe it is energy infrastructure is essentially uh life support for everything we do and uh what our modern lives run on, from charging your phone to getting in your car and going to your groceries or trying to think, doing it through Google search online, right? So all of these things uh come together, and we need that energy infrastructure to support that. People, my friends and acquaintances, they didn't they don't always understand that. And people who oppose energy build-out don't appreciate both sides of the equation, so they live their lives and may not necessarily equate that back to what we do in the oil and gas industry.

4:24 Absolutely. No, I I completely agree. I I think lots of times when people think oil and gas, they don't think of you know being able to, you know, turn on their computer and search you know certain things or to flip a light switch and turn on electricity. Generally they don't think of the oil and gas business at all. And that's one of the things that I've seen over the last couple years in the in in the space is you know, everybody generally would say oil and gas, and that's changing day day by day, where I've seen people switch it to energy, right? So it's been good to kind of see that transition, of course, too. So you spent most of your career in pipeline integrity. For someone who has no idea what that means, what's actually at stake, what does that job feel like for you from the inside?

5:10 Yeah, it's it's a fascinating part of the oil gas industry. It really is the uh the glue that holds everything together. And I know we chatted a bit about this on the on the pre-podcast chat, but uh there's a combination of things. So I work with a ton of talented engineers that are responsible for making sure pipelines don't rupture or leak and they're safe to operate, and they're really never off the park. And it would surprise people the level of stress that accompanies that type of job, whether you're a pipeline integrity engineer or you're working in a gas controls environment, which is more like an air traffic control for pipelines, is a pretty dynamic uh set of group.

5:56 Yep, absolutely. What's the what's the single biggest challenge that the industry is facing right now? Why does that keep you up at night?

6:05 Yeah, I've I've heard this repeatedly over the last probably five to eight years of my career here, and that's the knowledge dream, and that's the one that worries me the most. We have this massively of uh uh boomers, if you will, their expertise is uh is already being retired or they're walking out the door sneering, and that generation behind me is a real thin slice of talent. So I'm trying to think that partly, you know, because the the younger talent chose more tech careers, or if they were interested in the energy industry, they chose more uh more renewable verticals than the oil and gas. So I feel today uh the biggest challenge is companies are scrambling to capture this institutional knowledge from people exiting the industry and trying to consolidate that in a format that can stay with them and train the new generation behind them.

7:05 Yeah, absolutely. And I I think too, we've seen it across the industry, right? Where the guy that's been in it for 30 years, that knowledge is just gone when that person's gone and all the things that they did that worked. And I think that's one thing that unfortunate on our side of the business, we don't do a good job of uh you know being able to capture that information before these folks exit out. I completely agree. There's so much tribal knowledge throughout our industry, is what I like to say. And when people retire or you know, transition on, there's a lot of you know information loss. So I I definitely, definitely completely agree with that. You've been pushing digital adoption into an industry that by your own admission is a bit of a laggard. What does it actually take to get a company that's been running um Google Earth and Excel to change their ways?

7:54 That's my challenge in the day-to-day for sure. It takes patience and proving the outcome to these operators. So whether they're you know a commodity that doesn't have a lot of uh budget all the way straight through to us, getting the art client, it takes communication and collaboration to make them recognize that they could do more with more modern daily innovative tool sets that can help reduce their uh decision time. So getting there is hard because they get entrenched in these uh traditional tools like Excel or Google Earth, and they're familiar with them, and you can't blame them for not wanting to give those up.

8:33 Yeah, no, absolutely. So, where do you where do you see AI fitting into all of this? And why do you think the timing is significant right now?

8:42 Yeah, the industry's accumulated for lack of an actual number, like mountains of data. You can imagine petabytes and petabytes of data throughout, even within it in one operator, right? A big one. And so now we're getting really great tools with machine learning. Um, and then we agentec AI is more uh common in conversations these days, and we finally have these tools, and we're using them. And one example is we're building predictive risk models with these tools that can leverage all of that data, ingest it, and predict risk. And that's I feel a huge value when you consider the costs of a rupture, being able to predict that rupture before it happens is is more valuable than the product flowing through the pipeline.

9:38 Absolutely, yeah. I I agree a hundred percent. And you've you've worked with some pretty remarkable people over your 25-year career. What stands out as a genuine career highlight, something you're proud of that you get to look back on from your history?

9:53 Yeah, it's the tough one. I I reflected on my original answer here, and it's uh it's hard to narrow down because I I worked with some incredible pipeline integrity engineers, like on the North American scale. These people are in charge of you know billion dollar assets, and I just admire it that their confidence and decision making in the capacity that they operate. So, you know, directors of integrity programs and managers of integrity programs. So let me see. I guess one of the prouder moments is seeing how these companies move from being the Ladheards to more uh leaning edge operators, and when they adopt solutions uh wholeheartedly, and that that becomes part of how they work. That's that's the win I'm seeing today.

10:47 Yeah, absolutely. So, what's your advice for students that are listening who are thinking about entering this industry right now?

10:55 Yeah, keep going, like grab your baseline degree. Uh the most critical thing I would say, or the big biggest recommendation I can make, is start networking in your first year. Like get into organizations that are part of the industry. Uh, the Young Pipeliners Association is a great one if you're an engineer. Um, there's also other ways into the young street, but getting that network going and keep building it and building it. That that that will do more for you and maybe faster and further than any credential that you can get through uh a university.

11:31 I completely agree. Anytime you can get involved as a student, right? Like it just sets you up for success for that next level. And and there's lots of folks in the industry, of course, that want to grow that and help and guide and lead. So I I definitely, definitely appreciate that. So if you had a magic wand and you could fix one thing about the industry tomorrow, what would it be?

11:53 Yeah, this maybe a bit of a controversial stance on this, but I think at a corporate level, I'd push companies to be better citizens. The less obsession with pure shareholder return and more investment in the people doing the work. Uh on the both on the regulatory and the political side. I want to see a commitment to building energy infrastructure responsibly so we're not having a crisis in 100 years. I think we're faced with uh a real pivot at this moment in history where energy demand is soaring, and we really need to reconsider how we approach energy from a how we've been doing at Trick Clark.

12:36 Absolutely. So I've got to ask, of course, uh, this is kind of off topic, of course, on the side of the business. So you've worked with some major oil and gas companies over your career, I'm sure. Yeah. So top three favorite oil and gas companies that you've interacted with that you know are just phenomenal and easy to work with.

12:58 Well, I'd I would start with my my little colleagues at uh Spectra Energy and Express Plat. Um that that liquid system, which was run within a natural gas, bigger natural gas system operator that was Spectra Energy. Some of the best people we worked with for sure. Um I guess looking looking out to today at the clients that I interfaced with some of my my favorites. I'm gonna leave people out here and I can feel uh pressure, but we're doing some incredible stuff with the folks at Trans Mountain Pipeline in uh Alberta, BC here. Also bring it down on to a utility scale. The folks over at a company called Fortis BC are doing some crazy innovative stuff with uh pipeline integrity union AI and then say to push it out on a bigger level. I'm interacting with the people at TC Energy. Again, they're diving into this AI uh wholeheartedly and doing some fantastic stuff behind the scenes, as well as uh touching back to that corporate citizen piece, really uh giving back to the industry by through RDP or educational means. And of course, who I'm with now, Rosen, Rosen does a lot of RD and uh really has a a culture that uh pushes uh I shouldn't say pushes, but gives back to the industry in terms of collaboration, education, and uh collab yeah, I already said collaboration, but that we're a really good uh mesh with the industry.

14:48 Yeah, absolutely. Well, you know, I think that's one of the things that I always like to ask people. You know, they always have uh, you know, three or four people that are three or four companies that they've worked with, whether it be they work for or just work with hand in hand on projects, and you know, it's always exciting to hear those. Of course, too, because at the end of the day, like you want to recognize those experiences, right? And you know, it's easy to say, oh, I missed two or three of my favorite customers, but you know, ultimately at the end of the day, the ones that come to mind first definitely lets you know that. Well, I think a lot of the stuff that you guys are working on your side of you know sounds very cool and very cutting edge. And when it comes to you know predicting failures, of course, on you know, pipelines and being able to predict any kind of failure for that matter using AI is amazing. I'm definitely a big you know failure analysis kind of person when it comes to machinery because that's what we deal with every day on the compression side. So we definitely try to utilize that by monitoring different things, whether it be vibration, you know, sound, uh, you know, just tons of different things that we try to measure. And anytime you can predict any kind of failure, right? It's just gonna save everybody money and headache. And you know, like I always tell everybody, if you can plan your work, it sure does go a lot better than you know repairing it, you know, when it does break.

16:07 So absolutely.

16:09 Yeah, it definitely makes life easier for everybody. Well, I definitely appreciate your time today, Anthony. One of the things that we like to do for all our guests on the podcast, just whenever you get a chance today, if you can just send me your mailing address, we ship out a goodie box. Uh, it's got some cool Midwest compressor swag. So everybody that comes on the show, we send out a box, and we definitely just appreciate your time and uh appreciate what you're doing for the industry and keep up the great work. And whenever we get this uploaded, we'll let you know. I definitely appreciate your time today. Thank you so much, Anthony.

16:38 Yeah, thank you, David. I appreciate you inviting me to be on.

16:41 Absolutely. Well, have a great rest of your week, buddy.

16:44 Yeah, you too. Cheers. All the best.

16:49 This has been another great episode of Under Pressure. Compressor Talk by Midwest Compressor with your host, David Abshire. Until next time, keep pumping.