Shane Mare, Asset Integrity Engineer at West Side Corporation in Brisbane, Australia, describes the transformative impact of AI and automation in the oil and gas industry, focusing on predictive maintenance, operational efficiency, and safety.
In this episode of Beyond Built, hosts Kristi Flores and Jason Kraus interview Shane Mare, an Asset Integrity Engineer at West Side Corporation in Brisbane, Australia. They explore the transformative impact of AI and automation in the oil and gas industry, focusing on predictive maintenance, operational efficiency, and safety.
Shane shares real-world insights on how AI is reducing unplanned downtime, optimizing maintenance programs, and helping engineers make sense of massive amounts of data. He also highlights the high stakes and accountability inherent in asset management.
WestSide Corporation Pty Ltd is a Brisbane-based gas producer with gas production, significant reserves and exploration interests in Queensland.
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“ The consequence of failure in our industry is much higher. This is the risk to human life, almost unfathomable environmental damage. There's a push on us to be the best to not cause failures. So we've got to lead the way. I think that's why oil and gas has sort of always been ahead of the curve in this type of thing.”
“ One thing that I'm praying for is some kind of automated platform where I can feed in all my failure data. you know, fault reports from operators and technicians that pick up a, a failure code from the, the text that they write, the story of how they found the machine, something failed. And, you know, I want it categorized into specific codes… I would love to see a platform that sort of does that automatically, where you can just upload all your data and it just gives you something back with very little in between.”
“ There's a book on my shelf here, Rules of Thumb for Reliability Engineers, and there's a great quote in there. It hit me like a bolt of lightning when I read it the first time as a young engineer. It says, "When it hits the fan, it behooves you to demonstrate a bias for action." Because as engineers, we are so inclined to get stuck in the details. We could discuss details till the cows come home, but ultimately a decision needs to be made. Young engineers are especially susceptible to it. 'Cause they are somewhat afraid of making decisions.”
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00:28 - In the news
06:47 - Shane’s take on the news
12:19 - Shane’s story
16:25 - The industry’s biggest challenges
21:24 - Why oil and gas is ahead of the curve
24:26 - Shane’s best advice
28:03 - Rapid fire
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More about Accruent
[00:00:02] Hello. Welcome to Beyond Built. I'm your host, Kristi Flores.
[00:00:06] Jason: And I'm Jason Kraus, global AMS architect with Accruent.
[00:00:09] Kristi: On today's episode, we are talking with Shane Mare, Asset Integrity Engineer at West Side Corporation all the way in Brisbane, Australia. Shane has so much experience in reliability and asset management. We are so excited to have him on the show today.
[00:00:25] Shane: Thanks for having me on today.
[00:00:27] Kristi: Absolutely. Well, before we dig into questions, Shane, we've got our segment called In the News.
[00:00:34] Today's headline is one that's catching a lot of attention across many industries, but including in oil and gas, and that is ai. In the article that Jason and I have been reading is a report that shows AI market in this space is projected to grow from 7.6 billion today to over 25 billion by 2034. Honestly, that number just blew me away. It's such a big leap and it kind of is showing that AI isn't just an experiment or pilot project, but it's really changing how work gets done.
[00:01:11] What this article kind of touched on is just some real world applications, which when you get some of those big numbers, I think it's always important to kind of say. But let's get down to the facts. How is this really changing the game in oil and gas? And the first one is predictive maintenance.
[00:01:27] Jason: Yeah, predictive maintenance is, is gonna be a game changer once it's actually fully operational and really out there, uh, because so many things in so many industries are, you know, touched based on service hours or just time on the clock, or a fairly routine schedule. But using ai, using this machine machine learning and all, you know, merging all these different data points you're gonna get situations where you can go out and service a piece of equipment or change out a piece of equipment right at the last moment before failure is more imminent. It's the maintenance equivalent of "just in time inventory" that's coming in this space. Where the assets arrive right at the last moment before they need to go into service with that, just in time inventory management.
[00:02:08] This is the type of thing that's coming with predictive maintenance. And that sort of element and the AI that's behind all of this, that's merging all these data points, that's gonna be really amazing to see in, in the industry in so many different facets. Um, definitely something to geek out over.
[00:02:23] Kristi: I know. And then you think about the predictive piece, and then also operational automation and just taking off some of these repetitive tasks, manual tasks off of people's plates. And I, I know when we get into the facility management and just overall kind of running the business for oil and gas.
[00:02:39] You know, I think about how much time teams spend, Jason, just on the routine checks over and over, and how can we leverage AI so humans like SHA can really work on higher value work. Uh, it just seems like a win for everybody.
[00:02:54] Jason: Yeah, it absolutely is. And, and the other thing to consider is every time you have someone dispatch into the field for a task that they maybe don't need to do, because the equipment hasn't reached that operational threshold or that reliability threshold yet, you're exposing both them and your process to safety risks, to outage risks and things like that.
[00:03:12] The, the most dangerous time in a refinery, a chemical plant, and other things like that, this startup and shut down of a piece of equipment. You know, that's, that's when most of the variables are, you know, potentially not quite as controlled as they are when they're in a constant process stream. It's an amazing thing to think about those different pieces.
[00:03:30] And then you add in other things like natural language searching, natural language engagement, where you know, now you have an operator that can speak into a tablet or a laptop and say, tell me how this piece of equipment is operating. And, and you get qualitative results off of quantitative numbers where someone says, Hey, you know, the machine says it's at about a, a green trending yellow state.
[00:03:53] You might want to go look at it. You know, that's the type of thing that's coming as well, where we start to maybe give some personality a little bit through this ai, so to speak, to, uh, the equipment and the data that's coming out of them a little bit. It's an exciting time.
[00:04:06] Kristi: Yeah. And when you say the word dangerous, I, I absolutely agree. I think this is a kind of industry where safety is so important. It's critical, you know, it's people's lives on the line. So how we can use some of the technology, whether it's, you know, for increase, and really make sure that it's safer than ever.
[00:04:24] Um, or even think about things like, you know, the sustainability, exploration and production optimization. You know, I know that there's components of, you know, seismic and sensor data so we can get more efficient. Um, so there's just so many facets. Um, you know, safety I think is probably one of the most paramount.
[00:04:41] And then of course, the optimization and, you know, utilization of people's time is super critical.
[00:04:47] Jason: Absolutely.
[00:04:49] Kristi: Um, one of the numbers, Jason, that was in the report, and I'm sure this stood out to you too, but I just thought this number really made it real, is ad knock, the Abu Dhabi National Oil Company, they were reporting $500 million in value last year just from deploying AI.
[00:05:08] And when I read that I was like, that's actual impact. It's not just theory. What did you think about that?
[00:05:14] Jason: That's a tremendous amount of impact to, you know, because of, you know, better refining processes, better improvements, better reliability, uh, lowering that input of hours. All of those things are, uh, chunks of that 500 million. Optimizing the feed streams that are coming in to make the best product or the most marketable, or the, the highest value product out of the feed streams that come into a refinery.
[00:05:39] So many times we, we don't always think about the fact that, you know, the product that comes out and goes to us as gasoline and other refined products comes in as this myriad of different products as well into these supplies. Some of them. Ranging everything from something that looks like asphalt to something that resembles closer to a, uh, you know, a mountain dew soda or something like that in colors of the materials that may come out of different feedstocks.
[00:06:03] It's, it's a rainbow. It's, it's, and, and when it comes out of that, it's homogenous, it's predictable and routine. But that means that these chemists, these engineers have to go through so many different permutations to get to that different product set and product slate based on those inputs. And AI is helping make those better and best decisions given those inputs. It's, it's gonna be, it. I, I don't doubt that number at all. Uh, and in fact, I think that there's other places that are probably doing better than that, that maybe aren't advertising it. It's amazing.
[00:06:35] Kristi: amazing. Well, Shane, I know know, you may not be familiar with Mountain Dew, but I know you're familiar with the topic at hand here. But, uh, when we talk about this article and some of the impacts, um, and even some of the numbers, what, what kind of stands out to you?
[00:06:49] Shane: It's interesting, but it's kind of unsurprising to see that investment in AI in the oil and gas industry will grow over the coming decade and significantly, I think we've all seen it in our day-to-day lives. I don't, can't think of a a day that's passed in the last 12 months where we don't utilize AI in some capacity in our day-to-day roles. One of the interesting numbers was the one reported by Chevron, a 25% reduction in unplanned downtime. I can't think of any operator who isn't licking their lips at that prospect. It's really exciting to see what AI can do for us and what Jason was talking about around predictive maintenance. We've been talking about predictive maintenance for as long as I've been in the industry, but it's something that is so hard to do.
[00:07:35] Well, we collect. And almost unimaginable amount of data on a daily basis. And it's difficult to make sense of it all. To modify your maintenance program in response to that data, uh, to disconnect the or to connect these disparate pieces of information into something meaningful and modify your maintenance program and have good results. Like a 25% reduction in unplanned downtime is amazing. And it's hard to do. Um, so it's exciting to see what AI can do for us.
[00:08:09] Kristi: All right, well let's kick off with the interview. We've got a lot more questions in store, Shane and we're so glad you're here.
[00:08:15] Jason: I see, you know, your background in FMA, EA, and, and reliability centered maintenance and things like that. I, you know, I geek out on some of that sort of stuff a little bit here. And, um, one of the key, the, the failure modes that I remember back in my background that just was so unique to me to hear about was, um. Looking at the damage that something as simple as an impeller, uh, that's cavitating does to that impeller where you get those bubbles that create implosions on the backside of it and eventually bubbles wear down steel. Uh, and to me that was one of the most unexpected or unique sort of failure modes that I experienced working through discussing with the people that had the real knowledge like yourself.
[00:08:58] Um, I'm wondering, what's that most unique one that you've dealt with, that you work with, that you've helped plan around, or that just surprised you when you walked through what the resolution was to something like that?
[00:09:11] Shane: I've got a couple, um. The story about cavitation just reminded me of one. It's not cavitation related. It's something completely different. Um, but it's interestingly unique like that. Uh, in my role, I look after all the static equipment, uh, and all these separators, pressure vessels, pipelines, um, we get a lot of, sort of dirty water coming up from the coal seam, which is contaminated or can be contaminated with microbes, which are extremely aggressive to steel. You, they form a biofilm on the steel and you can see corrosion rates greater than one millimeter per year, sometimes three to five millimeters per year.
[00:09:49] Um, so that's an interesting problem to deal with. And it's a difficult problem to deal with because there's many different strains of bacteria. They all respond differently to different, uh, biocides and inhibitors. So it's a, yeah, a real challenge.
[00:10:03] Jason: That would be really unique as well, because now you have to, you have different ways that you have to control those and what effect is that gonna have potentially on that corrosion rate as well, or on downstream processing capabilities and equipment that Yeah, you, I guess you don't really think about biological involvement in failure modes in a process management outside of maybe something like brewing where you've got yeast that you're working to control, but yeast is such so much more fragile than some of these other things that you're dealing with.
[00:10:34] It seems like.
[00:10:34] Shane: Hmm. We also see it, um. Not in the assets that I deal with, but in the area, in the OR regionally with other operators in the soil. The, the soil contains these steel eating microbes. So you think, you know, bearing your pipeline keeps it safe from corrosion. It's not necessarily the case.
[00:10:53] Jason: That's, that's a unique failure mode. Yeah. I could see how that would be interesting. Yeah.
[00:10:58] Kristi: Yeah,
[00:10:59] Shane: Definitely a challenge.
[00:11:00] Kristi: I
[00:11:00] Shane: As I'm sure you know, a lot of upstream oil and gas assets are in regional agricultural areas. Dealing with wildlife is pretty common problem, so it's not uncommon to see an above ground, you know, HDP gathering line fail 'cause a, a cow has stepped on it and split the line, a cow has chewed through an electrical conduit. These are daily occurrences in our industry. that you don't think about at the FMEA level, for sure.
[00:11:32] Jason: Yeah. How, how, what's the, what's the failure mode of, of, of, you know, of that? Do you list it out as livestock or is it biological? Is it's damage. Yeah. Environmental. Yeah. It's, uh, that, yeah. Classifying those in your, in your classification tree is that, that's gotta be some unique note taking. So.
[00:11:53] Shane: There was a good video, maybe you saw it a couple years ago. It was a mainline valve station on some big diameter pipeline. That had a large diameter valve with a big hand wheel that was slowly being turned by a sloth. So it's not often you could report, you know, a process offset or pipeline shut in 'cause an animal has turned the valves.
[00:12:15] Jason: a sloth opened it at two millimeters per hour and it finally released.
[00:12:21] Kristi: Well, Shane, taking a step back, what I'd love to hear is kind of how you got into your career. I do know that you are a third generation oil and gas, which I think is pretty special part of, um, you know, what you bring to the industry. But how did you get into, how did you get into it? And
[00:12:40] Shane: Yeah, I guess I was quite lucky. Um, so my granddad was
[00:12:44] I guess one of the early drillers and explorers in Queensland, uh, many decades ago. Drilling pilot wells, producing, refining. Um, then my, you know, my father after him and now it's my turn to play, my small role in the industry, uh, which I do with West Side as a pipeline and integrity engineer.
[00:13:04] Um, but at university I really had no intention of going into oil and gas. I really didn't know what I wanted to do with my degree. I was just fortunate that I got a role with a consultancy, uh, in the asset management team whose clients were mostly oil and gas operators. And I don't know, I think I just took to it naturally and I think it's pretty interesting.
[00:13:27] Um, and one of the things that kind of keeps me in the industry is the high stakes. Engineering in oil and gas, there's, there's real consequences to mistakes. Big process upsets, expensive equipment damage, environmental damage. You know, bad decisions can lead to people being injured or killed.
[00:13:47] Uh, so these high stakes kind of keep it interesting and sort of force you to have a degree of ownership and responsibility over your work, which kind of pushes you to be the, the best engineer you can be.
[00:14:00] Kristi: I love that you've got a huge amount of accountability and purpose on that day to day. And, um, you know, we heard a little bit of kind of what keeps you up at night with, you know, some of the failures and some other things, but maybe just bring a day of, um, a day in the life for Shane, kind of bring that to life for us.
[00:14:19] What does that look like?
[00:14:20] Shane: Well, I look after all the static equipment, uh, so pipelines, pressure vessels, this type of thing, generally speaking, that type of equipment doesn't give you a signal when it's about to fail and when it fails, it can be quite catastrophic. But while it won't necessarily give you a signal, it will give you signs. And the way we look for these signs is through an inspection program.
[00:14:44]
[00:14:44] Shane: Uh, so I wouldn't say that there's really a typical day for me, but I do dedicate a lot of my time to managing that inspection program. So that involves planning inspections, reading inspection reports, assessing defects, developing repair plans, things like that.
[00:15:00] No, that's, and I've, I've spent a bit of time around that, but that's super cool. Around all of those different fix equipment inspection pieces, are you, are you doing a lot of like, you know, inspection, non non-destructive in inspections.
[00:15:14] Absolutely.
[00:15:15] Jason: Monitoring under insulation?
[00:15:17] Shane: Yep, absolutely. The inspection program has gotta be tailored, um, to give you confidence that this piece of equipment that you're looking at is going to be safe for continued operation up to that next inspection. So, yeah, the inspection has to be, has to give you that confidence so you have to decide.
[00:15:38] You know what to inspect, when to inspect, how to inspect it. So, which non-destructive testing method will give you the greatest confidence, uh, whether you do it internally or externally. obviously internally can have production impacts. You may have to bring the equipment offline to do that. Um, so there's all these questions you have to answer as part of that program.
[00:15:57] Jason: The info and the data that comes off of that is, is incredibly valuable. And, and as you said, can be very, very hard to get. You can imagine a, you know, a refinery somewhere up, uh, you know, a colder area that has insulation this thick around a pipe, and you've got a pipe that thick and you need to figure out and measure very precisely that thickness, um, with each of those processes that's going on.
[00:16:20] You're seeing challenges as you have experience as well in, in the UK and, and Australia and those sorts of areas. What are the biggest challenges that you're seeing across the industry as you're navigating between these hemispheric differences, uh, in the world that may be in common there that are also common over here that maybe we're not paying attention to?
[00:16:41] Shane: I think there's two main issues that I think are kind of universal in the industry right now. The first is around aging plants. You know, many of us are operating facilities that have reached or are exceeding their design life. If you think about it in terms of, or classic reliability engineering terms, you know, we're now in that sort of last third of the bathtub curve where we see the, the failure rates increasing.
[00:17:09] Um, and this is also an important point for sort of reliability engineering broadly, is that there's no perfect maintenance program that is. Perfect for all times. These programs evolve with the asset. So there's kind of a shift now, I think, industry wide on how we can extend the life of our assets and rejuvenate them to the point, uh, where we can guarantee steady state operations, uh, which is also to say, keep the equipment reliable.
[00:17:38] And then the second point that I would think is quite universal right now is the issue of plant size. These facilities that we work at, they're designed and built with a specific range or flow rate in mind. You know, X number of barrels per day, which we no longer see, peak oil was a long time ago. Um, so there's a focus now on how we can keep these facilities fit for purpose, given that we're not seeing the flow rates through them anymore.
[00:18:09] So that could be you know, facility reconfiguration. Limited decommissioning or just construction of new facilities that are appropriately sized. So yeah, these two things. Aging assets and assets that are just too big.
[00:18:25] Jason: Do you think that we'll hit a point where the economies of it will be such that we can build a new, properly modern, fully modern, brand new facility? Because we haven't built a refinery in the US since 1972, I think.
[00:18:40] Shane: I think, yeah, I think it's possible. I think the equipment now is, is better than it was 20 years ago. Processes are practically all automated. You don't need a massive facility. Like we can build a facility with a much smaller footprint that can do the same as, you know, a refinery built, you know, 40 years ago.
[00:19:02] Um. So I think it, it's, it still is possible. Um, and I, and we are seeing it here in Australia and again abroad in the uk.
[00:19:10] Jason: That's interesting. That's very cool. And as you mentioned, automation, yeah. Automation's been crucial for the oil and gas industry ever since the, in introduction of safety and instrumented systems. But it's just gotten better and better and we've got more data, as you said, the poll that we've ever had.
[00:19:26] Like we started with, you add in that layer of ai. Um, and that's, it's still just such an interesting area.
[00:19:34] Kristi: Speaking of AI and the article that we reviewed, how have, like what's some of the biggest change that you've actually experienced since you started, whether it's, you know, digital transformation or ai, how has it kind of shaped how you work specifically?
[00:19:53] Shane: Well, I think oil and gas has sort of been ahead of the curve in terms of automation for a long time. Uh, especially in sort of the process automation side of things. It's not uncommon now to see a facility that is totally unmanned. All things are controlled by the PLC, governed by the operators in the control room.
[00:20:13] Um, but also sort of on the engineering side, there's been sort of a big push to automate business processes.
[00:20:21] Kristi: Um,
[00:20:23] Shane: So one of the big aspects that I deal with or spend a lot of my time dealing with is kPI reporting. We're, we're collecting data from so many hundreds of sources, thousands or really millions of data points.
[00:20:38] Uh, how do we connect all that data, make sense of it to actually drive good engineering decisions? Uh. So automation or AI has been a big part of that as well. Um, 'cause again, it's just so good at doing the non-human thing of dis of connecting these disconnected pieces of information. It's hard for us to glean meaningful insights from data in spreadsheets and databases, but you can connect these things together through an AI and it will.
[00:21:12] Start drawing these relationships for you and pick up the things that you didn't see in the spreadsheet or in the database. Uh, so that's been a big part of my role and I think it's something that I'm seeing across. You know, every operator is looking at this.
[00:21:26] Kristi: Why do you think oil and gas has been kind of always ahead of the curve here on adoption of digital transformation and even ai? 'cause some of the things that you're talking about I think are really are leading with a lot of industries.
[00:21:41] Shane: I just think the consequence of failure in our industry is much higher. This is the risk to human life, almost unfathomable, unfathomable environmental damage. There's a push on us to be the best to not cause failures. So we've got to lead the way. I think that's why oil and gas has sort of always been ahead of the curve in this type of thing.
[00:22:03] Kristi: And when, when you think about some of the challenges that you still have on a day to day, how do you see, and that hasn't been impacted quite yet, what's the next thing that you're like, I really, I can't wait for AI and technology to help transform this part of what I'm doing.
[00:22:20] Shane: One thing that I'm, I'm praying for is some kind of automated platform where I can feed in all my failure data. you know, fault reports from operators and technicians that pick up a, a failure code from the, the text that they write, the story of how they found the machine, something failed. And, you know, I want it categorized into specific codes.
[00:22:43] Something we worked on some time ago, just sort of as a desktop exercise using natural language processing to pick up that fault text and categorize it into a specific code. Over time that builds up and you can learn, okay, well this particular machine is experiencing seal failures. Replacing the seals is not in my maintenance program.
[00:23:03] I can now adjust it and improve uptime because of that, but it's still a really challenging thing. So I would love to see a platform that sort of, that does that automatically, where you can just upload all your data and it just gives you something back with very little in between.
[00:23:22] Kristi: I love that idea. Are you taking notes, Jason? I feel like this is, uh,
[00:23:28] Jason: Don't you worry. Yeah, no. This is, this is something big across the industry and not just oil and gas. Um, I am, I've been speaking with a lot of utility companies. They have the same desire out there, um, around understanding the failures, the issues that, uh, the people on the, on the ground see, getting it up to those that are making those decisions around maintenance, around programs and things like, that's a wonderful thing that so many of our tools out there that, that are in the market are doing is helping bring all of that data, you know, from the people that have got that first glance at it and bring it up and start to formulate changes, um, into processes. It's, it's an echoing back of, uh, you know, an event that happened early in my career where we were talking about maintenance programs, progress changes, and one of the leaders said, that's great.
[00:24:15] The equipment doesn't know we're talking about it until we change something and how we're doing our work. And so that's been a saying that I've, I've always kind of stuck in my head, "The equipment doesn't know we're talking about it." Um, and I was wondering, Shane, with all the different personalities that you're interacting with, and of course multi-generational, you know, oil and gas individuals, do you have a moment or a saying maybe that's kind of resonated with you a little bit that you've, uh, that you hear, you know, ringing as a bell every so often in your interactions and in your days?
[00:24:44] Shane: If I do have one, I do have one that comes to mind that's quite adjacent to what you said. There's a book on my shelf here, rules of Thumb for Reliability Engineers, and there's a great quote in there sort of, it hit me like a bolt of lightning when I read it the first time. As a young engineer. Uh, it says when, "when it hits the fan, it behooves you to demonstrate a bias for action."
[00:25:07] Because as engineers, we are so inclined to get stuck in the details. We could discuss details till the cows come home, but ultimately a decision needs to be made. Um. Young engineers are especially susceptible to it. Uh, 'cause they are somewhat afraid of making decisions.
[00:25:26] But yes, it absolutely behooves us to demonstrate a bias for action when the production isn't running anymore.
[00:25:31] Kristi: anymore.
[00:25:33] Jason: Absolutely. Yeah. That's that analysis paralysis, right?
[00:25:36] Shane: right. Exactly.
[00:25:38] Kristi: I can imagine the real impact of downtime, right? So bring that to life for us. Like what does that mean when the, facilities, the operations are down, what does that mean to the company?
[00:25:49] Shane: A company sort of frames things in terms of, let's say, you know, you're producing X number of barrels per day, or in my case, or our case, terra joules of gas per day. You think of it in terms of lost energy output, fewer barrels, fewer terra joules, uh, and so, and you're, you're sort of racking up the cost in your mind as the hours go.
[00:26:14] X number of thousands of dollars are being lost. At the same time though, you can't rush into a decision. That's also how mistakes are made. You got to slow down, calm down, and trust the process and sort of work through it in a methodical way, and don't let one mistake lead to another. Uh, but yeah, that sort of ticking clock of money running up or out as you, as the production is down never really goes away.
[00:26:42] Kristi: Such a fine balance of this world that you live in between keeping everyone safe to keeping production and things moving. But it's a, uh, delicate balance in, in life that you lead in your role.
[00:26:57] Shane: There's also the other aspect of it too, the sort of customer supply side of it. You know, the gas oil and or oil and gas industry broadly operates mostly just in time. There isn't a great deal of reserve there. Our customers downstream expect gas, and if we can't produce it, then that's also an issue. So that's that, that also plays on your mind.
[00:27:18] Kristi: Yeah. If you've run out, you can see the real impact of it. I guess another dimension to add to, uh, the, the importance of, of your role.
[00:27:28] Shane: Absolutely. And you would've seen, you know, from your time in Bundaberg and Gladstone in the area that these industries rely on gas without it production stops. You know, the Illumina plants in Gladstone don't go the, the boilers in the cane plants don't run. Gases essential to so many things downstream. So yeah, it's important.
[00:27:52] Jason: Shane, to just, uh, just appreciate all the, the perspective that you've given. It's wonderful info. I love the perspective.
[00:27:59] Kristi: know we could spend a lot of time with Shane. Um, alright, Shane, this is another, another portion, but it's fun. So what's your favorite innovation and why?
[00:28:09] Shane: Can I say Chat GpT?
[00:28:12] Kristi: Sure. Absolutely. We expect nothing less. Some type of AI tool, I guess, right, Shane?
[00:28:21] Shane: Yeah, absolutely. There's, it's. It's kind of this black mirror that you can ask all your questions to. There've been so many times, you know, throughout my career where you know something, you're facing a problem and you don't know the answer, and you think to yourself, I just need someone more experienced than me around that can, that I can ask.
[00:28:41] And, and the AI kind of is that, you know, it, it can yeah, give you these, these or really guide you in the direction that you should go or give you some solutions. Uh, so it's great to have. As a sounding board, even just for ideas.
[00:28:55] Kristi: I
[00:28:56] Shane: in lieu of like, you know, a senior engineer.
[00:28:58] Kristi: I agree. I use it as a thought partner as well. All right. One innovation you wish would go away.
[00:29:07] Shane: I don't know if you're gonna like my answer, but LinkedIn. LinkedIn's gotta go.
[00:29:12] Kristi: Really.
[00:29:13] Shane: Really? Yeah. I don't like the social media aspect of work.
[00:29:17] Kristi: Well I'll reach out via email, not on LinkedIn after, after this.
[00:29:21] Jason: We'll go direct.
[00:29:24] Kristi: And what's the number one thing organizations should be doing that they're not?
[00:29:30] Shane: Oh, that's kind of a tough question. I think in some way you've got to follow the crowd and go the way that others go. That's sort of evolutionary thinking, but you won't leapfrog your com competition that way. Sounds an ordinary answer to say, think outside the box and take risks, which again, is sort of adverse thinking to an oil and gas operator.
[00:29:56] Who well is, is risk adv, risk averse. Um, so yeah, just think outside the box. Take risks. Leapfrog your enemies.
[00:30:07] Kristi: Great advice. And last one is, what's one thing we wouldn't know about you, um, by just looking at your resume or maybe LinkedIn. What's, what's something we didn't learn today?
[00:30:19] Shane: There's something that I keep off my LinkedIn and out of my resume. It's a long time ago before I was an engineer, uh, before I was even at university. I used to, I used to work at a prison.
[00:30:31] Which was quite a bit different.
[00:30:34] Kristi: I can imagine. That sounds like another podcast,
[00:30:37] Shane: Yeah.
[00:30:37] Yeah. Another
[00:30:38] Kristi: long did you work there?
[00:30:39] Shane: Not long. I actually, I worked for a film production company and we were shooting at the prison.
[00:30:45] Kristi: I was gonna say you liked, you like, um, work and industries kind of right on the edge a little bit. Yeah. Safety. I love it. Well, well thank you so much. Such an insightful conversation, um, and truly inspiring Shane, the work that you're doing, um, just your dedication to your craft and, I always have a, an appreciation for, you know, industries like oil and gas, where you have to balance safety of people's lives and the environment, and also production and customers. But, you brought it to a new level of appreciation of what you're doing, um, and what you go through every day just to, to make all that work. So I, I'm deeply grateful. Jason, what are your thoughts?
[00:31:31] Jason: Oh, absolutely. And the same sort of thing. And it, you know, Shane, uh, I, I gar, I'm, I'm so glad that we have people like yourself that are part of the chemicals, oil, and gas industry. We have, you know, great professionals all over the globe that are just, like you said, Kristi, they're focused on operating predictably, safely, reliably, and in a way that ensures that, that our economies run.
[00:31:54] That our, uh, our globe is operating at the, at the safest level possible for the environment and for all those people involved. It's hard work, and I'm glad that we've got someone like Shane here helping us reduce failures across the globe.
[00:32:06] Kristi: Shane, next time we're in Brisbane, we'll definitely reach out. We'd love to spend some time with you in person, and to all of our listeners and viewers for joining us on Beyond Built. Until next time.