THE IPLOCA NEWSLETTER THE IPLOCA NEWSLETTER OUR NEW EXECUTIVE SECRETARY AND OUR NEW CONSULTANT TO...

THE IPLOCA NEWSLETTER22

NUMBER

- MESSAGE FROM THE PRESIDENT page 2

GENEVA - IPLOCA'S NEW HOMEread more on page 3

- COMMITTEE REPORTS page 5

- VANCOUVER CONVENTION page 8

- MEETINGS page 15

- KEEPING WARM IN LITHUANIA page 17

CONTENTS:

WITH NEWS FROM: THE INDUSTRY, MEMBERSHIP, ALLIED & SISTER ASSOCIATIONS

FEBRUARY 2005 - WINTER EDITION

2 THE IPLOCA NEWSLETTER

PRESIDENT’S MESSAGEFEBRUARY 2005

I am sure that I speak for the Board and our entire mem-bership when I say we have all been horrified at the scaleof destruction, loss of life, injury and devastation caused bythe Tsunami disaster. IPLOCA will be making a contributionon your behalf, through the Red Cross in Geneva, to theappeal to help those in the countries involved.

As many of you have already seen from the letter I sent outin December and the notice on our website, the Board hasvoted to move the IPLOCA headquarters to Geneva,Switzerland. This was not an easy or inexpensive decision(with most of the research being done by attorneys), but wefeel it is the right decision for the future of IPLOCA. IPLOCAhas enjoyed an excellent relationship with the University ofGent and particularly with Rudi Denys over many years andboth parties are committed to keeping the relationshipstrong after the move, in our mutual interests. Again it wasa difficult decision that was forced upon us by the lawchanges in the European Community with respect to non-profit associations like ours that left us no choice. We willhave the final By-Law changes ready for approval at theAGM in Vancouver.

On a brighter note I would like to welcome Luc Henriod whoaccepted the position as our new Executive Secretary tak-ing the place of John Phillips on January 1st and RobertoPirani our new Consultant to the Board also effectiveJanuary 1st 2005. Both received unanimous approval fromthe Board of Directors in Geneva. There will be more detailabout this change in the body of the newsletter, but from mypersonal experience, both are dedicated, very good at theirwork and excellent team players and so we are thankful tohave on them on our team. Luc will be headquartered inGeneva and Roberto will stay in London where he hasaccess to our major clients and client associations.

The Vancouver convention is coming right along and in aneffort to keep our convention second to none we are goingto try a few new things this year that we think everyone willenjoy. One of the changes will be the Final Banquet wherewe hope to make it an evening that will be hard to forget. Asthe convention gets closer this and other changes will bedetailed in the Newsletters or in the ConventionRegistration Package.

I was particularly impressed in Geneva by the work of theCommittees and delighted that we are up to speed withregard to our 3 Year Strategic Business Plan. I look forward

to reviewing further advancement of this plan at our nextBoard Meeting in San Francisco.

I would like to thank the entire Board of Directors of IPLO-CA who came to Geneva prepared to tackle some chal-lenging issues and make some difficult decisions. Therewere three days of what seemed like non-stop meetingswith lots of ideas and theories being exchanged and afteran all day Board meeting on Friday, I could only marvel atthe intelligence and professionalism of our BoardMembers and what they bring to this Association.Gentlemen thank you again.

Finally in closing I would like to play tribute to the wives ofthe Board Members for the support they provide and thepart they play; indeed I take my hat off to all our wives inthis business as being married to a pipeliner is not alwayseasy especially for those of us away a great many weeks ofthe year.

I wish you all the best of good fortune, health and prosper-ity in the year ahead.

SCOTT SUMMERSPresident

3NUMBER 22 WINTER EDITION 2005

THE 2004-2005 BOARD OF IPLOCA

HARALD DRESPIn addition to what was published in the November Newsletterwe provide here more details about Harald Dresp.

Harald Dresp started his career as commercial Project Manageron international power plant projects with Deutsche BabcockAG. Later he was in charge with of environmental protectionprojects. In 1990 he joined Mannesmann Anlagenbau AG wherehe was responsible for the international pipeline projects.Since 2000 he continued his activities in the pipeline business asManaging Director of Suedrohrbau International GmbH andNacap GmbH both member of the Dutch KOOP Group.

GENEVA - SWITZERLANDIPLOCA’S NEW HOME

Luc has found an excellent new home for IPLOCA in Geneva,just 11 minutes walk from the airport and close to hotels. It is amodern suite of offices on the third floor of a superb buildingwith twice the space we currently have in Gent. They are lightairy offices to which we shall be proud to invite visitors.

We will have our own separate meeting room which will allowpeople to come into Geneva in the morning for a meeting andleave in the afternoon or if the meeting spans more than oneday there are excellent hotels close at hand.

President Scott Summers and the Executive Committee havedecreed that the office should be properly furnished andequipped in a modern manner. It will have the latest computerserver set up with at least 3 stations and outside access. Therewill be provision at a later date for video conferencing whichwill be particularly important for the World Federation and forcertain of our committees. We expect to be able to recover thecosts of the move to Geneva within 18 months and freeze mem-bership fees until at least 2009.

Starting the 1st of April, the new address of IPLOCA will be:

Chemin de Blandonnet 2P.O. Box 6491214 Vernier/GenevaCH - SwitzerlandTelephone +41 22 306 02 30Fax +41 22 306 02 39E-mail [email protected]

We take this opportunity to ask all our Members and AssociateMembers to send their annual fees to the following bankaccounts in Geneva which are already operational:

Swiss francs0251-152323-11-1IBAN: CH13 0425 1015 2323 1100 1

Euro0251-152323-12IBAN: CH06 0425 1015 2323 1200 0

USD0251-152323-12-1IBAN: CH76 0425 1015 2323 1200 1

GBP0251-152323-12-2IBAN: CH49 0425 1015 2323 1200 2

For all accounts you must indicate the following:Clearing 4251 Swift CRESCHZZ12A CREDIT SUISSECase postale 500, 1211 Geneva 70

THE TSUNAMI

One wonders just how many of us knew this word before theday after Christmas last year. By now there can hardly be a per-son who has access to the media in some shape or form whohas not. For over four weeks now, as we write, the televisionscreens have daily portrayed devastation we have rarely seenbefore and the worldwide press have more than equalled it intheir reports.

As soon as the full extent of the disaster was known PresidentScott Summers immediately e-mailed Vimal Kaushik theDirector of the Far East Geographical Area and also thePresident of the Indonesian Pipeline Industry Associationexpressing the heartfelt sympathy of the Board and the entiremembership of IPLOCA in the situation they were facing.

In the past weeks billions of dollars have been raised by gov-ernments and by people to help those who have been madehomeless but more is needed and it is going to take a great dealof money to rebuild the livelihoods of those in the strickenregions. On the instructions of the President, IPLOCA has madea contribution to the Geneva Red Cross on behalf of the mem-bership, just a drop in the ocean but given with a great deal ofcompassion and sympathy.


OUR NEW EXECUTIVE SECRETARY AND OURNEW CONSULTANT TO THE BOARD

Having made the decision to move the IPLOCA office to Genevathe Executive Committee asked Luc Henriod whether he wouldbe prepared to change from being Consultant to the Board tothat of Executive Secretary. As he resides in Geneva, speaksthe language and has all the contacts Luc was the obviouschoice but needed a little persuasion. Luc readily saw the wis-dom of the request and agreed to it for as long as it took forIPLOCA to really get well settled in Geneva whether it be two orthree years. He would then want to look at it again in order tohave some quality time to do some of the things and go to someof the places with Michèle he was unable to, during his workinglife and generally enjoy life without the pressures of work.

By the same token Roberto agreed to give up his quest to beExecutive Secretary for the time being and in the interim takethe post of Consultant to the Board. This works out well as histechnical expertise in the pipeline engineering and constructionbusiness measures up very well to what is expected from theConsultant to the Board by virtue of overseeing the variouscommittees, dealing with BP and others, expediting the WeldDefects Acceptance Criteria, editing the Newsletter and coor-dinating the work of the World Federation. His experience asformer Chairman of the Pipeline Industries Guild and formerMember of the IPLOCA Board will be invaluable.

Luc’s responsibilities will mainly include management of theGeneva office, all legal aspects, liaising with Members andAssociate Members, and organising Conventions and BoardMeetings, with Roberto taking care of Promotion, including theNewsletter and the Yearbook, Research and Development, incollaboration with major Oil Companies, and, very dear to hisheart, SAFETY!

Luc and Roberto get on very well together and talk the samelanguage so we are certain they will make a great team, ablysupported, as ever in the interim, by John and Michèle.

IPLOCA is going to really going to take off in Geneva.

DECEMBER BOARD MEETINGGENEVA - SWITZERLAND

It was appropriate that the Board Meeting be held in Geneva asit was at this December Board Meeting that on the advice ofthe Executive Committee acting on information from the LegalCommittee and advice from lawyers, the Board unanimouslyagreed to establish the IPLOCA’s administrative office inGeneva as from 2005.

One other important decision that was made in Geneva was toappoint Luc Henriod as the new Executive Secretary andRoberto Pirani as the new Consultant to the Board, bothappointments to take effect from January 1st, 2005.

A picturesque city at one end of Lake Geneva with the Alps asa backdrop Geneva is a delightful place. One is able to be down-town within 15 minutes of landing at an airport that has two ter-minals one in Switzerland and one in France. Unfortunately,although it did not rain during the week, it was overcast so wewere denied the usual impressive view or a sight of Mont Blanc.On the plus side we did get to see Geneva’s famous fountain.

More on Geneva later in the Newsletter, but what of the BoardMeeting. The Executive Committee met on Tuesday and the var-ious Committees on Wednesday. A considerable amount ofwork was accomplished details of which are elaborated uponelsewhere in this Newsletter. One of the reasons for choosingSwitzerland for this Board Meeting was to evaluate bothGeneva and Montreux as possible future Convention venuesand during the visit both locations were closely scrutinised withthis in mind. It will be recalled that we had a very successfulConvention in Montreux in 1971, our 5th, when Faiz Boustanywas elected President. Unfortunately Faiz was killed in an air-craft accident before completing his Presidential year, andFilippo Carina then took over the Presidency.

Luc and Michèle (not to be confused with our MichèleBruynseels who, on the advice of her Doctor, was unable tocome to the Board Meeting) had arranged a very interestingprogramme and some very delightful places to have dinner.

Luc had invited to the various dinners a number of guestsincluding, Paolo Fellin Vice President of Caterpillar, MarcoJannuzzi Caterpillar Pipeline Manager, Cyril Ritchie President ofF.I.I.G., Wim Westerhuis Director General of the RoadFederation all of whom in one way or another had been veryhelpful in providing IPLOCA with information concerning theprospective move to Geneva and help with locating suitableoffice accommodation.

We were also delighted to invite Filippo Carina, FormerPresident, Honorary Member and Geneva resident to dinner


with us at the Hotel Richemond with his wife Giovanna.Incidentally Filippo thoroughly endorsed the decision to move toGeneva. We were also delighted to invite Mr. Zuffi of the GenevaConvention Bureau to the President’s Dinner in consideration ofall the help he had given in making the arrangements for theBoard Meeting in Geneva.

We should also mention the great help and service we receivedfrom the Noga Hilton and its management in Geneva.

On the way to Montreux we stopped at the Olympic Museum inLausanne a very interesting place indeed and should you everbe in that area we would recommend that you take the time topay it a visit. The Geneva and Montreux Convention Bureauscould not have done more to make us more welcome andalthough neither place was eventually voted as the venue for2006, as we will mention later, there is no doubt that Geneva orMontreux will host an IPLOCA Convention in the future, of thatthey can be certain.

Scott and Sherry Summers hosted the Board for the President’sDinner at Bill Harbert’s favourite restaurant in Geneva the “LionD’Or” and what a delightful place it was. Prior to dinner wewere all taken to see a really special museum of books, manu-scripts and writings of all kinds in the Bodmer Museum just astone’s throw from the restaurant. It might sound dull but farfrom it, in fact we had a problem in trying to get people out to goto dinner so absorbed they were in what was on display. It wasa real treasure trove with some of the world’s oldest manu-scripts beautifully set out.

At dinner that night Scott and Sherry presented everyone witha beautifully made Swiss Music Box as a memento of their visitto Geneva.

Sherry had organised a surprise “Baby Shower” for Michèleand all the ladies of the Board had brought a gift to “shower”her with. Unfortunately at the last minute Michèle was unable,

on the advice of her Doctor, to come to Geneva so Luc on hispre-Christmas trip to Gent took them to her. Michèle was overwhelmed and very touched by all that she received.

The Board Meeting was a morning and afternoon affair with afull agenda and many issues to discuss. Caterpillar kindly madetheir Board Room available for our Meeting and hosted theBoard for lunch in their Executive Dining Room all of which wasvery much appreciated.

GENEVA BOARD MEETING COMMITTEE REPORTS

The various IPLOCA Committees held meetings prior to theBoard Meeting to discuss a range of topics. The followingreports give summary information on the work of each of theCommittees as reported to the Board by their respectiveChairmen on the Friday.

EXECUTIVE COMMITTEE This Committee is working very successfully and met prior tothe Committee Meetings under the Chairmanship of ScottSummerss the President and again following the BoardMeeting. The main issues that were up for discussion werefirstly to study the report of the Legal Committee and lawyersand secondly to decide upon who was to take over as ExecutiveSecretary both issues of supreme importance to theAssociation. The meeting following the Board Meetingaddressed the modus operandi as we go into 2005 and the set-ting up of our base in Geneva. Luc Henriod will have a lot to doin the months ahead but will be ably assisted by Roberto Piraniand of course John Phillips.

CONVENTION COMMITTEEAlthough everything is in hand with regard to the 2005Convention details of which are expanded upon elsewhere inthis Newsletter it was necessary for the Committee to reviewthe options for 2006. This Board has to decide upon the venueand put arrangements in place and review what suggestionsthe Board needs to pass on to the next Board concerning theConvention in 2007.

John Phillips, Luc Henriod and Michèle Bruynseels had been toBarcelona and had a complete summary of the various venuesin Europe that had been investigated. There are many superblocations but unfortunately very few that meet our criteria whenit comes to providing facilities to cater for a convention for 600.In the end the following was the short list of those venues thatcould provide the facilities we require for the dates we needed: Athens, Barcelona, Geneva, Montreux, Prague and Vienna.


This was the list that was eventually presented to the Boardupon which to vote.

It was agreed that certain changes would be made at the 2005Convention and these were to be put to the Board on the Friday.

As had been decided the Sponsors Meeting is to take place inVancouver at the end of February and the Board Meeting in SanFrancisco in early March. The proposed provisional pro-grammes for both these meetings were discussed and it wasleft up to the Board to decide as to where they wished the JuneBoard Meeting to be held.

FINANCE COMMITTEEYasar Pakel as Treasurer chaired the Committee to review thecost of the Berlin Convention and to plan the financial strategyfor the coming year in light of the move to Geneva. It wasencouraging to note that IPLOCA will be able to operate moreeffectively and at lower cost than in Gent and that the cost ofthe move to Genevat will be recovered within approximately 18months.

LEGAL COMMITTEEThis Committee under the Chairmanship of the President hasbeen very busy since the Berlin Convention reviewing the opin-ions and recommendations of the lawyers who had been askedto look into IPLOCA’s position as an International Association inthe light of changing circumstances within Belgium and withinthe European Community.

MEMBERSHIP COMMITTEEPhil Bond as Chairman of the Committee has wasted no time ingetting down to addressing those issues relating to membershipset out under the three year strategic plan. He made recom-mendations with regard to the review of geographical areasand to increasing the membership of the Association and plansto send a questionnaire to all Members and Associate Membersseeking their views on certain issues.

PROMOTION COMMITTEE The Committee were pleased with the previous Newsletter NO 21, its spread of Convention photographs and the accom-panying CD.

Finally the new IPLOCA website is up and running the only com-ment being that it might be helpful to have a note to click on thelogo to enter the site.It was stressed that it was only going to be considered a goodsite if it was kept up to date and this will be the responsibility ofRoberto Pirani amongst his many other chores.

IPLOCA sent out its own New Year Card this year depicting oneof the President’s company projects in Ecuador.

R&D COMMITTEEHein Mulder and Luc Henriod reported that the work with BP onCost Reduction was moving ahead and it was encouraging thatRuhrgas, Shell, E.N.I. and Total had indicated their interest inbeing involved.

The ongoing issue of the Weld Defect Acceptance Criteriawhich had been bogged down for so long was about to movenow that Professor Rudi Denys and Bob Andrews had agreedupon the procedure to be proposed. It was now necessary toestablish costs and a time frame and it was hoped that thesematters would be addressed early in the new year.

2005 is the year of the third BP Award and it is hoped that therewill be as many applications as there were for the previous twoawards.

SAFETY AND ENVIRONMENT COMMITTEEDaniel Gasquet said he was keen to improve upon the 2003record of an 80% return of Safety Statistics for 2004 and AreaDirectors will be asked to make every effort to ensure that eachof the Members in their area send in the return.

The Committee is anxious that Safety Alerts be published on ourwebsite but recognise that we are only going to get cooperationfrom members if such alerts are completely anonymous. It wasagreed that those on the Committee would set the ball rolling byproviding two or three Safety Alerts as soon as possible.

MEMBERSHIPAs at January 2005 membership of the Association stood as follows:

Members 113Academic Members 3Associate Members 126Honorary Members 4

Total Membership 246

RESIGNATIONS:As Members:Murray & Roberts, South AfricaAs Associate Members:RWTÜV, Germany

STRUCK-OFFThe following members have been struck off for non-payment ofmembership dues:


Members:Volgogaz, RussiaAssociate Members:ElektrimMegadex sal, PolandH.Clarkson & Co. Ltd., U.K.Metallurgica Abruzzese, ItalyPSI Pipeline Service, SwitzerlandR/D Tech.Inc., Canada

NEW MEMBERS:At the December meeting in Geneva the Board approved thefollowing companies for membership in the category stated:As Associate MemberKomatsu, Japan

The Membership fees for 2005 remain frozen at:

Members Euro 2700Associate Members Euro 2000Academic Members NIL

Would everybody please instruct their Accounting Departmentto make all future payments for their membership fee to theGeneva Bank Account provided in the relevant section of thisNewsletter!

FEBRUARY 2005 - SPONSORS MEETINGProbably shortly after you have received this Newsletter theMajor Functions Sponsors will be meeting in Vancouver tomake their arrangements with the Fairmont Hotel Vancouver orto select suitable outside venues for the various events duringthe 2005 IPLOCA Convention in Vancouver.

MARCH 2005 - BOARD MEETINGThis will be held at the Fairmont Hotel San Francisco fromMarch 1st to March 5th. San Francisco was chosen by thePresident to avoid the Sponsors Representatives having to trav-el across America twice on their way to and back fromVancouver.

IPLOCA SAFETY STATISTICSRight after the March Board Meeting we shall be sending outthe requests for your 2004 Safety Statistics. Last year we hadan 80% return and this year Daniel Gasquet, Chairman of the

Safety and Environment Committee is determined to see thatwe improve on that. It is important that IPLOCA continues toimprove upon its safety record and by and large each year ouroverall statistics as an association improve so please ensureyou send in your 2004 Safety Statistics in the format we requestso that we can compare everyone on an apples to applesbasis!

It is also very important we investigate in more detail the circumstances leading to accidents or “near misses”. Weintend to ask all our members to describe these events, so wecan advise everyone through our website safety measures thatcan be taken to avoid certain accidents.

We have just received a Safety Alert Report related to the fall oftwo pipes being unloaded from a vessel at an industrial harbour.The first pipe was loaded without incident to the left hand sad-dle of the trailer. During unloading of the second pipe at anapproximate height of five meters above the trailer, the pipecame away from the vacuum lifter, falling onto the trailer, caus-ing both pipes to leave the trailer.

Rolling across the quay, the first pipe ended up 18,5 meters tothe left of the trailer and the second 9,5 meters to the rear of thetrailer. No injuries were reported, as personnel involved main-tained safe distance from the lifted load.

The causes of the incident were investigated in detail andappropriate measures were put in place to avoid a repeat. Thecomplete Safety Alert report is available on our websitewww.iploca.com.

We wish to clarify again that all safety related information willbe treated with the maximum of confidentiality. We thereforeask all our members to send us Safety Alert Reports, so that theknowledge acquired from accidents or “near-misses” can bewidely shared amongst our members!


We know that September is still some time away, but we areanxious to give you as much information concerning theConvention ahead of time to enable you to take advantage ofcombining the Convention with a vacation before or after (or both!).

Vancouver is located in the southwest corner of Canada in theprovince of British Columbia, at about 49° Latitude and 123°Longitude, next to the Pacific Ocean. Vancouver is surroundedby water on three sides and overlooked by the Coastal Range -mountains that rise abruptly to more than 1,500 m. Its climate isone of the mildest in Canada. Temperatures average 3°C inJanuary and 18°C in July. Vancouver’s average annual precipi-tation is 1,219 mm. Most rainfall occurs in winter.

Vancouver is a dynamic, multicultural city set in a spectacularnatural environment. Consistently rated as one of the world’stop meeting and convention destinations, Vancouver nestlesbetween majestic mountains and a sparkling ocean and is considered one of the most beautiful cities in the world.

If you are combining the Convention with a vacation thenVancouver is the launch point for spectacular Alaska cruises;

and British Columbia’s capital city of Victoria is just quick, ferryor floatplane ride away. Spot Orca whales and sea lions enroute as the ferry make its way through the picturesque Gulfislands.

A scenic 90 minute drive north along the sea leads to Whistler,North America’s No. 1 Ski Resort. Along the way are the stunning Shannon Falls and the rugged Squamish Chief rockface. Travel east through the rolling farmlands of the FraserValley to the delightful Harrison Hot Springs then on to BritishColumbia’s Okanagan wine country and the incredible CanadianRocky Mountains.

Yes, there are many places to see and explore in BritishColumbia, the scenery is fantastic, the air pristine clean and thefood and wine is beyond belief. We expect that many of you willbe flying to Calgary and taking the Rocky Mountaineer trainthrough the Rockies to Vancouver and that others will take theweek long cruise along the Coast of British Columbia to Alaska.

We shall be sending out the Board Package for this year’sConvention in Vancouver immediately after the March BoardMeeting but here is some preliminary information.

2005 VANCOUVER CONVENTION


THE 2005 CONVENTION PROGRAMME

SATURDAY - September 10

10:30 - 12:30 Convention Committee Meeting

Hotel Vancouver - Lions Room

14:00 - 16:30 Executive Committee Meeting

Hotel Vancouver - Presidential Suite

SUNDAY - September 11

09:00 - 10:00 Safety & Environment Committee

Hotel Vancouver - Cortes Island Room

09:00 - 10:30 Membership Committee


10:00 - 10:30 Legal Committee


10:30 - 11:00 Promotion Committee


11:00 - 12:00 R&D Committee


11:00 - 12:00 Finance Committee


MONDAY - September 12

18:00 - 19:30 First Time Attendees Reception

Hotel Vancouver - To be advised

19:30 - 20:30 Dodsal Welcome Vancouver Reception

Hotel Vancouver - To be advised

20:30 - 23:00 Dodsal Welcome Vancouver Dinner

Hotel Vancouver - Pacific Ballroom

TUESDAY - September 13

19:00 - 20:15 President’s Reception

To be advised - Outside the Hotel

20:30 - 23:00 President’s Dinner


WEDNESDAY - September 14

09:00 - 12:00 Board Meeting


12:35 - 15:00 Directors & Wives Luncheon

On Board a Yacht

18:30 - 19:30 Former President’s Cocktails

Hotel Vancouver - The Roof

THURSDAY - September 15

09:45 - 12:30 Open General Meeting


12:45 - 15:00 CRC-Evans Luncheon

Hotel Vancouver - B.C. Ballroom

15:30 - 16:30 Associate Members Meeting

Hotel Vancouver - Vancouver Island

15:30 - 16:30 World Federation Meeting


19:00 - 20:00 Caterpillar Reception


20:00 - 22:30 Caterpillar Dinner


22:30 Somico Fireworks Display

To be advised

FRIDAY September 16



09:45 - 12:30 Open General Meeting


11:45 - 14:30 SPY Ladies Luncheon


12:45 - 13:30 Members & Ass.Members Cocktails

Hotel Vancouver - Vancouver Island

13:30 - 15:00 Members Luncheon & AGM

Hotel Vancouver - Waddington Room

13:30 - 15:00 Associate Members Luncheon

Hotel Vancouver - Saturna Island Room



18:00 - 19:30 Fabick Cocktail Party


19:30 - 23:00 Final Banquet

Hotel Vancouver - B.C. Ballroom

23:00 - 03:00 Midnight Round-Up


SATURDAY September 17

10:00 - 12:30 Executive Committee Meeting

Hotel Vancouver - Cortes Island

We do not expect this programme to change very much but if there are any changes they will be given in the Convention Newsletterand in the final Convention Programme you will receive when you register in Vancouver.


as to the procedure for this draw in the Reservation Package.You will fly to Bowen Island in Howe Sound just a 15 minuteflight by float plane from Vancouver Harbour have lunch and flyback, don’t forget your camera: it is a scenic trip of a lifetime!We can assure you there will be an excellent Golf Tournament,the scenes are beyond belief and like all courses in this part ofthe world the facilities are first class with every possible ameni-ty. PIH are planning a tournament to remember!

Likewise there will be a tennis tournament at a superb facility inToronto Vancouver that Worldwide Machinery are organising.

Finally Maats will be providing the Insight Guide to Vancouverand this will give you all the information you need aboutVancouver and Victoria.

Don’t worry, Michèle will be back in shape by the time of theConvention and will be there to ensure that everything runssmoothly.

SPONSORSHIPThe great success of our Conventions is largely due to theinteresting programme we can arrange thanks to the manysponsors who support our Convention each year.

This year in Vancouver there will be some exciting opportunitiesfor sponsorship and we will shortly contact those sponsors thatparticipated last year to ascertain whether they wish to sponsoragain this year. This year we are currently planning on 10 Tourswhich you will see from the programme are particularly excitingand we will be seeking sponsorship very shortly. However, ifyou wish to sponsor or co-sponsor a particular tour, please feelfree to contact our Geneva Office and let your wishes be known.

The Tours to Victoria are particularly exciting, very high profileand will call for at least three or more co-sponsors unless a single sponsor wishes to make a big splash.

The luncheon tour to Bowen Island has already been taken byGeorge Zakhem. He and Lisa are inviting six couples and 18 willbe drawn for. There will be a space on the ConventionRegistration Form for you to indicate whether you wish to beincluded in the draw and the draw will take place mid to endJune - we will advise you in the Spring Newsletter.

We are making special arrangements to give sponsors the max-imum amount of publicity at the Convention this year includinga revamped Final Banquet with the return by special request ofthe IPLOCA Video - “THANKS TO OUR SPONSORS”, so why notplan to be featured in that video?

CULTURAL PROGRAMMEThis year we are putting on just ten Tours of which 3 arerepeats as we know they will be popular, we believe you willenjoy them.

MONDAY - September 12

TOUR 1 Full morning tour with lunch 08:30 - 15:00

Stanley Park, Capilano & Grouse Mountain

TOUR 2 Afternoon tour 14:00 - 17:00

Vancouver City Tour

TOUR 3 All day tour with lunch 08:00 - 18:00

Day on Victoria out by Ferry back by Float Plane

TUESDAY - September 13

TOUR 4 Morning tour 08:30 - 12:30

Harbour cruise to Granville Island & Market

TOUR 5 Special sponsored luncheon 12:00 - 15:00

Lunch at Doc Morgan’s by Float Plane


The Aquarium & Museum of Anthropology

WEDNESDAY - September 12

TOUR 7 Full morning tour with lunch 08:30 - 15:00

Stanley Park, Capilano & Grouse Mountain

TOUR 8 Morning tour 08:30 - 13:30

Vancouver highlights for newcomers


Vancouver’s Glorious Gardens

TOUR 10 All day tour with lunch 08:00 - 18:00

Day on Victoria out by Ferry back by Float Plane

These are all first class tours; 5 of them include lunch and theyare different to any you have experienced in recent years. Theydon’t come cheap and we have had to share the sponsorshipbut we feel sure you and the sponsors will agree that they arefirst class and worth every cent.

You will get a detailed description of all the tours in theReservation Package. The one tour that may intrigue you is Tour 5. This is a tour for 48 people arranged by a sponsor whowill invite 6 couples as his personal guests and the remaining 36places or 18 couples will be drawn for; we will give you details


THE FAIRMONT HOTEL VANCOUVER

Those of you who were in Toronto in 1998 will recognise thestyle of the hotel; it is a former Canadian Pacific Railway Hotelone of several in the “Grand Style” that span the country alongthe railroad from East to West.

The Fairmont Hotel meeting facilities are the finest in the citybuilt in a time when architectural nuance reigned and with twoballrooms and ample meeting rooms we will have no problemsin having all the space we need for our Convention. Vancouveris a walking city and the hotel is right in the centre of town soyou will be able to stroll to many of the shops and places youwant to visit.

We are making some changes in the programme for this year’sConvention. The Former President’s Cocktails and thePresident’s Dinner will again be separate events. They are quitedifferent and we wish to keep them both special, each in theirown right. We are keeping Wednesday evening free for you tohave dinner with your friends or your clients. The awards will begiven at the Open General Meetings to allow you to chat withold friends at the Members and Associate Members Cocktails.The Final Banquet will be completely revamped. No more setspeeches! There will be entertainment and dancing and thelottery will be replaced by a fun auction with Butch Graham asthe Master of Ceremonies. With the Euro 5,000 we give to charity, this year we will use it to buy very nice gifts which will

then be auctioned by Butch. Hopefully we will raise twice theamount for the charity to be chosen by Scott and Sherry.

PRE & POST CONVENTION TOURS

These have been posted on our website, www.iploca.comand will also be sent out with the Reservation Package inMarch. The tours include:

The pre-convention train trip through the Rockies from Calgaryto Vancouver on the “Rocky Mountaineer”.

The 7 day pre-convention cruise on a Royal Caribbean cruise-ship from Vancouver to Alaska’s Hubbard Bay through the pic-turesque inside passage.

The 7 day pre-Convention Rocky Mountaineer Golden CircleTour from Vancouver, Kamloops, Banff, Lake Louise, Jasper,Kamloops and back to Vancouver.

The 7 day post-convention cruise on a Holland America cruise-ship from Vancouver to Alaska’s Glacier Bay through the pictur-esque inside passage.

The 2 day pre-convention trip on the Rocky Mountaineerthrough the Rockies from Calgary to Vancouver with anovernight stop in Kamploops. The plan is that you would fly intoCalgary and take the train through to Vancouver.

The 3 day post-convention train trip on the “RockyMountaineer”. Through the Rockies from Vancouver toKamloops, Banff and ending up in Calgary from where you canthen fly home.

These tours have been chosen to coincide with your arrival inand departure from Vancouver as best we can anticipate. Bookthem through Uniquely Northwest, the IPLOCA Ground Agentfor the Convention using the Booking Form. Check them out atwww.iploca.com.


2004 BERLIN2005 VANCOUVER2006 POSSIBILITIES:

Barcelona Geneva Montreux Prague Vienna

IPLOCA CONVENTIONMAP

THE 2006 IPLOCA CONVENTION

The Convention Committee explained to the Board that a num-ber of venues had been investigated to ascertain which oneswere capable of meeting the IPLOCA criteria for holding aConvention for 600 people.

Everyone likes to be in one hotel but occasionally that is notpossible. What is absolutely imperative is that we have a ball-room capable of seating 600 people at tables for ten and at thesame time have space for a stage and dance floor, in addition tohaving a room for the Open General Meetings plus severalsmaller meeting rooms. There are very few places in Europethat can provide the facilities we need.

The places where we undertook a detailed study were:Algarve, Athens, Barcelona, Cannes, Cyprus, Geneva, Helsinki,Lisbon, Madeira, Mallorca, Malta, Montreux, Prague andVienna.

Because there were various problems in getting the dates weneeded, sufficient banqueting or meeting space we finallyended up with the following venues that we considered couldhost an excellent Convention in 2006, namely Barcelona,Geneva, Montreux, Prague and Vienna. The pros and cons ofeach were given to the Board and by secret ballot the Boardvoted by a large majority for Barcelona. We had also taken aseparate straw poll of the ladies of the Board and they hadvoted for Barcelona almost unanimously, so we knew we wereon safe ground. Provided a satisfactory contract can be negoti-ated with Arts Hotel, the 2006 Convention will be in Barcelonafrom September 25th to September 30th.

The Ritz Carlton Arts Hotel is a 5 Star hotel built especially tohouse the Officials for the Barcelona Olympics. It has 397

luxury rooms comparable to those in Dubai, 56 Executive JuniorSuites, 2 Presidential Suites and 27 luxury duplex apartments. Itis right on the sea and just 20 minutes from the airport.

We had an excellent Convention in Barcelona in 1980 so weknow there are many exciting outside venues. We also knowthat we can put on an excellent cultural programme and thatgolf isn’t a problem.

We will be giving you more details on this Convention in the 2005Winter Newsletter as right now all our energies are beingdirected towards ensuring the Vancouver Convention is thesuccess we expect it to be.


THE 2007 CONVENTION

The Board this year, whilst having responsibility of making ini-tial arrangements for the 2006 Convention, also needs to giverecommendations to the next Board as to suggestions for the2007 Convention.

We are moving east and in so far as we have not had aConvention in the Far East since Penang in 1995, in all probabil-ity the recommendation will be to go to the East where we knowthe hotels can provide everything we need. It will be proposedto the next Board that they consider Beijing, Hong Kong,Shanghai or Singapore as the venue for the 2007 Convention.

CHINA: ENVIRONMENTAL PROTECTION ONTHE AGENDA

A number of IPLOCA members are currently very active inpipeline Engineering and Construction in the People’s Republicof China and are facing increasingly comprehensive legisla-tion based on international standards.

A number of accidents triggered wider attention to potentialpollution from oil pipelines, particularly following the rupture onthe 460 km pipeline from Jing’an to Changqing Refinery, whichcaused a leak of more than 1,000 tons of crude oil, as reportedby the Xinhua news agency, quoting officials from ChangqingOilfield, a subsidiary of Petrochina.

At the highest levels, the Chinese Government appears to bevery committed to protecting and improving the environment,although enforcement varies from place to place. This shouldbenefit the competing position of IPLOCA’s members who arewell used to working in accordance with internationally accept-ed parameters for the protection of the Environment, as well asfor Construction and Operational Safety, and in giving appropri-ate consideration to the cultural and human impact of their con-struction activities.

On the other hand, as international contractors are quite rightlyperceived as having more resources and experience thandomestic firms, they are often subject to more stringentenforcement. A stream of environmental laws has been passedin the last few years, and there are no sign of relenting! High onthe agenda are the Air Pollution Prevention and Control Law, theWater Pollution Prevention Control Law, the MarineEnvironmental Protection Law and the Risk AssessmentBaseline of Soil Environmental Quality for Industrial Enterprise.

Our advice to our members wishing to work in China is to getproper legal advice from international law firms working in thePeople’s Republic, and, always an essential practice, work witha local contractor familiar with all the intricacies of local regulations!

LIGHTER THAN AIR!

The logistics problems related to the transportation of people, equipment, materials and supplies to the very remote construction sites of future major pipelines was identified dur-ing our June 2004 meeting as a critical issue. To respond to thisissue, IPLOCA with the four major European oil companies andRhurgas, is launching a Research and Development project toinvestigate the feasibility of using Air Ship technology to bettertackle these problems.

In other words we are talking about using Air Ships to transportmaterials and equipment to remote sites, and also, on a smallerscale, to act as cranes on site.

A special workshop was held in Holland in January, hosted bySHELL, with the participation of SHELL, BP, AGIP, the USDefence Department (DoD), various IPLOCA members and AirShip consultants and manufacturers. Total had to cancel at thelast minute, however they are supportive of the project.

Of particular interest was the input from the US DoD. They havealready done a considerable amount of work on this with theobjective of using the technology to address specific logisticsaspects of their activities, military and non military, for example,disaster relief. The oil companies and contractors presentagreed to support the IPLOCA who would act as a catalyst tochannel the oil industry effort in this development (more opera-tors are expected to join in, possibly the American OilCompanies).

IPLOCA’s participation in this work will be highly prestigiousand, when completed, very useful to our members working invery remote locations. WATCH THIS SPACE!


THE 2005 BP AWARD

In March we will be sending out theapplication forms for the 2005 BP Award,which will be presented at the VancouverConvention in September.

This award is given every other year to an IPLOCA Member orAssociate Member who, in the opinon of the adjudication committee and BP, has made a significant contribution toonshore cross-country pipeline cost reduction.

In 2003 we had an excellent response for our second award andlook forward to an even greater response this year.

The winner will receive the BP Trophy to hold for a year. In addi-tion a crystal decanter, a framed certificate and a cheque forEuro 1, 000 whilst the runner-up receives a framed certificate.

We hope that amongst the entries this year we will receive atleast one entry addressing the modus operandi of pipelinespread operations.

The entries and winners will be published in the IPLOCANewsletter and on our Website. We received many enquirieslast time for details of the various presentations that were madein competing for the 2003 award, indicating considerable inter-est from within and outside IPLOCA to this BP Award scheme.We are confident that there will be similar interest this year.

WORLD FEDERATION

President Scott Summers is anxious thatthis year the Federation moves forwardand that we attract Clients’ Associationsto the Federation.

If our industry is to continue to prosper, it is essential thatClients and Contractors work more closely together for theirmutual benefit. Whether it is Safety, Protection of theEnvironment, Cost Reduction, a Standard form of Contract pro-tecting all our mutual interests or Research and Developmentwe can do it significantly better if we do it together!

The next meeting of the Federation will take place during inApril/May this year at the Royal York Hotel in London. The meet-ing will be hosted by BP and this is a further indication of ourClients’ interest in a closer and closer cooperation, and BP’sactive participation will give further impetus to this initiative.

NEWS FROM MEMBERS

> KIETH PHILLIPS - You will be pleased to hear that KiethPhillips is well on the way to recovery and now followingchemotherapy he has a full head of hair again. He and Sue willbe attending the PLCA Convention in February and will no doubtbe welcomed with open arms by their many friends in thepipeline world. Keith has been through one hell of a time thispast year or so and it is great to know that he is back on his feet.We hope to see them both in Vancouver.

> PETER BLOME - As was expected Former President PeterBlome retired from EUPEC in December and is now contemplat-ing taking life a little easier. Peter had been working tirelesslyfor IPLOCA during and after his Presidency. Talking to him a lit-tle while ago John Phillips asked him how he planned to enjoyhis retirement and this is what he had to say:‘I will have a lot more time to spend with Angela and the family,all of us in the pipeline business have never been able to spendas much time with our family as we would have wished. I intendto make up for lost time.

I will play more golf, improve my game and hopefully lift theIPLOCA Convention trophy now and again.

I intend to read more especially with regard to etymology, I havean urge to know more about the meaning and origin of words,expressions and sayings (good and bad).

I will continue to be available to IPLOCA as and when I amcalled upon and Angela and I will be in Vancouver in September.I will continue to enjoy my Schnapps in the evening, most timestwo, sometimes three and on very special occasions four.’

Hopefully all the above will enable me to have an improvedquality of life until such time as the heavenly trumpet sounds.

> FILIPPO CARINA - As reported elsewhere we were delightedto have Former President and Honorary Member Filippo Carinaand his wife Giovanna join us for dinner during our BoardMeeting in Geneva. He and Scott had plenty to discuss as towhere IPLOCA has been and is going and we know we have hissupport in what we are trying to achieve.

> KHALIL NOUBANI - A regular attendee to our Conventionwhen he was with CAT before he retired. Many of you whoknew this gentleman of gentlemen will be pleased to know thathe is fit and well and was recently in London having lunch withArthur West.

> FRED & GHADA HABEISHI - Fred who was on the Board forCAT not so many years ago has advised John Phillips that theyboth intend to come to Vancouver.


NEWS FROM OUR SISTER ASSOCIATIONS

Our Sister Associations generally keep us posted on what theyare doing either through direct communications or throughtheir Newsletters.

> APIAWe are sorry to learn that Dr. Allen Beasley a good friend ofours will shortly be leaving his post as Executive Director ofAPIA to try his hand in the wide world of commerce. We wishhim all the very best of good fortune.

Dr Allen Beasley - who today announced he would stand downin March 2005 after six years as Chief Executive of theAustralian Pipeline Industry Association (APIA) said the nation’spipeline industry and the gas industry at large had very brightfutures. “The past 5 years has been a very exciting period forpipeline development and the next 5 years will be equally asactive,” Dr Beasley said.

“Industry activity is already heightened by developmentsacross Northern Australia, including the Trans Territory Pipelineto Gove in the NT and the recent scaling up of effort on the PNGGas Pipeline,” he said.

“Together with the long awaited expansion of the Dampier-to-Bunbury pipeline in Western Australia, these projects representimportant opportunities for this country to expand its infrastruc-ture and develop new gas markets.”

Dr Beasley, who will leave APIA in the New Year to take on anassignment in the international resources sector - said he hadvery much enjoyed the challenging APIA role over the past sixyears and the association’s role in the many Australian pipelineindustry achievements over the period.

We are still fortunate in so far as we have Andy Lucas with afoot in both camps, the APIA and IPLOCA so he keeps us wellinformed on what is going on down-under.

> DCATheir Convention will be taking place in Florida from February22-27, 2005.

> DCA (EUROPE)No specific news, although we understand from Hans Ringersthat they were ticking along.

> IPIANo news from IPIA.

> PIGThey are going along from strength to strength and now have a

MEETINGSWe are continually being advised of meetings and confer-ences that are being held in various parts of the world sohere are details of some we have selected which you mayfind of interest.

1-2 MARCHAmsterdam, Grand Hotel Krasnapolsky - 28th AnnualOffshore Pipeline Technology Conference & Exhibition.For complete details please visit: www.ibcenergy.com/opt

19-20 APRILAustin, Texas - 57th Annual API Pipeline Conference. For complete details please contact: [email protected]

1-27 MAYDallas, Texas Advanced International Program in Oil andGas Financial Management. For complete details pleasevisit: [email protected]

8-10 MAYAbu Dhabi, Hilton International Hotel - The Fifth Annual Oiland Gas Pipelines in the Middle East Conference andExhibition. For complete details please visit:www.theenergyexchange.co.uk

21-23 MAYAbuja, Sheraton Hotel - Ninth Annual Offshore West AfricaConference & Exhibition. For complete details please visit: www.offshorewestafrica.com

13-15 SEPTEMBER Moscow - The International Pipeline Exposition andConference in partnership with the Pipeline IndustriesGuild. For complete details please visit: www.pipelineexpositions.com


branch in Sofia Bulgaria. With Roberto Pirani Former Chairmanof Pig we expect to have much closer contacts with PIG in thefuture.

The 48th Pipeline Industries Guild Annual Dinner will be held onthe 8th March 2005, at the Grosvenor House Hotel, Park Lane,London.

> PLCAThe PLCA annual Convention will take place from February 9-12,2005 in Scottsdale, Arizona. We appreciate the research thatPLCA did in our recent legal study as to the background detailsof IPLOCA from when it was a division of the PLCA.

> PLCACWe have nothing much to say about the PLCAC in this issue.Barry Brown was appreciative of the article we did on him inour Newsletter and we note that their Convention will takeplace May 24-26 at the Grand Okanagan Resort - Kelowna -British Columbia.

> ROGCUWe have nothing to report from Russia although we did receivea card from Viktor Slaviantsev over the festive season.

THE IPLOCA YEARBOOK4TH EDITION 2005-2006Within a few weeks you will receive the new advertising rate-card and the insertion form.

It is absolutely impera-tive that you provide theinformation with regardto your company in legi-ble form so that mistakesdo not occur. Pleasecheck very carefully allthe details and ensurethat we have the correct,telephone, fax and e-mail addresses.

Now that we have correlated the YearbookDatabase with that of the

Secretariat we will also be sending you the insertion form by e-mail. If you wish, you can enter the required data right fromyour computer; however, please check to ensure you havegiven us the right information, it is very easy to transpose orenter an incorrect number.

The Yearbook goes worldwide and sits on the desks of yourclients so make sure that when they wish to contact you, theyhave the right information.

Since the Convention will be in September this year deadlinesfor all advertising material and information will be June 1st 2004.Having said that please do not leave it until the last minute tosend in your data.

Once again we shall have an 8 page photo-spread in theYearbook so if you have some good photographs of one of yourprojects please do not hesitate to send them to us.

OBITUARY

It is with deep regret that we haveto report the death of FounderMember, Former President andHonorary Member Robert “Bob”Todd who passed away on January13th after a long illness.

Bob was born on June 14, 1919 in Liberal, Missouri. Heattended the University of Missouri before joining the Army,where he served as an Air Corps Captain, flying in thePloesti Raid in August 1943.

Ploesti Oil Fields and Refineries in Romania were thesource of 40 per cent of Germany’s oil and their eliminationwould deal a vital body-blow to the Third Reich’s ability towage war. A surprise attack by heavy B-24 Liberators flyingat tree-top height was considered the best method ofachieving success.

Three bomb groups from the Eighth Air Force based inBritain flew out to join two groups of the Ninth already inNorth Africa, the combined force of 179 aircraft destined tocarry out the first massed low-level heavy bomber missionin history.


The Ploesti Raid took place on Sunday, August 1, 1943 withheavy losses. The operation resulted in the award of fiveMedals of Honor - America’s highest decoration for brav-ery.

With the kind of modesty that only great men have, Bobnever boasted on his war heroism and, returning to civil life,concentrated on his professional life which took him allover the world managing the construction of majorpipelines for Morrison and Knudson. He loved his work andthe adventure it brought to his life.

After retiring he enjoyed golf, friends and traveling with hisbeloved wife of 30 years, Christa. They were both thankfulfor the wonderful life they had together.

Until he was struck down Bob always took a keen interestin IPLOCA’s affairs and attended numerous Conventions.From time to time he offered sage advice, never being back-ward in making his views known.

He will be greatly missed by all who knew him, especiallyhis loving wife, Christa, and it is to her that we offer our sin-cere condolences.

KEEPING WARM IN LITHUANIA:A PIPELINE INNOVATION

We are all familiar with pipelines carrying all sorts of liquids,gases and solids, from potable water to the most dangerouschemicals. And we all know that a pipeline is the safest andleast expensive way of transporting large quantities of flowingcommodities across long distances.

In some cases, as reported in Pipeline World, a pipeline needsto transport an extremely valuable commodity, particularly ifyou are facing the cold Lithuanian winter. The product shippedwas illegally distilled “moonshine” (or samogon as it is locallyknown) and the pipeline link crossed the border from Belarus toLithuania.

A spokesman for the Lithuanian border guards is quoted as say-ing that a 3-km long shallow-buried plastic pipeline was recent-ly discovered, traversing fields, a river, and even roads, in theborder area between the two countries.

In the absence of all necessary documentation proving compli-ance with EU Regulation, (Lithuania is a recent member of theEU), we can just note that the pipeline is there, trying to meetthe Lithuanian market requirement of importing booze from acheaper source.

The pipeline receiving terminal was a house in a border village,from where the alcohol was mixed with water and sold to localconsumers.

As pipeliners we are fascinated by this private initiative toextend the use of pipelines to transport more diverse commodi-ties although one wonders whether during US prohibition dayssomething similar may have been tried.

On the other hand, a more professional approach would requireIPLOCA members’ participation to replace the samogon, anextremely toxic drink of dubious taste, with more sophisticatedpipelines from the Chianti or Cognac regions or from theScottish Highlands.

That would keep both our onshore and our offshore membershappy!

AND….KEEP MOVING IN CANADAAS SUBMITTED BY ANDY LUCAS:

In most of the Canadian Provinces, there is apolicy of checking on any stalled vehicle on thehighway when the temperatures drop in thesingle digits or below. One morning in March2004 about 3a.m. RCMP Constable Bill Wisenwas awakened to respond to such a call of acar off the shoulder on the Trans CanadaHighway outside of Medicine Hat, Alberta.

Constable Wisen located the car still running, stuck in deepsnow alongside the highway. Pulling in behind it with his emer-gency lights on, Constable Wisen walked to the driver’s door tofind an older man passed out behind the wheel and a nearempty bottle of vodka in the seat. He tapped on the window andthe driver woke up, seeing the rotating lights in his rear viewmirror and the RCMP Constable standing next to his car. Theman panicked, and he jerked the gearshift into drive and hit thegas. The car’s speedometer was showing 20-30-40 then 50KPH, but it was still stuck in the snow. Constable Wisen, havinga sense of humour, began running in place next to the speedingbut still stationary car. The driver was totally freaked thinkingthe officer was actually keeping up with him. This went on forabout 20 seconds when Constable Wisen yelled at the manordering him to “pull over”. The man obeyed and turned hiswheel and stopped the engine. Once out of the car the drunkendriver asked about the RCMPs’ special training and just howcan the Constable run 50 KPH. The man, Mr. Robert Duport ofMedicine Hat was arrested still believing that an RCMPConstable had outrun his car.


LADIES PAGE

You will recall that in our last Newsletter we mentioned thatMartine Van De Wiele was a keen gardener. We have nowheard that Leen Vormezeele who for many years was theSecretary in Gent and who left in 2002 after a nervous break-down is also a keen gardener so much so that her garden hasbeen featured in Belgian Homes & Garden magazine.

Leen was very popular amongst the membership and many ofyou will remember her at our annual Convention. She is nowwell again and sends her regards to all who knew her and to themany who were concerned about her health.

We are anxious to take the ladies views into account in plan-ning our annual Convention so if you have any ideas that youconsider would make the Convention more enjoyable for you,please let us know. Just e-mail Luc or Michèle Henriod [email protected] and they will make your views known.

THE ESCALADE CELEBRATION

HISTORY For generations, the Dukes of the next-door Savoy had covetedthe independent city-state of Geneva for its location and wealth.In 1580, when Duke Charles Emmanuel mounted on the throneof the House of Savoy, he longed to make Geneva his northerncapital and crush Protestantism in its stronghold. He triedeverything, alternating diplomatic and military offensives, intimidation, threats, and promises of peace. But at the end ofthe year 1602, Geneva had still not fallen into his clutches.

On the night of the 11th to 12th of December 1602, the longestnight of the year by the old Julian calendar, the combined forcesof the Duke and his brother-in-law, Philip III of Spain, launcheda sneak attack on Geneva.

Troops of several thousand mercenaries silently marched alongthe River Arve and assembled at Plainpalais at two in the morn-ing. Using the bundles of brush and the scaling ladders they’dbrought with them, a commando group filled the moat withbrush and scaled (escalader) the city wall. Once inside, theywere to open the town gates to admit the main army.

A Geneva sentinel on the alert saw a shadow move and just hadthe time to fire before dying, but his shot gave the alarm. Thedefence was organized and the Genevans fought heroically;even a certain Mother Royaume, who seized the large pot ofsoup that she had on the fire and threw it on the head of aSavoyard attacker.

The Savoyards, repelled on all fronts, tried to escape, but the

scaling ladders had been blasted away by a cannon loaded withchain shot. Many soldiers were injured or killed as they jumpeddown from the walls.

The battle was well fought and victory quickly achieved and atfive in the morning the Savoyards withdrew. The attackers losthundreds of men, the defenders only eighteen.

The Duke of Savoy brooded over his defeat, but was obliged toaccept a lasting peace, sealed by the Treaty of St. Julien of July12, 1603.

CELEBRATION The Mère Royaume (mother of 14 children), known for throwinga cauldron of soup on the assailants, is responsible for thefamous chocolate “marmites” - a replica of her soup cauldronthat are sold in many shops for the occasion. Her historic exploitis celebrated in Geneva homes on the night of the 12th ofDecember. Every home has a small chocolate pot decoratedwith Geneva’s colours and filled with marzipan vegetables. Thecustom is for the oldest and youngest to join hands and smashthe chocolate pot while shouting: “Thus perish the enemies ofthe Republic”.

On Friday evening, when the Board Meeting was over, it wasdecided that the tradition should be respected. We celebratedthe “Escalade” by having the youngest and the oldest of theladies join hands to break the chocolate cauldron.

The Escalade festivities took place right at the end of theDecember Board Meeting last year and unfortunately we werenot there to enjoy it so Michèle Henriod send us the above information on this particular festival, thank you Michèle.


HEARD THROUGH THE GRAPEVINE

Is it true that you are once again looking at the possibility of acruise for a future Convention?Yes, today there are a number of luxury cruise ships of 1,000person capacity, 500 or so cabins that we could charter. It waslooked at before in a very half-hearted manner as it will takereal organisation for it to be a success. We now have a teamthat can organise it and we know that many members and theirwives would support the idea. There will be more details in ournext Newsletter but this is the basic plan: we would pick up inFrance on the Sunday and again on Wednesday in Athensbefore sailing through the Greek Islands ending up in Istanbulfrom where you would fly home. The major functions would beonshore and whilst you slept the ship would be cruising to thenext stop. Claudia, our Berlin ground agent, who has arrangedsuch a cruise before will be coming up with a plan and if feasi-ble will then be put before the Board for consideration afterwhich we would seek positive interest from you, before pro-ceeding with the necessary arrangements.

Thanks for the New Year card; it is about time we had one thatdepicts what we do, namely construct pipelines.OK but what about the ideas we sought from you, we will seekideas from you for next year but in any case there will be anIPLOCA New Year’s card each year.

How do we get Members and Associate Members motivated?We would appreciate any ideas anyone may have as we haveover the years done all we can to motivate them to supply arti-cles for the Newsletter, provide photographs for our photolibrary etc. We even offered a free entry to the VancouverConvention for a New Year’s card idea but not a peep from any-one. Phil Bond Chairman of the Membership Committee is goingto send out a questionnaire and perhaps its answers may throwsome light on what make members tick.

How is the quest for photographs coming?Not bad but not good. Now that we are established in Genevaone of Luc’s items on his check-list is to get the photographicarchive established. We need slides, photographs and digitalimages.

STOP PRESS

> DENYSNV Denys, Belgium, has developed a promising new automaticwelding method, called Friex (friction and explosion), a newvariant of the well known friction welding process. The projecthas been carried out in collaboration with the Belgian Welding

Institute, the Laboratorium Soete (Gent University) and with thefinancial support of the IWT (Institute for the promotion ofInnovation by Science and Technology in Flanders).

> SAIPEMSaipem, Italy, has been awarded the contract for the construc-tion and installation of the Kashagan Field offshore pipelines,located in the Kazakh sector of the Caspian Sea. The contracthas a value of US$ 520 million and includes pipelines, fibre -optic cables and umbilicals. Saipem will install the pipeline sys-tem between 2006 and 2007 with a new laybarge and newtrenching equipment.

> SOCOTHERMSocotherm, Italy, has been awarded two contracts for a totalvalue of over US$ 15 million for field joints coatings for the 36”Dolphin Pipeline in Qatar and for two pipelines to be laid in theMid-High Adriatic Sea.

IPLOCA SECRETARIAT

LUC HENRIOD - Executive [email protected] PIRANI - Technical Consultant to the [email protected] PHILLIPS - [email protected]ÈLE BRUYNSEELS - Office Manager [email protected] FRYE - [email protected]

IPLOCAChemin de Blandonnet 2P.O. Box 6491214 Vernier/GenevaCH - SwitzerlandTELEPHONE +41 22 306 02 30FAX +41 22 306 02 39EMAIL [email protected] www.iploca.com

IPLOCA NEWSLETTEREDITOR Roberto PiraniLAY-OUT PMS 72PRINTING Veenman, RotterdamADVERTISING [email protected] & COPY [email protected]

Coverphoto: Geneva - the new home of IPLOCAIPLOCA © 2005

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