Pipeline Product Supply Planner

Air Liquide Large Industries provides our customers with industrial gas and energy solutions that are vital to their own industrial production. We own and operate over 2,000 miles of industrial gas pipelines in the U.S. supplying mainly oxygen, nitrogen, hydrogen and syngas in large quantities from multiple production sources to major customers in the chemicals, petrochemicals, refining and steel industries. Our pipeline operations and industrial gas production facilities are closely monitored 24/7 within our leading-edge operations control center located in Houston, Texas. Our operations control group monitors over 89,000 data points and assists with product supply and coordination. We are constantly optimizing our supply network to provide high reliability and energy efficiencies allowing Air Liquide to adjust supply needs more quickly and effectively enabling growth to our customers.

The Pipeline Product Supply Planner is a key operations leader that provides the vision and strategy required to successfully operate Air Liquide's complex pipeline networks through expert understanding of network hydraulics, plant maintenance needs, and liquid risks. They guide Real Time operations through major changes, both planned and unplanned; ensure reliability of customer supply through mid and long term planning and analysis with Operations, Airgas, and Commercial; and interface with every level of the organization to ensure understanding and alignment on the current network strategy.

Pipeline Planning

• Manages network customer supply and production asset configuration of ONE.net (2 parallel pipelines), including Oxygen, Nitrogen, and Argon, gas and liquid.

• Develops the network strategy to ensure pipeline reliability for customers:

  • Balances network risk with business economic performance

  • Coordinates outage plan with maintenance, plant operations, and Airgas by providing risk assessments

  • Safeguards Nitrogen as a safety gas supply for network customers

  • Forecasts Oxygen demand as an economic-driven feedstock

  • Balances liquid customer demand with pipeline demand

• Develops and publishes the mid-term operational strategy, including turnaround and outage schedules, by collaborating with customers, production facilities, maintenance, commercial and fellow Pipeline Managers.

• Provides operational support during unplanned pipeline events and equipment failures as a hydraulic subject matter expert. Gains understanding of root cause of outages and leads completion of network recovery activities at all levels. Reports on recovery plans and status, including timeline for restored operations.

• Performs hydraulic modeling for the network using a specialty hydraulic modeling tool when needed to understand scenarios and supply implications for various outages, planned or unplanned.

• Provides inventory recovery plans that minimize risk to the network while servicing liquid customer needs.

• Goal of zero impacts to customers due to operational execution.

• Responsible for Control Room Management Program regulatory compliance by managing sections of the program as the section lead.

• Develops into a subject matter expert for the pipeline network operation including: customer supply and risks, hydraulics, pipeline valves and backup reserve capability.

• Requires 24/7 on-call during operations and may be part of emergency ride-out crew during extreme events. Can be consulted outside of normal working hours by OCC operations, plant operations, and management. Coordinates coverage with fellow Pipeline Product Managers and receives support in turn.

Interfaces and Tools

• Drives pipeline controllers' network strategy for implementation in real-time as a network subject matter expert:

  • Technical trainer for their network including understanding of major trips, optimization potentials, and hydraulic constraints

  • Assesses pipeline changes before they occur for training and understanding by the Controller team.

  • Provides feedback and lessons learned to controllers as a group or individually based on network performance.

• Coordinates closely with the Real-Time team to manage network changes as they impact operations; sustains midterm operational plan to support Real-Time shift change, particularly through flagging asset capacity issues and SCADA irregularities for resolution.

• Coordinates with other Pipeline Managers where overlapping network risks or opportunities exist.

• Support Pipeline Project Team:

  • Facilitates implementation of 1-2 projects annually that improve the team's ability to perform job scopes, communicate more effectively or create processes that drive standardization.

  • Collaborates with optimization experts to improve optimization of pipeline network with the goal of understanding and learning from operational decisions for long term business performance improvement.

• Assists in Extreme Weather (tropical or freezing) Planning and Recovery as needed to support impacted networks.

• Participates in customer meetings to discuss pipeline product availability, restrictions, supply incidents.

• Participates in root cause analysis involving pipeline customer impact as required. Participates in vulnerability studies to ensure network impact is appropriately represented.

• Fundamental understanding of Energy programs of their network; interfaces with Energy Operations peer when appropriate to plan for overlapping risks.

• Cross-train with peers where network attributes or CRM duties overlap with goal of vacation coverage and team redundancy particularly during extreme weather events.

Analysis and Strategy

• Performs analysis and implements new processes and tools as necessary to support the operations team; identifies and understands operational constraints or inefficiencies.

• Coordinates the long term outage plan for each major pipeline asset, with goal of understanding and mitigating major outage risks with a plan a year in advance of maintenance.

• Maintains proficiency with Hydraulic Modeling tools including demand assumptions, steady state philosophy, transient risks, and valve moves.

• Supports Strategic Pipeline Team:

  • Recommends improvements to develop optimization strategy and align with operations leading into configuration changes

  • Works with Operations, Efficiency, and Energy Teams to perform hydraulic modeling and analysis where appropriate

  • Tracks improvements to business performance as a result of network strategy

  • Shares current operational knowledge and perspective during vetting of new customers and assets

• Supports implementation of operational tool projects; share in collaboration among cross-functional teams in the E2E Center.

Requirements

• Bachelor's degree in Engineering, Science, or equivalent experience

• 5+ years experience and working knowledge of Air Liquide's pipeline business.

• 3+ years experience with working knowledge of hydraulics and hydraulic modeling.

• Strong accuracy in data management and analytical skills. Ability to acquire and interpret internal data, making links to operational and hydraulic implications, and to accurately analyze and organize large quantities of data to interpret pipeline capability.

• Ability to work autonomously and with limited oversight.

• Good problem solving skills. Comfortable under pressure.

• Strong application skills, including adept use of spreadsheets. Proficiency in Google Docs and Sheets. Familiar with business reporting systems a plus: PowerBI, Tableau, Oracle, etc.

• Ability to manage initiatives and projects from idea generation through to execution and delivery.

• Strong interpersonal, networking, negotiation and facilitation skills, and an ability to align conflicting perspectives into a clear path forward where parties understand the benefits and risk associated with the decision.

• Strong written and verbal communication skills; including the ability to produce high quality documents and presentations to management.

• Ability to work within both the formal and informal organization to communicate needs, obtain assistance, and resolve issues.

• Ability to travel up to 12 weeks a year.

• Available 24/7 as needed by OCC operations, plant operations, and management.

• Strong desire to learn and develop tools, this may include PI vision, Power BI, Tableau, Canvas, other.

• US Citizen or Green Card Holder - The candidate must have valid unrestricted employment authorization in the U.S. and must not require visa sponsorship now or in the future.

Benefits offered:

• Medical, Dental, Vision, Life Insurance, Short-Term Disability, Long-Term Disability, 401(k) match, Flexible Spending Accounts, EAP, Education Assistance, Parental Leave, Paid time off, and Holidays.

• For more information you can go to Air Liquide Benefit Offerings

Our Differences make our Performance
At Air Liquide, we are committed to build a diverse and inclusive workplace that embraces the diversity of our employees, our customers, patients, community stakeholders and cultures across the world.
We welcome and consider applications from all qualified applicants, regardless of their background. We strongly believe a diverse organization opens up opportunities for people to express their talent, both individually and collectively and it helps foster our ability to innovate by living our fundamentals, acting for our success and creating an engaging environment in a changing world.