Texas Pacifico Transportation takes on the monumental task of rebuilding
the Presidio-Ojinaga International Bridge in hopes of diversifying and expanding.
By Janice Hoppe-Spiers
Transporting sand by rail to oil wells for use in hydraulic fracturing is more than 80 percent of Texas Pacifico Transportation’s business. To protect itself against market downturns in the future, the company is focused on diversifying the commodities it moves and upgrading infrastructure to do so.
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Kinder Morgan has become the largest energy infrastructure company in the United States, and Kinder Morgan Treating is a unique part of the multi-faceted corporation.
By Eric Slack
Everyone in the energy industry is well aware of the juggernaut that is Kinder Morgan. The largest energy infrastructure company in the United States, Kinder Morgan owns an interest in or operates approximately 84,000 miles of pipelines and approximately 180 terminals. Its pipelines transport natural gas, gasoline, crude oil, carbon dioxide (CO2) and more. The company’s terminals store and handle petroleum products, chemicals and other products.
Kinder Morgan Inc. (KMI) is a publicly traded C-Corp and does not have any master limited partnerships. In August 2014, KMI announced that it would acquire all of the publicly held shares/units of Kinder Morgan Energy Partners (KMP), Kinder Morgan Management (KMR) and El Paso Pipeline Partners (EPB) in an approximately $76 billion transaction. The transaction closed in November 2014. Kinder Morgan is now one publicly traded company with a ticker on the New York Stock Exchange of KMI.
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Domino Highvoltage Supply draws on the resources of its parent company to expand its distribution services into large material management projects.
By Jim Harris
Early next year, work will begin on the Fort Mac West 500kv Transmission Project, an immense infrastructure project that includes adding approximately 500 kilometers – 310.6 miles – of new energy transmission lines within northern Alberta.
Procuring and managing the electrical lines, poles and other materials necessary for a project of this scale can be a highly daunting task. Domino Highvoltage Supply Inc., the company handling the procurement and material management for the Fort Mac West project, is more than up to the challenge.
“Material management for projects is a growing area of work for us,” says Peter Siemens, vice president of the Vancouver-based power product distribution company. “We are uniquely positioned to be one of the few companies that can manage projects like this start to finish.”
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When oil prices bottomed out, Tier 1 Energy Solutions had to quickly morph from startup to stability.
By Tim O’Connor
Tier 1 Energy Solutions had a plan when it started out in the oilfield services market. It was 2013 and the oil and gas industry in western Canada was booming. Crude oil was valued at nearly $100 a barrel when the company became fully operational in January 2014. A year later, high oil and gas production pushed the price of a barrel below $50, drying up investment in the industry.
The initial business plan Tier 1 developed was tied to those higher oil prices and no longer applied. The company had expected a furious growth period as it ramped up services and capabilities while adding staff. But when oil prices bottomed out it had to pivot – fast. “You go from this rapid growth mode to we now have to get very stable, very quickly and adapt to this new market,” President and CEO Kevin O’Dwyer says. “We had to start to behave like a very mature company in a very short period of time.”
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Trilogy Metals, formerly NovaCopper Inc., seeks to develop the State of Alaska’s Ambler mining district into a significant copper producer.
By Chris Petersen
Known as America’s “last frontier,” Alaska still has a great deal of untapped potential in terms of resource development. Already the nation’s largest silver and zinc-producing state and the second largest gold producer in the United States, NovaCopper President and CEO Rick Van Nieuwenhuyse says his company sees Alaska’s Ambler mining district as a great opportunity. “We want to add to that and become the largest copper producer in the country,” he says.
Van Nieuwenhuyse started NovaCopper in 2011 as a subsidiary of NovaGold, a gold-focused exploration company he founded 20 years ago. As NovaGold focused on taking its world-class Donlin Gold Project into permitting, Van Nieuwenhuyse and his exploration team remained focused on its relatively smaller projects in the Ambler mining district, known as the Upper Kobuk Mineral Projects (UKMP). To keep NovaGold and NovaCopper focused on their respective strengths, the decision was made in 2012 to spin NovaCopper off into its own independent entity.
Today, as the company marks its fifth anniversary, NovaCopper remains focused on its work on the promising UKMP. Recently, the company changed its name to Trilogy Metals Inc. in recognition of the company’s success in defining a diversified metals resource base of 8 billion pounds of copper, 2 billion pounds of zinc and over 1 million ounces of gold equivalents at the UKMP. Van Nieuwenhuyse says the company is excited about the possibilities for the future expansion of the UKMP metals endowment to the scale of the historic Mount Isa mining area in Australia. Thanks to the favorable environment for resource development in Alaska and the extensive experience of the company’s leadership, Trilogy Metals has the pieces in place to bring copper to a greater place of prominence in Alaska. “We hope we can develop mining operations in Northwest Alaska that will have mines producing well in excess of 25 to 30 years,” Van Nieuwenhuyse says.
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Despite the downturn in oil and gas, EagleClaw Midstream Ventures has capitalized on opportunities to expand as a midstream energy services provider.
By Eric Slack
Since starting up operations in 2012, EagleClaw Midstream Ventures has become the largest privately held midstream operator in the Southern Delaware Basin in Texas. Led by a senior management team with deep roots in west Texas and decades of collective experience in the region, EagleClaw is focused on providing producers with rapid response time and flexible solutions that meet their infrastructure requirements on time and on budget so they can focus on their core businesses.
“In the last two years, we’ve grown from five employees to 50,” President and CEO Bob Milam says. “Our volume has grown and we’ve expanded our customer base, picking up some major players in the Delaware Basin. We are very excited about our growth potential through 2017.”
Building the System
EagleClaw is backed by $350 million in growth capital from EnCap Flatrock Midstream of San Antonio. Its core capabilities include natural gas gathering, transportation, compression, treating and processing. EagleClaw has invested heavily in its operational capabilities.
The company’s expertise at building pipelines and plants, optimizing output, locating markets and structuring deals helps it to stay ahead of development schedules. It also helps customers move product to high-value markets by providing midstream services that are aligned with their fundamental business objectives.
Today, EagleClaw owns and operates natural gas gathering and processing facilities primarily in Reeves County, Texas. These facilities serve producers targeting stacked pay zones in the Delaware Basin, including the Upper and Middle Wolfcamp, Bone Spring and the Avalon Shale formations. The company has 332 total miles of pipeline and 30,360 total field compression horsepower with a total processing capacity of 120,000 MMcf/d and a total processing capacity under construction of 200 MMcf/d.
“We’ve seen drilling activity around us increase at a time when much of the nation has shut down,” Milam says. “We’ve also seen pipe installation costs drop dramatically. That is what has allowed us to grow and make significant investments and acquisitions.”
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Contour Highwall Mining looks for new opportunities to help coal mining operations worldwide.
By Chris Petersen
The energy market in the United States has been in a state of flux for the last few years as the federal government has attempted to focus on alternatives to traditional fuels like coal. For companies that serve the coal mining industry like West Virginia-based Contour Highwall Mining, the current climate has made it necessary to seek new opportunities outside of the United States. CEO Dave Bundy says that although the company sees a few signs that the coal industry is starting to recover from the downturn of the last several years, Contour Highwall Mining isn’t betting everything on the domestic market.
Bundy started out in the auger mining business in 1985, serving the coal industry in Pennsylvania for many years before branching out into West Virginia, Virginia, Alabama and Kentucky. In 2000, Bundy formed Contour Highwall Mining to provide highwall mining services to coal mining companies. Since then, the company has bolstered its services by acquiring a total of 10 highwall mining companies, providing Contour Highwall Mining with extensive capabilities and an extensive footprint in the coal mining industry. “We’re basically a support for highwall mining, with the addition of our rebuild shop,” Bundy says.
Contour Highwall Mining has been able to weather the storms currently affecting the coal industry so far thanks to its stellar track record and proprietary technology, according to Bundy. Nevertheless, the company is preparing for the future by looking at international markets. Bundy says the company hopes the expansion will open up new opportunities and drive its continued success in the future.
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Babcock Power continues to innovate in the mature environmental services and equipment market.
By Tim O’Connor
The world keeps getting a little cleaner every day. The Clean Air Act of 1970 and its updates in 1977 and 1990 set the standards for pollutants and the responsibilities that companies had to the environment. The law also created opportunity for businesses that could help manufacturers and energy produces adhere to those standards by providing and installing pollutant-reducing equipment.
The global market for selective catalytic reduction (SCR) systems for coal-fired plants was projected to grow 8.4 percent between 2013 and 2018, according to a 2014 study by firm Research and Markets. SCR systems use a chemical reaction to break down nitrogen oxide gas into water vapor and nitrogen
It is within this emissions control space that Babcock Power Environmental has focused its efforts for the past two decades. The OEM provides complete solutions for the world’s power generation, industrial, environmental and waste-to-energy markets. Much of its work involves designing and installing equipment for coal-fired plants, which are subject to tight emissions control. Those regulations can change depending not only on scientific understanding but which politicians are in office at the time.
To best serve its customers, Babcock Power must stay ahead of those changing standards. “We react to regulations that are promulgated in Washington,” Babcock Power Environmental President Jim Dougherty says. “We adjust our markets based on the regulations and the needs of the industry.”
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