Member profile: Sapphire Gas Solutions

Above: Sapphire Gas Solutions partnered with sister company, Mesa Natural Gas Solutions, to provide clean, reliable fuel and power to the Arizona hot-mix plant pictured above. Sapphire has many permanent LNG installations located throughout the United States.

Sapphire Gas Solutions

CalAPA member, Blue Road Solutions merges with Thigpen Solutions to become Sapphire Gas Solutions — a nationwide leader in the mobile, off-pipe natural gas industry

By Brian Hoover, CMS

BP Energy Partners has announced the merger of Dallas, TX-based Blue Roads Solutions and Conroe, TX-based Thigpen Solutions, to become Sapphire Gas Solutions. As an innovative, full-service leader in the virtual pipeline industry, Sapphire Gas Solutions (Sapphire) is led by Thigpen founder and CEO, Sam Thigpen. Blue Road’s own, Justin Cordon, has been named chief integration officer for Sapphire, as the new company leverages Blue Roads' distribution capabilities with Thigpen's service expertise. "This expands the capabilities of the two firms from regional delivery to a nationwide presence, with our promise of best-in-class service," said Sam Thigpen, CEO of Sapphire Gas Solutions. "We will offer a greater set of solutions to our diverse and expanding customer base. Additionally, by combining these two service-oriented companies, we can create opportunities for operational efficiencies as they arise."

Thigpen was founded in Oct. 2005 and gained notoriety by fueling drilling rigs and hydraulic fracturing pumps with natural gas. They quickly became known as one of the leading natural gas fueling providers while working in many shale plays throughout North America. They eventually shifted their focus to providing natural gas via virtual pipeline CNG and LNG solutions. Blue Roads has assisted in numerous industrial applications, increasing their operational industry standards along the way. Their focus in California has been on the asphalt and aggregate industries, and this will continue with even more assets and enthusiasm through this recent merger.

Sapphire customizes their systems for each individual customer. Pictured inset above is a mobile asphalt plant in Texas with a mobile LNG fueling system that follows the plant wherever it goes.

Due to ongoing regulatory challenges concerning installing new gas pipelines, many businesses and utilities are seeking off-pipe deliveries of natural gas, known as virtual pipelines. These natural gas solutions typically provide utilities and other distribution companies with mobile natural gas support and peak-shaving capabilities. Blue Roads Solutions became one of the first such companies to fuel an asphalt plant with LNG, displacing highcarbon intensity waste oil and diesel in the process. The new company, Sapphire Gas Solutions, will provide turn-key siting, design, installation, monitoring, and operation of remote and unmanned fueling systems utilizing LNG (liquified natural gas) and CNG (compressed natural gas). The merger to become Sapphire Gas Solutions will strengthen the focus of serving the asphalt and aggregate markets with a broader platform of LNG and now CNG. Sapphire will also continue to serve the oil and gas sector, utilities, industrial companies, and remote power installations across the United States.

While asphalt is a primary focus for Sapphire, they also provide winter peak shaving and supplemental gas supply for pipelines in the forms of CNG and LNG. Above is a CNG layout and to the side is a LNG layout.

The new company will provide turn-key siting, design, installation, monitoring, and remote and unmanned fueling systems utilizing natural gas. Walker Steward is one of Blue Roads Solutions' founders and is the business development director for Sapphire Gas Solutions. "We remain focused and committed to the asphalt and aggregate industry in California and beyond. Our past legacy customers are still a major focus of our new company," says Steward. "This merger only strengthens our capabilities with the addition of CNG to our offerings. It also enhances our ability to deliver turn-key fuel systems to a wider variety of companies seeking to utilize environmentally friendly and operationally efficient natural gas."

According to Thigpen, aggregate and asphalt industries have been keen to pursue natural gas alternatives to previous solutions like diesel, recycled fuel and waste oil, which has already been outlawed in California. "Historically and when off utilities, alternative power consumers have turned to diesel generator technology. From an emissions perspective, there is a huge benefit to moving over to natural gas," says Thigpen. "This includes the benefit of largely reduced emissions, and depending on current diesel prices, substantial economic savings as well."

Sapphire’s first asphalt plant installation in Texas that continues to provide clean fuel for the hot-mix plant today.

Blue Roads Solutions has been a member of the California Asphalt Pavement Association (CalAPA) since early 2019. "We had been talking with the folks at CalAPA since our inception in 2016 and then joined as a member early last year. We were looking to keep our finger on the pulse of what was going on in the California construction and paving industry. We also wanted to gain exposure to the producer members that can benefit most from our preferred natural gas solutions," says Steward. "The Vulcan Materials operation in San Bernardino has been a customer since 2016, and we are talking with several other producer members in California. Our membership in CalAPA was an obvious and intelligent decision that is already paying off in many ways."

Steward further explains that the Vulcan Materials’ San Bernardino operation is a portable plant, while having many other stationary and portable asphalt plants located throughout the state. "We have successfully provided and maintained a virtual pipeline solution of natural gas for Vulcan that has increased their overall efficiency and uptime while lowering their emissions and environmental impact at their San Bernardino plant," continues Steward. "Our project at Vulcan's San Bernardino plant is winding down right now, but they are looking at some additional work soon for this particular facility. There are a lot of lane miles being paved in California right now, and we forecast that our services will increase exponentially along with this tremendous growth."

Sapphire has a vast LNG and CNG trucking fleet to meet their customer’s fueling demands. See a small glimpse at their fleet above.

Both Thigpen and Blue Roads were wholly owned by BP Energy Partners, a middle-market private equity firm focused on the energy industry. Now operating as Sapphire Gas Solutions, the new investment portfolio will continue to benefit from BP Energy Partners growth capital across a wide range of energy-dependent industries. BP Energy Partners brings operating experience, knowledge, relationships and management expertise, in addition to capital, to partner with entrepreneurs, familyrun businesses, and management teams to grow investments in the energy space.

Along with the merger and introduction of Sapphire Gas Solutions comes certain additional assets and benefits to bolster former entities' customer bases. This includes the availability of approximately 30 LNG delivery transports that deliver throughout the United States daily. It also consists of a little over 20 active field service technicians from Thigpen's heavy field service legacy business. "We can respond to customer's immediate needs, with our new larger footprint and faster response times," says Thigpen. "We are all very excited about this new merger and look forward to introducing all of the new benefits of the new Sapphire Gas Solutions branding." For more information on Sapphire Gas Solutions, please visit their website at www.sapphiregassolutions.com or call their corporate offices in Conroe, TX at 855-564-3722. CA

Brian Hoover is co-owner of Construction Marketing Services, LLC, and editor of CalContractor Magazine.