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Technology in the Oil Fieled
GOCO puts the oil field directory at you finger tips - pg. 6
Energy activity on the rise
UBM
With the rise in oil price industry moves forward - pg. 10
J&C Crane
UBMedia's
Keeping hopes high i a down economy-pg. 16
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UINTAH BASIN STANDARD / VERNAL EXPRESS
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6: Oil field directory goes digital 8: Star Point Enterprises 10: Activity on the rise 13: SITLA helps schools 16: J&C keeping hopes high 18: Titan weathers the storm 20: Crus Oil serves the Basin
22: Ute Tribe on wind power 25: Enefit project moves forward 27: UBATC stackable automation 4 - ubmedia.biz
Welcome to the fall Issue of Profiles in Energy Welcome to the 2016 fall edition of Profiles in Energy. In this issue you will find some great articles that center around the energy industry, but more importantly is what these article represent. That being progress, innovation and resilliance. Starting out with Cort Pierce, who is the founder and CEO of GOCO Energy, a web-based energy business directory service with mobile and desktop offerings. Pierce, who has spent most his life in Vernal, created GOCO with the vision of creating a modern, more efficient version of paper directories he used growing up. Next up we have Don Hamilton, who is a permitting agent for the oil and gas industry. Hamilton is keenly aware of the level of energy activity lying in the Uintah Basin’s future because he helps facilitate it. If you want to know how the industry in the Basin is doing and where we are headed, you might want to listen to what Hamilton has to say. According to Hamilton, in the last year we have seen a gradual increase in activity and those companies that financially weathered the recent downturn in prices have realized prices are stabilizing at lower levels than expected and they will need to figure out how to profitably operate with $50-per-barrel oil and $3.25-per-million-British-thermal-unit (mBtu) natural gas. Words of wisdom, we are sure. Titan Truck Repair owner James Reynolds said he had a decision to make a couple of years ago. He could have stayed with a company that was leaving the Basin or he could hang on and find another way to make a living. His decision was to stay in the Basin and turn what had become a lemon into lemonade. True moxy. It is not just our local companies that benefit from resource developement. The money generated from oil and gas travels far and wide. The School Institutional Trust Lands Administration (SITLA) is a mystery to many people. SITLA lands in the state of Utah have become ever more important in the energy industry. Presently, SITLA manages Utah’s 3.4 million acres of trust land generating revenue through oil, gas, and mineral leases, rent, and royalties; real estate development and sales; and surface estate sales, leases, and easements. The School and Institutional Trust Funds Office, invests the endowments, and annual interest and dividends are distributed to each beneficiary. Revenue generated from school trust lands is transferred into the Permanent School Fund, growing the endowment for public schools. Since 1994, SITLA has generated $1.4 billion in revenue to help grow the Permanent School Fund from $50 million 20 years ago to more than $2 billion today. Speaking of school, we also have our own Uintah Basin Applied Technology College that is looking toward the future. UBATC has been able to create a stackable program with Utah Stat University through their automation program. Now students can work toward an associates degree and be better prepared for a career in the oil and gas industry. Take a look through these pages. We are sure you will like what you see. For us putting this issue together only reaffirmed what we have known all along. The Basin will survive because of its peolple and their ability to adapt and overcome. Now, let’s get to work.
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JOSHUA MURDOCK, UB MEDIA
Cort Pierce, photographed here on Oct. 5, 2016, is the founder and CEO of GOCO Energy, a web-based energy business directory service with mobile and desktop offerings. Pierce, who has spent most his life in Vernal, created GOCO with the vision of creating a modern, more efficient version of paper directories he used growing up.
Oilfield directory goes digital with GOCO Energy
Joshua Murdock jmurdock@ubmedia.biz
Advances in technology have long helped the oil and gas industry in exploration, extraction, transport, refining and distribution, but the way companies connect has long remained the same while everything else progresses. Vernal resident Cort Pierce is out to change that. GOCO Energy, Pierce’s company, is an online directory of oil and gas companies cataloged not just by company name, but also by the products and services a company provides. With a desktop version and mobile app, GOCO Energy allows users to discover companies providing what a user seeks in a specified geographic area. For decades, business owners and managers had vast collections of business cards, a Rolodex of numbers, printed directories of businesses and a mental catalog of what each of those companies provided. If the person who remembered what each company did was unavailable, everyone else was out of luck. Pierce experienced this firsthand working for his uncle in the Basin’s oilfields.
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“I always thought it was funny how he had this huge Rolodex on his desk and if he needed to call anybody, he would just flip to that business card,” recounted Pierce. “Well, if my uncle Glade was out of town or gone, everyone would just be like, ‘Well, I dunno who does that. We have to call Glade or find out what’s going on.’” Pierce saw the problems caused by the “closed-loop system” of company relations and thought, “There’s got to be a better way to help everyone in the oil and gas industry know what everybody does.” He also saw how inefficient it was to catalog companies by name, which often tells little about what a company does, rather than by keywords of a company’s products and services. The tipping point came when Pierce was at an exploration company’s safety meeting in Wyoming that got interrupted when a superintendent discovered one of their fracking jobs was short two manifolds. “They were hot-shotting some manifolds in from like three hours away. I was on the back wall going, ‘Hey, my Excel spreadsheet [says] this company just down the road, they have manifolds.’ And everyone just kind of laughed SEE GOCO on 7
GOCO
in Greeley,’ or, ‘Hey, we want or list a company in Gillette, or North Dakota, or wherever,’ and then people would hear about us there – it just kind of grew,” said Pierce. “So, we’re mostly up and down Rocky Mountain region.” Pierce also believed his directory can help more efficiently connect companies during the downturn in oil and gas prices. “For a couple hundred dollars or a couple thousand dollars a year, depending on where they want to rank, we could potentially get [a company] two or three jobs extra a year without having to pay a salesman $60,000 to go hand out a thousand business cards a year,” said Pierce. “Some of these companies are getting 2,000 to 10,000 hits a month on their listings.”
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at me in there because I’m this outsider from Utah at a safety meeting in Wyoming, none of them even know who I am, and I’m telling this guy there’s manifolds just down the road. And so, he wanted to make an example out of me, so he put the phone on speaker and called the guys, and they’re a water company, ‘Hey, I have this guy here that says you do manifolds and you rent ‘em.’ And the guy’s like, ‘Yeah, what do you need?’ So, he gets the guy, tells him to cancel the hot shot, which just the run alone was probably going to be about $2,500 plus the equipment. And then the guy on the phone was like, ‘Well, we’re doing the water for that job anyway; we’ll just throw the manifolds in for free.’” After saving the day in Wyoming, a contractor at the meeting approached Pierce about making sure his company appeared at the top of the list in Pierce’s directory, which is when Pierce knew he had to make his directory public. He decided it would be free to view the directory or to list a company, but that companies could pay to ensure their listing appeared higher than others or be guaranteed to appear first. Companies would be searchable by location and services they provide. In the fall of 2011, the website began to take shape and Pierce had already sold priority listings to businesses in the Basin on the condition of a full refund should the site not launch. But on Feb. 1, 2012, the site went live and began connecting businesses around the Basin. Pierce’s directory wasn’t limited to the Basin for long. “It started in the Basin, then by default – ‘Hey, we want to list a company
With thousands of business listed, Pierce is always pushing more companies to create a free profile, noting that the only cost associated with the directory is optional listing priority. However, in an industry that has seen business contact methods remain unchanged for decades, many are hesitant to adopt the new technology. “It’s funny, I have a tech company and I have to drive and explain it to guys who don’t even have email, or they do have an email but they don’t use them,” said Pierce. “There’s this huge gap. Most of my sales right now are face-to-face because I’m having to convince these guys, ‘Listen, this is a better way; it’s not going to change the old way.’ But the newer generation that’s coming up, some of the decision makers 40 and younger, you tell them phone book or directory and they just look at you.”
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Star Point Enterprises guides Basin energy activity Joshua Murdock jmurdock@ubmedia.biz
The oil and gas industry in the Uintah Basin has been a roller coaster of boom and bust in recent years, with prices hitting record highs and unthinkable lows with barely a couple of years between. Few people know that cycle better than Don Hamilton, a permitting agent and owner of Star Point Enterprises. As a permitting agent, Hamilton is keenly aware of the level of energy activity lying in the Basin’s future because he helps facilitate it. “On the permitting side of things and on the surface use side of things, a lot of times we will see the uptick,” said Hamilton. “We’re the first ones to get laid down when it slows down, but we’re the first ones to go back to work when things pick up.” Hamilton sees himself and his
company, which is based out of Moab, going back to work in the Basin, where most of Star Point’s oil and gas customers operate. “In the last year, what we have seen is a gradual increase in activity,” said Hamilton. Hamilton explained that companies that financially weathered the recent downturn in prices have realized prices are stabilizing at lower levels than expected and they will need to figure out how to profitably operate with $50-per-barrel oil and $3.25-permillion-British-thermal-unit (mBtu) natural gas. While prices wildly fluctuated in 2015 and into 2016, they stabilized during the middle of the year, allowing companies to trepidatiously move forward. “It was just craziness with the oil prices; I mean, none of the models made sense. Come about midyear, pricing seemed to at least fit the models again and things began to stabiSEE STAR POINT on 9
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As a permitting agent, Hamilton is keenly aware of the level of energy activity lying in the Basin’s future because he helps facilitate it.
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lize, and with that, funded companies started moving ahead a little bit,” said Hamilton. “I think we have recently seen a little uptick based on predictions that oil prices are not going to improve like a lot of the early predictions did.” As of Oct. 18, 2016, New York Mercantile Exchange (NYMEX) prices for oil and gas were $50.78 per barrel and $3.26 per mBtu, respectively. Although this is far less than the highs seen within the past decade and significantly lower than early 2015 predictions for late 2016, there’s a silver lining to companies being forced to operate under challenging pricing, said Hamilton. “You know, for so long, there was a lot of inefficiencies in the entire industry. The other thing that we’re seeing is the industry was the highest leveraged industry on the planet and historically has been that way,” said Hamilton. “The silver lining is when we emerge from this, the strongest of the companies and contractors will emerge and they’ll be stronger for it – stronger financially, stronger efficiency also.” Not only are companies more cautious - and more efficient - with their borrowing, but they’re also adding more efficiency to the exploration process. “They are looking for better efficiencies
in their entire operation and looking to conserve capital,” said Hamilton. “We see things, rather than just going out and permitting a bunch of new wells, we go back through old permits, move things around and change things, because they can do that at a lower cost. On the production side, rather than doing an expensive well treatment, you go in and maybe do a less expensive or remedial type treatment.” Hamilton himself has been forced to explore other avenues for his business during the downturn in oil and gas, including venturing back into Star Point’s roots in mining. “When we were $100 oil, our work was 80 percent upstream, 10 percent midstream and 10 percent other. Right now, our work is 80 percent mining and 20 percent oil and gas,” said Hamilton. “So, what we have done to keep us robust is we have diversified into the lithium mining boom going on right now.” But as oil and gas interest slowly returns to the Basin, Hamilton is at the forefront of the renewed activity, providing comprehensive predrilling solutions for producers, as he has since founding Star Point in 1999. “Our company focuses on an A-to-Z ahead of the drill rig,” said Hamilton. “We pride ourselves in having an A-to-Z service where we help you with your initial leases, lease stipulations; we help put together the permit packages, all of the surface use, everything needed to drill the well, help find water sources, contractors – so that’s how we pride ourselves.”
“It was just craziness with the oil prices; I mean, none of the models made sense. Come about midyear, pricing seemed to at least fit the models again and things began to stabilize, and with that, funded companies started moving ahead a little bit. I think we have recently seen a little uptick based on predictions that oil prices are not going to improve like a lot of the early predictions did.”
-Don Hamilton
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Courtesy of the state of Utah
A map produced by the state of Utah shows active oil and gas wells, as well as oil and gas fields, in the Uintah Basin. Gas wells, represented by green dots, are found mostly in central Duchesne and Uintah counties while oil wells, represented by red dots, are found mostly in southern Uintah County and Carbon County.
Oil and gas activity slowly rises as prices stabilize Joshua Murdock jmurdock@ubmedia.biz
Oil and gas activity may be returning to the Uintah Basin after prices generally trended upward through the middle of 2016. While applications for permit to drill (APD) numbers, rig counts and drilling activity have yet to show a major uptick, companies less impacted by 2014’s price crash are cautiously moving forward with activity in the Basin. The price of crude oil, which was more than $100 per barrel as recently as
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mid-2014, was $50.23 per barrel as of Oct. 17, 2016. Crude prices mostly rose in2016, starting the year around $42 per barrel and hitting a year-to-date low of barely $34 per barrel in mid-January. The past 10 weeks saw crude rise nearly $10 per barrel from slightly more than $41 per barrel in early August. The price of natural gas, which reached an all-time high of $15.39 per million British thermal unit (mBtu) in December 2005 and was more than $13 per mBtu in early 2008 before crashing to less than $4 per mBtu, was $3.26 per mBtu as of Oct. 17. Prices have been trending steadily upward since the last week of Febru-
SEE ACTIVITY on 12
Screenshot of Baker Hughes Interactive Rig Map
A map produced by Baker Hughes shows Utah’s four drilling rigs, all of which are currently operating in the Uintah Basin. All four are drilling for oil, three horizontal and one directional.
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ACTIVITY
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ary 2016 when gas was barely $2.20 per mBtu. The Basin, which once boasted more than two-dozen drilling rigs in many years since 2000, currently has four rigs - two in each Uintah and Duchesne counties. Despite the rig count being a fraction of past years, rigs are slowly returning to activity in the Basin after not a single one was active in either county in February 2016. Statewide, APDs fell from 2,105 in 2012 to 570 in 2015 and 188 by the end of September 2016. Fifty-one of those APDs in 2016 were submitted to the Vernal field office of the Bureau of Land Management. The same office fielded more than 1,000 APDs in 2012 and 566 in 2014. However, APD count has jumped in the Basin in the past three months. As of July 18, the office had approved only seven APDs. As of Oct. 17, 48 wells had been spudded in Utah during 2016 with 45 of those in the Basin. Drilling increased throughout the year, with spudding rising from less than five wells per month through May to 11 wells in August and seven in September. Permitting agent Don Hamilton, owner of Star Point Enterprises, said that companies that remained financially secure through the downturn are able to take advantage of the year’s relative stabilization and gradual upward trend. He indicated that companies wouldn’t be making nearly the profits they’d seen in years past but that low prices have forced them to be more efficient, allowing for profitable operation with $50-per-barrel oil and $3-per-mBtu gas. “In the last year, what we have seen is a gradual increase in activity,” said Hamilton. “Early on in the year, I think it was mostly just attributed to the oil price stabilizing, so the supply and demand curves for oil started matching up around midyear.” Hamilton believed the slow increase in activity would continue, explaining, “I think toward the fourth quarter of this year, what we’ve seen is companies saying, ‘Ok guys, it’s going to be flat for the next couple years; we’re going to go broke if we stagnate, so we have to do something.’ So, what we’re seeing right
As of Oct. 17, 48 wells had been spudded in Utah during 2016 with 45 of those in the Basin. Drilling increased throughout the year, with spudding rising from less than five wells per month through May to 11 wells in August and seven in September.
now is funded companies conservatively moving ahead.” Cort Pierce, founder and CEO of digital oil and gas directory GOCO Energy, said activity is slowly rising in the Basin, noting that Basin and Rocky Mountain region rig counts were up over the past few months. “I’ve seen a little bit of an uptick in about the last two months,” said Pierce. “I think things will start coming back in the next year – not crazy, not a huge boom, but we’re already starting to see things up.” Note: All prices are in New York Mercantile Exchange (NYMEX) values.
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At $2.08 billion, the Permanent State School Fund is the state’s largest land grant trust fund. Interest and dividends are distributed directly to schools statewide each year through the School LAND Trust Program.
Gas/Oil production aides schools through SITLA revenues By Richard Shaw Contributing writer The School Institutional Trust Lands Administration (SITLA) is a mystery to many people. In fact before only a few years ago most had not even heard of the agency. But with changes in Federal land use policies and restrictions coming down the pike on Federal land use almost yearly, SITLA lands in the state of Utah become ever more important in the energy industry. State trust lands have been around since Utah became a state in 1896. At that time Congress granted parcels of land to Utah and created permanent endowments to support public and higher education in Utah. Trust land parcels were allocated by apportioning the state into townships, each six by six miles, and dividing each township into 36 square-mile sections. Utah was given sections 2, 16, 32 and 36 in each township to support state institu-
tions, including public schools, hospitals, teaching colleges, and universities. So while other state agencies are involved, consequently 96 percent of the money generated from these lands goes to public schools. The division of the lands across the state by government has resulted in a checkerboard of land ownership, which is sometimes confusing to people. Presently, SITLA manages Utah’s 3.4 million acres of trust land generating revenue through oil, gas, and mineral leases, rent, and royalties; real estate development and sales; and surface estate sales, leases, and easements. The School and Institutional Trust Funds Office invests the endowments and annual interest and dividends are distributed to each beneficiary. Revenue generated from school trust lands is transferred into the Permanent School Fund, growing the endowment for public schools. Since 1994, SITLA has generated $1.4 billion in revenue to help grow the Permanent School Fund SEE SITLA on 14
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State Institutional Trust Lands Administration (SITLA) lands, represented in light blue, are sections two, 16, 23 and 26 of many townships of federal land within the state of Utah. SITLA was created and given those lands in the Enabling Act, which also created the state of Utah. In some areas, SITLA lands have been consolidated into large blocks.
SITLA
Continued from 13
from $50 million 20 years ago to more than $2 billion today. Because these lands are held in trust, they differ greatly from public lands, and are more like private lands. Only about six percent of the state’s acreage is set aside as trust lands to generate revenue for the beneficiaries. The money that comes from the Trust Lands Administration allows schools to have funds to do things that they are not able to pay for out of the regular public school budgets. How that money is spent is determined by a system of School Community Councils that are set up in each school. These councils consist of parents, the principal and at least one school employee. There may be more members of the council, but that is the minimum
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required by state law. However the numbers of parents on the council must exceed the number of school employees by at least two. Once established for the year school councils prepare a School Improvement Plan and choose academic needs and goals from that plan, so a focus is formed as to where the trust land money is spent. The councils determine themselves what they need and then they present the plans to the local school board for approval. Once approved the money will come to the individual schools. The amount of money that is appropriated to schools has increased considerably over the past decade and a half. It was shortly before that increase began that the state came up with the concept of the School Community Councils to determine how the money should be spent. Prior to that time the SEE SITLA on 15
SITLA
Continued from 14
money went into a type of general fund that was divided up but it did not go to specific schools. “Hiring teachers and aides to reduce class sizes, and investing in classroom technology are often priorities for many schools,” said Tim Donaldson, Director of the School Children’s Trust at the Utah State Board of Education. “However, all academic programs, from reading and math tutoring to language and college prep courses, can be funded with school trust funds.” At $2.08 billion, the Permanent State School Fund is the state’s largest land grant trust fund. Interest and dividends are distributed directly to schools statewide each year through the School LAND Trust Program. The money is appropriated somewhat like the Weighted Pupil Unit (WPU) that is used by the state for general funds in that the amount of money a school gets is determined by the number of students it has. The average per-pupil distribution for the past school year was $73 dollars per student. The average state wide distributions for the 2015-2016 school year was $44,200 for elementary schools, $62,300 for the average junior high/middle school and $74,400 for the average high school. For the 2016-17 school year local districts will receive a total of
$1,200,238 from the trust. That includes $120,153 for Daggett, $462,684 for Duchesne and $617,401 for Uintah School Districts. This November, voters will be asked to consider Constitutional Amendment B, Utah School Funds Modification, which was endorsed by the state legislature during the 2016 General Session. If passed by voters, the amendment will create a new formula for distributing annual earnings that considers enrollment growth and inflation, and includes a three-year average of fund growth to offset market volatility. “We are dedicated to maintaining the Fund’s long-term viability for the schoolchildren of today and the future and are pleased to see its sustained and increased growth,” said David Crandall, Chair of the Utah State Board of Education. The trust is run by a board that includes two local men, James M. Lekas who is the chair of the board at the present time, and board member Scott O. Ruppe. Both are from Vernal. Also on the board are Thomas W. Bachtell (Salt Lake), Lonnie M. Bullard (Farmington), Roger E. Barrus (Centerville), Donald G. Foot (Fruit Heights) and Michael Mower of the governors office (Salt Lake). Overall, besides the 3.4 million surface and subsurface acres SITLA manages, it also manages an additional 1.1 million acres of mineral estate for its beneficiaries.
“Hiring teachers and aides to reduce class sizes, and investing in classroom technology are often priorities for many schools. However, all academic programs, from reading and math tutoring to language and college prep courses, can be funded with school trust funds.”
-Tim Donaldson, Director of the School Children’s Trust at the Utah State Board of Education.
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JOSHUA MURDOCK, UB MEDIA
J&C Enterprises Inc., a transport and crane company in Vernal, is not only surviving the downturn but also remaining optimistic throughout. Founded in 1982 by current owner Charlie Lewis and his father, J&C Enterprises is no stranger to the industry’s ups and downs.
J&C Enterprises keeps hopes high while prices are down Joshua Murdock jmurdock@ubmedia.biz
While transnational exploration companies may be the names emblazoned on trucks filling hotel parking lots during oil and gas booms in the Uintah Basin, it’s often family-owned businesses that make up the support network of companies providing goods and services to the energy extraction companies in the region, and those local businesses can’t pack up and leave when prices plummet as they have in the past 18 months. While some businesses
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have been forced to close, others have cut back and remained viable. J&C Enterprises Inc., a transport and crane company in Vernal, is not only surviving the downturn but also remaining optimistic throughout. Founded in 1982 by current owner Charlie Lewis and his father, J&C Enterprises is no stranger to the industry’s ups and downs. Born and raised in Kansas, Lewis and his father later moved to northeast Oregon to ranch cattle. Shortly thereafter, livestock prices crashed and the family decided to try their hand in servicing the oil and gas industry. After SEE CRANE on 17
CRANE
“In ’82 when we moved in here it was $28-$32 [per barrel of oil] and I would say today we’re probably able to produce oil, per barrel, cheaper than we were in ’82. I’m optimistic and have to be, as a business owner, or I might as well shut the doors.”
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moving to Vernal to found J&C Enterprises, energy prices crashed. “Everybody wanted to know what I went into next so they could stay out of it,” joked Lewis. Through the years, Lewis, his wife Denise and their sons CJ and Ryan built a company serving Utah, Nevada, Wyoming and Colorado. The company even operated in North Dakota from 2010 through 2013 when the Bakken field boomed and the Basin lagged. Despite the Basin’s turbulent oil and gas economy, Charlie Lewis said the current downturn is the worst. “Oh, I think it’s way worse,” said Charlie Lewis. “Usually, in the past, either oil or gas would be going. Like in ’08, it was terrible, too, but it wasn’t like this one because it wasn’t everywhere.” Now, unlike in 2008 and past Basin busts, there’s no profitability for the company to do work elsewhere. “We’ve been over in the DJ [Basin] and done some work there,” said Charlie Lewis. “Guys [are] just literally giving a rig move away just to get the work. What should’ve been $200,000 came in at $50,000 or $60,000. I doubt they even paid their wages or fuel. Thank goodness some of those guys are going away; they went broke or went home back to Canada or wherever they were from.” For now, J&C Enterprises is taking whatever work it can find around the Basin. “There’s just nowhere that you’re going to be able to go and compete against local people because there’s not enough profit in it to warrant hous-
ing; it’s not there,” said Charlie Lewis. As Denise Lewis explained, the most difficult part of the downturn has been laying off employees. “It wasn’t until the end of 2015 that we finally had to make a reduction in our force because we just didn’t see it improving,” said Denise Lewis. “And that was really a hard call. And we feel like, unfortunately, in a way you become a family. And it’s a good thing and a bad thing, because the culture of your company, you want everybody to feel like they’re part of something but then when you have to make those decisions, it can be the most heartbreaking thing that you have to do.” However, after streamlining their workforce from roughly 45 employees to around 15, the Lewises see oil and gas activity slowly returning to the Basin. “I think a lot of it’s going to depend on what happens in November if we get that Muslim out of [the White House] or not,” said Charlie Lewis. “And I think it’s just when everybody kind of gets used to the fact that [oil is] at $50 and they’re not making three-times the money on it, that they might go back to work a little bit.” Past downturns and subsequent rebounds leave Charlie Lewis optimistic for the future. “In ’82 when we moved in here it was $28-$32 [per barrel of oil] and I would say today we’re probably able to produce oil, per barrel, cheaper than we were in ’82,” said Charlie Lewis. “I’m optimistic and have to be, as a business owner, or I might as well shut the doors.”
-Charlie Lewis
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ROBERT DeBERRY, UB MEDIA
Owners James Reynolds (left) and Kristie Reynolds (right) pose in front of a truck at Titan Truck Service in Vernal, Utah, on Oct. 18, 2016.
Titan Truck repair weathers the storm
By Richard Shaw Contributing writer James Reynolds had a decision to make a couple of years ago. He could have stayed with a company that was leaving the Uintah Basin (Gold Spur Trucking) or he could hang on and find another way to make a living. His decision was to stay in the Basin and turn what had become a lemon and turn it into lemonade. “The shop was here and the equipment was here, so I thought I would just open my own operation,” he said in an interview in October. “Titan Truck Repair now fixes just about everything from tractors, to light duty vehicles to
18 - ubmedia.biz
large rigs.” Titan is a Navistar (International) dealer, but they work on Cummins, Cat and Detroit power units. While not owned by Rush Trucking out of Salt Lake, the firm is an associate dealer for the company. Reynolds has been working with large rig equipment for 20 years. During that time he has done just about everything that needs to be done on those types of units. Originally from Michigan, he moved to the Wasatch Front as a child and eventually went to Salt Lake Community College to learn his trade. Titan’s shop, located at 1382 East 1300 South, in Vernal, has three bays and does a lot of road work with their two service vehicles. Reynolds employs five people including himself. That total includes his two techs and office staff which includes his wife, Kristie. SEE TITAN on 19
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TITAN
Continued from 18
“We do monthly training with Navistar,” said Reynolds. “We also have certifications on Cummins.” Reynolds said his business is a good mix of oil/gas field work and over-the-road units. “Right now the business is about 50 percent of each,” he said. “We also work on a lot of trucks for the Ute Tribe.” Reynolds loves the Basin. He said that if Gold Spur (now called TwinEagle) had stayed in town he would still be working for them because he wanted to reside in the area. While working for Gold Spur Reynolds opened new shops for the company in North Dakota and in Texas. He was gone for some considerable time doing that and those experiences helped him to realize how much he liked northeastern Utah. Reynolds said that the best thing about what he does is dealing with his customers. “I get to meet a lot of new people and I love giving them good customer service,” he stated. “We do what INTERNATIONAL TRUCK WARRANTY | ALL MAKES REPAIR | FABRICATION | TRAILER REPAIR it takes to make things right for them.” While the company is still young, it has seen INTERNATIONAL AND ALL-MAKES PARTS good growth since it opened, even in the depressed economy the area has faced. Reynolds said he thinks that has to do with the way he and his company treat people. INTERNATIONAL TRUCK WARRANTY | ALL MAKES REPAIR | FABRICATION | TRAILER REPAIR “There is nothing worse than not caring about JOSHUA MURDOCK, UB MEDIA TRUCK WARRANTY | ALL MAKES REPAIR | FABRICATION | TRAILER REPAIR INTERNATIONAL AND ALL-MAKES PARTS your customers when you are in business,” concludMechanic Kenny Stacey repairs the steering column for the truck behind him at Titan Truck Service in Vernal, ed Reynolds. INTERNATIONAL AND ALL-MAKES PARTS Utah, on Oct. 18, 2016.
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Rush Truck Centers is happy to announce that we’ve added Titan Truck Service in Vernal, Utah as an Associate Dealer for International Trucks. Titan Truck TITAN SERVICES IN VERNAL, UTAH repair and parts in addition Service will TRUCK now offer International Truck warranty to their existing parts TRUCK and service capabilities that include: all makes truck repair, INTERNATIONAL TRUCK WARRANTY | ALL MAKES REPAIR | FABRICATION | TRAILER REPAIR TITAN SERVICES IN VERNAL, UTAH TITAN TRUCK SERVICES VERNAL, UTAH fabrication, trailer repairPARTS andINall makes parts inventory. INTERNATIONAL AND ALL-MAKES TITAN TRUCK SERVICES IN VERNAL, UTAH INTERNATIONAL TRUCK WARRANTY | ALL MAKES REPAIR | FABRICATION | TRAILER REPAIR INTERNATIONAL TRUCK WARRANTY | ALL MAKES REPAIR | FABRICATION | TRAILER REPAIR rushtruckcenters.com INTERNATIONAL AND ALL-MAKES INTERNATIONAL TRUCK WARRANTY | ALL MAKES REPAIRPARTS | FABRICATION | TRAILER REPAIR INTERNATIONAL AND ALL-MAKES PARTS We feel confidentRush that we can work together with Titan Truck Services to extend Truck Centers is happy to announce that we’ve added Titan Truck Service We also service all INTERNATIONAL AND ALL-MAKES PARTS in Vernal, Utah as an Associate Dealer for International Trucks. Titan Truck
partsthat andService service support for International customers in the area. ers is happy to announce we’ve added Titan Truck Service will now offer International Truck warranty repair and parts in additionmakes of Cars, Light Duty Pickups, to their existingTrucks. parts and service as an Associate Dealer for International Titancapabilities Truck that include: all makes truck repair, and Construction fabrication, trailertoin repair and all makes inventory. Rush Truck Centers happy announce that we’veparts added Titan Truck Service offer International Truck warranty repair andis parts addition inadded Vernal, UtahTruck as makes an Associate Dealer for International Trucks. Titan Truck Equipment. uck Centers is happy tocapabilities announce that we’ve Titan Service TITAN TRUCK SERVICE arts and service that include: all truck repair, We feel confident that we can work together with Titan Truck extend Service Trucks. will nowTitan offer Truck International Truck warranty repair andServices parts in to addition nal, Utah as an Associate Dealer for International parts and service for International customers in the area. cation, trailer repairTruck and warranty all makes parts inventory. to their existing parts andsupport service capabilities that |include: all makes truck repair, will now offer International repair and parts in addition 1382 East 1300 South Vernal, UT
fabrication, trailer repair and all makes parts inventory. existing parts and service capabilities that include: all makes truck repair, fabrication, trailer repair and all makes parts inventory. TITANtoTRUCK SERVICE that we can work together with Titan Truck Services extend We feel confident that1382 we can work together Titan UT Truck Services to extend East 1300 South with | Vernal, parts and service support for International customers in the area. service support for International customers in the area. confident that we can work together with Titan Truck Services to extend Main | 435-260-7257 parts and service support for International customers in the area.
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through Friday 7am - 5pm 1300South South UT UT Main | 435-260-7257 in1300 Vernal, Utah |asVernal, anVernal, Associate DealerMonday for International Trucks. Titan Truck- 5pm 1382 1382 EastEast |Truck Monday through Friday 7am Rush Centers is happy to announce that we’ve added Titan Truck Service Main | 435-260-7257 Afterhours call out | 435-260-7257 | 435-828-7216 Service will now offer International repair parts in addition Rush Truck Centers is Truck happy warranty to announce thatand we’ve added Titan Truck Service Main | 435-260-7257 in Vernal, Utah as an Associate Dealer for International Trucks. Titan Truck Afterhours call out |existing 435-260-7257 | 435-828-7216 to their parts and service capabilities that include: all makes truck repair, in Vernal, Utah as an Associate Dealer for International Trucks. Titan Truck ubmedia.biz Service will now offer International Truck warranty repair and parts in addition HOURS rhours call out | 435-260-7257 | is435-828-7216 fabrication, repairInternational and makes parts inventory. Service willtrailer now offer Truck warranty repair added and partsTitan in addition Rush Truck Centers happy toallannounce that we’ve Truck Service
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to their existing and service capabilities that include: all makes truck repair, in Vernal, Utah asfabrication, anparts Associate Dealer International Trucks. Titan Truck trailer repair andfor all makes parts inventory.
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Crus Oil may have only had a warehouse presence in the Uintah Basin for a little over a dozen years, but their influence has been great. That impact is because of excellent customer service provided by the local staff.
Crus Oil serves the basin well
By Richard Shaw Contributing writer
Crus Oil may have only had a warehouse presence in the Uintah Basin for a little over a dozen years, but their influence has been great. That impact is because of excellent customer service provided by the local staff. “We have awesome customers,” said Kendra Slaugh one of the local sales representatives of the company. “We spend a lot of time checking on them to be sure they are getting what they need.” The company is a full-service wholesale oil and lubricating products pro-
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vider with its main office in Salt Lake. Founded in 1938, Crus Oil carries a complete line of most major oil company products. The company is a distributor and wholesaler for automotive oil, lubricating oil, commercial oil, industrial oil, some specialty products as well as auto chemicals and additives. “While we don’t sell fuel we provide just about everything else,” said Slaugh. Slaugh was one of the early employees of the company when they came to the Basin. She took a few years away to operate her own business, but then came back when the company asked if she knew anyone in the area that SEE CRUS OIL on 21
CRUS OIL
Continued from 20
would be good to represent Crus Oil when the position reopened. She suggested that she would like to come back and they rehired her. The operation in the Basin is a three person shop, with two operating out of the local office and one coming from Salt Lake to do deliveries and help customers. However while major deliveries in the Duchesne/Roosevelt area take place on Thursday and Vernal area orders are distributed on Friday, that doesn’t mean that customers can’t get what they need the rest of the week. “We have a well stocked warehouse right here in Vernal,” said Slaugh. “We can get product to people if they need it right away.” Allen Chantry is the driver who comes from Salt Lake each week. Slaugh said that he is very customer oriented and that he was the first person the company had dealing with customers when they began doing business in the Basin. The other employee of the company is Tyler Christofferson. He manages the local warehouse and also is a sales representative who takes care of customer needs. “The lines we carry are so diverse,” said Slaugh. “We even have car wash products and filters.” The company’s biggest customers are oil change services, trucking companies and agricultural operations. “We take great pride in the service we provide,” concluded Slaugh.
JOSHUA MURDOCK, UB MEDIA
Petroleum products awaiting distribution stand stacked inside Crus Oil in Vernal, Utah, pictured here on Oct. 17, 2016.
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Ute Tribe will collaborate on major wind energy project LeeNichole Marett lmarett@ubmedia.biz
In an effort to bring jobs, training and industry to the Uintah and Ouray Reservation, the Ute Tribe has signed on as a major collaborator in a project to bring wind energy from Wyoming to the southwestern United States. The TransWest Express (TWE) Transmission Project has been under development since 2005. The goal of the project is to harvest the renewable wind energy of southern Wyoming and deliver it via transmission line to densely populated areas in Nevada, Arizona and southern California. To do this, the transmission line will cross 730 miles, approximately 123 of which are located within or near the Uintah and Ouray Reservation in the Uintah Basin. According to TWE’s website, the goal of the project is to “contribute to a cleaner world, strengthen the electric grid and provide much-needed electricity to millions of homes and businesses every year.” The hub of the line will be located in southern Nevada, with target markets in Las Vegas, Los Angeles, San Diego and Phoenix. Because of its route through the Uintah Basin, TWE sought cooperation from the Ute Tribe on construction of the transmission line. According to a press release from the Tribe, the newly-signed coordination and partnership agreements state that TransWest and its subcontractors will “work to recruit, train and employ tribal members to maximize employment and advancement opportunities – not only for jobs to construct the TWE SEE TRIBE on 23
In an effort to bring jobs, training and industry to the Uintah and Ouray Reservation, the Ute Tribe has signed on as a major collaborator in a project to bring wind energy from Wyoming to the southwestern United States.
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TRIBE
River High School on Sept. 27, along with a job fair that evening for the public. Continued from 22 At the career day presentations, representatives from TWE, along with multiple other engineering, design and construction firms, Project but also for ongoing careers in spoke with students about how transmission the electric power and transmission lines are constructed, what apprenticeships industry.” and trainings are available, and what kind of The Ute Tribe Employment Rights jobs are expected to be created with the TWE Office (UTERO) will be working Transmission Project in the Uintah Basin. directly with TransWest to build The TWE Transmission Project, when careers for tribal members through complete, will have a 3,000 megawatt (MW) the project. Currently, the TWE capacity and a 600 kilovolt (kV) high-voltage, transmission line is scheduled for a direct current electric power transmission three-year construction timeline, and system. The route will spread over 730 miles is expected to create more than 1,000 of the southwestern United States, beginning jobs each year of its construction. in Wyoming and passing through Colorado, UTERO’s mission is to promote Utah and Nevada before terminating at a hub tribal self-sufficiency through adin southern Nevada. Construction will cost dressing employment needs. Most an estimated $3 billion and will take approximajor industries in the Uintah Basin mately three years to complete. have agreements in place with UTE According to the TWE website, the project RO, and TransWest’s will function in has six major objectives: 1) to broaden conthe same way. “UTERO and TransWest will Because of its route through the Uintah Basin, TWE sought cooperation sumers’ access to domestic, clean, renewable energy sources; 2) to contribute to meeting naclosely coordinate with each other from the Ute Tribe on construction of the transmission line. tional, regional and state environmental polithroughout the construction process cies, including renewable portfolio standards to connect qualified tribal members and greenhouse-gas reduction targets; 3) to help meet increasing customer to available construction-related jobs,” reads the Tribe’s press release on the demand with improved electrical system reliability; 4) to provide system project. “TransWest’s prime contractor will seek to retain qualified tribal flexibility and increased access to the grid for third-party transmission users; member-owned businesses as preferred subcontractors in this area (the Uin5) to expand regional economic development through increased employment tah and Ouray Reservation).” TransWest has already begun working with the Ute Tribe to promote awareness of the project and to educate tribal members on potential careers SEE TRIBE on 24 in the electric power industry. A career day was held for students at Uintah
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easements, but since it’s mostly crossing tribal lands, that may not even happen.” Continued from 23 Johnson says Moon Lake hasn’t been involved in discussions of the new transmission line at all, and that it will and enlargement of the property tax base; neither harm nor benefit current Moon and 6) to maintain the standard of living Lake Electric Association members. associated with highly reliable electricity “Their system will be direct curservice. rent, so it would cost us millions of dollars The largest benefits of the TWE Transmisto even connect,” said Johnson. “The sion Project to the Uintah Basin are econombenefits of this project that I see would ic. TWE anticipates that the construction all come from the thousands of jobs they of the line will create more than 1,000 jobs anticipate will be created during construcin Utah. Additionally, TransWest will pay tion. As far as power from the line, it property taxes in each state the line crosses, won’t benefit us. It shouldn’t impact us at leading to large tax revenues. all.” For example, the TWE website lists the The Ute Tribe was one of 49 estimated value of the Utah portion of the cooperating agencies that collaborated to line at between $487 million - $701 million, prepare the Environmental Impact Statemeaning that they would pay approximately Moon Lake hasn’t been involved in discussions of the new transmis$2.9 million - $4.2 million in property taxes sion line at all, and that it will neither harm nor benefit current Moon ment (EIS) for the TWE Transmission Project. The process was led by the Bureau each year. Additionally, sales and use taxes Lake Electric Association members. of Land Management and the Western of the Utah portion of the line have been Power Association, and its purpose was estimated at $5.3 million per year. These to determine a route for the transmission estimates do not include tax revenues and with the least detrimental impact to the environment of the areas through other economic benefits that may come from new local businesses and inwhich it would pass. The final EIS was published on May 1, 2015, and the vestments connected to the construction of the line. Record of Decision is expected this year. What impact will the project have on the local electricity market? Accord Once the Record of Decision is published, TWE will be clear to begin ing to Moon Lake Electric Association’s Manager of Personnel and Public construction. Construction of the 730-mile transmission line is scheduled to Relations, it’s unlikely that the local market will be impacted. take place from 2017-2019. “At this point, I don’t believe that we (Moon Lake Electric) will be im For more information about the TWE Transmission Project, including full pacted,” said Johnson. “The corridor for this project passes to the south of project history, estimated timeline and Environmental Impact Statement, our system, and its primary purpose is taking power to L.A. and Las Vegas. The only impact that I can foresee is that we may need to cooperate on some visit their website at www.transwestexpress.net.
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Enefit project moves forward despite challenges oil shale to meet energy needs and more than 30 years of experience producing liquid fuels jmurdock@ubmedia.biz from oil shale. The company, which is 100 years old in 2016, is considered a worldwide It’s no secret that the oil and gas economy leader in processing oil shale. Eesti Energia in the Uintah Basin is historically anemic, operates oil shale projects in Estonia and is although activity is slowly on the rise. But dedeveloping operations in Jordan, as well as spite the turbulent boom-bust cycle the region seeking to license its technology worldwide. has experienced the past few years, one unique Should it become reality, the South Project project by an Estonian company has been would directly employ more than 2,000 people, slowly moving forward. said Enefit CEO Rikki Hrenko-Browning, but Enefit American Oil, commonly called the project is far from fruition. Enefit, is owned by the Estonian state-owned “We have a long permitting and engineercompany Eesti Energia and hopes to develop a ing path in front of us and still need to ensure 30-year, 50,000-barrel-per-day oil shale facility adequate market conditions and financing to southeast of Bonanza, Utah. The facility would bring forward such a large-scale facility that entail 7,000-9,000 acres of surface mining, will involve a very large industrial mine as well reopening the White River Mine and constructas processing facility,” said Hrenko-Browning, JOSHUA MURDOCK, UB MEDIA ing a multi-billion-dollar oil shale retort plant. who noted that any start to physical work A 60-foot deep “box cut” of Mahogany Bed oil shale, which ap- would be years away. The plant would be the only one of its kind in pears as black horizontal stripes, on Enefit American Oil’s site One of the major obstacles Enefit must the U.S. in southeast Uintah County, pictured here on July 11, 2016. The overcome is acquiring rights of way for a utility Two-thirds of the proposed operation, box cut, which was blasted and excavated in three 20-foot steps, corridor across BLM land and the White River. known as the South Project, is on private land demonstrates the presence of oil shale in the area. acquired by Enefit in 2011. The remainder is The proposed utility corridor would consist leased from the Bureau of Land Management of 19 miles of water pipeline, nine miles of (BLM), State Institutional Trust Lands Adminnatural gas pipeline, 11 miles of oil pipeline, 30 istration (SITLA) and the Ute tribe. The surface mining and retort plant would miles of power lines and upgrades to Dragon Road. be constructed on Enefit’s private land. The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) recently released a scathing Eesti Energia has more than 80 years of experience commercially developing
Joshua Murdock
SEE ENEFIT on 26
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“It’s also important to note that the BLM’s DEIS finds that allowing the utility corridor to be built would Continued from 25 have less environmental impact than denying it, since the project would still be built and could be served by other means, such as by trucking in water and fuel and building an onsite power plant,” said Clerico. condemnation of the BLM’s draft environmental impact The EPA is now corroborating what environmental study (DEIS) of the proposed utility. The April 2016 DEIS groups have long said: that Enefit’s claim it will truck in indicated that the agency would likely approve the corridor. and out everything it needs to operate the South Project Rating it as “inadequate information” - the EPA’s worst rating is not a valid consideration for the no action alternative - EPA Region 8 Administrator Shaun McGrath said in a letter because Enefit has not proved it would be economically to BLM Utah State Director Jenna Whitlock that the DEIS possible to do so. was deficient in its analysis of the environmental impacts To be clear, rights of way for a utility corridor do not of the oil shale mines and processing plant that the utility permit the overall project, which also requires state mining corridor would enable. The DEIS focuses almost entirely on permits, air quality permits, and many other permits, but the impacts of the utility corridor itself and largely ignores the rights of way are another hurdle the project must clear to impacts of operations made possible by the corridor. move forward. Enefit argued that the DEIS adequately considered the Also, although the EPA recommended the BLM proestimated impacts of the proposed mine and plant, which it duce a Supplemental Environmental Impact Study, which says cannot be exactly quantified until the BLM approves the could take years to furnish, the BLM is not required to do utility corridor. so. The BLM could simply move forward as planned with “Consistent with the federal NEPA environmental review its Final EIS, which is expected mid-2017. process, the BLM’s DEIS does, however, consider potential in “We anticipate the BLM requesting additional infordirect and cumulative effects of the overall project based on a mation from Enefit in response to the EPA’s comments, so general description of the proposed plan and its key features, JOSHUA MURDOCK, UB MEDIA that BLM can improve their impact analysis in the Final which BLM requested and Enefit provided,” said acting CEO Ryan Clerico. A piece of oil shale from the Mahogany Bed Environmental Impact Statement,” said Clerico. “Enefit Another criticism of the DEIS was that it weighed only two on Enefit American Oil’s site in southeast has cooperated, and will continue to cooperate, with the options: approval of the proposed utility corridor and denial Uintah County, pictured here on July 11, BLM to ensure that the agency can make a reasoned and informed decision between alternatives on our utility corriof the corridor. The DEIS found denial of an energy corridor 2016. dor right-of-way request.” - the “no action alternative” - to be more environmentally Should the Final EIS approve rights of way for a utility harmful than approval because Enefit said it would build a corridor, Enefit will be one step closer to opening the first-ever commercial oil power plant and transport fuel, water and crude in and out by truck should a shale mine and retort plant in the nation. utility corridor be denied. This led the BLM to choose approval of the proposed corridor as the “action alternative” - the action the agency plans to take.
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UBATC’s Automation Program Stackable Certificate those requirements, it is able to be attached to an Associate of Applied Science from USU.” Earning the stackable certificate works like this: stulmarett@ubmedia.biz dents enrolling in the automation program at UBATC can also ap Since the grand opening of ply for and enroll in USU. After their automation lab in 2015, admission to USU, students will Uintah Basin Applied Techcomplete prerequisite courses nology College’s automation that apply toward earning an program has continued to grow Associate’s degree in Applied Scisteadily. Now, graduates of the ence. Students are able to choose program can enter the workthe emphasis of their Associate’s force armed with not only a degree--petroleum technology, certificate in automation, but business, etc. also with an Associate’s degree “Completing the automaof Applied Science from Utah tion program at UBATC then State University. counts as 30 college credits “The stackable certificate toward earning an Associate is a result of a collaboration degree,” said Porter. “Essentially with UBATC and Utah State it fulfills all the elective credit University,” said Wes Porter, requirements toward earning the Director of Energy Services degree.” at UBATC. “It’s based on a UBATC has several other LEE MARETT, UBMEDIA.BIZ program’s length. In order to be eligible for the stackable certifi- Reed Durfey, Uintah Basin District Manager for Newfield Exploration, gets a demostration of programs that work in similar partnership with USU, such as cate, a program has to be 900 some of the automation equipment that his company helped to provide for UBATC. their practical nursing program, hours long and meet a list of specific competencies. Because SEE UBATC on 28 the automation program meets
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Continued from 27
“The principals of automation technology are the same across the board, whether you’re working in the oil and gas industry or working with bar codes in grocery stores. It’s all automation. We’ve focused on generalizing our program so that our students are prepared to work in an any automation industry when they’ve completed the certificate.”
petroleum technology program and culinary arts program. In each of these stackable certificate programs, students graduate with vocational training specific to their career from UBATC and a college degree from USU. The automation program in particular has garnered a great deal of attention from local industry. “The automation program is based on specific objectives,” Porter said. “Students learn to understand electrical theory, networking, a variety of skills and learning objectives. We do a lot of work with the oil and gas industry, and they are our primary sponsors, but the principals of the program don’t just apply to oil and gas.” The skills students learn when completing the automation program at UBATC apply to a variety of industries, including aerospace engineering, which was highlighted by the governor ’s office during an aerospace tour earlier this month. “The principals of automation technology are the same across the board, whether you’re working in the oil and gas industry or working with bar codes in grocery stores,” said Porter. “It’s all automation. We’ve focused on generalizing our program so that our students are prepared to work in an any automation industry when they’ve completed the certificate.” The automation lab at UBATC opened in August of 2015. Construction of the lab was made possible through partnerships between the
school and local oil and gas industry partners, including Newfield Exploration Company. “We know what drives our economy, and it is industry,” said Reed Durfey, Uintah Basin District Manager for Newfield, at the grand opening ceremony. “We know what drives the industry, and it is automation. It’s the technology. It’s the changes. It’s how we become more efficient in our daily operations. The more efficient we become, the bigger rate of returns we can get and the more we can put into the ground. It all ties together.” At the time of the lab’s opening, Porter spoke to the great collaborations that had made it a reality for the Uintah Basin. “This is a real unified effort to put a program together, moreso than I’ve ever seen in my years at UBATC,” said Porter. “There seems to be a want and a need and a drive, not only from our industry partners here and the school but really the community itself.” Partnerships continue to be a driving force for UBATC. It was strong community partnerships that made the stackable certificate in automation a reality. “We are lucky to enjoy a great collaborative relationship with Utah State University,” Porter said. “It has enabled us to expand a lot of our programs to the best benefit of UBATC and of our students. Those partnerships really ensure that our students have all the skills they need to succeed in the workforce after graduation.”
-Wes Porter
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Despite Overregulation, Western Exploration and Production Industry Continues to Make Significant Economic Contributions to the Nation DENVER – According to updated economic data, the western oil and natural gas exploration and production (E&P) industry supports 177,058 jobs across the United States and remains a major economic contributor with $49.2 billion in annual economic activity. The Western Oil and Natural Gas Employs America: 2016 economic model developed by John Dunham & Associates shows the current impact of the western E&P industry in every state, county and congressional district across the country. The model does not include midstream and downstream activities. While burdensome regulations and market conditions have slowed the growth of development, oil and natural gas production is up by 20% since the study was last conducted in 2014. The western E&P sector provides $14.5 billion in wages to working families across the country and over $13 billion in taxes annually, making it an important source of revenue to local, state and federal governments. “The E&P industry has faced many regulatory challenges and tough market conditions since the last economic analysis was released, and jobs in the industry are
down as a result,” said Kathleen Sgamma, vice president of government and public affairs. “While President Obama claims credit for increased oil and natural gas production in America, the reality is that federal policies have slowed recovery and resulted in the collapse of royalties from federal lands by 55%. Meanwhile, oil and natural gas royalties from private lands remain buoyant, with only a 4% decrease. The effects of misguided federal policy continue to be sharply reflected in the numbers.” The model quantifies the impact from just the oil and natural gas E&P sector in the western states of Arizona, Colorado, Idaho, Montana, Nebraska, Nevada, New Mexico, North Dakota, Oregon, South Dakota, Utah, Washington and Wyoming. Although the energy is produced from the West, the economic impact is across the entire nation. To see where western oil and natural gas companies are creating jobs and economic growth, visit westernenergyalliance.org/EmploysAmerica.
Hacking Paving & Excavation LLC owned and operated by Darrell Hacking We lay Parking lots and Driveways with top grade asphalt from our suppliers, For the best driveways and parking lots possible. We also do seal coating and Crack sealing. If you want to get out of the mud or if you need an overlay or just a new driveway or Parking lot.
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From the archives In the Dec. 12, 1924 edition of the Vernal Express, a story was printed about a drilling test that was done on Ashley Valley Dome. The story says,there was doubt in the area of oil, believing it was a myth like the railroad, a rig was built on Ashley Valley Dome, an area located between Vernal and Jensen. The 1924 article said location is “considered by eminent geologists as the best untested field now known in the United States.” Even though many people doubted the truthfulness of the oil, according to the article, the arrangement of drilling was done in two 12-hour shifts with first-class equipment large enough to reach any oil bearing sands. The article said, “The geologists estimate the probable depth to the first sand to be below 1,000 feet and less than 15,00 feet.” At that time the Utah Oil and Refining company leased 2,000 acres on the oil dome. The test on the dome cost the company approximately $50,000.
Vernal area Chamber Of COmmerCe “GOOD FOR BUSINESS, GOOD FOR THE COMMUNITY” • Networking Opportunities • Weekly Business Luncheons
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BENEFITTING THE COMMUNITY THROUGH EVENTS: • Business Education • Health Fair • Water Conference • Business of the Year
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(435)789-1352 • Fax (435)789-1355 • 134 West Main • Vernal, UT • 84078 www.vernalchamber.com • vchambermgr@easilink.com 30 - ubmedia.biz
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WORKPOINT
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Roosevelt WorkpointCommunity OccupationalClinic Medicine 200 East590 Hwy 40 • Roosevelt, 84066 E. 100 N. • Price, UTUT 84501 Phone: (435) 725-3327 Phone: (435) 637-1697