Profiles in engery spring 2017

Energy On The Move The Uintah Basin is in Recovery Mode - pg. 6

Changing With The Industry Superior Drilling Adapts to the Changing Market - pg. 12

Still In The Game

Fossil Fuels Are Still Great - pg. 16

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IN THIS ISSUE Volumn 9 Number 1 April 2017

6: Recovery in the Uintah Basin 8: Refineries Gear Up in Green River “Line Work — Done Right” • hot re-builds • substations • new construction, both overhead & underground • design • helicopter work

• remote/limited access projects • any job up to 138kV including energized work • maintenance • storm repair • troubleshooting

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“Line Work — Done right”

12: How Superior Drilling Thrives

• hot re-builds • substations

• new construction, both overhead & underground

16: Fossil Fuels Are Still Great

• design

• helicopter work • remote/limited access projects

20: Can Coal and Natural Gas Coexist

• any job up to 138kV including energized work • maintenance • storm repair

22: FR Clothing Gets it Handled

• troubleshooting

“Line Work — Done right” • hot re-builds • substations

HigH 23:Voltage, The Creativityinc of Signs N Lines

• new construction, both overhead & underground • design • helicopter work • remote/limited access projects

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24: Mine Reclamation A Safe Choice

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The rebound of crude oil prices to roughly $50 per barrel after struggling in recent years to top $30 is a welcome sight to the Uintah Basin, which was devastated by the tumultuous nosedive of oil and gas prices in late 2014.

A gradual recovery for the Uintah Basin Joshua Murdock jmurdock@ubmedia.biz

The rebound of crude oil prices to roughly $50 per barrel after struggling in recent years to top $30 is a welcome sight to the Uintah Basin, which was devastated by the tumultuous nosedive of oil and gas prices in late 2014. But while many in the Basin project a gradual recovery for the boom/bust town to a level less than a boom cycle but enough to prosper, policies from the new president could curb that recovery.

After a dismal start to 2016, rig count in the Basin increased from zero in February to four by the end of the year. That number has more than doubled to nine rigs as of March 29, 2017. Eight of the rigs are drilling for oil, which has seen more of a price rebound than gas, for which one rig is drilling.

After bottoming out at barely $20 per barrel in early 2016, crude prices rebounded to more than $55 per barrel by the end of the year and to nearly $60 per barrel through February 2016, but prices tumbled to barely $50 in mid-March and have since struggled to remain in the 50s.

Natural gas, which was barely $1.50 per million British thermal unit (mBtu) in late February 2016 after tumbling from more than $5 per mBtu in

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2014 and nearly $14 per mBtu in 2008, reached $3.60 per mBtu by the end of December 2016 before dropping below $2.80 per mBtu by late February 2017. As of March 29, it clawed back to $3.23 per mBtu. Applications for permit to drill were up in Utah in March 2017, which recorded at least 39 APDs as of March 29. That’s a 19 APD increase from the 20 recorded in March 2016 and more than the monthly totals of every month in 2016 other than August and September, which respectively recorded 44 and 46 APDs. However, the March 2017 count is far short of the 114 APDs in the same month in 2015, 84 APDs in March 2014 and 232 APDs in march 2013.

A total of seven spudded wells in March were reported as of March 29, up from three in March 2016, but down significantly from 26 in March 2015, 71 in March 2014 and 80 in March 2013.

After peaking at 9.8 percent for both Uintah and Duchesne counties in March 2016, unemployment dropped to 7.6 percent in Uintah County and 7.4 percent in Duchesne County by January 2017. This drop was a continuation of a steady fall in unemployment since the March 2016 peak.

However, while the Basin seems to be on a slow road to recovery, no major SEE RECOVERY on 7

RECOVERY

Continued from 6

improvement is expected soon.

“Looking forward I think that your oil prices are going to sit and go between that $40 to $60 range,” Superior Drilling Products CEO and co-founder Troy Meier said. “I think $50 is the new norm, but as the world economy has slowed down, the demand for oil isn’t as strong as it could be. Even though OPEC cut back, the U.S. production has picked up. We have filled that void.”

Meier, who with his wife and Superior Drilling co-founder Annette steered the Naples-based company to becoming a leader in high-tech drilling products and bit remanufacturing, said that a resurgence in drilling activity would come to other areas of the U.S. before the Rocky Mountains and especially before the Uintah Basin. Areas such as Texas and Oklahoma, where the breakeven of extracting product is much lower, have remained relatively profitable with low prices while the Uintah Basin and much of the Rockies have been out of work because their crude and gas are too expensive to extract.

“When you look at what their lifting cost is and how efficient it’s become to drill wells there, they’re very comfortable at the current prices of oil. (They have) a lot lower breakeven, what they call the ‘lifting cost,’” Meier said. “Here it’s much higher. So as gas prices, as we start to ship gas out of our markets and go international with U.S. gas, which we’re seeing, they’re building terminals in Cleveland; they’ve got terminals

in Philadelphia, Louisiana, in Texas. They’re building terminals in LA. As this liquefied natural gas starts to leave our borders, it’ll really help with the Uintah Basin. But I think we’re still a few years away.”

Permitting agent Don Hamilton, founder and president of Star Point Enterprises, said he saw an increase in activity in the Basin in early 2017 that he attributed to optimism driven by the inauguration of Pres. Donald Trump.

Hamilton also mirrored Meier’s sentiment that gas prices may soon rise from $3 per mBtu and create more activity in the Rockies.

But while crude prices are generally rising on the heels of late-2016 OPEC agreements to cap production and Trump’s inauguration, and while natural gas prices may rise due to a forthcoming increase in exports of U.S. natural gas, some experts and industry leaders worry that Trump’s policies could drive prices lower. Trump, who has vowed to increase drilling during his presidency, may stifle drilling in areas with high breakevens by driving prices lower when increased drilling creates more of a U.S. supply glut than already exists.

According to U.S. Energy Information Administration and Baker Hughes’ data compiled by Bloomberg, U.S. crude production has returned to 2014 levels with half the active rigs of 2014 thanks to technological advances allowing producers to extract more product out of shale and reach previously inaccessible shale resources.

That efficiency, which has already helped drive prices down, could help drive them even lower should drilling be increased through government policy.

As shale oil billionaire Harold Hamm warned at the CERA Week conference in early March, “The U.S. shale industry could ‘kill’ the oil market if it embarks on another spending binge. It has to be done in a measured way.”

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In the next couple of years, depending on the price of oil internationally, two oil refineries will either be building facilities or will be up and running in the Green River area of Emery County.

A pair of refineries gear up near Green River Richard Shaw Contributing Writer

In the next couple of years, depending on the price of oil internationally, two oil refineries will either be building facilities or will be up and running in the Green River area of Emery County.

The first is the Green River Petroleum Processing plant which will be operated by Emery Refining. The Division of Air Quality granted an Approval Order (AO) on June 21, 2013, for the facility. The new $225 million refinery will be capable of processing up to 20,000 barrels per day of various oil feed-

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stock.

The refinery, which will be located four miles west of Green River will consist of two separate processing facilities: a distillation plant for crude oil and a wax plant for black and yellow waxes. The processing plant will consist of distillation towers, process heaters, boilers, storage tanks, wax crystallizers, flare devices, material unloading/loading racks, and various pollution control devices. DAQ required a thorough top-down Best Available Control Technology (BACT) analysis on the project, including crude oil handling, distillation, and wax removal.

SEE REFINERIES on 10

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REFINERIES Continued from 9

The refinery will perform three independent processes which include: •Processing up to 5,000 barrels per day of black or yellow wax from the Uintah Basin in a wax/lube oil plant and sending it to one of four packaging options including a slabber, priller, pelletizer, or bulk storage.

•Distilling up to 10,000 barrels per day of mainly North American sweet crude in a liquid distillation plant into products that are relatively uniform and pumping it into storage tanks.

•Blending 13,000 barrels per day of crude oil with various products and returning it to rail cars for distribution to third parties.

Since the original application to build the plant the company has added a number of modifications to it. These include: •The crude oil throughput will be North American crude oils.

•Most of the plant will be built from modular components rather than built in-place, with the vacuum unit not being put in place in the plant as originally planned. The plant will also have more components than in the original design designated.

•The product mix has changed and asphalt has been eliminated as a product.

•Heat demand and heater and boiler sizes have increased from their original design.

•There will be fewer storage tanks but they will have a greater capacity and a hot oil heating systems will heat the storage tanks •Truck and rail loading operations will use refinery storage systems to control emissions and will also use a thermal oxidizer to help in the process.

A story on the refinery in the Deseret News in 2013 pointed out that many environmental groups have opposed the refinery for everything from air pollution, to truck traffic to potential water pollutions.

In that same report Jeff Beicker, the company’s COO said that there is little more they can do to satisfy the opposition to the refinery when the opposition groups agenda was “don’t build the refinery.”

The Governor’s Office of Economic Development, like the idea of the refinery and in June of that year granted the company a $12.7 million tax credit for the refinery.

The other refinery that is planned for the Green River area is the Gray Canyon Refinery which is about three miles east of town, actually putting it in Grand County. However many of its economic benefits will affect Emery County.

The company, which is based in Alpine plans to produce diesel fuel and kerosene, which it would sell, as well as liquefied petroleum gas, residual oil, sulfuric acid, and stabilized naphtha at the plant.

The company has been seeking a gas line to be run into the plant to operate it and is going to construct a 1.25 mile railway section which will hold cars for its use. That will help keep mainline passenger and freight service from being impacted by the plant.

The plant is planned to be put in the place of an older oil refinery which closed a number of years ago, with much the old operations equipment being replaced with new components.

The production of this plant is planned for about 9,000 barrels of crude per day. Some of what might be refined at the plant will come from the Greenfield Field south of Green River. It is largely a gas field, but presently gas condensate from the field is being shipped from the field to Salt Lake City refineries.

One of the developments the plants investors have also hoped for is the construction of a road that would come through the Bookcliffs from the north, linking the refineries more closely with crude from the Uintah Basin.

That road has been an on-again, off again dream of some and nightmare for others. In the past Grand County, which butts up against Uintah County has been reluctant to look at that route, and it continues to be debated.

So if oil were to come to the future refineries without that road it would have to be trucked through Carbon County down US 191 and Highway 6, or when one of the proposed pipelines are constructed which would link Carbon with the Basin, oil may be brought to those refineries by truck from there.

The exact start date on construction for either refinery has not yet been set as of this writing.

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How crude is refined into useful products Crude oil comes out of a well with a lot of things in it that need to either be taken out to make it useful or separated so that various products that are produced can be created. There are three basic steps in the refining process.

process in another cylinder to further break it down into useful products.

Conversion of the petroleum cut

After the first process there are still a lot of heavy molecules in the previous separated materials. In the conversion process the common term “cracking� is used to described what happens next.

This process takes place at 100 degrees hotter than the separation process, but at this point a catalyst is added to help further the separation. In this process about three quarters of the heavy type materials are made into gases, gasoline and diesel fuel. Sometimes hydrogen is added to the process to help it along as well.

Separating the materials In this step molecules are separated through a distillation process which uses their natural molecular weight.

The crude oil is heated in a distillation column at the typical household oven temperature of about 400 degrees which causes much of it to vaporize. The vaporized materials rise inside the column, and as they gain altitude, depending on their weight, they begin to turn into liquids. Some of the material does not rise and remains in the bottom of the cylinder. Along the cylinder there are trays that gather the liquid as it condenses, which helps to separate out different byproducts produced by the process.

These materials are know as petroleum cuts. The gases pass out the top of the cylinder, where the temperature is much lower. The bottom material is often tar like, or asphalt. Often some of the medium distillates are caught in the bottom with the heavier materials, so what is left there goes to a similar

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JOSHUA MURDOCK, UB MEDIA

Troy Meier, the co-founder and CEO of Superior Drilling Products, poses for a portrait above the company’s drill bit remanufacturing facility in Vernal, Utah, on March 27, 2017.

Superior Drilling thrives with high-tech machining

Joshua Murdock jmurdock@ubmedia.biz

The tree-lined campus with manicured landscaping is unusual for Naples, a mostly commercial oilfield town pressed against the southeast corner of Vernal. But Superior Drilling Products, the publicly traded company operating in that campus, isn’t a typical oilfield company.

The company brings a high-tech approach to services like drill bit remanufacturing and shatters the mold of a typical oilfield service company by designing and manufacturing innovative downhole products used worldwide. Superior Drilling’s machining prowess garnered attention from outside the oil and gas industry, and the company now makes components for NASA and high-tech weaponry manufacturers.

True to its roots, though, the busiest building on the campus is the drill bit remanufacturing facility. Troy Meier, who with his wife, Annette, founded Superior Drilling’s predecessor, Rocky Mountain Diamond, in 1993, said that despite the recent downturn of the oil and gas economy in the U.S., Superior Drilling’s focus is still concentrated “90 percent” in oil and gas.

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“The struggle is, when you’re so tapped into one business, like the oil and gas, and that business goes away, you don’t have time to sit; you don’t have the luxury to retain employees and salespeople and say, ‘Let’s go try to find something,’” Meier said. “So you downsize to meet the level of business within your industry. And as you find that bottom and you start to feel a little bit more secure with where the industry’s at, and you go out to diversify a little bit, you find that’s the same time the industry now is requiring you to start providing them with what you do.”

But the downturn hasn’t been all bad for Superior Drilling. Meier said that high breakeven, also called lift cost, to profitably extract oil and gas in the Rocky Mountain region meant he had to look elsewhere to sell products and remanufacture bits when crude and gas prices plummeted.

“We had to really focus our attention on areas where the rig activity was: west Texas, south Texas, Oklahoma. And we did that by adopting a new business strategy,” Meier said. “This strategy is what we call ‘identifying market channel partners.’ So we have identified a market channel partner that is very well known in the southern part of the states and we signed a SEE SUPERIOR DRILLING on 13

SUPERIOR DRILLING Continued from 12

contract with them. We sell them our tools, so they buy our tools from us; they get those tools in the hole, then we have exclusivity to repair those tools, plus we get a royalty off of every run.”

The tools Superior Drilling sells go beyond drill bits and include various well bore reamers and the Strider, a patent-pending tool that provides pulses of thrust at three hertz frequency to reduce drill string friction. A contract to remanufacture Baker Hughes’ drill bits in the western U.S. keeps the company busy even though drilling activity in the Uintah Basin has slowed.

Meier, who spent more than a decade with Christensen Diamond JOSHUA MURDOCK, UB MEDIA Products before starting his own Drill bits in various stages of the manubusiness, also expanded Superior Drilling’s domain into making spe- facturing and remanufacturing process sit inside Super Drilling Products’ Vernal, cialized equipment to repair drillUtah, facility on March 27, 2017. ing tools. The Nucleus system, a specialized tool for grinding drill bit blade shirttails to exact tolerances, was developed for use in Superior DrillSEE HIGH TECH on 14

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HIGH TECH

Continued from 13

ing’s bit remanufacturing facility. While the first two Nucleus machines reside there, the company is now selling Nucleus machines to others who service bits.

“The Nucleus is one of many things that we’ve created here. We’d seen a need for a CNC diamond grinding system,” Meier said. “The world used – they’d convert old lathes to do this process and it’s not very efficient; it’s not very accurate. So we designed what’s called the Nucleus and it’s a system that we have the first two here in Vernal and now they’re throughout the world, and being used by the large oilfield service companies.”

Despite the ever-expanding breadth of drilling technology and services Superior Drilling provides, there’s still some time for smaller, specialized projects outside the industry.

“Any available hours that we have on those machines, there’s some other industries that are really happy to tap into their expertise,” Meier said.

“So if we do have some available hours, we’ll go out and we’ll search what businesses need what done. In some cases they just call us because they’ve heard of us word of mouth, but in some cases we’ll go out and solicit that work and go, ‘OK, that fits in our wheelhouse. We can do that with the machines and the equipment that we have.’ And we’re finding that it’s very successful. We do our first initial order for them and they keep coming back and wanting more.”

The expertise that brings such success, Meier said, is due to the exceptional talent he’s recruited to the company.

“It all comes down to the personnel that we have here. We have a very high-end design and engineering team,” Meier said. “The technicians that we have here are very familiar with the processes and procedures that it takes to machine products to microns. And so we’re very fortunate to bring them in from other industries. That’s one thing that we did when we

Two two-person teams braze teeth onto a remanufactured drill bit at Superior Drilling Products’ Vernal, Utah, facility on March 27, 2017.

One team can typically finish brazing teeth onto a drill bit before the kiln-heated bit and teeth become too cool, but this large bit required two brazing teams.

JOSHUA MURDOCK, UB MEDIA

SEE SUPERIOR on 15

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SUPERIOR

Continued from 14

started going into the manufacturing world, is looking for those individuals that could bring in very tight tolerances, very precise machining, into the oil and gas business.”

And according to Meier, himself a transplant to the Basin, albeit for nearly a quarter century, the area makes it easy to attract and keep top-notch employees.

“As we travel and we look at the markets in Texas and Louisiana... we get asked all the time, ‘Why are you in Vernal?’”

Meier said. “Vernal does have a very good quality of life. It takes about six months to understand that when you’re not local... But once you do, you realize that for the talent that we have in our business, those team memJOSHUA MURDOCK, UB MEDIA bers that have moved here from somewhere else, when they give Superior Drilling Products Machinist Chris the family an opportunity, give Knapp hones the edge of a drill bit for a CNC them time to understand the machine at the company’s Vernal, Utah, Basin and get to know the Basin, facility on March, 27, 2017. the people, the activities and just the beautiful surroundings that we have, you can really retain some very good quality team members.”

Superior Drilling Products Quality Assurance Manager Jared Spencer uses a ROMER coordinate measuring machine to check the dimensions of a newly machined drill bit against the 3-D design of the bit at the company’s Vernal, Utah, facility on March 27, 2017.

JOSHUA MURDOCK, UB MEDIA

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Fossil fuels are still a great link in the energy chain Richard Shaw Contributing Writer

Coal and oil are often beat up on by environmentalists as being dirty sources of energy. They do put pollutants into the air and carbon dioxide into the atmosphere, which most scientists agree adds to the problem of global warming.

These energy sources also provide transportation challenges. To get them from their source to the places they are needed is always a logistical hurdle.

Plus, in addition to getting them out of the ground, refining them and dis-

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posing of the byproducts offer many environmental challenges as well.

The one thing they do very well however, is this; they allow a city, a state or a country to put power stations anywhere the energy source that runs them can be transported. And barring any lack of fuel supply they are the most stable and reliable sources of power generation available, with the exception of nuclear power and natural gas.

The call to “go green” is being taken up by millions of people. Yet, few understand the drawbacks of other sources of possible energy. The downside of those “alternatives” is seldom presented. Those who do present the SEE FOSSIL FUELS on 17

FOSSIL FUELS

problems that coal does. Carbon dioxide released from the burning of wood can be as harmful as that from burning coal. In fact, the decomposition of wood without burning it is adding to the carbon dioxide in the atmosphere.

The burning of forests in the Amazon in South America for farming is a huge source of carbon dioxide and other pollutants. Wood also does not provide enough heat to provide for large scale energy generation, particularly for power generation.

Within the state of Utah, particularly along the Wasatch Front, it is being considered that wood cannot be burned at all. Scientists at the Division of Air Quality say that burning wood is more dangerous to health than almost any of the other pollutants in the metro area. They say it also produces an inordinate amount of the pollution in the air there compared to other sources which are used in much greater quantities.

Continued from 16

downsides say technology will eventually solve those problems.

However, many of those same people often discount any claims by the petroleum or coal industries that technology can also overcome the problems of what are presently the two largest energy sources in the world.

Here is a list of many of the sources of energy – besides coal and oil – that humanity has used in our technological society, along with their good points and bad points.

Wood or biomass

For many people when they think Probably the cleanest source of energy available to man. It provides electricity renewables they think of wind, water by the shear power of gravity pulling water over turbine blades to generate and sun. But biomass is also renewpower. However, to generate power on a large scale, water flow must be conable because it grows all over the tinuous and that requires a body of water built up behind a generation station world, every minute of every day. It to supply the “fuel” for the generators. is, other than the natural sun warmHydroelectric power ing the atmosphere, the oldest kind of energy that man utilized. Biomass includes not only plant growth, but Probably the cleanest source of energy available to man. It provides elecanimal waste as well. In a sense coal could be considered biomass because tricity by the shear power of gravity pulling water over turbine blades to genit was once plant life, but biomass as it is defined today is renewable in erate power. However, to generate power on a large scale, water flow must be that it can be regrown easily in a short period of time. But while forests are a renewable source of fuel, they also present many of the same climate SEE ENERGY CHAIN on 18

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ENERGY CHAIN

Geothermal power

Continued from 17

continuous and that requires a body of water built up behind a generation station to supply the “fuel” for the generators.

Many environmental activists who are fighting to dump coal and oil as the main energy sources also hate dams because they destroy canyons, change the ecology of an area where a reservoir is created, as well as the area downstream, and they require large tracts of land for transmission lines to carry the power away from the station.

On large rivers, where generators run off the flow of the river itself, there are always concerns about wildlife, in particular fish migrations and habitat.

Both dammed hydroelectric projects and river flow projects are highly subject to drought. Water behind dams is actually there to either prevent flood stage problems or is being stored for agriculture or residential/industrial use with power generation being a sideline. If water levels are low, the water in most cases must be released for use and generation in some cases can take a back seat to the users who have first rights.

However with rivers, flow can be unpredictable, and vary greatly from season to season. Low water flow can affect power generation. The slack must then be taken up by another kind of power generation.

Another drawback to building hydroelectric power that produces enough to be economical for large users is location. For instance there are few hydroelectric plants in Florida despite all the water. The reason; the fall of the water. Flat areas have very little altitude change and water needs to have some “fall” to turn turbines. Small generators can be used to harness slow river flow itself (such as a small agricultural generator that is used near Green River, Utah) but for large generation it takes might power.

And obviously, natural water resources are important; not all parts of the world have equality when it comes to those kinds of resources. Fresh water is also becoming more of an issue across the planet. How the lack of clean, fresh water will tie in with hydroelectric power remains to be seen.

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The use of the planet’s heat is a good way to generate power. It is fairly clean and simple to use. However, the resource is limited to places where the heat of the planet is fairly close to the surface (such as in volcanic areas).

Geothermal energy has never become a big part of the formula, largely because high-pressure steam from underground that turns generators are not that common. The fact is that where the heat to do this exists, there also needs to be a large source of water to make it work.

In addition drilling can be done to make geothermal work, but it is a very expensive proposition.

Traditionally some of the areas that would be best for generating power are also areas of great beauty and have been protected, such as Yellowstone National Park to name one. Other places where the power has been produced the most are in areas in Nevada and California, but those areas are mostly now developed and more just can’t be done with them.

But in the last few years a new process that is very similar to what is used in the gas industry to force more out of the ground is being explored and actually used. While those that use it call it hydro shearing, it is in actuality fracking. Many in the industry call where the heat comes from in geothermal hot rocks and they are deep underground. In this type of fracking drills dig through the strata and reach those hot rocks. Then cold water is injected into the well at high pressure which breaks up the area below and creates a source of very hot water. Since the hot water rises then a turbine can be attached to the well and that will turn it. This type of operation holds real promise for the expansion of geo-thermal.

Natural gas For those who want the cleanest of the hydrocarbon fuels to generate SEE NATURAL GAS on 19

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Wind power

Continued from 18

electricity, natural gas can be the choice.

The wind is free and in some places on It is easy to transport by pipeline and earth it blows 66 percent of the time. But burns cleaner in terms of many pollutthose are special places and not as numerants than does oil or coal. Most power ous as many would like to think. plants that have been built in the United However wind generation has more than States in the last few years are now being tripled in the United States in the last six powered by natural gas. years, exceeding 4.5 percent of total electri However, greenhouse gases are still cal generation, and with some new technolemitted from the burning of natural gas ogies it is expected that wind power could be and the supply, while large, will somein every state in the union soon. day run out. In addition, the process of Wind power is a viable way of powering getting the gas out of the ground is also turbines to produce electricity. Turbines controversial because it requires developcan come in many sizes from small ones ment of areas that many people see as that could be attached to a home to those pristine. For them the disturbance of the that exist in Vermont that produce up to 7 kinds of areas where natural gas occurs is The wind is free and in some places on earth it blows 66 percent of megawatts. (The Hunter Power Plant south the time. But those are special places and not as numerous as many not worth the cost. of Castle Dale in Emery County produces would like to think.

Off-shore wells are also controver1,472 megawatts). sial because of the problems with ocean Wind turbine technology has advanced species and possible pollution. Pipelines that carry natural gas to markets in the past couple of decades from people only thinking of it as a way that have environmental consequences too since they are almost always buried farmers pump water from the ground to being a very modern power source. underground and so a path across the landscape must be made. These lines Advanced towers, blades and improved electronics to operate and maintain require compressor stations and maintenance access as well, which can be a the turbines are all part of this revolution, and the ability with new materiproblem when it comes to getting them permitted and approved. als to build larger and taller towers will allow towers to reach wind that in In the last few years the amount of natural gas available has made it some places blows literally all the time. The standard height for a tower extremely effective against coal in terms of cost. Government regulation has in the U.S. is about 80 meters. Heights up to 120 meters are common in also beaten coal power plants down. However, the price of gas is beginning Europe. This allows for stronger and more reliable winds at that elevation to to rise again and once it reaches a certain point, coal will once again become an economical alternative. And with the new presidential administration removing many of the coal restrictions recently, that too will have an affect SEE ENERGY on 28

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Can coal and natural gas profitably coexist?

Joshua Murdock jmurdock@ubmedia.biz

One of Pres. Donald Trump’s campaign promises and continued pledges now that he’s in office is to revive the struggling coal industry, but his simultaneous promise to expand natural gas production leaves some experts and industry leaders doubting his policies will have a positive effect on coal.

Their concern illuminates an issue larger than themselves and the president: can coal and natural gas industries profitably coexist?

The Associated Press reported on March 28, that the number of coal miners in the U.S. decreased by 60,000 from 2011 through 2016, falling to a new low of 77,000. In the past decade, coal’s share of U.S. power production fell

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from 50 percent to 32 percent. The decline has been punctuated by bankruptcies that plague the industry.

Trump’s plan to revive the industry so far involves killing Obama-era rules prohibiting coal companies from dumping mine tailings into waterways and clean power rules for coal-fired power plants. But experts and industry leaders say that fails to address the increasing automation of mining and the increasing affordability of abundant natural gas, the fuel primarily competing with coal.

The Brookings Institute reported on Jan. 25, that “automation has been eating into coal jobs over a long period of time—years before concerns about climate change led to the environmental regulations that President Trump SEE COEXIST on 21

COEXIST

Continued from 20

solely blames for the industry’s decline.”

In fact, due to automation, coal production steadily increased in the decades following the industry’s peak employment in 1920 despite the number of miners decreasing.

But while automation is largely responsible for coal industry employment dropping, it made the industry more efficient and isn’t necessarily fueling its decline. Elias Johnson, a U.S. Energy Information Agency energy analyst specializing in projecting coal production, explained that natural gas production and prices are the primary driver of coal’s decline. Johnson said regulations come into play because power generation stations have found it’s more affordable to convert to burning natural gas than it is to comply with environmental regulations governing coal-fired power plants.

“The real driver right now in the short term and long term is the economics of the natural gas prices,” Johnson said.

Johnson explained that clean air regulations on power plants have caused many to convert to natural gas rather than install equipment to maintain regulatory compliance while burning coal, but he said that the affordability of natural gas was the main culprit of coal’s suffering.

In fact, even industry leaders peg the decline more on natural gas and less on regulations. Cloud Peak Energy spokesman Rick Curtsinger said in a

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March 28 New York Times article, “At the end of the day, coal will still have to compete with a host of other fuels. Utilities’ long-term decisions are based on economics and the need for long-term certainty.”

The Guardian reported on Sept. 29, 2016, “Even Trump backer and coal mogul Bob Murray, who runs Murray Energy, which has given $100,000 to a pro-Trump Super Pac, says that the coal industry won’t ever be great again.

‘I don’t think it will be a thriving industry ever again,’ Murray told an energy publication this year. ‘The coal mines cannot come back to where they were or anywhere near it.’”

As Johnson said, “It’s economics,” and with natural gas “much cheaper” to produce because of new technology, regulatory cutbacks fail to address the main problem plaguing coal: competition. He said that coal and natural gas can profitably coexist only if natural gas prices rise.

Although the EIA currently projects natural gas to trend upward toward $4 per million British thermal unit, which some industry leaders say could make coal more attractive to power plants, especially with less regulation, Trump’s pledges to increase drilling will likely drive natural gas prices downward.

Also quoted in The Guardian’s article, Jerry Taylor, president of libertarian think tank Niskanen Center, explained, “That’s because low-cost natural gas (courtesy of fracking) has done far more to shut down coal-fired power plants and, correspondingly, reduce demand for US coal than has EPA regulations.

Given that he promises exactly the opposite – moving heaven and earth to increase US natural gas production – Trump’s promises are empty.”

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Clothing outlet heats up the local FR clothing market Liberty Best lbest@ubmedia.biz

Mike Weldon started Rocky Mountain FR Clothing Outlet as a way to help fill the need to clothe the men employed with his construction company.

After working with flame resistant clothing companies, Weldon said he saw a great need for other companies to have FR clothing available for a decent price, as well as having a wide variety of options for style and weight of the clothes.

During the most recent local economic downturn, Weldon included the clothing outlet to share the building of George T. Weldon Construction, at 1050 S. 1300 E. Opening the store in September 2016. Weldon, president of the clothing outlet, said he has seen business improve

Janece Kenney, manager of Rocky Mountain FR Clothing Outlet, in Naples, holds an FR shirt in the middle of the store. The outlet sells affordable FR clothing for oil and gas companies that require employees wear FR only.

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Creativity a hallmark at Signs n Lines LeeNichole Marett lmarett@ubmedia.biz

It doesn’t matter what kind of design work you need. You can probably get it done at Signs n Lines in Roosevelt.

The Basin-based company has been calmly and efficiently meeting the promotional product needs of the area since they opened their doors in January 2000. For the past 17 years, they have been serving their customers with high-quality, efficient work on a huge variety of projects.

“Our mission is to satisfy our customers with the services we provide,” the company website reads.

“There is no job too big or too small. We can handle them all.”

Signs n Lines offers a wide variety of services, including apparel, embroidery, banners, signs, vehicle graphics, laser marking, magnetics, custom lettering, vehicle wraps and so much more. Most recently, the company has added race wraps and racing apparel to their repertoire.

The Signs n Lines website proudly states that “if it’s a race car, we

can wrap it.” All of their wraps are done in high quality vinyl, and come at affordable prices. Their wraps are perfectly suited to dirt modifieds, sport mods, stock cars, hobby/pure stocks, mini stocks, dirt late models, asphalt modifieds and late models, winged sprint cars, non-winged sprint cars, dwarf cars, mini sprints, quarter midgets, flat karts and more.

No matter the Basin business, Signs n Lines offers design services to support it. They also provide a wide variety of services to the local oil and gas industry. If you’ve noticed the warp on an RN Industries diesel truck or seen someone wearing a custom-embroidered Frontier Drilling shirt, it’s possible that the work you’re seeing was done at Signs n Lines.

A huge portion of the company’s business is done in the oil field industry.

Some of their projects have included custom embroidery on workwear, hats, outwear and promotional apparel, as well as logo design, vehicle lettering and vehicle wraps.

The company has also done a great deal of work for local municipalities. Signs n Lines did the vehicle wraps on the Roosevelt City police cars, fire engines and fire SEE SIGNS N LINES on 27

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Mine reclamation based on safety concerns Richard Shaw Contributing Writer

For the explorer, there are few things more interesting in the “wild� than the history of the area.

And mines, old abandoned ones, are part of that interest.

Over the years many tragedies have occurred in old mines. People have died from falls, lack of oxygen and compromised atmospheres. That was the main reason legislation was passed in 1975 (the Utah Mined Reclamation Act) to reclaim abandoned mines. Further regulations followed both at the state and federal level. Implementation of the Mined Land Reclamation Act was initially funded totally with general state funds. A specific law to address the reclamation of coal mines, the Utah Coal Mining and Reclamation Act was passed in 1979, and in 1981 Utah received primacy for regulation of coal mining and reclamation under the federal Surface Mining Control and Reclamation Act of 1977 (SMCRA).

In March 1987, the Division of Oil, Gas and Minerals (DOGM) assumed sole responsibility under a cooperative agreement for permitting, inspection and enforcement on federal lands. Federal monies are provided for regulation of coal mining and reclamation on federal and nonfederal lands. The current cost split for the Coal Regulatory Program is 86 percent federal funds and 14 percent general funds. Monies for the regulation of noncoal minerals exploration and development continue to come primarily from the general fund with supplement from a modest permit fee program implemented in 1998.

DOGM also conducts reclamation of abandoned mine sites under Title IV of SMCRA. Funds for this program come totally from appropriations of federal fees paid by the coal industry, based on a per-ton produced rate.

Modest funding agreements with private and federal partners also supplement some of the work in the Abandoned Mine Reclamation Program.

The Division of Natural Resources, along with federal agencies like the Bureau of Land Management and the Office of Surface Mining and Reclamation are also heavily involved through legislation to bring abandoned mine sites into compliance.

Presently there are an estimated 17,000 mine openings scattered across Utah, and an aggressive program to close mine portals and do away with dangerous structures is continuing. The partnership between all the agencies involved is crucial to the goal. The agencies report that about 6,000 mines have been reclaimed or closed since 1980.

Castle Country may well have more than its share of abandoned mines located in it. While many of the abandoned coal mines have been closed up, the bigger problem now is the uranium mines, most of which are located in the San Rafael Swell and its vicinity. These mines literally dot almost every corner of the Swell, with many of the roads that are now used by recreationalists on bikes, ATVs and side by sides having been created by those that worked those mines.

Today the law forces mining companies to close up mines and clean up areas they operated in, which guarantees that the mines will be closed up once a company is finished with the mineral extraction. But most of the mines in the swell are between 50-70 years old. When they played out or failed, the people running them just walked away, often leaving behind open shafts, portals, equipment laying around as well as buildings that eventually have succumbed to time and vandals.

Understandably, many who recreate in the Swell and other places have often been disappointed when returning to a mine site they explored years SEE MINE on 25

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MINE

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ago to find everything that was there gone and portals and shafts totally closed up. But according to DOGM there are some very good reasons for that, the main one being public safety.

The dangers of old mines include aging explosives that were left behind, water hazards that can hide deep shafts or drop offs, bad atmospheres that can kill, supporting timbers that have rotted and deteriorated over time, dangerous animals (particularly snakes) that often lurk in mines and in the case of the Swell mines and others in southeastern Utah, radioactivity. In Utah 10 people have been known to be killed in abandoned mines since the early 1980s. Nationally about 30 people lose their lives in abandoned mines each year. Those numbers do not count those that may have been exposed to materials or minerals in mines that are dangerous to peoples health over the long SEE RECLAMATION on 26

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Presently there are an estimated 17,000 mine openings scattered across Utah, and an aggressive program to close mine portals and do away with dangerous structures is continuing. The partnership between all the agencies involved is crucial to the goal. The agencies report that about 6,000 mines have been reclaimed or closed since 1980.

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RECLAMATION

is being destroyed by the way the state of Utah operates when it comes to reclamation.

Continued from 25 Last fall the state received national recognition for the completion of a two-year project in the Swell to close 158 uranium mines, many of which were very term. Those statistics will probably never be availdifficult to access. able.

Not all materials, buildings and abandoned equip To close mine portals and clean up messes in ment around mines being reclaimed is removed in some of the remote areas they are located in is a some instances. For instance the Lucky Strike Mine big job. While one might expect the use of four portals are almost all closed, but some of the buildwheel drive vehicles, ATVs and even pack animals ings remain, with Emery County putting up a plaque at times, contractors that work for the state someat the townsite honoring the town. times even have to use helicopters to do the work.

This past year, for those that may have visited On site sometimes workers need to use materials the Tomsich Butte Mine at some point before 2016, available to close up portals and often have to use things have changed greatly. The mine reclamation ingenious ways to get the work done. In all of this crew arrived and closed up the main portal that used effort the workers are prone to the same dangers to be open. It was a place where many people walked that many who they are trying to protect are through the front part of the mine and into other exposed to as well, such as radiation, subsidence, portal areas before the closure. Some even rode their snakes and rotting timbers. They also must also ATVs into the mine. It is now sealed with concrete, adhere to any environmental and wildlife regulabut already someone has driven a steel shaft through tions. In addition some of the mines are in what the barrier trying to break it down. are now wilderness study areas, and they must Officials warn that tampering with seals on mines comply with those regulations in their travel and can lead to possible federal or state charges. work as well.

The reclamation of abandoned mines in the area There are those that oppose the closing of all will continue, and since there is no real inventory abandoned mines in the state however. The opof all the mines that have been dug in the state new position points out that Utah classifies all the hazardous sites pop up regularly, as officials become abandoned mines as dangerous, even though many Today the law forces mining companies to close aware of them through various channels from vieware not dangerous at all. They say that in many up mines and clean up areas they operated in, ing satellite photos to the public reporting those states mines are being closed off in different ways than they are in Utah, where they say that backfill- which guarantees that the mines will be closed mine sites to them. up once a company is finished with the mineral ing mines is the predominant way of reclaiming them. The groups opposed feel that mining history extraction.

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as the oil and gas industry opens back up.

“I figured opening at the bottom of the cycle would be best time as things got busier. The industry is going to lose a certain number of people that don’t want to come back, they don’t like the cycles and new people coming in and they need to be clothed,” Weldon said. “I studied it probably since 2012 and just felt like it was the right thing to do.”

Weldon said business is picking up and growing every month recently.

“I think number one, people have confidence that things are coming back so they are willing to spend a little of their money on new clothes,” Weldon said.

According to Weldon, he has been working with many of the local oil and gas businesses and he is seeing a good response to his business because stipend for clothing, given to employees can go farther at his store.

Weldon said people like his clothing because there is a large variety with price, style and size. The clothing at Rocky Mountain FR Clothing Outlet has a large range of style that can work for people that work in the field, in an office or want to go out to dinner. Weldon likes that there are finally options locally, whereas before there was only one brand or so and only dark blue or khaki to choose from, and the clothes were too hot to really work in.

Weldon said the store sells name brand items in a variety of price ranges.

“We use name brand brands. NSA was our first (National Safety apparel) then we took on Rasco because NSA is mid-range and we wanted another price range, so we took on Rasco, and then we found that Ariat jeans were very popular so we took on Ariat and that’s more of an upper end,” Weldon said. “We are currently working on getting Wrangler.”

Store Manager Janece Kenney said she sees so many people on a daily basis get excited that the business is there, not only with a store locally for jeans, shirts, boots and coats, but will also ship online free anywhere in the Uintah Basin from Duchesne, Utah to Rangley, Colo. www. Rockymtnfr.com

trucks. They have also done work for the Ute Tribe on some of their civic vehicles.

How has this small Basin company grown into such a community staple in less than twenty years? Above all things, Signs n Lines believes that quality is king.

“Signs n Lines uses only top quality materials for your every day needs,” their website states. “We do not believe in cheap materials that will not last. Our mission is to satisfy our customers with the services we provide.”

The company has grown from a small startup and moved into a state-of-the-art facility in Roosevelt where they employ only the most dedicated staff to ensure that every customer ’s needs are met every single time.

Their design projects are also not limited to only the services listed above. Signs n Lines does a great deal of completely custom work in order to best meet the needs of their customers. If you have a design project you need done, or if you’re looking for some kind of promotional material, it’s entirely possible that Signs n Lines can put together something to meet your needs. After all, that’s what they’re all about.

Signs n Lines is located at 3411 West U.S. Highway 40 in Roosevelt, on the far east end of town. They are open Monday through Friday from 8 a.m-5 p.m., and can be reached by calling 435-7335604 or emailing info@signsnlines.com. You can also stay up-to-date by following them on Facebook @SignsnLinesRooseveltUtah.

To view their full portfolio and see if they have experience that can meet your needs, visit their website at www.signsnlines.com.

Continued from 22

Continued from 23

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ENERGY

so the concept makes a lot of sense.

Presently there are literally hundred Continued from 19 of developing projects out there using everything from large fins to rotating be tapped into. With towers that tall, the Departunderwater turbines in an effort to ment of Energy predicts the areas with physical generate power. potential for wind deployment in the U.S. will Other projects use bobbers that increase as much as 54 percent. take their energy from the rise and While the power is free in terms of the fuel, the fall of the water. There are also maintenance and construction of the large towsome in development that use a ers is not. Payback has varied depending on the “water battery� to power generators. situation. Some claim it takes a decade while They do this by using ocean power to others claim months. pump sea water on land into a lake There is opposition to wind turbines for a which then is released back through number of reasons, largely because they cannot a turbine back into the ocean, thus exist and be successful without some kind of generating power through gravity. solid stationary back up such as generation by There are only a few operating coal, gas, nuclear, or oil. Bird kills have also been tidal energy plants on the planet with When people think of renewable power, solar is usually the first a few more concept projects on the an issue, but according to a website that tracks bird behavior, wind turbine deaths are way down to come to mind. There are many kinds of solar power, some drawing board. River, in-stream generof it active, some of it passive. Many homes and commercial the list of bird killers with the common window ating facilities are also in the developbusinesses use passive solar already to bring light and heat into ment stage with a number operating killing the most birds. Some also object to the aesthetic consequences of wind turbines on every the structures. Some use solar-powered water heating devices on testing facilities being run. ridge and high place where power could be made. roofs to heat their water.

Solar power Tidal (and Hydrokinetic) energy When people think of renewable power, solar is usually the first to come While some of the original development of tidal power for making electo mind. There are many kinds of solar power, some of it active, some of it tricity has been going on since the 1960s, in the past few years the energy passive. Many homes and commercial businesses use passive solar already situation and the global warming crisis has caused this area of research to bring light and heat into the structures. Some use solar-powered water to boom. Hydrokinetics as it is called in recent years includes ocean wave heating devices on roofs to heat their water. energy, tidal energy, river in-stream energy, and ocean current energy.

Solar electricity can be generated in basically two different ways: one us In this process, tidal or wave energy is used to turn generators to proSEE SOLAR on 29 duce power. The ocean’s tidal action is one of the strongest forces on earth,

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SOLAR

about the amount of land needed to construct a solar facility, how wildlife is affected, and what can be done to back the system up with stable power sources. Ironically many of the people who want renewable power resources are also the ones that protest the building of new kinds of solar plants because of the amount of land they occupy and other environmental problems they cause.

Continued from 28

ing solar voltaic, which actually provides direct current from panels, the other, to concentrate the heat of the sun to provide power through a solar power plant.

The industry has grown by leaps and bounds over the past few years with not only many new large photo volNuclear power taic plants and thermal plants coming on-line, but with many states giving tax credits and other breaks to home At one time this kind of energy was thought to be the fuowners who install panels on their homes. The costs of ture of man. Plants that were built provided low-cost energy private installation has also dropped as new manufacturwith little direct pollution. ing methods for photo voltaic panels has dropped, the While there is a great deal of controversy about how safe panels have become more durable. and lighter as well. these plants actually are and what to do with the waste from Home operations that are becoming a huge piece of nuclear plants, they do provide one alternative to carbonthe business use the panels to charge batteries during based fuels that is stable 24 hours a day, 365 days a year. the day and then at night those batteries are utilized to The United States presently gets nearly 20 percent of its a 120 volt system with an inverter. Most homes are also power from nuclear plants. But the specter of Three Mile Isstill connected to the grid for those times that solar is land and Chernobyl that hung over nuclear power for peacenot as effective. In some instances homeowners can even ful purposes for years was then overshadowed even more by sell power back to the power company if they produce While there is a great deal of contro- the Fukushima tsunami disaster when a plant was flooded more than they use. versy about how safe these nuclear and basically came apart at the seams.

Large commercial operations have also grown dramati- plants actually are and what to do So after all this could a plant, even with all the safeguards, cally, with some power companies now providing large with the waste from nuclear plants, malfunction and turn a community into an uninhabitable percentage of their power generation through solar. they do provide one alternative to wasteland?

However the drawbacks to solar power are obvious carbon-based fuels that is stable The attitude toward nuclear power had changed until the and the storage of power in large amounts commercially Japanese event. The shadow of global warming has been cast 24 hours a day, 365 days a year. has still not been solved. over the political and social scene and nuclear power still The panels can’t operate at night – although some seems to be one of the answers to it. scientists are working on ways to use starlight – or on cloudy days. In some The answer may be in the next generation reactors that used molten salt parts of the world, there are times of the year when the day is so short the panels or plants would be almost useless. There is also other concerns

SEE HYBRID on 30

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HYBRID

This entire system has improved in efficiency since the plant open a few years ago but is still not up to optimal solar vs. natural gas use.

Continued from 29 Another idea that has been used overseas and some places in some instances in the United States is using a “battery” to power an area at night while solar provides the power directly during the day. The idea of using traand derive up to 96 percent of uraniums energy (that is in a liquid form) ditional batteries is being studied, but a battery can be more than what one with much less waste than the old reactors which used four percent of the uses in a flashlight or even a larger version of it. fuels capability. Large amounts of money are A battery can be any kind of storage unit. In this being invested in this new technology which case the battery is an upper and lower reservoir many in the industry see as the future of connected by a pipeline or a channel in which clean energy once again. With these syswater flows from the upper reservoir through a tems, that are still under development, the generator at night to provide power. During the nuclear waste problem which is one of the day the system reverses when solar power is prolargest sticking points, would be reduced viding plenty of juice and the excess can be used to almost nothing and if a reactor of this to pump water from the lower reservoir back to type loses its cooling ability it does not melt the upper one for use the next night. Problems down as the ones in Fukushima did. come of course, when the solar is obscured by the sun or daylight is less due to a season and the Hybrid generation water that is flowed down at night is more than that that is pumped up during the day.

In recent years the idea of hybrid genera While there are other ideas for energy gention of power has either been developed or eration on the table, those listed in this article in the process of development. are the ones that seem the most likely to impact The Ivanpah Thermal Solar Power Plant While there are other ideas for energy generation on the the future. Obviously, there is no perfect solution south and west of Las Vegas, Nevada is an table, those listed in this article are the ones that seem the to the energy problem. And almost certainly, not example of a hybrid. The plant requires most likely to impact the future. Obviously, there is no perfect just one of these energy technologies. burning natural gas each morning to get solution to the energy problem. And almost certainly, not just the thermal plant started. They use three one of these energy technologies.

Rentech Type-D water tube boilers to ramp up the plant in the morning and three night time preservation boilers (all powered by natural gas). This preserves the starting steam that is produced during the day by the three solar concentrators centered between 4000 acres of mirrors.

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