AJAX Integrated LLC
From design and drilling to hydraulic fracturing and transportation by pipeline or truck of a well’s product, AJAX Integrated LLC can do it all. Well owners only need to call AJAX to have their needs met. “You could easily have 20 or 30 different companies through the life of the well come in to do what we could do in-house ourselves,” CEO and Founder Jay DeLine declares. “We work on every phase of the process. We even get in on the engineering and permitting of the well sites.”
The AJAX group of companies can handle construction of access roads, mainline pipeline and compressor stations, different phases of drilling, completions, hydrofracing support, on-site rental of equipment such as tanks, pumps and generators, forklift and maintenance. “We don’t perform downhole pressure pumping yet, but that is on the horizon for us,” DeLine says. AJAX Wireline provides wireline and borehole geophysics. “We’re basically involved in one facet or another from start to finish,” he adds.
This versatility enables AJAX’s employees to offer their customers a broad knowledge base of industry techniques and technology. “A smaller company providing one service or even a couple services can’t really do that,” DeLine asserts. “Our company philosophy is to do the best job, have the best people and the best equipment, so that when the customer calls at 2 a.m on a Friday, we can supply him with what he wants.” This also enables the company to bundle a series of services together to offer a superior package price.
Redevelopment of Wells
AJAX offers its services in shale basins located in New York, Ohio, Pennsylvania, West Virginia, Kansas, Colorado, Oklahoma and Texas with more expansion coming. The company also is looking at international opportunities. AJAX offers a service to remove paraffin wax and other wellbore scaling that over time can clog the wellbore of oil and natural gas wells to customers in northeastern Pennsylvania, Ohio and into West Virginia in particular.
Ajax’s GasGun heats the wellbore up to approximately 3,000 F and melts the paraffin or any other material that may be scaled in the well. It does this through use of a black powder that is inserted into the well with wireline tools and ignited.
Geographic Expansion
AJAX Pipeline constructs mainline and temporary steel and high-density pipelines from 4 inches to 24 inches in diameter for moving natural gas, natural gas liquids, oil and water. Some of the company’s current projects include constructing an 8.5-mile pipeline for oil and a 2-mile, 16-inch diameter pipeline for gathering natural gas from different wells to a central location. The majority of the company’s pipeline jobs are permanently buried.
The company also is building above-ground impoundments called water corrals, which are becoming more popular than in-ground pits because possible leaks can be more easily detected. “It’s a cost-saving measure as well as a footprint measure,” DeLine explains. “Our clients need to make such a large pad to fit a large amount of frac tanks.”
To expand its business west, AJAX is moving its corporate headquarters from Homer, N.Y., to Austin, Texas, this summer. “That will give us more access to Texas, Oklahoma and western markets,” DeLine points out.
One area AJAX Integrated LLC has not gone yet for business is the Bakken shale. “We’ve been asked to go up there,” DeLine concedes. “There’s a bunch of logistical issues. We decided that we’re currently not interested in it.”
Following industry trends and running a safe workplace are keeping AJAX prospering. “We’ve been growing by leaps and bounds every year,” DeLine says.