Schwob Energy Services

Where the oil and gas companies go, Schwob Energy Services is never too far behind. As a general contractor for the oil and gas production and processing industry, Schwob Energy Services is active in oil and gas plays throughout the country. The Bakken, Eagle Ford, Permian Basin, Niobrara, Marcellus, Utica, Monterey and others – Schwob Energy Services has played some part in the infrastructure development of each one.

“Half of our crews are in the Marcellus Shale, which seems to be a demanding play for us right now,” Preconstruction Manager Michael Dawson says. “Our second-largest business areas are in Texas and Oklahoma, but we are currently expanding into Ohio and we have started a couple of jobs there. We are talking to people from all over the country to do work. Everywhere from south Texas to Midland to Colorado – it’s all becoming more active. As well as North Dakota with the Bakken; we are looking at some projects there right now that will take place later this year. We also have a recent project award started in New Mexico running into 2014.”

With the rapid expansion of oil and gas plays around the country, Dawson says E&P companies seek contractors that are ready at a moment’s notice. As a subsidiary of the 40-year-old Schwob Building Company, Schwob Energy Services is able to pull from a vast base of knowledge and an experienced pool of employees to assemble teams in the timeframe that its clients seek.

Schwob Energy Services is headquartered in Dallas and just opened a new office in Wysox, Pa., to handle work in Pennsylvania’s Marcellus Shale and Ohio’s Utica Shale. Its fuel systems contracting division is based in Kansas City and it operates a fabrication shop in Oklahoma that is preparing for an expansion. Dawson says the company can handle work from coast to coast, but most of its recent opportunities have been in the Marcellus Shale – hence the new Pennsylvania office.

Need for Speed
“Things are moving faster over there and there’s a greater need for capabilities and experience,” Dawson says. “We have the availability and the manpower to assist clients with urgent needs. Qualified labor is in great demand and there’s not enough of it there. They need people who are ready and have the resources to jump in and assist on-call.”

Schwob Energy Services can deliver turnkey solutions as an engineering, procurement and construction contractor or jump in on specific client needs. It can take a project from preconstruction to completion and has worked on projects for the oil and gas sector including fueling systems, pipeline installation and maintenance, processing plants, and pipe design and modeling. Other work has concerned compressor/booster stations, meter stations, piping and storage terminals, and treatment facilities.

“We have the flexibility to handle just about any size project and our response time is one of our greatest assets,” Vice President of Operations Curtis Stanley says. “We pride ourselves on our impeccable safety record and top-quality installations. We are always thinking of ways to help our team to be the best.”

It has been working on a treatment facility, the PVR Antelope Hills Expander in Canadian, Texas, since January 2012. Dawson says the company brought Schwob Energy Services in for one portion of work and the project has continuously expanded. So far it includes two 150 mmcf/d cryos, two 150 gpm amine facilities, Cat 3606 compressors, dehydration, refrigeration, structural steel installation, concrete installation and liquid storage.

The company also works internationally, supporting large companies that trust its work. “Forward thinking has always been a key to our growth at Schwob Energy,” Vice President Harlan Smith says. “This forward-thinking attitude has led us into the international oil and gas construction sectors. We have focused our efforts into the reconstruction efforts of Iraq since 2010 supporting companies like Exxon and Halliburton.”

Schwob Energy Services has resources to build and operate a 288-bed fortified camp in southern Iraq’s super field, North Rumalia. With this camp, the company is supporting the infrastructure rebuild of southern Iraq. “We have turnkey solutions for those that need construction services in the oil and gas industry,” Dawson says. “Most things we self-perform and for the few things we don’t, we have developed relationships with quality subcontractors who handle that for us.”

This allows Schwob Energy Services to assemble quickly. Dawson says that although traditional contracts in which the client works with an engineer and sends plans out for bidding are still the norm, design/build contracts are gaining more ground.

“With the speed of the market, EPC contracts have seemed to become more and more popular,” Dawson says. “It’s a style in which we team up with an engineering firm to design the project, rather than the client hiring an engineer. But even with the traditional contracts, they have design/build elements, too. In traditional contracts we begin working with the engineering firm as early as we can, and we will even start to phase in work before the design is fully complete and continue building as the design is finalized.”