Liquid Logistics
Liquid Logistics’ emphasis on service, safety and providing its customers with cost-effective solutions is helping it stand out in the highly competitive Bakken Shale.
The frac water storage company, headquartered at the heart of the shale in Williston, N.D., was formed to fill a niche, Director of Business Development Leah Rambur says. Rambur, along with other senior management, saw the industry only providing a partial economic solution for producers.
“Liquid Logistics was founded on the belief that you need to provide producers the best service as well as the best economic solution,” Rambur adds. “We saw producers paying for tanks three and five times over by renting months on-end, so we introduced our lease-to-own plan.
“Our tanks will provide many years of maintenance-free service and with our in-house crews providing the field erection and take-down we closely monitor the tanks for our clients.”
The Liquid Logistics model of providing tanks on a lease-to-own basis and then providing critical field services has allowed energy producers to own their tanks in less than nine months without an increase in cost, clients also have complete payback in less than 13 months and save nearly $2 million in on-site frac water storage over a five-year period. This ownership model has given producers greater flexibility with regards to long-term water storage and increased on-site water storage without increasing costs.
A Premium on Safety
Liquid Logistics tanks range in size from 9,000 to 60,000 barrels, replacing up to 130 mobile frac tanks. Liquid Logistics designs and manages the construction of tanks as well as provides all the field services using internal operators and field supervision. This brings consistency and corresponding higher levels of safety to field operations. Liquid Logistics is a member of both PECPremier and ISNetworld.
All tanks are built with a connection system that doesn’t require welds. Most importantly, all tanks are designed and built using the Liquid Logistics exclusive positive connection for the patent-pending Tiltrotator. The Tiltrotator gives the operator complete 360-degree control over the panels and ultimately removes the need for cranes and field crew members on tag lines trying to force heavy panels into place. When other companies’ field installations are shut down due to wind, which tends to be the norm in North Dakota, Liquid Logistics can safely continue.
Cost Savings
One of the largest frac water related costs for energy producers is heating and maintaining frac water temperatures. Producers can spend more than $6,000 a day maintaining water temperature in the North Dakota winters.
“We have spent the last year field evaluating and field testing covers to reduce evaporation losses and improve thermal efficiency and have several great solutions,” COO Daine Randall says.
With an average ambient temperature less than 20 degrees during the winter months and an average frac water temperature of 70 degrees, 80 individual frac tanks will lose approximately 12 million BTU’s per hour.
“Compare this to a Liquid Logistics Tank with a thermal tile top, which will lose only 3.6 million BTU’s per hour producing a potential savings of over $5,000 per day during the winter months,” Randall continues. “During a seven-day frac job, a Liquid Logistics tank can reduce costs by $35,000 to $56,000 during the winter months.”
Success and growth will be the reward for companies like Liquid Logistics that bring innovation, increased safety, and high levels of service to reduce producers’ cost to get the energy from the ground, Rambur adds.