In past articles we’ve discussed the oil and gas boom and its effect on the economy of the Gulf Coast Region as well as potential it has given the country to become energy sufficient. The exponential oil and gas growth has also extended to the petrochemical and industrial sector as a whole as the abundance of resources bring down costs. These exciting developments offer the country many advantages and may even help to shore up the US economy during uncertain economic times. However, the boom has also placed massive demands on the infrastructure and supply line of the industry and requiring rapid construction of pipelines and equipment. At the core of these construction efforts is fabrication…the very service STI Group was built upon.
An Increasingly Growing Demand
As new oil and gas plays are discovered, older ones come back online, and overall production is dramatically ramped up, the industry faces a growing demand for equipment and infrastructure that support these escalating operations. For instance pipelines and gathering lines are like the veins and arteries of the oil and gas industry, allowing the product to be transported to refineries and reserves. However, pipelines do not function in isolation from other equipment and structures. A pipeline needs periodic compression stations along the way to control the pressure and flow rate. Additionally PIGs (Pipeline Inspection Gauges) and PIG launchers and receivers are needed to maintain the pipelines and keep things running smoothly.
At the same time that the network of pipelines needs to be expanded, so too do the number of metering skids and other measuring equipment, for example LACT units (Lease Automatic Custody Transfer) which track how much product has been transferred and which help determine the compensation owed to each party.
Additionally the many new wellsites themselves also require a huge amount of new drilling and production equipment. Flowback and well testing equipment are also essential to the safe and efficient operation of a well. All of this new equipment, pipelines, and pipeline support units must come from somewhere and that is where fabrication takes on such an important role.
What Fabrication Does for the Oil & Gas Boom
Fabrication, in particular modular fabrication and process skids, allows the oil and gas industry to meet its pipeline and equipment needs by quickly and efficiently delivering the products and services that the industry needs to continue functioning. Among other things modular fabrication techniques provide the following advantages:
- Speed of Construction – Time spent waiting for new pipelines to be built and parts and equipment to be delivered is an extremely costly inconvenience to oil and gas companies. Fortunately modular fabrication allows for a very rapid construction and fast delivery because the process has been finely tuned for maximum speed and efficiency.
- Easy Delivery and Installation – Building the new equipment is only half the battle, the rest lies in actually delivering it and getting it setup. Fortunately modular fabrication allows pieces to be shipped and stored conveniently, and then installed with a minimum of inconvenience at its final worksite.
- High Safety and Quality Standards – Modular fabrication can be done to the highest level of safety and quality standards because the equipment and parts can be tested prior to delivery. This allows any defects to be identified and corrected before the oil or gas company is ever faced with downtimes or safety hazards from faulty equipment.
- Cost Effective – The process of modular fabrication is very cost effective because inefficiencies have been removed from the system and outside variables such as bad weather and other environmental factors have also been removed from the equation by performing the process off-site.
STI Group Is a Fabrication Leader
STI Group is extremely well-positioned to maximize the benefits of modular fabrication and to provide its customers with superior quality and service. That is because STI Group has over 35 years of experience in the fabrication industry and has multiple fabrication facilities set up to best serve customer needs. These locations include:
- Buna, Texas with a 75,000 sq. ft facility
- Beaumont, Texas with a 24,000 sq. ft facility
- Bridge City, Texas with a 65,000 sq. ft facility
- Vidor, Texas with a 85,000 sq. ft facility
- Port Arthur, Texas with a 30,000 sq. ft facility
- Pharr,Texas with a 35,000 sq. ft facility
- McAllen, TX, 80,000 sq. ft facility
Additionally, STI Group is dedicated to excellent customer service. We are able to fabricate units to the particular specs of each customer to take into consideration their unique needs and concerns. We also provide our customers we a single point of contact who will be available to them from start to finish to ensure good, effective communication and a strengthening of customer relationships. The landscape of the industrial boom will undoubtedly continue to evolve at a frenzied pace and so to will the demands placed on fabrication. However, STI Group will be up to the challenge of keeping pace and evolving with it to provide the industry with state-of-the-art fabrication and services.
