Oil & Gas

Oilfield services company providing hydraulic fracturing services in the Marcellus Shale play.

CHALLENGE

As a large consumer of diesel fuel, the customer’s challenge was straightforward: effectively procure and manage fuel to ensure that high quality, competitively priced fuel is available when and where it is needed, in order to ensure that costs are minimized and operations proceed uninterrupted. Due to the nature of the hydraulic fracturing business, the customer’s fuel consumption is fairly unpredictable, making costly fuel outages a concern. Without fuel, equipment sits idly, costing the company money and possibly lost business in the highly competitive oilfield services arena. In addition, the customer had concerns about fuel operability, particularly in the areas of tank contamination and cold weather operations. The company had experienced downtime resulting from microbial contamination of a fuel storage tank, causing some of the company’s diesel-powered equipment to perform at less than satisfactory levels.

SOLUTION

Guttman Energy addressed the customer’s fuel outage concerns by installing wireless tank monitoring systems on fuel storage tanks at many of the customer’s sites, which eliminated inefficient partial fills, emergency deliveries and complete run-outs. Customer is able to stabilize the variable cost of fuel through Guttman’s fixed price programs, which provide complete transparency into the price the company is paying for fuel.

Guttman resolved winter operability issues though comprehensive testing and analysis in order to identify and source fuel capable of performing in cold weather. The microbial contamination issue was identified through sampling and laboratory analysis and resolved through a combination of biocide application and ongoing inspections and analysis.