Huge Texas Gas Field Gets Tapped With Cat

They say that everything's bigger in Texas. Whether that's actually true or just a part of Lone Star lore is probably debatable. What isn't debatable is how large the natural gas field near Fort Worth is. Known as the Barnett Shale, the 5,000-square-mile dense rock formation that runs about 7,000 feet below the surface of northeast Texas is estimated to contain about 25 trillion cubic feet of gas. It's poised to become America's largest producing natural gas field, and Caterpillar^® equipment is helping customers tap into this much needed energy source.

Discovered in 1981, the Barnett Shale was left idle until about two years ago. That's when high gas prices made its treasure worth bringing to the surface. Right now, the shale is producing nearly two billion cubic feet every day—enough natural gas to meet the needs of 9.2 million homes. And when it comes to machines and engines doing the work, customers are overwhelmingly choosing Cat. "This area represents a big opportunity," said Dean Silvers, senior director of Nabors Corporate Services, one of the world's largest drilling companies and one of Caterpillar's largest drilling customers. "We standardized our land business on the Cat^® 3500 series engines, and we buy 'em by the hundreds for our rigs, many of which are currently drilling in the Barnett Shale. There are a lot of challenges in drilling up there, but we've brought in a lot of brand-newrigs equipped with new horizontal drilling technology to get the job done."

Unlike traditional vertical drilling with a rig placed right above the source, horizontal drilling makes it possible to tap gas as far as a mile away. Part of the Barnett Shale, for example, runs under Fort Worth—a city of about 625,000 people. "As you could imagine, placing several rigs in the middle of a city wouldn't be acceptable to most people," said Bob Gonzalez, an account manager in Caterpillar's Houstonbased Global Petroleum group. "Horizontal drilling is allowing oil and gas customers to tap into sources like the Barnett Shale, which means a lot more opportunity for Cat."

Once the gas is brought to the surface, it needs a pipeline for transport to paying customers across America. One pipeline contractor making that happen is Willbros RPI. "Like most pipeline customers, we rely primarily on Cat," said Kevin Cater, the company's vice president. "I've been in this business since I was a teenager, and I know what brand the equipment is supposed to be."

As is the case in all businesses, pipeliners need their equipment to keep working or they start losing money. That's the main reason why companies like Willbros choose Cat. "Pipeline work is different from roadwork," said Cater. "We have an assembly line process, and the consequences of a piece of equipment going down is much greater than, say, a road contractor. If we have a piece of equipment go down, it shuts other things down. It's a train wreck. That's why the quality and service you get with Cat are such big

things. We simply cannot tolerate any downtime."

A Global Connection
Well over 500 miles of pipeline have been laid to support Barnett Shale production. Cat pipelayers like the 561N made in Grenoble, France, are typically used to lay small lines, which then connect to larger transmission lines where 583T and 587T pipelayers made in East Peoria are heavily used. "For every pipelayer we sell, we typically sell at least two more pieces of Cat equipment," said Andrew Bermack, a marketing specialist with Houston-based Cat Global Pipeline. "A typical pipeline spread is usually comprised of about 450 people who depend on 60 machines, including a number of pipelayers, other track-type tractors, wheel loaders, excavators, motor graders, and backhoe loaders."

But a pipeline is nothing without power to push the gas through, and companies like Fort Worth-based XTO Energy are using the full range of Caterpillar engines like the G3500 and the G3600 series to do that end of the work. "The Barnett Shale is a large piece of what XTO's doing," said James Marr, the company's operations manager of natural gas operations. "And we've got Caterpillar engines on order to meet this demand that we've seen coming for several years. Right now, I can't tell you how many large engines we have, but there's not even a thought in this group of buying any thing other than Cat because the service and the quality have been what we require."

Of course Caterpillar dealers are a big part of the service these customers have come to expect. "The dealer network is critical," said Silvers. "It's our policy to have all of our large engines overhauled by Cat dealers. In this part of Texas, we send that work to Cat dealers Mustang, Warren, and Holt. But wherever we're drilling—the Rocky Mountains, Louisiana, or wherever it is—Cat has such a great network that we know once we buy the engine, we can expect support for it."

Due to the success companies have had drilling in the Barnett Shale—a deposit that's expected to last 20 to 30 years at the current rate of production—more shale formations in Wyoming, Utah, Arkansas, Illinois, and several East Coast states are currently being examined by Cat customers like Nabors and Willbros RPI, proving that big things are possible even outside of Texas. "As long as the prices of gas and production and supply and demand are right, you can't build pipelines fast enough," said Cater.

And that's good news for the men and women who build the machines and engines needed to support this energy boom.