Stabilizing Oil & Gas Access Routes Doesn’t Have to Be Expensive and Time-Consuming

Stabilizing Oil & Gas Access Routes Doesn’t Have to Be Expensive and Time-Consuming

In Oil & Gas, SF2® Stabilization, Soil Stabilization by Bob Vitale

For too long, oil and gas companies have come to associate road maintenance and reconstruction with production delays and lost revenue. With Midwest’s Year-Round SF2 Stabilization System, these setbacks can become a thing of the past.

Anyone in the oil and gas industry knows that bad weather can cause significant delays in completing activities associated with building and maintaining drill and gas compressor sites. Among the various efforts involved in this undertaking, few are more sensitive to seasonal fluctuations in temperature and precipitation than access road construction or stabilization. This is a particularly significant problem since keeping these routes in good condition is critical to safeguarding expensive equipment as well as ensuring that well site traffic continues to move smoothly.

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As it stands now, far too many site operators rely on costly and time-consuming methods to keep their roads in good shape. Traditional road construction and reconstruction techniques, whether they’re used for township or access roads, require dry, warm conditions in order to be installed. This becomes a problem in the northern shale plays, where five months of below-freezing temperatures frequently put entire projects behind schedule. After the roads have been installed using this method, the time squandered waiting for the surface to dry often results in additional lost revenue.

Enough is enough. Using Midwest Industrial Supply, Inc.’s SF2 Stabilization System, oil and gas companies can install or maintain access and township roads year-round, with no interruption in traffic flow and no risk to equipment. SF2’s cold-weather installation capability renders harsh weather a non-threat to production profits and bottom lines.

SF2 stabilization is achieved by incorporating a synthetic fluid binder, as well as synthetic fibers into the in-situ material, to create a high-grade, stabilized matrix with load-bearing properties that meets all design requirements. A stabilized road can be asphalt paved, chip sealed or allow for a stone wear course to be immediately installed. And SF2 roads function just as well as stone roads, as well as roads completed with full-depth reclamation and cement stabilization.

Thanks to its innovative, freeze-resistant formula, SF2 effectively eliminates seasonal weather as an obstacle to road maintenance and construction, helping oil and gas companies avoid delays that put profits at risk. With oil prices already dropping, this should be music to the ears of anyone who works in the industry.

Bob is founder and CEO of Midwest Industrial Supply.