+
BUCKEYE PARTNERS, L.P. | COVER STORY
Superior
Logistics
Buckeye Partners manages its infrastructure projects to increase
its speed to market and efficiently complete capital projects.
BY JANICE HOPPE
Manifold at BORCO..
Summer 2015
•
Houston
“Everyone understands
the critical nature of
getting projects done in
the most time-efficient
way possible while
still doing it in a safe
manner.”
// CRAIG BROWN, SENIOR DIRECTOR OF
ENGINEERING SERVICES
A
s a leading energy logistics
firm, Buckeye Partners,
L.P. focuses on improving
the integrity of its infrastructure and expanding
it to take on new marketing projects.
“Buckeye is a different brand of company and I was attracted to them because
of the entrepreneur-type of approach
it has to building projects,” Senior
Director of Engineering Services Craig
Brown says.
The Houston-based company
provides mid-stream energy logistics
services. Buckeye owns and operates
one of the nation’s largest independent
petroleum products common carrier
pipeline networks, providing refiners,
wholesalers, marketers, airlines, railPROFILE
Buckeye Partners
www.buckeye.com | Revenue: $6.6 billion |
Headquarters: Houston | Employees: About 1,800 |
Specialty: Mid-stream energy logistics solutions
24 emi-magazine.com
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BUCKEYE PARTNERS | COVER STORY
roads and other commercial end-users
with dependable, all-weather transportation of refined petroleum products. The company transports refined
products by pipeline mostly in the
Northeast and upper Midwest.
Buckeye owns and operates about
6,000 miles of underground pipelines,
in conjunction with more than 120
terminals, including marine and truckloading facilities.
Perth Amboy terminal rail delivery system..
The pipelines transport refined
petroleum products from major supply
sources to distribution terminals
located in major end-use markets. “Our
pipelines provide a vital transportation
link between major petroleum refining
and supply locations and consumption
centers,” the company says. “Buckeye’s
operations deliver consistent results
because pipeline volumes are driven
primarily by demand in the markets
Summer 2015
served, the partnership’s pipelines and
terminals are geographically diversified of supply and the pipelines deliver
petroleum products to numerous delivery locations.”
“We ask them to be very.
adaptable, flexible and handle.
different types of projects. It’s not.
uncommon for a project manager .
to build a pipeline, do a pump.
station next, followed by a.
vapor-recovery unit.” - Craig Brown.
TAKING THE LEAD
As a company that self-performs
the engineering, procurement and
construction management process,
Buckeye’s project managers act as
general contractors and take the lead
on procurement, bidding, and overseeing engineering and construction.
“Project managers handle everything
from cradle to grave,” Brown explains.
“From small to large projects, they
handle everything from the initial
feasibility to final execution, and are
accountable and responsible for every
aspect of the project.”
One of the benefits of working at
+ Consolidated Fabrication & Constructors, Inc. is
a Mechanical Contractor serving the needs of the
Nation’s leading Industrial Companies. For the last
several years, we’ve been Buckeye Partner’s Core
Contractor for New Tank Construction, Maintenance
and Pipeline Integrity throughout the Buckeye system in the US, Puerto Rico and the Caribbean. We’re
proud of our great working relationship and congratulate Buckeye Partners on 125 years of excellence!
Visit us at consfab.com.
+ FM Sylvan has served the Energy industry for
more than twenty years, enabling industry leaders
such as Buckeye Partners to adopt next generation
production solutions. Buckeye has engaged FM
Sylvan’s industrial pipe fabrication, installation, and
layout services on a series of critical projects over
the last two years at Buckeye’s Perth Amboy, Port
Reading, and Peotone Plants. Despite aggressive
schedules and the need to manage pipe fabrication
and installation and layout services in parallel, FM
Sylvan delivered the projects successfully--on time
and on budget. Buckeye has formally commended
FM Sylvan’s work on the Perth Amboy Modernization
Project, which included more than 2500 welds with
less than a 1 percent rejection rate, specifically calling out FM Sylvan’s “dedication and determination to
seeing this massive project to completion.”
26 emi-magazine.com
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BUCKEYE PARTNERS | COVER STORY
Summer 2015
Managing projects internally, like BORCO, helps Buckeye ensure efficient speed-to-market with large terminal projects..
a company such as Buckeye is that
project managers are given significant
latitude as decision makers for the
projects they oversee, Brown explains.
“We are able to attract really good managers because they like the fact that
they are given responsibility and held
accountable,” he adds.
Because it relies so heavily on its
project managers, Buckeye performs a
thorough interview process to ensure it
has the right people in those positions.
“Our project managers fully believe
that problems are nothing more than
opportunities for solutions,” says Joe
Sauger, senior vice president, engineering and compliance. “This philosophy allows us to execute extremely
challenging projects across all of our
business units.”
Project managers must be able to
28 emi-magazine.com
handle tasks such as selecting vendors, working with the supply chain
to ensure materials are delivered on
time and executing projects correctly, for example. “We ask them to be
very adaptable, flexible and handle
different types of projects,” Brown
says. “It’s not uncommon for a project
manager to build a pipeline, do a pump
station next, followed by a vapor recovery unit. We don’t just do one type
of project.”
The company has put a major emphasis on training its project managers and developed a three-day project
simulation class for experienced and
junior project managers. “We simulate a project from the beginning to
the end that touches on every process, template, tool and requirement
that a project manager needs to know
about building a project the Buckeye
way,” Brown explains. “We train so
they are aware of and understand
each step, so when they walk out they
have everything they need to accomplish the project and know who to
reach out to for help to complete a
step or process.”
+ Proud To Be A Part of the Buckeye Partners Team.
Buckeye Partners, L.P., owns and operates more than
100 refined petroleum products terminals, including
the recently acquired Texas Dock and Rail marine
loading facility in Corpus Christi, TX. As part of these
facilities, the company also owns approximately
150 vapor recovery and vapor combustion units.
Understandably, optimizing the performance of these
systems is a complicated and vital task. That’s why
we were honored when Buckeye Partners turned to
John Zink Hamworthy Combustion for vapor control
expertise. Acting as Vapor Program Manager, we
provide engineering and field service expertise to
maximize recovered product and equipment uptime,
while optimizing planned maintenance to reduce
overall operation expenses. By managing vapor
control upgrades, retrofits, and replacements, we are
also able to help Buckeye keep pace with terminal
growth and stay ahead of regulatory compliance
requirements.
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BUCKEYE PARTNERS | COVER STORY
Perth Amboy railway that is part of the crude oil delivery system..
SPEED TO MARKET
One of the most critical pieces of Buckeye’s success is its
speed to market. Buckeye reduces project costs by managing procurement, contracts and third-party engineering
firms itself. The company has a competitive number of
potential engineering firms that it works with to maintain long-term relationships while also making sure it
pays a fair price.
By building its infrastructure, Buckeye has grown
significantly in the past eight years. Maintaining speed to
market as the company grows has become more important, Brown notes. “We can’t afford to not have certain policies and process in place to standardize the way we build
things,” he adds. “We don’t want to bind project managers
down with a lot of bureaucracy, rather we strive to implement new processes and standard practices to complete
projects safely while meeting aggressive timelines.” EMI
30 emi-magazine.com
Summer 2015
COVER STORY | BUCKEYE TEXAS PROCESSING
+
Quality
Infrastructure
Buckeye Partners gains a significant presence in the Gulf Coast and adds to its goal of
operating more marine terminals after its acquisition of a mid-stream platform in Texas.
BY JANICE HOPPE
B
uckeye Partners , L.P. oversaw 1,500 capital projects last year – both maintenance
and revenue producing – expanding up to more than $200 million. Over the past four
years it has spent $1 billion on capital projects, says Steve White, vice president of
engineering.
As part of its expansion into marine terminals, Buckeye acquired the Bahamas Oil Refining
Company International (BORCO) in 2010 for approximately $1.7 billion. Located 80 miles
from the Florida coast along the Northwest Providence Channel of The Grand Bahama Island,
BORCO is one of the largest crude oil and petroleum products storage terminal in the world and
the largest petroleum products facility in the Caribbean. The BORCO terminal offers customers
storage, berthing, heating, transshipment, blending, treating, bunkering and ancillary services.
emi-magazine.com 31
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BUCKEYE TEXAS PROCESSING | COVER STORY
The facility had total installed storage capacity of 21.4 million barrels
and after a significant two-year expansion project, Buckeye added about 4.7
million barrels of flexible petroleum
storage. “Instead of developing a completely virgin area, we expanded within the existing footprint and were able
to achieve significant cost reduction,”
Senior Project Manager Clint Johnson says. “One thing Buckeye does
well is phase in our work so that we
don’t wait until everything is designed
before we begin construction. The
phased-in approach achieves results
faster than we would have otherwise.”
“This project was a great project. It
was very comprehensive and challenging,” White notes. “It was really the
big step-out project for Buckeye.”
The marine infrastructure of
Delivering the manifold system to Perth Amboy..
32 emi-magazine.com
BORCO consists of three deep-water
jetties that are about 4,000 feet from
the shoreline. These jetties are capable
of berthing the largest liquid petroleum carriers. BORCO also included
an inland dock with a 650-foot berth
located in Freeport Harbor.
Buckeye oversaw the refurbishment
of the jetties and inland dock renovations that included the build-out of a
new berth. Both projects combined
were close to a $200 million capital
investment.
One of the major challenges Buckeye
overcame during the BORCO project was sourcing materials, because
materials are not as readily available
internationally. “We can’t run down to
the local hardware store or industrial
supplier, so we were forced to plan
ahead,” White notes. “This project was
Summer 2015
all about planning to ensure we didn’t
run into those issues.”
Buckeye maximized the use of local
labor in the Bahamas in addition to its
supplemental resources from outside
the island. “We are very pleased with
the successful partnerships we developed with our Bahamian colleagues,”
White notes.
In fact, the company partnered with
a pipe fabricator in the Bahamas and
used the same company two years later
+ TF Warren/Tarsco Tarsco has been an industrial
tank contractor for over 30 years and currently serves
the Western Hemisphere with expertise in storage
tanks and terminals for the oil and gas industry.
As an approved contractor for the project, Tarsco
was proud to be selected to engineer, fabricate,
construct, insulate, and field coat 3.2 million barrels
of storage for the terminal in Corpus Christi, TX
including storage for propane, butane, crude oil, and
other products.
Tarsco looks forward to working with Buckeye
Partners on future solutions to meet the important
needs of the oil and gas industry.
+
BUCKEYE TEXAS PROCESSING | COVER STORY
Summer 2015
when it acquired the Perth Amboy facility in New Jersey.
This was one of the few times a
company in the Bahamas had fabricated
large industrial equipment for shipment to the United States.
STRATEGIC ACQUISITIONS
Buckeye acquired BORCO, which is one of the largest crude oil and petroleum products storage terminal in the world..
New manifold and pump installations at Perth Amboy..
Perth Amboy sits on about 250 acres
and is located six miles from Buckeye’s
Linden, N.J., complex. It features more
than four million barrels of storage and
four docks, as well as pipeline, rail and
truck access.
Buckeye acquired the property in
2012 for $260 million from Chevron
U.S.A. Inc., which continues to be a key
customer.
Perth Amboy was a strategic move
for the company because the terminal
is located on the New York Harbor, a
major trading hub that provides the
company with direct access to international and U.S. Gulf Coast petroleum
products imports.
“We are excited to bring this strategic facility into Buckeye’s portfolio
of assets,” CEO Clark C. Smith said at
the time of the acquisition. “We expect its integration into our network
to proceed quickly and smoothly,
and we intend to initiate our planned
commercialization activities immediately. The Perth Amboy terminal
should provide Buckeye with security
and diversity of product supply by directly linking our domestic pipeline
and terminal network to an owned
+ Since 1956, Coonrod Electric Co., LLC has been
a trusted turn-key industrial contractor providing
electrical and instrumentation services to a variety
of oilfield and industrial companies. Our mode of
operation and combined management expertise of
over two centuries has established a leading reputation of quality craftsmanship, safety and integrity on
every job throughout Texas, Louisiana, Pennsylvania
and Mexico. Currently, Coonrod Electric is proud to
play a key role in one of the fastest growing markets
of the Gulf Coast by providing such services and
expertise to Buckeye Partners, LP in the construction
and continued development of the Texas Hub, Texas
Processing and Texas Field Services terminals.
34 emi-magazine.com
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BUCKEYE TEXAS PROCESSING | COVER STORY
and operated marine facility through
a new 16-inch pipeline to be built to
our Linden complex.”
Buckeye rebuilt the dock facilities,
installed a new rail facility, replaced
the internal piping and constructed
incremental storage capacity at Perth
Amboy. “It was completely modern-
Summer 2015
ized with state-of-the-art systems
and took a total of two years to complete from inception to completion,”
Johnson adds.
One of the major takeaways from
the Perth Amboy project was the
importance of developing good
partnerships with local stakeholders, including trade unions and local
government. “We had a lot of success
gathering a coalition of people who
were extremely supportive of our project that we could draw on for expertise
and assistance,” Johnson says.
CORPUS CHRISTI
Buckeye last summer acquired a majority interest in a mid-stream platform in the Gulf Coast with long-term
committed revenues and significant
opportunities for further growth. The
Corpus Christi, Texas-based facility
was attractive because of its location.
+ Lord Construction Services Dba Lord Contractors,
Lord Construction Services is an industrial and commercial construction corporation established in the
state of Delaware, currently doing work in the state
of Texas for the Petroleum Distribution Industry and
pursuing major construction business in the rest of
the nation. Lord traces its origins to Frederic W. Lord,
a student from M. I. T. and a visionary in the electrical engineering field, who founded Lord Electric
Company in 1895, in Boston, Massachusetts. Since
then, Lord has maintained its commitment to quality
and innovation as a tribute to its founder. Lord has
a well-established record of quality work during its
120 years of existence in the U.S. and Puerto Rico,
in almost every market of the construction industry:
commercial, industrial, institutional, state and federal
government buildings, pharmaceutical process and
biochemicals, communications, power lines, transportation infrastructure, power generating plants, renewable energy, petroleum product terminals, water
processing plants, and the oil and gas industry. The
quality, integrity and efficiency of Lord Construction
Services cannot be written into a contract, but they
are well remembered long after the work is done.
+ Mirage Industrial Group, LLC Mirage Industrial
Group was founded in 1999 as a company specializing
in structural concrete. Today, Mirage is recognized
construction leader providing a broad range of services in numerous markets, including process facilities,
heavy commercial, oil and gas industry, and power.
As a specialty contractor in heavy civil, mechanical and structural steel, customers rely on Mirage’s
meticulously maintained equipment, proven project
management procedures and sound financial
resources for excellent results. And our highly skilled
craftsman and project managers stand ready to tackle even the largest of challenges. Whatever project
you may need accomplished, we have the capability
and experience to handle the job at Mirage Industrial
Group, LLC.
36 emi-magazine.com
+
BUCKEYE TEXAS PROCESSING | COVER STORY
Summer 2015
“For the first time this gives us a significant presence in
the Gulf Coast area,” Director of Engineering Lewis Collings
says. “The facility in Texas was significant to us in our marine
terminal strategy that includes BORCO and Perth Amboy,
and now Corpus Christi.”
Buckeye’s Texas hub is a deep-water marine terminal on
the Corpus Christi Ship Channel. Its five vessel berths include three deep-water docks, and the facility is equipped for
rail and truck loading and unloading.
This facility also allows Buckeye to expand its services to
include some processing. “One of the things that is unique
about the facility is that it is not just a processing facility,
but we have a world-class LPG storage facility that can be
shipped by water,” White notes.
The Corpus Christi hub is under construction and will be
completed in phases. A 50,000-barrel-per-day condensate
splitter is under construction and in a May 1, 2015 conference call, Buckeye indicated the splitter is anticipated to be
completed in 2015. After the splitter is completed, Buckeye
will then begin operations under a seven-year agreement
with a global commodities trading firm.
Three field gathering facilities with associated storage and
pipeline connectivity will allow Buckeye to move Eagle Ford
crude and condensate production directly to the terminal
complex in Corpus Christi.
After completion of the initial development phase, the hub
will form an integrated system with connectivity from the
production in the field to the marine terminal infrastructure
in Corpus Christi, creating a premier logistics platform with
significant flexibility and optionality. The facility will offer
about 5.6 million barrels of liquid petroleum products storage capacity.
Buckeye is expected to invest about $300 million in this
project. “We believe these strategic assets will provide significant opportunities for additional infrastructure expansion
to support further expected growth in these markets,” says
Smith.
After completing BORCO, Perth Amboy and now working
on the Corpus Christi terminal, Buckeye looks forward to
continued growth. “Growth is a very key part of our overall
goals,” White says. “Our role is project execution and making
sure we execute on small and large projects. Our team fully
expects we will remain busy with additional expansion and
other capital investment opportunities down the road.” EMI
The condensate splitter under construction in Corpus Christi..
Corpus Christi will offer about 5.6 million barrels of liquid petroleum storage capacity..
+ PMI (Palacios Marine and Industrial) PMI is committed to being the best contractor and service provider possible. To be the best, we recognize that we must
provide world class safety, exceptional quality craftsmanship and a productive
workforce to Buckeye, along with an opportunity for all of our team members to
excel in a working environment that emphasizes safe behavior and safe working
conditions. Buckeye has contracted the services of PMI to help construct their
world class terminals. Our relationship with Buckeye has experienced steady
growth throughout the construction of the BTP and BTH projects. The discipline
and structure provided by the on-site Buckeye Project Management team has been
instrumental in successfully bringing these facilities on line and has contributed to
our success as one of their core General Contractors.
38 emi-magazine.com