Sheehan Pipe Line quadrupled its business from 2006 to 2008, mainly due to more resource discoveries.

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High demand for pipeline construction allowed Sheehan Pipe Line Construction Co. – already one of the largest in the industry – to quadruple its business from 2006 to 2008, CEO David Sheehan says. He credits the growth to more natural gas discoveries in three regions: the Rocky Mountains, the Barnett Shale – west of Ft. Worth, Texas – and the Gulf Coast.

“We’ve had to build pipelines to provide new legs of supply from the additional growth spurts,” he says. “We have to get the new supply to market, primarily in the Northeast and Chicago area. That is where most of the gas is used. It is the environment’s fuel of choice.”

The company went from $200 million in revenues in 2006 to an expected $800 million in revenues in 2008. It also grew from 60 to 115 field management personnel, office managers and superintendents. The number of field workers rose from 1,000 to 2,500, most of whom work 10- to 11-hour days – six days per week, year-round. “That is going to stretch any company,” he adds.

Before, most of the company’s projects involved building additions to existing pipelines. “All of a sudden, there are all these new discoveries,” he says, due to higher oil and natural gas prices and technological advances, such as better seismic data and horizontal drilling. He estimates that the boom will last two more years.

Rapid growth is not unique to the company, or to the industry. It has succeed in four other similar cycles since 1964, when Sheehan joined the company. The market “has huge peaks and valleys,” he says.

The main challenge today is finding qualified employees. The company strives to employ good supervisors and foremen to attract other qualified employees, Sheehan explains. “We look for motivated workers and give them an opportunity to move up,” he says. For example, it assists them with managerial help and trains them to be leaders.

Golden Pass
The company is working on the Golden Pass LNG Terminal, which involves building 53 miles of 42-inch high-pressure gas lines in Beaumont, Texas, to connect to several existing pipeline infrastructure in east Texas and central Louisiana.  The pipelines will carry natural gas and be connected to seven interstate systems, including Texas Eastern, Tenneco, Transco, Florida Gas, Columbia Gulf, Southern Natural Gas and Texas Gas, Sheehan explains. The project started in October 2007 and will be completed in late August.

This is the biggest single-volume project the company has done. Golden Pass LLC owns the terminal, and is affiliated with Qatar Petroleum, Exxon Mobil and ConocoPhillips. The company has learned a lot about Exxon Mobile’s safety processes while performing this project, Sheehan says. “They take a really different approach,” he says.

For example, most safety programs are reactive in nature to incidents and lost time accidents. Exxon Mobil, however, is proactive in implementing preventive measures to avoid accidents.

“Their Step Back 5 by 5 Program is an excellent example of teaching employees to step five feet back from a task and take five minutes to think and talk about that task before proceeding,” he says. “This gives everyone involved the opportunity to plan how to do the task safely.
“What Exxon Mobil is really good at is modifying behavior,” he adds. “They do behavior modification better than anyone and that translates to the workforce.

“What we’ve learned from working with Exxon Mobil is that we can teach our employees to truly believe we can work safely everyday, and to really care for the safety and well-being of each other. We have taken on the mantle of ‘Nobody gets hurt,’” he adds.

Family Tradition
John Sheehan, David’s great-grandfather, founded in the company in 1903 in Oklahoma. In the beginning, the company developed pipelines and tank pads for pioneers Josh Cosden and Harry Sinclair.

The company began to grow after his sons Ray and John B. took over after his death in 1921. It constructed gas transmission lines from Hugoton Basin to the Midwest and East Coast, and was a major contributor of the War Emergency Pipeline construction after World War II.

John B.’s son, Robert D. – David’s father – managed the company for 52 years. “Bob Sheehan made the company a truly national contractor, working for almost every major oil and gas transporter across the country,” the company says.

David Sheehan is the fourth-generation to lead Sheehan Pipeline. He started working in the company in 1964, and became full-time in 1970.

Sheehan said he never felt pressure to join the family business. “It’s a good place to work and [has] a great family tradition,” he explains.

Not many other family members are involved in the company, he says, noting only his cousin, Jim Nolan. “I would like to see it move forward [as a family business],” Sheehan says. “The company has gotten bigger, but it’s still a family atmosphere. We’ve got a good group of people.”