Case Study
As the oil and gas industry booms across the Midwest, energy companies and their contractors need reliable partners to keep their projects moving forward. T.G. Mercer, a Texas-based pipeline transportation consultant, turned to CEI Crane & Rigging (CEI) for that support.
Energy Transfer, a natural gas operator, tasked T.G. Mercer with creating the storage and staging site for the Rover Pipeline, a 713-mile pipeline that stretches across West Virginia, Pennsylvania, Ohio and Michigan.
“It was such an undertaking to get it ready,” said Erica Magee, project controller for T.G. Mercer. “That’s one of the biggest yards that we’ve ever had to build and prep. It’s huge.”
Located in Massillon, Ohio, the yard holds more than 600 miles of large diameter steel pipe. Magee said her company needed rigging to transport the joint pipe from the Massillon yard to the right-of-way sites throughout Ohio. That’s where CEI stepped in.
Throughout the project, CEI provided more than ten cranes, along with a team of certified riggers and crane operators.
“When we need something moved that’s just so heavy that our machines are not capable of lifting it, any request that we have [CEI Crane & Rigging] has fulfilled, and they’ve done it quickly,” said Magee. “They’ve done everything that we’ve asked and have always gone above and beyond.”
Once completed, the Rover Pipeline will transport 3.25 billion cubic feet of natural gas per day throughout the U.S. and into parts of Canada. It’s a large undertaking, and the project maintains a strict schedule. CEI President Brian Selinsky said that his team works hard to stay agile.
“Time is of the essence with these projects,” said Selinsky. “These companies have deadlines, and they could potentially be charged hundreds of thousands of dollars a day if they don’t meet those deadlines, so it’s a very high-pressure situation. They seem to like CEI Crane & Rigging because we’re so responsive. If a problem comes up, we can address it right away.”
Magee said she appreciates CEI’s ability to meet quickly customer demands.
“It’s so hectic,” says Magee. “By the time [customers] reach out to us and ask for something, they needed it yesterday. CEI has always been able to accommodate us, whether it’s switching out a crane for a larger one or downsizing. Everyone at CEI that I’ve ever had to work within the office or out in the field, we have nothing but good things to say. Everyone has been amazing.”
For T.G. Mercer, CEI’s on-the-ground approach has helped significantly with project coordination.
“For our headquarters to be in Texas and for our projects to be nationwide, sometimes it’s hard to facilitate getting the right people there and making sure that our foremen are in tune with the new people on site,” Magee said. “Specifically, in Marion [Ohio], we’ve had numerous reports of how great [CEI’s] operators are. We’ve had multiple contractors report to us how safe and efficient they are.”
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