Work at the Salt Creek Oil Field starts at the gate, not at the building. We drive about 40 miles north of Casper, check in with the operator, sit through the site safety orientation and learn where the live lines, the wells and the restricted areas are before we turn a shovel. Everything we build for a field operation, from a pump shop to a field office, is planned from that point of entry.
Salt Creek is one of the old names in Rocky Mountain oil. The Dutch No. 1 gusher was drilled in 1908, and by 1970 the field had produced more oil than any other Rocky Mountain field, about 20 percent of Wyoming's output. The field now uses CO2 enhanced oil recovery. That means the buildings here support an industrial operation that has changed methods over a century, and an owner may need a structure to match the process in place today.
We are blunt about this kind of work. It is remote, the weather is hard, and the owner's schedule follows production, not our calendar. We price the drive, the camp and the crew travel, and we plan around turnaround and shutdown windows.
Every worker we bring onto an operating field goes through the operator's orientation and carries the required training and personal protective equipment. We write a site-specific safety plan before mobilization, and it covers hot work permits, line locates, lockout, vehicle rules and emergency muster. We also keep a competent person on site for excavation and fall protection, and a daily plan of the day's work, so everyone knows where the hazards are.
One fact from the field's record stays with us. In 2016, CO2 leaking from an abandoned well led to the temporary closure of a school. Gas hazards in a CO2 field are real, and a builder working there needs to know how monitoring works, where low spots collect gas, and who to call. We ask the operator for the hazard map and for the limits on excavation and confined space, and we plan accordingly. Abandoned wells, old pipelines and buried lines are not hypothetical on a field of this age.
Typical field-support buildings are shops, warehouses for parts and chemicals, field offices, wash bays, equipment sheds and small control or electrical buildings. Most go up as pre-engineered metal buildings on concrete foundations, because the steel package ships quickly and a crew can erect it on a short schedule. Slabs are designed for equipment loads and fluid containment, and many need curbs or sumps.
Outside the building, site work matters just as much. We build pads, access roads, laydown yards and drainage. The site development and utilities trade partners handle underground power, water and sewer where the operator allows. On a field with years of buried infrastructure, we always locate and expose before we trench.
Careful trade planning is practical at a remote field. We schedule the grading, concrete, steel erection and finish trade partners to travel together and bring what they need. We plan for a full set of tools, forms, heaters and generators, and we plan for fuel, water, dumpsters and portable sanitation before we leave town. There is no hardware store nearby, so the checklist matters more than the speed of a phone call.
We use mass grading to set pads and drainage before any foundation work. Concrete is scheduled for the warmest part of the day in the shoulder seasons, with blankets and heaters on hand for the rest. When a project needs a crane, we confirm access roads and ground bearing before the crane travels, because a stuck rig on a remote lease costs more than a day of planning.
Remote work adds cost in a few specific places. Crew travel and per diem are first, and they scale with the days on site. Mobilization of equipment is second. Third is the safety program itself: orientation time, permits to work, standby for line locates and delays when the operator closes an area. Fourth is weather, since a closed county road in winter stops deliveries and sends crews home.
The field's history teaches a lesson about cycles. A 2005 AP report said the operator at that time was investing up to $624 million in a CO2 flood, including a 125-mile pipeline, aiming to recover at least 200 million more barrels, after output fell from 6.3 million barrels in 1978 to 1.7 million in 2004. Those are 2005 figures and may have changed. The point is that field spending moves with price and technology, so we advise owners to build for the present need and avoid structures that depend on a single year's activity. The same thinking applies to our work for plant and manufacturing owners.
Salt Creek is about 40 miles north of downtown Casper, with the small communities of Midwest and Edgerton near the field. We staff jobs there from town in the morning, or arrange lodging when the schedule requires it. We balance drive time against camp cost and tell the owner which one is cheaper for the length of the job.
Many owners with field work also have shops and yards closer to town. For those, our work on the North Casper I-25 corridor may be a better fit, and we can build both under one contract.
Operating fields have their own calendar. Maintenance windows, turnaround periods and regulatory inspections can all close an area for days. We ask the operator for those dates up front and build the project schedule around them. If a tie-in has to happen during a shutdown, we stage materials and prefabricate off-site so the on-site window is as short as possible.
Hauling is part of any field operation, so owners in logistics and distribution often need yards and truck courts near the field as well. Coordinating all of it through a single contractor shortens the path from decision to occupancy.
Tell us where the lease is, what it needs and when it has to be done. We will price the drive, the safety program and the building itself, and give you a schedule that respects the operator's calendar.
About 40 miles north of downtown. Most crews drive from town daily, and we price the travel time as a real cost. For longer jobs we weigh lodging against commuting.
Yes. We attend the operator's orientation, write a site safety plan before mobilization and follow their permit to work process. Everyone on the site carries the required training for the work they do.
The field uses CO2 enhanced oil recovery, and a 2016 leak from an abandoned well led to a temporary school closure. We ask the operator for hazard maps and monitoring rules and follow them for any excavation or confined space work. Low areas can collect gas, so we stay alert to the operator's guidance.
A steel building with a reinforced slab, overhead doors sized for the equipment, and containment features for fluids. It is usually the fastest and most economical choice for a remote site, and it can be moved or sold if the field changes.
Build what the operation needs now. Choose structures that can be reused or sold. Keep spending flexible by phasing the work, and put every cost driver, including travel and mobilization, in writing before you commit.