Page 110 - Peterson 85 Years and Going Strong

Turbine installation in Cabinda, Angola
Twenty-nine jihadi militants were killed and three were taken captive. Luckily none of the agents working for Solar or Peterson were hurt.2 The site was shut down for three months until they could regroup. And Peterson never sent anyone back to those sites after the attack.“Working in these hot- bed areas is not for the week-kneed,” says Pleus. “Every one of these jobs has a challenge. Not one of them has ever gone textbook. But we’re not in this business to fail. Whatever challenges come up will be conquered. That’s our bottom line.”
FRACKING: NEW FRONTIER
Over the last decade, new methods of hydraulic fracturing—called fracking—have helped trans- form the US energy market from an economic drag to an unexpected boon. In September 2014, Houston-based U.S. Well Services (USWS) de- buted its Clean Fleet well-stimulation technology at sites in West Virginia. Crude oil prices fell by half, to $48 per barrel, over the next four months, grabbing the world’s attention.
Although fracking has been around since the 1930s, these new methods are allowing companies to reach previously inaccessible pockets of natural gas and oil trapped deep within shale formations two-and-a-half miles below the earth’s surface. “For years, they’ve known that shale contained tons of oil, but they couldn’t figure out how to extract it because it’s embedded in the rock,” explains Ham- ilton, now Peterson Power’s general sales manager. In the 1980s, someone in Austin, Texas started de- veloping the technology, which has finally become cost-effective. “Today, they can actually steer the drill bit. Once the drill head is down ten thousand feet, they can turn and bore another mile horizon- tally—in any direction—yielding 360° coverage.”
Fracking site with four Solar Turbines
2 No Peterson employees were ever onsite in Algeria. Peterson hired third-party contractors for these jobs, and none of them were hurt.
108 | PETERSON: 85 YEARS AND GOING STRONG