Profile: Tetra Technologies, Inc (TTI.N)

TETRA Technologies, Inc., incorporated in 1981, is an oil and gas services, and production company with an integrated calcium chloride and brominated products manufacturing operation that supplies feedstocks to energy markets, as well as to other markets. The Company has three divisions: Fluids, Offshore, and Production Enhancement. The Fluids Division manufactures and markets clear brine fluids, additives, and other associated products and services to the oil and gas industry for use in well drilling, completion, and workover operations. The Offshore Division consists of two operating segments: Offshore Services and Maritech, an oil and gas exploration, exploitation, and production segment. The Production Enhancement Division consists of two operating segments; Production Testing and Compressco. The Production Testing segment provides production testing services to markets in Texas, New Mexico, Colorado, Oklahoma, Arkansas, Louisiana, Pennsylvania, offshore Gulf of Mexico, Mexico, Brazil, Northern Africa, and the Middle East. In January 2008, the Company’s Maritech subsidiary acquired oil and gas producing properties located in the offshore Gulf of Mexico from Stone Energy Corporation.

Fluids Division

Liquid calcium chloride, sodium bromide, calcium bromide, zinc bromide, and similar products produced by Fluids Division are referred to as clear brine fluids (CBFs) in the oil and gas industry. CBFs are manufactured and distributed by the Fluids Division and are also sold to other companies that service customers in the oil and gas industry. The Fluids Division provides basic and custom blended CBFs to domestic and international oil and gas well operators, based on the specific need of the customer, and the proposed application of the product. It also provides the customers with a range of associated services, including onsite fluid filtration, handling, and recycling; wellbore cleanup; fluid engineering consultation, and fluid management, including high volume water transfer services in support of high pressure fracturing processes.

The chemicals manufacturing group of the Fluids Division obtains product from numerous production facilities that manufacture liquid and/or dry calcium chloride, sodium bromide, calcium bromide, zinc bromide, and/or zinc calcium bromide for distribution into energy markets. Liquid and dry calcium chloride are also sold into the water treatment, industrial, cement, food processing, dust control, ice melt, agricultural, and consumer products markets. Liquid sodium bromide is also sold into the industrial water treatment markets, where it is used as a biocide in recirculated cooling tower waters.

The Company operates the European calcium chloride manufacturing operations under the name TCE. It also owns a calcium chloride plant in Lake Charles, Louisiana, with a production capacity of 100,000 tons of dry product per year. It also manufactures liquid calcium chloride from the facility in Parkersburg, West Virginia. The Company also has two solar evaporation plants located in San Bernardino County, California, which produce liquid calcium chloride from underground brine reserves.

The Company competes with Halliburton Company, M-I L.L.C., BJ Services Company, Dow Chemical Company, Industrial del Alkali, Brunner Mond, Solvay, and NedMag.

Offshore Division

Offshore Division consists of two separate operating segments: the Offshore Services and Maritech segments. The Offshore Services segment provides downhole and sub-sea services, such as plugging and abandonment, workover, inland water drilling, and wireline services; construction and decommissioning services, including hurricane remediation, utilizing heavy-lift barges and cutting technology in the construction or decommissioning of offshore oil and gas production platforms, and pipelines, and diving services involving conventional and saturated air diving, and the operation of several dive support vessels.

The Company provides services to the offshore Gulf of Mexico well abandonment and decommissioning markets, it provide these services to other oilfield markets, as well, inland water, and onshore markets in the Gulf of Mexico region. It offers integrated solutions to its customers, including engineering consultation and project management services. The Maritech segment is an oil and gas exploration, exploitation, and production company focused in the offshore and inland waters of the Gulf of Mexico. Maritech acquires oil and gas properties on which it conducts exploitation operations. In addition, oil and gas properties acquired by Maritech provide a baseload of business for the Offshore Services segment.

Offshore Services segment utilizes barge-mounted rigs, a platform rig, offshore rigless packages, two heavy lift vessels, several dive support vessels and other dive support assets, and onshore rigs which it own and operate. The Division provides a variety of contract diving services to its customers through its subsidiary, Epic Diving & Marine Services (Epic). Construction, well abandonment, and decommissioning services are performed primarily offshore in the Gulf of Mexico, although the Division also provides well abandonment services to customers in the inland waters and onshore in Texas and Louisiana. The Division provides services to oil and gas companies and independent operators, including Maritech, through its facilities located in Belle Chasse, Broussard, Harvey, Houma, Louisiana, Bryan, Victoria, and Texas.

The Company competes with Global Industries, Ltd., Offshore Specialties, Inc., Helix Energy Solutions, Cal Dive International, Inc., and Superior Energy Services, Inc.

Production Enhancement Division

The Production Testing segment of the Production Enhancement Division provides flowback pressure and volume testing of oil and gas wells, providing reservoir data necessary to enable operators to optimize production, and minimize oil and gas reservoir damage. In addition, the Production Testing segment provides services for coiled tubing, pipeline cleanout, blowout prevention, and laboratory analysis.

Production Testing segment maintains fleets of high pressure production testing equipment in the United States. This includes equipment specifically designed to work in environments in which high levels of hydrogen sulfide gas are present. The Production Testing segment has operating locations in Alice, Benbrook, Corpus Christi, Edinburg, Laredo, Midland, Palestine, Victoria, and Texas. The Division also has operating locations in Parachute, Colorado; New Iberia and Bossier City, Louisiana; Rochester, Pennsylvania; Reynosa, Villahermosa, Poza Rica, and Veracruz, Mexico; Macae, Brazil; Tripoli, Libya; Manama, Bahrain, and Dammam, Saudi Arabia.

The Division’s Compressco segment is a provider of wellhead compression-based production enhancement services to a broad base of natural gas and oil exploration, and production companies. These production enhancement services include compression, liquids separation, gas metering services, and ongoing well evaluations. Compressco designs and manufactures the compressor equipment (the GasJack units) it uses to provide production enhancement services.

The Company competes with Schlumberger Limited and Expro International, British Petrolium (BP), PEMEX, Devon, Chesapeake, and EXCO Resources.