Two Starke County companies have been making major contributions to the frac drilling industry, particularly in North and South Dakota, Pennsylvania, and Ohio. Frac drilling is a term used for the procedure of extracting natural gas through a process known as “hydraulic fracturing,” along with both vertical and horizontal drilling. The process requires anywhere from one million to five million gallons of water.
Both Kruz, Inc. and Sabre Manufacturing, LLC are manufacturing tanks that are used in two different operations at frac drilling sites in those four states. Steel trailers used to carry 5500 gallons of water to these sites are manufactured by Kruz, which currently produces four trailers per week with plans to produce one per day beginning today.
Kruz is also beginning efforts to manufacture a steel drop-deck trailer to be used at frac sites. The trailer would hold propane condensers to run drill rigs and LN 2 vaporizers for liquid nitrogen, which would be used as an alternative method of drilling. This facet of the Kruz operation has directly resulted in the addition of 10 jobs, with an additional five to 10 jobs expected by the end of 2012.
While the Sabre Frac Tank is not meant to travel on the road like the Kruz trailer, it can still be found at some of the same sites one would find a Kruz trailer – though it is used for an entirely different purpose. The Sabre Frac Tank is hauled to a frac site and is used to hold the product that is being extracted or other liquids.
Sabre announced plans last year to enter into a five-year agreement with Wabash National Corporation in Lafayette, in which Wabash would build up to 2500 Frac Tanks for Sabre over the contract’s duration. In addition, Sabre also acquired additional property adjacent to its site in Knox which afforded them additional manufacturing space.
