Q. What do you most want people to know about your company?
A. Alpha Seismic Compressors, LLC specializes in offering state of the art, customized, seismic air compressors for rent to marine seismic data acquisition contractors and oil field service providers. Our compressors supply the necessary energy for seismic air guns to operate properly during offshore applications; especially in shallow water/high definition applications. Our compressor rentals have been successfully used offshore in Alaska, the Alaskan and Russian Arctic, Canadian Great Lakes, Gulf of Mexico, Brazil and other worldwide locations. Our units are designed to be mobile and can be used virtually anywhere in the world.
Q. Where is your company located?
A. Our Compressor Fleet and Operations are located in Houston, Texas. Our Corporate Headquarters and Sales Offices are located in Portland, Oregon. Lloyd’s of London Agents and Sub-Agents represent our interests worldwide as needed.
Q. What year was the company founded and by whom?
A. Alpha Seismic Compressors, LLC was founded in 2010. Owners Steve Reese, Ken Guenther and Fred Pfaffle decided there were favorable synergies in combining our high pressure compressor knowledge, assets and management experience into one company; to rent seismic air compressors and offer high pressure air source solutions worldwide.
Q. What is the company’s primary business sector?
A. ASC’s primary business model is to focus on marine seismic data contractors and oil field service providers doing exploration and production work for the oil and natural gas industry. More generally, we pursue demanding markets requiring robust, high pressure air source solutions. In addition to the oil and gas industry, we rent our compressors to ship owners, safety and breathing air providers, national testing laboratories, academic and research institutions, government and municipal entities, and other specialized industrial and commercial applications.
Q. Are there important projects the company is currently a part of or has done recently?
A. Our seismic air compressor rental units have been successfully deployed for offshore seismic operations in the Alaskan and Russian Arctic, Alaska, Canada, Brazil, Gulf of Mexico and other worldwide locations. We expect repeat business in all of those markets. We are currently preparing for an offshore operation in West Africa and possibly Central America. Additionally, our compressors have been rented for use in and/or are suited for national testing laboratories, high pressure pipe line testing, breathing air and safety applications, and other specialized industrial, commercial, municipal and naval applications.
Q. How many employees does your company have?
A. Through affiliated corporate arrangements based on ongoing projects we have a staff of approximately twenty available to us.
Q. Describe the equipment your company might use and are there any new purchases planned?
A. ASC owns, and is implementing a substantial rental fleet expansion program, using state of the art components from Gardner Denver/CompAir-Reavell, Hamworthy, Bauer, John Deere and automation and control solution providers. We are embracing Field Data Collection technology to enhance performance, preventative maintenance and operational risk management. We are considering possible investments in certain pre-owned LMF compressors, then updating using state of the art automation and control devices.
Q. Is your company expanding any of its operations or locations?
A. Yes. We are in an expansion mode; always looking for new markets and compressors to add to our rental fleet.
Q. Is the company changing any of its services?
A. Our primary service is to rent reliable, continuous duty, high pressure air compressors designed for harsh and demanding environments. On an as needed basis, we can also offer design and engineering, installation, start up, operation, maintenance, spare parts and consumables, repair and other after-market services. We will do whatever we can to offer our customers improved operational risk management. This business is all about efforts to eliminate down time and improve performance.
Q. What is your company’s main strength or its edge over the competition?
A. Specifically, ASC has some to the newest, most reliable seismic air compressors in the rental market. We embrace technology offering improved performance, eliminating down time and increased operating efficiency. More generally, Alpha Seismic Compressors has commercially desirable, state of the art rental equipment. We pride ourselves as an aggressive growing company. We have deep field experience and a committed management team. We know our compressors perform well but we continuously look for ways to perform even better.
Q. What new markets, clients or projects did your company attract in the last year?
A. Our only job is to get and keep customers. ASC has had great success in the Northern Hemisphere and Gulf of Mexico. We have made good progress into Brazil. We hope to attract further warm water business, especially in Central America, Asia and West Africa.
Q. What is the most challenging job the company has undertaken?
A. We consider each and every one of jobs as a serious challenge. We strive to give special attention to tailoring and customizing available equipment to meet each of our customer’s demands.
Q. What are the biggest obstacles to completing work the company undertakes?
A. Meeting timetables to accommodate each and every one of our client’s requirements.
Q. What do you see as your company’s biggest challenge in the next five years?
A. Keeping up with demand.
Q. Does your company have an anniversary or other landmark event coming up?
A. ASC will complete its next stage of fleet expansion during the first quarter of 2013. Virtually all of our rental fleet is new/near new or has been built out with the latest automation and control technology. This will be the first year implementing technologies where we can utilize field data collection interactively using simple, inexpensive device management.
Q. What is the average length of time employee’s work for the company?
A. We are a relatively new entity but each member of our team has many years of corporate and/or solid field experience.
Q. What is your company’s safety record? What steps does the company take to ensure a safe work environment?
A. We are very sensitive to providing safe and reliable state of the art equipment to our customers. Our equipment is frequently used in harsh and demanding environments where robust, safe and continuous duty reliability is a must. We know problems can happen. One of our principles is to respond as quickly as possible to solve problems before they have a chance to become bigger problems. Our field experience includes commercial jet engine maintenance. We don’t want equipment going out in the field that isn’t safe and reliable.
Q. Has your company received any awards or recognition?
A. We are proud, supporting members of the International Association of Geophysical Contractors and the Society of Exploration Geophysicists.
Q. Has your company been involved in any community projects or charities events?
A. In October we were very pleased to once again to a sponsor of the IAGC Sporting Clay Tournament held annually in Houston, TX. We were a major sponsor of a charitable golf event in Houston this past summer and also made a financial contribution to a health care organization doing work in Central America.
Q. Does your company have a website?
A. Yes. www.AlphaSeismicCompressors.com. If all goes as planned, we will have finalized a complete update of our website by the time the 2013 Arctic Oil & Gas Directory goes into circulation. It will be designed to give our current and prospective customers easier navigation and better information about what ASC can do for them. Finally, we would like to thank all of our friends at Petroleum News in helping get our seismic air compressor rental fleet into this important marketplace.
