Big tank business booming with fracking craze

Big tank business booming with fracking craze by Dan Healing, June 7, 2012, Calgary Herald
They’re big, they’re round (generally), they look like above-ground swimming pools, and they’re everywhere. On the heels of the growth of Calgary-based Poseidon Concepts Corp. from zero to $1.1 billion in market capitalization over the past year or so, it seems almost everyone has or is building a fleet of giant tanks to hold the massive amounts of water required by companies using multi-stage hydraulic fracturing to bust tight shale formations underground and recover precious oil and gas. Earlier this week I wrote about privately owned Fraction Energy Services of Calgary, which has enlisted bull-busting cowboy Cody Snyder to drum up customers for its tanks. On Thursday, I got an e-mail from Ken Aylesworth, vice-president of business development for Big Holding Systems Ltd., another private company with a “unique” product that looks a lot (to a casual observer) like the other systems. Meanwhile, a local investment bank put out a note on Strad Energy Services Ltd., which is testing its round and rectangular large volume frac tanks for an expected rollout in the fall. That’s about when another publicly traded company, Mullen Group Ltd. of Okotoks, expects to debut its fleet of “frac corrals.” All of the systems use curved panels and liners to offer portability, volume and quick erection advantages over transitional metal storage tanks.