Sapper Brothers

Sapper Brothers

Howard Arnett, Jr. dozes a 300-foot-by-240-foot natural gas drilling pad sub-base into grade around a center stake that marks the spot where the natural gas well will be drilled. Throughout central Arkansas, on the Fayetteville Shale Play, thousands of lone stakes like this are the X that marks the spot where mineral rights will come out of the ground.

Arnett is looking forward to a day soon when he’ll need absolutely no stakes to bring a site into grade. He’s placed his order and soon his new Cat D6R XL Track-Type Tractor will be guided by the CatAccuGrade GPS Stakeless Grade Control System.“ I need to get to within at least 1/10th-inch of my final grade and this system can do it on the first pass—no regrading,” says the veteran dozer operator. “It likely will cut our grading time on one of these pads by a day.”

Efficiency and productivity perhaps have never been more important in central Arkansas than today, as drilling for natural gas begins with a fury on the Fayetteville Shale Play.

Contractors are digging wells by the hundreds and laying hundreds of miles of pipeline, as well. Oil and gas companies want production ASAP and contractors like Billy and Howard Arnett, Jr., owners of Sapper Earthworks, Conway, Ark., are feeling the heat. In fact, today, Howard is due to bid on five new well sites - after bidding on four new jobs yesterday. Work on the wells began in earnest for the brothers at the start of 2007 and, says Billy, “The work has just exploded. You drive down any of these roads here and you'll see something going on, It'll keep us busy for a while - hopefully 'til we retire!"

Entrepreneurial Opportunities
Work on the Fayetteville Shale Play is affecting every aspect of the local economies of some 20 counties. According to an economic impact study by the Center for Business and Economic Research and the University of Arkansas’ Sam M.Walton College of Business, direct expenditures from land leases, mineral rights, drilling and all related activities will likely mean $5.5 billion in economic activity to the state through 2008.

Don Bradley IV, the Arnett’s loan officer from First Security Bank in Conway, visiting their work site on a fine spring morning, concurs that entrepreneurial opportunities seem endless right now. “There’s enough demand here now for any contractor to get as much work as they want. The challenge for Billy and Howard will be how to not grow themselves out of business,” he says.

As Howard leaves to place a drilling bid, Bradley takes the controls of the new D6R XL that he helped the brothers acquire from Riggs Cat. "I'm trying to Sapper Earthworks was ready and in place when bidding on the Fayetteville Shale Play began learn as much as I can about the oil and gas industry,” he says. “When Billy comes into my office and starts talking about dozing, I don’t want to say, ‘What the heck are you talking about?’ He’s educating me today.”

Rugged Cat Reliability
Billy Arnett's dozing education started at the hands of his father, Howard, when the youngster was 12 years old. Much of their work through the years was in forestry, clearing land and building service roads for the timber companies. Howard, Sr. retired after 25 years in earthmoving in 1971. Howard, Jr., came back to join Billy in the business in 2000, after a career in the military.

“Dad was always a Cat guy,” recalls Billy, who with his brother now owns a fleet of 10 Caterpillar machines. “You gowithwhat you know, andwe know that Cat machines hold up. Dad always said, ‘If you want to go out of business, just buy something other than Caterpillar.’” Through the years their fleet of dozers was put to the test clearing steep mountain slopes. In a typical year, the company would clear and rip some 18,000 timber acres a year, build roads and even chase wildfires. Through it all,
the brothers say, the Cat track undercarriages - on rocky slopes - took an enormous beating, but always held up.
“We’ve had other brands of machines out on these hills and they just can’t hold
up,” says Billy. “We put our Cat machines in the worst possible conditions and maintenance costs have always been low.”

From those steep mountain slopes to the flat land of drilling pads is a welcome change for the Arnett brothers. The work, however, can be surprisingly similar. Once they win the bid, the sight needs to be cleared, a service road built, and the debris hauled out.

The sub-grade is then leveled to final grade and aggregate is hauled in for the finish surface. Once the site is ready to drill, Arnetts excavate the fracture retention ponds that adjoin the site. Currently, Sapper Earthworks has 14 employees working at any one time on sites in various phases of completion.

Through it all, Riggs Cat has been a partner with the Arnetts from the get go. “Gearing up for this drilling work has been a team effort between Don and the bank,my wife, Robin,who’s a CPA, Howard’s wife, Monica, Riggs Cat, and Cat Financial Services,” says Billy. “Donnie holds back the reins as we charge forward. And, if I don’t bring home receipts, Robin won’t give me my money!”