Perseverance.
Like our daily personal challenges, business seems like a never-ending stream of trials and tests.
The SemGroup bankruptcy served up plenty of these. The company fell into financial trouble in 2008, filed for bankruptcy and agonized through a restructuring for 17 months.
It was an uncertain time for everyone. Customers, creditors, community organizations and employees had to deal with a long list of traumas. And although we now try hard to focus on the future and not dwell on the past, what happened has happened.
Bankruptcy comes with scars. Creditors were angry. Bankers were angry. Suppliers were angry. Now, there are a whole host of conditions and constraints, costs and extra supervision. Lots of new rules and requirements appear. It may be a fresh start on the trail, but the backpack is loaded with bricks.
For employees, it was personally awkward. People would tell me they would go to a soccer game with the kids or to church on Sunday and be reluctant to tell people where they worked. It was as if folks wore a scarlet letter. Being part of a fast-growing, exciting, progressive company was now recast as being part of a failure.
But the people in the company didn't give up.
When SemGroup emerged from the restructuring at the end of 2009, opinions were strongly divided on whether to change the name or keep it. Many said the name had a stigma and suggested keeping distance between the old and the new. In the end, we kept it. We worried that the people we were relying on to give us a new chance might think we were trying to hide something behind a new name.
Fortunately we're in a good business in good places. It's been a benefit to have the home office here in Tulsa. Tulsa knows the oil business, the ups and downs, and has weathered more than its share.
The company has done well - exceptionally well. We've even launched a second NYSE-listed company, Rose Rock Midstream. Our employees are the real success; they kept going even when it seemed there was always another obstacle to getting back on our feet.
Today the SemGroup story is centered on growth. The company recently announced an agreement with Chesapeake Energy to acquire natural gas processing assets in the popular Mississippi Lime play. We're building infrastructure like our Glass Mountain Pipeline in Oklahoma and the Wattenberg Oil Trunkline project in Colorado. And we're also expanding on what works, like the doubling in size of our White Cliffs Pipeline, upping its capacity to 150,000 barrels of crude oil per day. Also in Oklahoma, a new, large gas processing plant was just commissioned at Hopeton.
All this work is winning financial success. In 2012, equity holders of SemGroup saw a 50 percent increase in their total returns, and those of Rose Rock Midstream saw a 60 percent jump. In May of this year we took another big step and began paying quarterly cash dividends to SemGroup shareholders.
It was a bumpy road that got us here. Every business involves doing many things right every day. Most of these tasks are not glamorous. For us, keeping everyone safe, making sure pipelines don't leak, following all the rules and ensuring customers are treated right - are all requirements to be profitable and successful.
We've been helped tremendously by recent advancements in the oil business. The new oil and gas being produced around the country has drawn a new American energy map. We're no longer running out of natural gas. We're not growing more and more dependent on foreign oil.
The views expressed here are those of the author and not necessarily the Tulsa World. To inquire about writing a Business Viewpoint column, email a short outline of the article to Business Editor Rod Walton at
rod.walton@tulsaworld.com. The column should focus on a business trend; the outlook for the city, state or an industry; or a topic of interest in an area of the writer's expertise. Articles should not promote a business or be overly political in nature.
Original Print Headline: Tenacity leads business even in tough times
Read more about SemGroupCorp.
The company’s comeback from bankruptcy
under new management has been robust.
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