Founded in 2014, Specialty Welding and Turnarounds (SWAT) has evolved into an elite and trusted provider of highly specialized turnaround services with an industry- leading safety record, superior execution capabilities, and a wide range of specialty welding, mechanical, alky and catalyst service offerings.
The company currently has master service agreements with more than 50 U.S. facilities, including some of the world's largest oil refineries, and maintains multiple touchpoints across its key customer base.
SWAT also has a diverse geographic presence with offices in Louisiana, Texas, California, Mississippi and Washington, a coverage area spanning more than 16 states and a nationwide craft labor database of over 5,000 highly experienced professionals.
"We are committed to a higher standard of excellence," said Marcus Deal, CEO of SWAT. "Safety, schedule, budget and quality - we understand the importance."
"Our turnaround teams push what's possible every day, never satisfied with simply meeting expectations," said Johnny Holifield, president of SWAT. "With our elite personnel, award-winning safety record and industry- leading service lines, we work in every type of facility. We're proud of this diversification and being able to adapt to the needs of industry. Even in the middle of a global pandemic, we successfully worked more than 3 million man-hours last year."
SWAT understands what needs to happen to complete a project on time, as well as what pitfalls to avoid.
"We are honest, trustworthy and transparent with our customers, and I believe they appreciate that," said Jimmy Quick, vice president of SWAT. "When we look our customers in the eye and make commitments to them, it means something to us at SWAT. We stand behind what we tell them we can achieve, and we go above and beyond for that commitment. We also do everything we can to be good stewards for our customers when it comes to costs. We treat every customer's jobsite as if it were our own facility.
"At the end of the day, it's all about being the best at what you do. By using SWAT to perform your welding, mechanical, alky or catalyst services, it's the closest you can get to a guarantee."
Elite specialty welding services
Experts in specialty welding, SWAT's personnel make complex welding look easy. SWAT has the most talented, experienced craft personnel working in industry today - all dedicated to delivering on SWAT's commitment to its customers.
"We give our personnel the very best in tooling, equipment, safety gear and training to ensure we are meeting our customers' expectations," Quick said. "And with our large database of personnel and a scalable and responsive workforce, there's no job too large."
In 2020, SWAT made over 19,500 welds with a less than 0.025 percent weld rejection rate.
"We take pride in performing at an elite level," Holifield said. "It all starts with the expectation that when you are employed by SWAT, you have been hand-picked and selected to work for the most elite, best-of-the- best contractor in the country. Our standards are very high, and I like to think they are higher than most companies out there."
From piping to furnaces, enlist SWAT for your next welding project. SWAT's specialty welding division offers:
- Pipe fabrication, demo and installation.
- Alloy pipe welding.
- Flange and nozzle installation/repair.
- Furnace retubes/revamps.
- Critical path work scope and recovery.
Industry-leading mechanical services
SWAT's mechanical services division, which focuses on heat exchangers, towers, drums, general vessel maintenance and repairs, and unit shutdowns and startups, has experienced steady growth since 2015. Year after year, its number of personnel and amount of company equipment have increased significantly. Not only that, but SWAT's mechanical division is also taking on industry's largest projects throughout the U.S. In 2020, SWAT's mechanical division worked approximately 1.2 million man-hours.
Mark Simeon, a construction manager with more than 30 years of experience in the industry, leads the division. According to Simeon, SWAT's mechanical division works with its customers every day to find innovative solutions that minimize downtime while keeping safety and quality at the forefront.
"This forward thinking has strengthened the mechanical division's relationships with our customers and helps make us the first choice when a mechanical contractor is needed," Simeon said. "We are becoming known as the industry's premier turnaround company because we can provide customers with best-in-class mechanical services. We have an unwavering commitment to being the best at what we do."
SWAT's mechanical management and supervision have a combined 250-plus years of experience. When it comes to craft personnel, the division can provide up to 1,200 well-trained and qualified craftsmen.
"We completely understand our people are our greatest asset," Simeon explained. "We have a core group of people who work together as a family, providing customers with world-class craftsmanship. We also provide a rapid response time for customers when we are needed for emergency support."
According to Simeon, SWAT is also excited to offer torqueing and alky services to its customers.
"We have long worked in alky units, assisting other contractors that were either behind schedule or could not provide the manpower needed," Simeon said. "We simply knew we could offer a better service to our customers than what they were getting."
"Operators trust SWAT to deliver the ultimate protection and service for specialty hazardous environments," Quick said. "When it comes to HF and sulfuric alkylation and decontamination services, our team of seasoned experts and state-of-the-art equipment provide quick-response solutions to complete the job successfully."
Premier catalyst handling services
With the acquisition of Hydroprocessing Associates LLC (HPA) earlier this year, SWAT now offers specialized catalyst handling services for oil and gas refineries, petrochemical facilities, ammonia facilities and biofuel/renewable fuel complexes.
"The addition of HPA enables SWAT to offer another highly specialized and mission- critical service," Holifield said. "Highquality catalyst handling services are now a core part of our differentiated offerings."
Rodgers Thibodaux, who has more than 20 years of catalyst handling experience, serves as vice president of SWAT's catalyst services. According to Thibodaux, being able to offer true turnkey services is a main focus for SWAT.
"It's all about performing blind-to-blind work, while still being consistently focused on customer service, execution quality and safety," Thibodaux said. "With our highly trained workforce and proprietary technology, we're able to save customers money. We'll always have the experienced, skilled labor for the task on-site. We're also constantly evaluating new technologies and finding better ways to perform tasks such as 'wet dumping' reactors or loading catalyst without cranes."
From specialized vessel and catalyst services to mechanical and cleaning support, SWAT offers industry-leading expertise in catalyst change-outs.
"We have experienced catalyst handling specialists and proven processes and protocols," Thibodaux said. "We are continuing to expand our footprint with our catalyst handling services. No job is too big or too small."
"All of SWAT's customers want the most efficient and safest contractor to perform their catalyst work, and SWAT is No. 1 in all those categories," Holifield said. "We keep our promises when we shake a customer's hand and assure them we are the best there is."
Turnaround support done right
SWAT recently performed a significant turnaround at Calumet Specialty Products' refinery in Shreveport, Louisiana. This was the largest turnaround that had ever occurred at the refinery, consisting of a complete plant outage with all units being offline simultaneously. SWAT performed major fixed-equipment turnaround work on towers, exchangers, vessels, furnaces and piping.
"There were 21 actual workdays to complete the turnaround," said Ken Brown, turnaround manager for Calumet Specialty Products in Shreveport. "We were faced with a couple of major obstacles during the turnaround - the first one involving COVID-19. SWAT brought forth their recommendations and lessons-learned from working during previous outages. They played a major role in implementing a flawless, COVID-19-free turnaround.
"The second challenge was the extreme winter weather event in mid-February that shut down all work on the turnaround for approximately eight days. As always, losing momentum in the middle of an ongoing turnaround can be a possibility. When we came back to work, SWAT had restored the turnaround back to its initial productive state within one shift. It was amazing, and we were very impressed with SWAT's ability to work through these obstacles with a minimal amount of lost opportunity."
According to Brown, SWAT's safety execution was also excellent. SWAT had no lost-time or first-aid incidents during the turnaround.
"As in the past, we were very happy with SWAT and their ability to be successful with this turnaround, even with the challenges they faced," Brown said. "Their safety was spotless, their productivity was excellent and their quality of work was superb - with no rework after startup.
"SWAT's supervision is also always excellent, their craft employees are qualified and productive, and they have a desire to do what they say. SWAT is on time, safe and on budget."
SWAT has also worked in two other Calumet facilities in Louisiana.
"SWAT provides this same quality of craftsmanship to our Princeton and Cotton Valley sites," Brown said. "SWAT's ability to respond to emergencies has been excellent. A great example is how SWAT retubed one of our heaters in Cotton Valley on short notice. It only took SWAT three days to get it back up and running. No rework or weld repairs were required, and this work was performed safely with a sense of urgency by SWAT that minimized our downtime."
Adapting to industry's needs
As industry continues to evolve, so does SWAT. The company is now taking its turnaround services to other types of facilities. SWAT is assisting a grassroots, bio-energy company construct its first waste-to-fuels project. The biofuels facility will convert a municipal solid-waste feedstock, that would otherwise be landfilled, into a low-carbon, renewable transportation fuel product.
"SWAT was called in to help complete construction of the biofuels facility," said Jeremy Etheridge, project manager for SWAT. "We've performed tasks such as installing piping, running instrumentation and setting fixed equipment."
When the plant begins commercial operations, the facility will convert approximately 175,000 tons of household garbage into more than 10.5 million gallons of fuel each year.
"Everything on the project has been going very well," Etheridge said. "SWAT has had 100 people on-site so far, and it looks like we'll have up to 220 people on the job at some point."
SWAT is also assisting a refiner with converting its Martinez, California, facility into a renewable fuels manufacturing complex. The Martinez facility is expected to start producing renewable diesel in 2022, with a build to full capacity in 2023. Engineering work is underway and construction will be commencing later this year.
"SWAT will be performing all overall project management, planning, piping, structural steel and mechanical work on-site," said Spencer Moak, vice president of West Coast operations for SWAT. "SWAT actually started working in this refinery in 2018, and we've never left. We understand it'll be a long job with a lot of man-hours, but SWAT is certainly up to the task. SWAT continues to grow on the West Coast, working in more and more facilities."
Continual safety improvement
SWAT goes beyond everyday compliance protocols to adopt a mindset of continual safety improvement on each and every project. The company dedicates extensive training, rigorous key performance benchmarking and the best safety equipment money can buy to help keep everyone on its team safe. SWAT makes safety the most important part of every task it performs.
Using a top-down safety approach, SWAT's leaders ensure their teams are doing absolutely everything to stay safe. This approach worked in 2020, when SWAT worked more than 3 million man-hours with a TRIR of 0.20.
"Our safety record is much better than the industry standard," Holifield said. "But each year, we strive for 'Goal Zero' - zero recordables and lost-time incidents. To do this, we communicate near-misses and any first-aid cases on a daily basis. This communication provides awareness of potential incidents or injuries that can occur and allows us to put controlled preventive measurements in place to eliminate these events."
Before each project, SWAT completes a hazard and risk assessment with a safety plan that identifies all hazards associated with the job scope and puts preventive measures in place before employees begin work.
"We recognize any hazards in the planning stages before work begins, using SWAT's behavior-based safety system and our job scope evaluation processes," Quick said. "We are committed not just to staying safe on the job, but also to helping enhance safety performance for the entire facility. Our goal is to raise the bar on each job we perform."
Year after year, SWAT has been awarded for safety excellence by the Greater Baton Rouge Industry Alliance, Golden Triangle Business Roundtable, Industrial Safety Training Council, the Health and Safety Council, and the Safety Council of Southwest Louisiana.
For your next turnaround, bring in the closest you can get to a guarantee. Bring in the SWAT team.
For more information, visit www.swatservice.com or call (225) 644-1200.
SWAT BY THE NUMBERS
- MORE THAN 3 MILLION MAN-HOURS WORKED IN 2020
- MASTER SERVICE AGREEMENTS IN MORE THAN 50 U.S. FACILITIES
- OFFICES IN FIVE STATES: LOUISIANA, TEXAS, CALIFORNIA, MISSISSIPPI AND WASHINGTON
- WORKING COAST-TO-COAST IN OVER 16 STATES
- MORE THAN 5,000 HIGHLY EXPERIENCED CRAFT LABOR PROFESSIONALS
- SWAT'S ELITE TURNAROUND TEAMS PROVIDE THESE SERVICES AND MORE
PROJECT MANAGEMENT
- TECHNICAL AND ADMINISTRATIVE PROJECT MANAGEMENT
- PLANNING AND SCHEDULING
- COST CONTROL
- PROCUREMENT/MATERIALS MANAGEMENT
- SUBCONTRACTOR IMPLEMENTATION AND COORDINATION
GENERAL MECHANICAL SERVICES
- EXCHANGERS
- TOWERS
- DRUMS
- UNIT SHUTDOWNS AND STARTUPS
ALKY SERVICES (HF AND SULFURIC)
- 2,000 CLASS A, B, C SUITS
- DECON EQUIPMENT
- STATE-OF-THE-ART ALKY TOOL TRAILERS
CATALYST HANDLING SERVICES
- REFORMERS
- TUBULAR REACTORS
- CATALYST BLENDING
- BLIND-TO-BLIND SERVICE
SPECIALTY WELDING SERVICES
- PIPING
- FURNACES
- FABRICATION
- CRITICAL PATH SCOPE