Fuel Sheiks. (PROFILE) Conestoga Energy Partners LLC

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Peregrine Sharp
6 years ago
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Fuel Sheiks Named after the Conestoga wagons that settled the West, Conestoga Energy Partners LLC is turning crops into fuel for today s cross-country travelers. Proud U.S. farmers call themselves food sheiks because of the amount of grains they produce, but those turning corn and sorghum into ethanol for blending with gasoline Conestoga Energy Partners LLC www.

can consider themselves fuel sheiks. In 2007, a group of grain farmers and agricultural businesses founded Conestoga Energy Partners LLC to turn their corn and sorghum fields into virtual oil fields.

1 Fuel Sheiks Named after the Conestoga wagons that settled the West, Conestoga Energy Partners LLC is turning crops into fuel for today s cross-country travelers. Proud U.S. farmers call themselves food sheiks because of the amount of grains they produce, but those turning corn and sorghum into ethanol for blending with gasoline Conestoga Energy Partners LLC Headquarters: Liberal, Kan. Employees: 165 Specialty: Ethanol Jason Dale, vice president of risk management: We re the largest user of sorghum in the country. can consider themselves fuel sheiks. In 2007, a group of grain farmers and agricultural businesses founded Conestoga Energy Partners LLC to turn their corn and sorghum fields into virtual oil fields. Our slogan is, Fueling the new frontier, says Matt Durler, vice president of operations and marketing. The company s founders saw a great opportunity in southwest Kansas to have another outlet for their grain. Now Conestoga Energy Partners three plants in Liberal and Garden City, Kan., and Levelland, Texas together can produce 205 million gallons of ethanol annually. We can push the plants and go a little bit higher plus 10 percent, declares Jason Dale, vice president of risk management. We re running close to 110 percent at all three locations. The ethanol is used domestically and internationally mostly in motor fuel, although a little is used in solvents, oilfields and to increase the octane in motor fuel. Conestoga Energy Partners produces ethanol from corn and sorghum that is blended with gasoline to fuel the nation. kj s sure shots by KelliJo Finley spring 2015 (energy + infrastructure) 31

Conestoga Energy maintains quality operations, especially as ethanol is loaded into railcars for use in gasoline. We go to a combination of destinations, Dale says.

The exported ethanol all goes through Murex at Texas City. The export product is usually a much drier product, so our Liberal plant is the only one that does that.

2 Conestoga Energy maintains quality operations, especially as ethanol is loaded into railcars for use in gasoline. We go to a combination of destinations, Dale says. We send a lot of ethanol to California, and then we ll export ethanol to Brazil, India and several different locations in Europe, or we ll send it into the truck market locally. The exported ethanol all goes through Murex at Texas City. The export product is usually a much drier product, so our Liberal plant is the only one that does that. The Texas plant s ethanol goes to the local truck market, and the Garden City plant goes almost exclusively to California. Ethanol comprises 10 percent of most of our retail gasoline domestically, although flex-fuel stations allow for higher blends. How Ethanol is Produced Conestoga Energy Partners produces its ethanol from corn and milo. Milo and grain sorghum are synonyms, Dale says. Milo is slang for grain sorghum. Sorghum is a regional crop. It does very well in arid climates relative to corn. We re in an arid climate, Durler adds. Most corn grows under irrigation. Milo is far more drought-tolerant than corn, and the timing of the rain is less significant. As we look at reduced irrigation going forward, being able to use a more water-conserving crop is a big part of that. We re heavily involved with the sorghum check-off, and the work they do to promote sorghum production is a part of the long-term sustainability of agricultural infrastructure in this part of the country. The breakdown of the starch in the m Farming Solutions Partners Conestoga Energy, a supplier of ethanol and low-carbon renewable energy, is headquartered in Liberal, Kansas. Conestoga Energy, which was founded in 2006, operates plants that have an annual production capacity of 165 million gallons of ethanol per year. With Conestoga Energy s capabilities, Farming Solutions Partners has a trusted, local supplier of ethanol and renewable energy. Farming Solutions Partners, headquartered in Montezuma, Kansas, looks forward to a continued relationship to help operate FSP s small town, American business. For more information about Farming Solutions Partners, call (620) or chetwiswell@yahoo. com. For more information about Conestoga Energy, call (620) or visit 32 (energy + infrastructure) spring 2015

DISTILLERS GRAIN IS A BIG REASON WHY WE RE STILL HERE. WE RE A HYBRID BUSINESS. corn and sorghum starts with an alpha-amylase. We use just the berries and kernels, Dale says.

4 DISTILLERS GRAIN IS A BIG REASON WHY WE RE STILL HERE. WE RE A HYBRID BUSINESS. corn and sorghum starts with an alpha-amylase. We use just the berries and kernels, Dale says. We re the largest user of sorghum in the country. We re using a biotech corn that has the amylase in it. The starch is broken down into short chain sugars on the front end of our production plants and gluco amylase used in the fermentation cycle finishes the conversion to simple sugar. The yeast consumes the sugars to make the alcohol. The process is highly automated, and the liquids can be pumped throughout the plant. The ethanol is not physically handled until the back end. Conestoga Energy s Arkalon ethanol plant outside of Liberal has been operating since 2007 and can produce in excess of 110 million gallons of ethanol per year. The Bonanza BioEnergy plant in Garden City also has been operating since 2007 and has a nameplate capacity of 55 million gallons of ethanol annually. The Diamond Ethanol plant in Level was acquired by Palmer Energy in 2012 and is managed by Conestoga Energy Partners. It can produce 40 million gallons of ethanol per year. Greenest Fuel Several production and location advantages keep Conestoga Energy Partners ethanol production environmentally efficient. We have some of the greenest ethanol in the country, largely due to our ability to utilize sorghum and our proximity to cattle, which allows us to reduce our natural gas consumption by shipping spent grain wet, Durler says. Using biotech corn reduces natural gas and electricity consumption by reducing the viscosity of the mash in the plant. The company ships the spent wet distillers grains after the alcohol has been removed directly to nearby feedlots, where they are used in cattle feed. Wet distillers grain is actually all of the fat, fiber and protein in the kernel of grain condensed into a third of the dry matter, Durler explains. All the starch is removed from the grain and the remainder is concentrated. Distillers grain is a big reason why we re still here, Durler emphasizes. We re a hybrid business model. Some of the ethanol plants that were built in 2005 and 2007 by other companies focused on being source plants next to grain sources, and some were built next to the 34 (energy + infrastructure) spring 2015

end-users near the fuel markets or the livestock sector, Durler relates. We are built right in the middle of some of the most densely populated cattle in the country, Durler says.

6 end-users near the fuel markets or the livestock sector, Durler relates. We are built right in the middle of some of the most densely populated cattle in the country, Durler says. We ve always focused on relationships with our cattle feeders and trying to work with them to promote the story of production agriculture as a whole helping people understand how technology has come into the agriculture business and how sophisticated the agriculture business really is. CO2 Sequestration Conestoga Energy Partners has CO2 sequestration at both of its Kansas plants. We produce as much CO2 in a year as we do ethanol, and we re compressing that CO2 and using it for advanced oil recovery, Durler points out. The CO2 is shipped via pipeline directly to energy companies oilfields. It goes down to the same level as where the crude is found, Durler says It s a secondary flush on the oil formation after they get done with the brine flush. It greatly reduces our carbon footprint. Instead of releasing the CO2, it is trapped thousands of feet below the earth s surface. The company oversees all aspects of the marketing, sales, delivery and billing of the 1.3 million tons of wet distillers grains produced at Conestoga s energy plants. The company s in-house logistics division, Conestoga Logistics, contracts with owner/operators to deliver wet distillers grains to feed yards and haul back sorghum and corn. The goal there is to be able to be really good at customer service on our distillers grains, Durler says. All wet distillers grains are delivered by Conestoga Logistics on end-dump or live-bottom trailers. Conestoga also sells life insurance to its customers and has an information technology (IT) department that works with companies on their IT needs. Company Culture The company culture of Conestoga Energy Partners is characterized by open communication. CEO Tom Willis is very good about communicating a vision and the where and why of what we re doing, Durler stresses. It percolates through the company. P4 Consulting has worked on that culture with Conestoga Energy Partners. P4 has been great about helping us with leadership development, Durler says. We ve been extremely fortunate as employees to work for a company that invests in our people development, growing skills in everything from simple things like conflict resolution to leadership development, helping us to become more productive people and create a better culture. P4 s training has reduced our turnover greatly. Our turnover now is because we have other companies around us wanting to cherry-pick our best plant employees because of the culture we have here and the productivity they can take to another job. P4 has been very good at our people development. Durler attributes the company s success to its ability to leverage relationships with local producers and suppliers and staying focused on why we were built here, he says. The great story of ethanol is the tremendous opportunity it has created in rural America. That s why our company was built here, to create opportunities and economic development in local agriculture. We create opportunity within our local economies by leveraging relationships with our local business partners. Ethanol has revitalized rural America. m 36 (energy + infrastructure) spring 2015

Annual Member s Meeting

Annual Member s Meeting Forward Looking Statement A word from our Counsel This presentation contains forward-looking statements involving future events, future business and other conditions, future performance,