Item 1. Business
ITEM 1. BUSINESS
We were incorporated in February 2007 as a wholly–owned subsidiary of Universal Compression Holdings, Inc. In August 2007, Universal Compression Holdings, Inc. and Hanover Compressor Company merged into our wholly–owned subsidiaries and we became Exterran Holdings, Inc., the parent entity of Universal Compression Holdings, Inc. and Hanover Compressor Company. In November 2015, we completed the spin–off of our international contract operations, international aftermarket services and global fabrication business into a standalone public company operating as Exterran Corporation, and we were renamed “Archrock, Inc.”
We are an energy infrastructure company with a primary focus on midstream natural gas compression and a commitment to helping our customers produce, compress and transport natural gas in a safe and environmentally responsible way. We are the leading provider of natural gas compression services to customers in the energy industry throughout the U.S., in terms of total compression fleet horsepower, and a leading supplier of aftermarket services to customers that own compression equipment in the U.S. Our business supports a must–run service that is essential to the production, processing, transportation and storage of natural gas. Our mission to help our customers deliver natural gas, an affordable and cleaner energy source, to a variety of critical industries, to generate electricity and to directly heat and power our homes, is more critical than ever.
We operate in two business segments:
• Contract Operations – Our contract operations business is comprised of our owned fleet of natural gas compression equipment that we use to provide operations services to our customers.
• Aftermarket Services – Our aftermarket services business provides a full range of services to support the compression needs of our customers that own compression equipment, including operations, maintenance, overhaul and reconfiguration services and sales of parts and components.
Natural Gas Compression Industry Overview
Natural gas compression is a mechanical process whereby the pressure of a given volume of natural gas is increased to a desired higher pressure for transportation from one point to another. It is essential to the production and transportation of natural gas. Compression is also critical to minimizing flaring and reducing the waste of natural gas and natural gas liquids that results from insufficient gathering and processing capacity.
Compression is typically required throughout the natural gas production and transportation cycle, including at the wellhead, throughout gathering and distribution systems, into and out of processing and storage facilities and along intrastate and interstate pipelines. Our service offerings focus primarily on midstream applications, with 79% of our operating fleet being used in the gathering and processing cycle stages. The remaining 21% of our operating fleet is used in gas lift applications.
Wellhead and Gathering Systems . Natural gas compression is used to transport natural gas from the wellhead through the gathering system. At some point during the life of natural gas wells, reservoir pressures typically fall below the line pressure of the natural gas gathering or pipeline system used to transport the natural gas to market. At that point, natural gas no longer naturally flows into the pipeline. Compression equipment is applied in both field and gathering systems to boost the pressure levels of the natural gas flowing from the well, allowing it to be transported to market. Changes in pressure levels in natural gas fields require periodic changes to the size and/or type of on–site compression equipment. Compression equipment is also used to increase the efficiency of a low–capacity natural gas field by providing a central compression point from which the natural gas can be produced and injected into a pipeline for transmission to facilities for further processing.
6
Table Archrock, Contents
Processing Applications . Compressors may be used in combination with natural gas production and processing equipment to process natural gas into other marketable energy sources. In addition, compression services are used for compression applications in refineries and petrochemical plants. Processing applications typically utilize multiple large horsepower compressors.
Gas Lift Applications . Compression is used to reinject natural gas into producing oil wells to help lift liquids to the surface, which is known as natural gas lift. These applications utilize low– to mid–range horsepower compression equipment located at or near the wellhead or large horsepower compression equipment of over 1,000 horsepower for a centralized gas lift system servicing multiple wells.
Many oil and natural gas producers, transporters and processors outsource their compression services due to the benefits and flexibility of contract compression. Changing well and pipeline pressures and conditions over the life of a well often require producers to reconfigure or replace their compression packages to optimize the well production or gathering system efficiency.
We believe outsourcing compression operations to compression service providers such as us offers customers:
• the ability to efficiently meet their changing compression needs over time while limiting the underutilization of their owned compression equipment;
• access to the compression service provider’s specialized personnel and technical skills, including engineers and field service and maintenance employees, which we believe generally leads to improved production rates and/or increased throughput;
• the ability to increase their profitability by transporting or producing a higher volume of natural gas and crude oil through decreased compression downtime and reduced operating, maintenance and equipment costs by allowing the compression service provider to efficiently manage their compression needs; and
• the flexibility to deploy their capital on projects more directly related to their primary business by reducing their compression equipment and maintenance capital requirements.
We believe the U.S. natural gas compression services industry continues to have growth potential over time due to, among other things, increased natural gas production in the U.S. from unconventional sources, the aging of producing natural gas fields that will require more compression to continue producing the same volume of natural gas and expected increased demand for natural gas in the U.S. for power generation, industrial uses and exports, including liquefied natural gas exports and exports of natural gas via pipeline to Mexico.
Contract Operations Overview
Compression Services
We provide comprehensive contract operations services including the personnel, equipment, tools, materials and supplies to meet our customers’ natural gas compression needs. Based on the operating specifications at the customer location and each customer’s unique needs, these services include designing, sourcing, owning, installing, operating, servicing, repairing and maintaining the equipment. We work closely with our customers’ field service personnel so that compression services can be adjusted to efficiently match changing characteristics of the reservoir and the natural gas produced and may repackage or reconfigure our existing fleet to adapt to our customers’ compression needs.
During the years ended December 31, 2022, 2021 and 2020, we generated 80%, 83% and 84%, respectively, of our total revenue from contract operations.
7
Table Archrock, Contents
Compression Fleet
The compressors that we own and use to provide contract operations services are predominantly large horsepower, which we define as greater than 1,000 horsepower per unit, and consist primarily of reciprocating compressors driven by natural gas–powered engines. Additionally, we provide a small but growing number of electric motor–driven compressors. Our fleet is largely standardized around major components and key suppliers, which minimizes our fleet operating costs and maintenance capital requirements, reduces inventory costs, facilitates low–cost compressor resizing and improves technical proficiency in our maintenance and overhaul operations, which in turn allows us to achieve higher uptime while maintaining lower operating costs.
All of our compressors are designed to automatically shut down if operating conditions deviate from a pre–determined range and are also equipped with telematic devices that enable us to remotely monitor the units. We maintain field service locations from which our field technicians service and overhaul our fleet. Our equipment undergoes routine and preventive maintenance in accordance with our established maintenance schedules, standards and procedures, which we update as technology changes and as our operations group develops new techniques and procedures to better service our equipment. In our experience, these maintenance practices maximize equipment life and unit availability, minimize emissions, minimize avoidable downtime and reduce the overall maintenance expenditures over the equipment life. As of December 31, 2022, the average age of our operating fleet was 11 years.
The following table summarizes the size of our natural gas compression fleet as of December 31, 2022:
Aggregate
Number
Horsepower
% of
of Units
(in thousands)
Horsepower
0 — 1,000 horsepower per unit
1,494
585
16
%
1,001 — 1,500 horsepower per unit
1,361
1,840
49
%
Over 1,500 horsepower per unit
638
1,301
35
%
Total
3,493
3,726
100
%
General Terms of our Contract Operations Service Agreements
We typically enter into a master service agreement with each customer that sets forth the general terms and conditions of our services, and then enter into a separate supplemental service agreement for each distinct site at which we provide contract operations services. The following describes select material terms common to our standard contract operations service agreements.
Term and Termination. Our customers typically contract for our contract operations services on a site–by–site basis that is generally reduced if we fail to operate in accordance with the contract requirements. Following the initial minimum term, which generally ranges from 12 to 48 months, contract operations services generally continue on a month–to–month basis until terminated by either party with 30 days’ advance notice.
Fees and Expenses. Our customers pay a fixed monthly fee for our contract operations services, which generally is based on the amount of horsepower associated with a specific application, and are required to pay a reduced monthly fee during periods of limited or disrupted natural gas flows. We are typically responsible for the costs and expenses associated with our compression equipment except for fuel gas, which is provided by our customers.
Service Standards and Specifications. We provide contract operations services according to the particular specifications of each job, as set forth in the applicable contract. These are typically turn–key service contracts under which we supply all services and support and use our compression equipment to provide the contract operations services necessary for a particular application. In certain circumstances, if the availability of our services does not meet certain percentages specified in our contracts, our customers are generally entitled, upon request, to specified credits against our service fees.
8
Table Archrock, Contents
Title and Risk of Loss. We own and retain title to or have an exclusive possessory interest in all compression equipment used to provide contract operations services and we generally bear risk of loss for such equipment to the extent the loss is not caused by gas conditions, our customers’ acts or omissions or the failure or collapse of the customer’s over–water job site upon which we provide the contract operations services.
Insurance. Typically, both we and our customers are required to carry general liability, workers’ compensation, employer’s liability, automobile and excess liability insurance. Our insurance coverage includes property damage, general liability and commercial automobile liability and other coverage we believe is appropriate. Additionally, we are substantially self-insured for workers’ compensation and employee group health claims in view of the relatively high per-incident deductibles we absorb under our insurance arrangements for these risks. We are also self-insured for property damage to our offshore assets.
Aftermarket Services Overview
Our aftermarket services business sells parts and components and provides operations, maintenance, overhaul and reconfiguration services to customers who own compression equipment. We believe that we are particularly well–qualified to provide these services because our highly experienced operating personnel have access to the full range of our compression services and facilities. In addition, our aftermarket services business provides opportunities to cross–sell our contract operations business. During the years ended December 31, 2022, 2021 and 2020, we generated 20%, 17% and 16%, respectively, of our total revenue from aftermarket services.
Competitive Strengths
We believe we have the following key competitive strengths:
Large horsepower. We have the largest fleet of large horsepower equipment among all outsourced compression service providers in the U.S. As of December 31, 2022, 84% of our fleet, as measured by operating horsepower, was comprised of units that exceed 1,000 horsepower per unit. We believe the trends driving demand for large horsepower units will continue. These trends include (i) high levels of associated gas production from shale wells, which are generally produced at a lower initial pressure than dry gas wells, (ii) pad drilling, which brings multiple wells to a single well site with larger volumes of gas, (iii) increasing well lateral lengths, which increase natural gas flow through gas gathering systems, and (iv) high probability drilling programs that allow for efficient infrastructure planning.
Excellent customer service. We operate in a relationship–driven, service–intensive industry and therefore need to provide superior customer service. We believe that our regionally–based network, local presence, experience and in–depth knowledge of our customers’ operating needs and growth plans enable us to respond to our customers’ needs and meet their evolving demands on a timely basis. In addition, we focus on achieving a high level of reliability for the services we provide in order to maximize uptime and our customers’ production levels. We guarantee our customers 98% availability in all of our contract operations service agreements, and during the year ended December 31, 2022, our availability was 99.1%. Our sales efforts concentrate on demonstrating our commitment to enhancing our customers’ cash flows through superior customer service and after–market support.
Superior safety performance. We believe our collective safety performance is pivotal to the success of our business and is of primary importance to our customers. We have a strong safety culture and a proven ability to safely manage our business in a variety of commodity and economic environments. Our safety–centric culture has consistently produced industry–leading safety performance for many years, including a 2022 total recordable incident rate of 0.32.
Large and stable customer base . We have strong relationships with a deep base of midstream companies and natural gas and crude oil producers. Our contract operations revenue base is sourced from approximately 340 customers operating throughout all major U.S. natural gas and crude oil producing regions.
9
Table Archrock, Contents
Fee–based cash flows . We charge a fixed monthly fee for our contract operations services and a reduced monthly fee during periods of limited or disrupted natural gas flows. Our compression packages, on average, operate at a customer location for approximately four years. We believe this fee structure and the longevity of our operations reduces volatility and enhances the stability and predictability of our cash flows.
Diversified geographic footprint. We operate in substantially all major natural gas and crude oil producing regions in the U.S. Increased size and geographic density offer compression services providers operating and cost advantages. As the number of compression locations and size of the compression fleet increases, the number of required sales, administrative and maintenance personnel increases at a lesser rate, resulting in operational efficiencies and potential cost advantages. Additionally, broad geographic scope allows compression service providers to more efficiently provide services to all customers, particularly those with compression applications in remote locations. Our large fleet and numerous operating locations throughout the U.S., combined with our ability to efficiently move equipment among producing regions, mean that we are not dependent on production activity in any particular region. We believe our size, geographic scope and broad customer base give us more flexibility in meeting our customers’ needs than many of our competitors and provide us with improved operating expertise and business development opportunities.
Long operating history. We have a long, sustained history of operating in the compression industry and a robust database of fleet financial and operating metrics that provides an advantage compared to our younger competitors. We have extensive experience working with our customers to meet their evolving needs.
Financial resilience and flexibility. We have historically shown and are committed to maintaining capital discipline and financial strength, which is critical in a cyclical industry and business such as ours. Maintaining ample liquidity and a prudent balance sheet supports our ability to continue to deliver on our long–term strategies and positions us to take advantage of future growth opportunities as they arise.
Technology Transformation. As of the end of 2021, we had completed several major phases of a process and technology transformation project that enables us to harness technology in all aspects of our business to drive operational efficiencies and enhance our value proposition to our customers. Our investments have focused on the automation of workflows, integration of digital and mobile tools for our field service technicians and expanded remote monitoring capabilities of our compressor fleets. This project, among other things, has helped us achieve increased asset uptime, improved the efficiency of our field service technicians, improved our supply chain and inventory management and reduced our emissions and carbon footprint, thereby improving our profitability as discussed further below in “Business Strategies.”
Business Strategies
We intend to continue to capitalize on our competitive strengths to meet our customers’ needs through the following key strategies:
Capitalize on the long–term fundamentals for the U.S. natural gas compression industry. We believe our ability to efficiently meet our customers’ evolving compression needs, our long–standing customer relationships and our large compression fleet will enable us to capitalize on what we believe are favorable long–term fundamentals for the U.S. natural gas compression industry. These fundamentals include significant natural gas resources in the U.S., increased unconventional oil and natural gas production, decreasing natural reservoir pressures and expected increased natural gas demand in the U.S. from the growth of liquefied natural gas exports, exports of natural gas via pipeline to Mexico, power generation and industrial uses.
Improve profitability . We are focused on increasing productivity and optimizing our processes. Between 2019 and 2021, we invested in a process and technology transformation project that replaced our existing ERP, supply chain and inventory management systems and expanded the remote monitoring capabilities of our compression fleet. During 2022, our focus shifted to the integration of our process and technology transformation project into our operations, which we expect will lower our internal costs and improve our profitability over time. Implementing telematics and advanced data analysis across our fleet has enabled us to respond more quickly and optimally to downtime events, minimize prolonged troubleshooting, prevent unnecessary unit touches and stops, which are the primary cause of wear and tear of the
10
Table Archrock, Contents
equipment, and, ultimately, predict failures before they occur. We expect this will increase the number of units a field service technician can oversee and also reduce vehicle miles traveled and fuel consumption, thereby also reducing emissions.
In addition, we continue to focus on increasing the percentage of large horsepower equipment within our fleet in order to capitalize on the trends that have been driving, and that we believe will continue to drive, demand for large horsepower units. As part of this strategy, we sold approximately 341,000 and 147,000 non–core horsepower during the years ended December 31, 2022 and 2021, respectively, which drove an increase in our large operating horsepower from 77% of our fleet as of December 31, 2020, to 84% as of December 31, 2022.
Optimize our business to generate attractive returns. We plan to continue to invest in strategically growing our business both organically and through third–party acquisitions. We see opportunities to grow our contract operations business over the long term by putting idle units back to work and profitably adding new horsepower in key growth areas. In addition, because a large amount of compression equipment is owned by natural gas and crude oil producers, processors, gatherers, transporters and storage providers, we believe there will be additional opportunities for our aftermarket services business to provide services and parts to support the operation of this equipment.
Oil and Natural Gas Industry Cyclicality and Volatility
Demand for our products and services is correlated to natural gas and crude oil production. Fluctuations in energy prices can affect the levels of expenditures by our customers, production volumes and ultimately, demand for our products and services, however, we believe our contract operations business is typically less impacted by commodity prices for the following reasons:
• fee–based contracts minimize our direct commodity price exposure;
• the natural gas we use as fuel for our compression packages is supplied by our customers, further reducing our direct exposure to commodity price risk;
• compression services are a necessary part of midstream energy infrastructure that facilitate the transportation of natural gas through gathering systems;
• our contract operations business is tied primarily to oil and natural gas production, transportation and consumption, which are generally less cyclical in nature than exploration and new well drilling and completion activities;
• the need for compression services and equipment has grown over time due to the increased production of natural gas, the natural pressure decline of natural gas–producing basins and the increased percentage of natural gas production from unconventional sources; and
• our compression packages operate at a customer location for an average of approximately four years, during which time our customers are generally required to pay a fixed monthly fee for our contract operations services or a reduced monthly fee during periods of limited or disrupted natural gas flows.
Seasonal Fluctuations
Our results of operations have not historically reflected any material seasonal tendencies and we do not believe that seasonal fluctuations will have a material impact on us in the foreseeable future.
Sales and Marketing
Our marketing and client service functions are coordinated and performed by our sales and field service personnel. Salespeople, application engineers and field service personnel qualify, analyze and scope new compression applications as well as regularly visit our customers to ensure customer satisfaction, determine customer needs as to services currently being provided and ascertain potential future compression services requirements. This ongoing communication allows us to respond swiftly to customer requests.
11
Table Archrock, Contents
Customers
Our customer base consists primarily of companies engaged in all aspects of the oil and gas natural industry, including large integrated and independent oil and natural gas, processors, gatherers and transporters. We have entered into preferred vendor arrangements with some of our customers that give us preferential consideration for their compression needs. In exchange, we provide these customers with enhanced product availability, product support and favorable pricing. During the years ended December 31, 2022, 2021 and 2020, our five most significant customers collectively accounted for 32%, 31% and 28%, respectively, of our contract operations and aftermarket services revenue. No single customer accounted for 10% or more of our revenue during the years ended December 31, 2022, 2021 and 2020.
Suppliers
We have pricing agreements in place with all of our primary suppliers of compression equipment, parts and services, including Ariel Corporation, Waukesha Pearce Industries and Caterpillar, Inc. and its distributors, and work closely with these key suppliers on value engineering, to lower total lifecycle cost and improve equipment reliability. Though we rely on these suppliers to a significant degree, we believe alternative sources for compression equipment, parts and services are generally available.
Competition
The natural gas compression services business is highly competitive with low barriers to entry. Overall, we experience considerable competition from companies that may be able to more quickly adapt to changing technology within our industry and changes in economic conditions as a whole, more readily take advantage of acquisitions and other opportunities and adopt more aggressive pricing policies. We believe we are competitive with respect to price, equipment availability, customer service, flexibility in meeting customer needs, technical expertise and quality and reliability of our compression packages and related services. See “Competitive Strengths” above for further discussion.
Governmental Regulation
Environmental Regulation
Our operations are subject to stringent and complex U.S. federal, state and local laws and regulations governing the discharge of materials into the environment or otherwise relating to protection of the environment and to occupational safety and health. Compliance with these environmental laws and regulations may expose us to significant costs and liabilities and cause us to incur significant capital expenditures in our operations. Failure to comply with these laws and regulations may result in the assessment of administrative, civil and criminal penalties, imposition of investigatory and remedial obligations and the issuance of injunctions delaying or prohibiting operations. We believe that our operations are in substantial compliance with applicable environmental, health and safety laws and regulations and that continued compliance with currently applicable requirements would not have a material adverse effect on us. However, the trend in environmental regulation has been to place more restrictions on activities that may affect the environment, and thus, any changes in these laws and regulations that result in more stringent and costly waste handling, storage, transport, disposal, emission or remediation requirements could have a material adverse effect on our results of operations and financial position.
The primary U.S. federal environmental laws to which our operations are subject include the CAA and regulations thereunder, which regulate air emissions; the CWA and regulations thereunder, which regulate the discharge of pollutants in industrial wastewater and storm water runoff; the RCRA and regulations thereunder, which regulate the management and disposal of hazardous and non–hazardous solid wastes; and the CERCLA and regulations thereunder, known more commonly as “Superfund,” which impose liability for the remediation of releases of hazardous substances in the environment. We are also subject to regulation under the OSHA and regulations thereunder, which regulate the protection of the safety and health of workers. Analogous state and local laws and regulations may also apply.
12
Table Archrock, Contents
Air Emissions
The CAA and analogous state laws and their implementing regulations regulate emissions of air pollutants from various sources, including natural gas compressors, and also impose various monitoring and reporting requirements. Such laws and regulations may require a facility to obtain pre–approval for the construction or modification of certain projects or facilities expected to produce air emissions or result in the increase of existing air emissions, obtain and strictly comply with air permits containing various emissions and operational limitations, or utilize specific emission control technologies to limit emissions. Our standard contract operations agreement typically provides that the customer will assume permitting responsibilities and certain environmental risks related to site operations.
New Source Performance Standards. In June 2016, the EPA issued final regulations amending the NSPS for the oil and natural gas source category and applying to sources of emissions of methane and VOC from certain processes, activities and equipment that is constructed, modified or reconstructed after September 18, 2015. Specifically, the regulation contains both methane and VOC standards for several emission sources not previously covered by the NSPS, such as fugitive emissions from compressor stations and pneumatic pumps and methane standards for certain emission sources that are already regulated for VOC, such as equipment leaks at natural gas processing plants. The amendments also establish methane standards for a subset of equipment that the current NSPS regulates, including reciprocating compressors and pneumatic controllers, and extend the current VOC standards to the remaining unregulated equipment.
While the EPA in 2020 adopted deregulatory amendments to the 2016 rule that removed the transmission and storage segments from the oil and natural gas source category and rescinded the methane–specific requirements for production and processing facilities, that 2020 rulemaking was voided by action of Congress and the President effective June 30, 2021. As a result, the 2016 rules became effective again immediately. Further, in November 2021, the EPA proposed the framework for more stringent methane rules for newer sources, along with emissions standards that will for the first time be applicable to existing sources, with both a supplemental rule proposal by the EPA and a separate BoLM rule proposal addressing methane emissions on public lands issued in November 2022. Among the newly proposed methane requirements that may impact our operations broader applicability to compression equipment relative to the existing rules, increased work practices and inspection requirements and mandates for certain new zero–emissions equipment.
Meanwhile, several states — including, most notably, New Mexico and Colorado — have been developing their own more stringent methane rules that will or are anticipated to impose additional requirements on the industry and that may be effective sooner than any new EPA rules. We, together with a consortium of other Gas Compressor Association member companies, were actively involved in the rulemaking effort in New Mexico, including working directly with the New Mexico Environmental Department and participating in the New Mexico Environmental Improvement Board’s hearing in late 2021.
We do not believe that the current rules will have a material adverse impact on our business, financial condition, results of operations or cash flows, but we cannot yet definitively predict the impact of any revision of the current rules or issuance of new rules, which impact could be material.
National Ambient Air Quality Standards. On October 1, 2015, the EPA issued a new NAAQS ozone standard of 70 ppb, which is a tightening from the 75 ppb standard set in 2008. This new standard became effective on December 28, 2015, and the EPA completed designating attainment/non–attainment regions under the revised ozone standard in 2018. In November 2016, the EPA proposed an implementation rule for the 2015 NAAQS ozone standard, but the agency has yet to issue a final implementation rule. State implementation of the revised NAAQS could result in stricter permitting requirements, delay or prohibit our customers’ ability to obtain such permits and result in increased expenditures for pollution control equipment, the costs of which could be significant. By law, the EPA must review each NAAQS every five years. In December 2018 and again in December 2020, the EPA announced that it was retaining without revision the 2015 NAAQS ozone standard. In June 2021, the EPA announced it will reconsider the December 2020 decision, with a decision expected in 2023. In a draft assessment in April 2022, the Clean Air Scientific Advisory Committee favored maintaining the 2015 NAAQS ozone standard. Those decisions have been subject to judicial challenge. We do not believe continued implementation of the NAAQS ozone standard will have a material adverse impact on our business, financial condition, results of operations or cash flows, but we cannot yet predict the impact, if any, of any new Federal Implementation Plan involving new NAAQS standards.
13
Table Archrock, Contents
General. New environmental regulations and proposals similar to these, when finalized, and any other new regulations requiring the installation of more sophisticated pollution control equipment or the adoption of other environmental protection measures, could have a material adverse impact on our business, financial condition, results of operations and cash flows. Notably, opposition to energy development and infrastructure projects has led to regulatory and judicial challenges to new facilities, including compression facilities, in states such as Massachusetts and Virginia. While we have not directly faced any such challenges to the facilities at which we provide contract operations and know of no pending or threatened efforts targeting those facilities, expanded opposition to energy infrastructure, including facilities at which we provide contract operations or in the future might otherwise have an opportunity to provide contract operations, could potentially give rise to material impacts in the future.
Climate Change
Climate change legislation and regulatory initiatives may arise from a variety of sources, including international, national, regional and state levels of government and associated administrative bodies, seeking to restrict or regulate emissions of greenhouse gases, such as carbon dioxide and methane.
Congress has previously considered legislation to restrict or regulate emissions of greenhouse gases. Energy legislation and other initiatives continue to be proposed that may be relevant to greenhouse gas emissions issues. Almost half of the states, either individually or through multi–state regional initiatives, have begun to address greenhouse gas emissions, primarily through the planned development of emission inventories or regional greenhouse gas cap and trade programs. Although most of the state–level initiatives have to date been focused on large sources of greenhouse gas emissions, such as electric power plants, it is possible that smaller sources such as our natural gas–powered compressors could become subject to greenhouse gas–related regulation. Depending on the particular program, we could be required to control emissions or to purchase and surrender allowances for greenhouse gas emissions resulting from our operations. The $1 trillion legislative infrastructure package passed by Congress in November 2021 includes a number of climate–focused spending initiatives targeted at climate resilience, enhanced response and preparation for extreme weather events, and clean energy and transportation investments. Significant additional legislative action by Congress also occurred in August 2022 with the Inflation Reduction Act, which provides $391 billion in funding for research and development and incentives for low–carbon energy production methods, carbon capture, and other programs directed at encouraging de–carbonization and addressing climate change.
Independent of Congress, the EPA has promulgated regulations controlling greenhouse gas emissions under its existing CAA authority. The EPA has adopted rules requiring many facilities, including petroleum and natural gas systems, to inventory and report their greenhouse gas emissions. In 2021, we did not operate any facilities that were subject to these reporting obligations. In addition, the EPA rules provide air permitting requirements for certain large sources of greenhouse gas emissions. The requirement for large sources of greenhouse gas emissions to obtain and comply with permits will affect some of our and our customers’ largest new or modified facilities going forward, but is not expected to cause us to incur material costs. As noted above, the EPA has undertaken efforts to regulate emissions of methane, considered a greenhouse gas, in the oil and gas sector, with the development of additional, more stringent rules under way.
In an executive order issued on January 20, 2021, the POTUS asked the heads of all executive departments and agencies to review and take action to address any federal regulations, orders, guidance documents, policies and any similar agency actions promulgated during the prior administration that may be inconsistent with or present obstacles to the administration’s stated goals of protecting public health and the environment, and conserving national monuments and refuges. The executive order also established an Interagency Working Group on the Social Cost of Greenhouse Gases, which is called on to, among other things, capture the full costs of greenhouse gas emissions, including the “social cost of carbon,” “social cost of nitrous oxide” and “social cost of methane,” which are “the monetized damages associated with incremental increases in greenhouse gas emissions,” including “changes in net agricultural productivity, human health, property damage from increased flood risk, and the value of ecosystem services.” The current administration adopted an interim social cost of carbon of $51 per ton in February 2021, with an updated cost figure of $190 per ton, as suggested by the EPA, expected to be announced by the Interagency Working Group in April 2023. That figure is intended to be used to guide federal decisions on the costs and benefits of various policies and approvals; such efforts have been the subject of a series of judicial challenges, which have been largely unsuccessful to date. At this
14
Table Archrock, Contents
time, we cannot determine whether the administration’s efforts on social cost or other interagency climate efforts will lead to any particular actions that give rise to a material adverse effect on our business, financial condition, results of operations and cash flows.
At the international level, the U.S. joined the international community at the 21st Conference of the Parties of the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change in Paris, France, which resulted in an agreement intended to nationally determine their contributions and set greenhouse gas emission reduction goals every five years beginning in 2020. While the Agreement did not impose direct requirements on emitters, national plans to meet its pledge could have resulted in new regulatory requirements. In November 2019, however, plans were formally announced for the U.S. to withdraw from the Paris Agreement with an effective exit date in November 2020. In April 2021, the current administration announced reentry of the U.S. into the Paris Agreement along with a new “nationally determined contribution” for U.S. greenhouse gas emissions that would achieve emissions reductions of at least 50% relative to 2005 levels by 2030. Those national commitments by themselves create no binding requirements on individual companies or facilities, but they do provide indications of the current administration’s policy direction and the types of legislative and regulatory requirements—such as the EPA’s proposed methane rules—that may be needed to achieve those commitments. Relatedly, the U.S. and European Union jointly announced the launch of the “Global Methane Pledge,” which aims to cut global methane pollution at least 30% by 2030 relative to 2020 levels, including “all feasible reductions” in the energy sector. With the exception of the proposed methane rules discussed above, we cannot predict whether re–entry into the Paris Agreement or pledges made in connection therewith will result in any particular new regulatory requirements or whether such requirements will cause us to incur material costs.
Although it is not currently possible to predict how these executive orders, national commitments or any proposed or future greenhouse gas or climate change legislation or regulation promulgated by Congress, the states or multi–state regions will impact our business, any regulation of greenhouse gas emissions that may be imposed in areas in which we conduct business could result in increased compliance costs or additional operating restrictions or reduced demand for our services, and could have a material adverse effect on our business, financial condition, results of operations and cash flows.
Water Discharges
The CWA and analogous state laws and their implementing regulations impose restrictions and strict controls with respect to the discharge of pollutants into state waters or waters of the U.S. The discharge of pollutants into regulated waters is prohibited, except in accordance with the terms of a permit issued by the EPA or an analogous state agency. In addition, the CWA regulates storm water discharges associated with industrial activities depending on a facility’s primary standard industrial classification. Four of our facilities have applied for and obtained industrial wastewater discharge permits and/or have sought coverage under local wastewater ordinances. U.S. federal laws also require development and implementation of spill prevention, controls and countermeasure plans, including appropriate containment berms and similar structures to help prevent the contamination of navigable waters in the event of a petroleum hydrocarbon tank spill, rupture or leak at such facilities. The definition of “waters of the United States” and, relatedly, the scope of CWA jurisdiction, have been the subject of notable rulemaking efforts and judicial challenges over several decades. As a result of judicial and regulatory action, different approaches to the definitions adopted in 2015 and in 2020 by the EPA and the Army Corps of Engineers were stayed or vacated during 2021, with the effect of restoring to effectiveness rules and guidance from the mid–1980s. In October 2022, the U.S. Supreme Court heard arguments in a case on the appropriate scope of CWA jurisdiction; the outcome of that case may shape the administration’s approach to its ongoing jurisdictional rulemaking effort. In the meantime, in October 2022, the EPA and the Army Corps of Engineers announced a final rule intended to provide a legally durable definition of “waters of the United States” designed to clarify and stabilize the scope of the agencies’ jurisdictions. The final rule, which was published in the Federal Register in January 2023 and becomes effective on March 20, 2023, restores certain water protections that were in place prior to 2015 under the CWA for traditional navigable water, the territorial areas, interstate waters and upstream water resources that significantly affect those waters.
15
Table Archrock, Contents
Waste Management and Disposal
RCRA and analogous state laws and their implementing regulations govern the generation, transportation, treatment, storage and disposal of hazardous and non–hazardous solid wastes. During the course of our operations, we generate wastes (including, but not limited to, used oil, antifreeze, used oil filters, sludges, paints, solvents and abrasive blasting materials) in quantities regulated under RCRA. The EPA and various state agencies have limited the approved methods of disposal for these types of wastes. CERCLA and analogous state laws and their implementing regulations impose strict, and under certain conditions, joint and several liability without regard to fault or the legality of the original conduct on classes of persons who are considered to be responsible for the release of a hazardous substance into the environment. These persons include current and past owners and operators of the facility or disposal site where the release occurred and any company that transported, disposed of, or arranged for the transport or disposal of the hazardous substances released at the site. Under CERCLA, such persons may be subject to joint and several liability for the costs of cleaning up the hazardous substances that have been released into the environment, for damages to natural resources and for the costs of certain health studies. In addition, where contamination may be present, it is not uncommon for neighboring landowners and other third parties to file claims for personal injury, property damage and recovery of response costs allegedly caused by hazardous substances or other pollutants released into the environment.
We currently own or lease, and in the past have owned or leased, a number of properties that have been used in support of our operations for a number of years. Although we have utilized operating and disposal practices that were standard in the industry at the time, hydrocarbons, hazardous substances, or other regulated wastes may have been disposed of or released on or under the properties owned or leased by us or on or under other locations where such materials have been taken for disposal by companies sub–contracted by us. In addition, many of these properties have been previously owned or operated by third parties whose treatment and disposal or release of hydrocarbons, hazardous substances or other regulated wastes was not under our control. These properties and the materials released or disposed thereon may be subject to CERCLA, RCRA and analogous state laws. Under such laws, we could be required to remove or remediate historical property contamination, or to perform certain operations to prevent future contamination. At certain of such sites, we are currently working with the prior owners who have undertaken to monitor and clean up contamination that occurred prior to our acquisition of these sites. We are not currently under any order requiring that we undertake or pay for any cleanup activities. However, we cannot provide any assurance that we will not receive any such order in the future.
Occupational Safety and Health
We are subject to the requirements of the OSHA and comparable state statutes. These laws and the implementing regulations strictly govern the protection of the safety and health of employees. The OSHA’s hazard communication standard, the EPA’s community right–to–know regulations under Title III of CERCLA and similar state statutes require that we organize and/or disclose information about hazardous materials used or produced in our operations.
The COVID–19 pandemic has largely run its course in the U.S. While we do have comprehensive pandemic–focused procedures in place, we relaxed many of the COVID–19–specific requirements in late 2022 in light of, among other things, our COVID–19 case trends and similar relaxation of restrictions and controls by local and federal government authorities, in reliance on the latest recommendations and assessments of relevant medical experts. If conditions change, such as we see an increase in the number of new COVID–19 cases or governmental and/or medical advice changes, we will carefully consider reimplementing appropriate procedures geared toward ensuring the health, safety and well–being of our employees, customer and vendors. At this time, we do not know if or how any additional developments with the pandemic, if any, or any regulatory initiatives adopted in response to any such developments, will affect our operations. We will continue to monitor and act in accordance with applicable law and in the best interests of our employees and those with whom we interact.
Human Capital
As of December 31, 2022, we employed approximately 1,100 employees in 15 states and conducted business in 41 states. None of our employees are subject to a collective bargaining agreement.
16
Table Archrock, Contents
We consider our employees to be our greatest asset and believe that our success depends on our ability to attract, develop and retain our employees. Diversity and inclusion are foundational to our leadership approach and our focus is on how our actions and the actions of our employees foster diversity and inclusion in our everyday activities at Archrock. We support diversity in hiring, as is reflected in the diversity of our Board of Directors, of which three of our seven independent directors are female or identify as a member of an underrepresented racial/ethnic group. Similarly, one–third of our executive leadership team is female and 29% of our total workforce is ethnically diverse.
We support gender and ethnic pay equity and believe we offer competitive and comprehensive compensation benefits packages that include bonuses, an employee stock purchase plan, a 401(k) plan with employer contribution, healthcare and insurance benefits, health savings and flexible spending accounts with employer contribution, paid time off (including 16 hours per year as paid time to volunteer), family leave, an employee assistance program and tuition assistance, among many others.
We believe in the ultimate goal of serving as the best corporate citizen possible and are dedicated to inspiring and empowering our employees to operate continuously according to our core values of safety, service, integrity, respect and pride. To that end, the Governance and Sustainability Committee of our Board of Directors provides oversight of our policies, practices and programs regarding the promotion of diversity and inclusion within our company and the health and safety of our employees and communities.
Learning and Talent Development
We invest significant resources to develop the talent needed to provide our industry–leading natural gas compression services. We work closely with suppliers to develop training programs for our field service technicians. Our field service technicians are supported by a dedicated training team and collectively completed over 40,500 hours of operational and technical training during 2022. Every new hire field employee enters a program whereby they are assigned an experienced mentor, for an average of six months, under whose direct supervision they apply their classroom learning in the real world setting.
In addition, we offer a number of non–technical, targeted skills–based and career–enhancing training programs, including technical orientation for non–technical employees, supervisor coaching, performance management and conflict resolution. Our talent development programs provide employees with the resources they need to help achieve their career goals, build management skills and lead their organizations.
Safety, Health and Wellness
The success of our business is fundamentally connected to the well–being of our people and so we are committed to the safety, health and wellness of our employees.
Safety is a core value of our company, and safety performance is a key measure of success that has been included in our short–term incentive program for over 16 years. We actively promote the highest standards of safety behavior and environmental awareness and strive to meet or exceed all applicable local and national regulations. “Stop the Job” is an adopted edict that establishes the obligation of and provides the authority to all employees to stop any task or operation where they perceive that a risk to people, the environment or assets is not properly controlled. We believe that all incidents are preventable and that through proper training, planning and hazard recognition, we can achieve a workplace with zero incidents. To this end, we created the TARGET ZERO program that includes over 90 safety and environmental procedures, and their necessary tools, equipment and training, that are designed to foster a mindset that integrates safety into every work process. Through this program, we achieved excellent safety performance, with a total recordable incident rate of 0.32 in 2022. While no incidents are acceptable, the incidents we experienced were extremely minor in nature and resulted in no lost time. It will be our continuous goal that we achieve a rate of zero in all future periods.
17
Table Archrock, Contents
We also provide our employees and their families with access to a variety of flexible and convenient health and wellness programs that support the maintenance or improvement of our employees’ physical and mental health and encourage engagement in healthy behaviors, including our employee–led RockFIT program that develops and sponsors corporate health and fitness challenges throughout the year.
Building Employee and Community Connections
We consider ourselves a member of every community in which we operate and believe that building connections between our employees, their families and our communities creates a more meaningful and enjoyable workplace. Our employees give generously and are passionate towards many causes, for which they receive 16 hours per year of paid time off to volunteer. Our employee–led Archrock Cares program brings together employees across functions and backgrounds to break down traditional corporate barriers and form strong bonds through the pursuit of shared interests and volunteering and giving opportunities across the country.
Available Information
Our annual reports on Form 10–K, quarterly reports on Form 10–Q, current reports on Form 8–K and any amendments to those reports filed or furnished to the SEC pursuant to the Exchange Act are made available free of charge on our website, www.archrock.com, as soon as reasonably practicable after they are electronically filed with, or furnished to, the SEC. Our website also includes our Code of Business Conduct, our Corporate Governance Principles and the charters of our audit, compensation and nominating and corporate governance committees. Information on our website is not incorporated by reference in this 2022 Form 10–K or any of our other securities filings.
Paper copies of our filings are also available free of charge from Archrock, Inc., 9807 Katy Freeway, Suite 100, Houston, Texas 77024, Attention: Investor Relations. The SEC also maintains a website that contains reports, proxy and information statements and other information regarding issuers who file electronically with the SEC. The SEC’s website address is www.sec.gov .