OKLAHOMA CITY, MAY 13, 2019 -- Bison, Oklahoma's largest water infrastructure, logistics and solutions provider, has acquired Cobalt Environmental Solutions ("Cobalt"), a leading water disposal business in the SCOOP and Merge plays of Oklahoma's Anadarko Basin. Bison anticipates all Cobalt employees will remain with the company, including Patrick Brandt, CEO of Cobalt, and Jonathan Hood, COO of Cobalt, who will join Bison's water infrastructure division as Vice President and Director, respectively. Additionally, in the first quarter, the company acquired Big Star Trucking's Oklahoma water hauling division ("Big Star") and certain existing and pending saltwater disposal permits owned by Vista Disposal Solutions ("Vista").
Bison now owns and operates more than 30 commercial water disposal facilities with capacity of over 500,000 barrels per day along with 300,000 barrels per day of additional permitted capacity and over 400,000 barrels per day of pending capacity. In total, the company anticipates it will have over 1.2 million barrels per day of permitted disposal capacity within the coming months and expects this amount to increase throughout the year. Bison has also materially expanded its permanent water infrastructure across the SCOOP, STACK and Merge. The company expects to end the year with approximately 150-200 miles of interconnected water gathering pipelines and is in the process of completing over 2.5 million barrels of permitted surface containment facilities which will be used for water recycling/reuse, system optionality and peak-load redundancy.
Bison is also excited to announce that is has recently launched Bison Technologies, a new technology business focused on solving the energy industry's most challenging water, logistics and infrastructure-related problems. Bison believes that its technology-based solutions, expected to deploy later this year, will be transformative to these historically low-tech sectors of the industry.
North Whipple, CEO of Bison, commented: "The acquisition of Cobalt marks another exciting milestone for Bison and puts us on track to exceed our goal of doubling the Company's permanent water infrastructure by the end of 2019. Specifically, this acquisition advances our development of additional disposal capacity in the SCOOP and accelerates the integration of our water pipeline systems across the region. Our scale, operational capabilities and customer-first philosophy continue to distinguish us among our peers, and the expansion of our asset base is the direct result of our relentless focus on reducing our customers' capex costs and operating expenses. As we fully realize the benefits of the Cobalt acquisition and complete construction of our integrated pipeline networks, we anticipate that anyone connected into our water infrastructure systems will increasingly benefit from our efficiency gains.
"We are also excited to announce the acquisition of Big Star's Oklahoma water hauling division and certain disposal permits owned by Vista. Big Star's business has already enhanced Bison's water hauling division across the STACK, and our additional permit inventory acquired from Vista increases water disposal optionality as we grow alongside our customers' development plans.
"We are continuing to evaluate numerous opportunities to expand our platform across the state, including additional acquisitions, greenfield infrastructure buildout and the deployment of new technology solutions. We look forward to sharing these exciting developments over the coming year."
For more information, visit www.bisonok.com.
