Western Refinery Services: Oil & Beyond
A look at a diversified refinery contractor
by Sara L. Geballe of Northwest Business Monthly


Western Refinery Services has expanded its reach into construction,

heavy equipment and other avenues of business.

Here, a vacuum truck removes product from a railcar, a task for the company’s refinery division.
 

It all began by spreading manure on Lynden farmlands. Jerry Libolt, founder and general manager of Western Refinery Services, Inc. (WRS), had been an experienced Whatcom County farmer for years. But in 1982, he saw a marketable business niche and formed his first company, Western Services.
Back then newly enacted environmental regulations were requiring farmers to manage their animal waste products according to stricter standards. Rather than continuing to spread manure on their fields all year long, which was causing serious run-off problems, farmers were being made to store the waste over the winter in so-called “manure lagoons.”

Libolt’s straightforward business concept was to help farmers pump the manure out of the lagoons each spring and then spread it evenly across their fields to fertilize them. While not the world’s most pleasant, best-smelling or glamorous job, it nonetheless met an important need and the business took off.

From manure to petroleum

But what Libolt says he couldn’t foresee at the time was how several years later his manure pumping and spreading business would perfectly meet the needs of the oil refinery business. At the time, refineries were looking for ways to “farm” their petroleum waste products back into the soil, where when added with nutrients they would biodegrade.

 
As it turned out, Libolt had just the right combination of farming know-how and heavy machinery to do the job and the refineries wanted him. So in 1990 manure gave way to oil and his second company – Western Refinery Services, Inc. – was born. He started with five employees and four vacuum pumps. Today, located next to the Grandview Business Park in Ferndale, WRS enjoys an annual revenue of $12 million, employees 85 people, and is looking to fill 40 more positions over the next two months.

Although the practice of farming oil waste into the soil has subsequently been banned by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, WRS still maintains major contracts with all four oil refineries in Whatcom and Skagit counties – ConocoPhillips and BP in Ferndale, and Shell and Tesoro in Anacortes.
WRS provides a variety of industrial cleaning and waste handling services to all of them, and maintains permanent facilities at both ConocoPhillips and BP. In fact, many WRS employees report daily for work at the refineries, including three full-time safety officers.

As environmental regulations have evolved, Libolt explained, “the initial job of farming oil wastes slowly metamorphosed into a variety of other services for the refineries.” Some of these WRS still performs, such as pumping out oil tanks and vessels, cleaning up product spills, transporting petroleum products and bi-products within the refinery grounds, performing soil remediation, conducting environmental sampling, and carrying out general maintenance duties.
Currently, Libolt estimated, refinery contracts make up about 50 percent of WRS’s total workload.

Diversifying services

Cover-All® buildings is a newer WRS division.

About 15 percent of company revenues come from this division.

WRS’s ongoing growth and success is in large part due to diversifying its services and customer base. While the company’s primary revenue source is still its oil refinery contracts, WRS has also developed three additional business divisions that are independent of the petroleum industry: general construction; Cover-All® building assembly; and heavy equipment and machinery moving.

Since WRS already owned lots of trucks, excavators, pumps and other large equipment, Libolt reasoned he could expand the business by taking on construction projects without much additional overhead. Plus, trained and safety certified personnel were already onboard who could handle the work. WRS now offers and array of construction services such as heavy demolition, excavation, site preparation, asphalt paving, concrete work, and sewer installation and repair. Currently, Libolt said, construction projects constitute about 30 percent of the company’s total sales.

A third revenue stream was added in 2001 when WRS was awarded the Washington state dealership for Cover-All buildings. Headquartered in Saskatchewan, Cover-All designs and manufactures inexpensive and easy-to-assemble steel framed, fabric-covered buildings. The durable buildings have become popular for a variety of industrial uses, including warehouses, riding arenas, maintenance shops and even commercial stores. WRS has developed contracts with a variety of government agencies and private businesses around the state to purchase and build Cover-All structures. WRS also has its own full-time CAD designer on staff to customize Cover-All’s standard plans to best meet individual client’s specific business needs. About 15 percent of WRS sales now come from its Cover-All division, and the figure is growing.

Finally, in 2004, WRS added the heavy equipment and machinery moving division to its business model. Realizing the company owned at least 20 large trucks and their workforce was certified in handling hazardous materials, Libolt and other company leaders decided to introduce hauling services – especially up and down the I-5 corridor. Although comprising only 5 percent of the company’s total revenue at present, this relatively new division is expected to expand.

Owner becomes employee

Jerry Libolt is founder of WRS. He sold the business to Ryan Likkel and Bill Van Zanten,

and after a hiatus returned as the company’s general manager.
 

Libolt is WRS’s founder and original owner. But in 2000 he decided to sell the business to two of his longterm managers – Ryan Likkel and Bill Van Zanten.
“It was just time,” Libolt explained. He then took a year and a half leave of absence to help build the 35,000 square-foot New Hope Center in Lynden that is now home to a variety of nonprofit social service agencies including the food bank.

The unusual part of this story is how Libolt has since returned to the very company he once owned – this time as an employee. Enjoying the reduced responsibility of being a staffer rather of an owner, Libolt praises his new bosses. “They have not limited me at all; they are really interested in what I have to say.” The new arrangement seems to be working just fine.

When asked what challenges WRS faces, Libolt responded without hesitation: “Safety is huge for us.” When dealing with dangerous materials and heavy machinery in a hazardous environment, “there is no room for error,” he said. “Overall, we’ve done very well.”

One likely reason for the excellent record is all employees are required to take extensive, in-house safety training. For instance, the company offers a rigorous safety training, known as “HazWopper,” a 40-hour course based on OSHA standards.

A second challenge, Libolt shared, is keeping up with all the rules and regulations in an industry as complicated as petroleum. A third difficulty is, at times, finding good employees – especially now when unemployment is low. Currently, WRS has numerous openings for truck drivers, machine operators and general laborers.

When asked what makes WRS such a successful company that “has grown beyond my wildest dreams,” Libolt offered his personal philosophy: “If you are an ethical, honest company and try to do good work, people see that. If they see you keep their best interests in mind, you will grow.