Tulsa’s Sheehan Pipe Line Construction Company Files For Chapter 11 Bankruptcy

Sheehan Pipe Line

Tulsa-based Sheehan Pipe Line Construction Company filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy Friday in U.S. Bankruptcy Court for the Northern District of Oklahoma, according to a Tulsa World report.

The Chapter 11 bankruptcy filing lists both Sheehan’s estimated assets and liabilities as being somewhere in the $50 to $100 million range. The company’s estimated number of creditors are listed as in the range of 200 to 999.

In 2013, the company employed 85 employees, including 35 in Tulsa.

Sheehan Pipe Line has not commented on the impact of current pipeline projects for The Williams Cos. in Pennsylvania as well as multiple Kinder Morgan projects in Mississippi, Alabama and Tennessee.

According to the company’s website, other company clients include Energy Transfer, TransCanada and Markwest Energy Partners LP.

Robert Riess, who has been Sheehan’s president and CEO since 2006, is co-owner of the company along with David Sheehan, a descendant of the founder John Sheehan.

The company has a storied history. Sheehan Pipe Line has completed over 23,000 miles of pipelines since 1903, when John Sheehan and his workers laid some of the first pipelines in Indian Territory. The company also was a major contributor to the completion of the historic War Emergency Pipeline at the onset of World War II.

The 113-year-old pipeline construction company’s functions have expanded to include hydrostatic testing, valve changing and pipeline rehabilitation, but the company’s focus is still primarily on laying infrastructure.