Growth of Lagoon Water Solutions

Lagoon Water solutions, one of our advertisers at OK Energy Today was prominently featured in a recent story in the Oklahoman.

The following is the story from the newspaper:

Expectations for future growth at Lagoon Water Solutions are rising as quickly as the volumes of water it handles.

Key leadership changes earlier this year preceded Lagoon’s announced deal with Continental Resources, where Lagoon is buying the latter’s water gathering and recycling system in Blaine County for $85 million.

Kevin Lafferty, Lagoon Water Solutions’ CEO, said the company is just getting started.

“We have put a leadership team together that largely comes from upstream operators like Devon, Marathon and Continental,” Lafferty said. “They come from the world of our customers. We have lived in their shoes, and we have been there, so we know what they need.”

Lafferty said Lagoon’s acquisition of Continental Resources’ Blaine County water system is a game changer for many operators in the STACK play because it provides them with a way to reuse recycled produced water that previously only had been available to the seller.

Lagoon, he said, aims to offer its customers produced water transportation services using in-ground pipeline, starting with the system of pipe it acquired from Continental Resources.

Some parts of the system are dual piped, capable of both taking water from and sending recycled water two specific production locations.

The water recycling facility, he noted, now is commercially available to area operators.

“We have roughly 200 miles of pipe, and we are laying new pipe for our customers every day,” Lafferty said.

Lafferty said using in-ground pipe to flow the water is important because it takes trucks off roads and reduces emissions.

“That is safer and better for the environment, and it can be done at a lower cost,” he said. “We are from operators, for operators. We know how to provide them service and what they want. We are able to come in and build that relationship to provide them service and do them a good job.”

Oklahoma City-based Lagoon Water Solutions is a private firm, and its major investor is the Macquarie Group, based in Australia.

Pete Hollis, Lagoon’s chief operating officer, joined it in 2018 after working for seven years as Marathon Oil’s supply chain manager for its Oklahoma operations.

Jeff Starling, Lagoon’s general counsel and corporate secretary since April, previously had worked in Devon Energy’s legal division, most recently as its assistant general counsel.

Caitlyn Jackson, Lagoon’s senior vice president for commercial and business development since April, previously operated Rose Energy Advisors, which provided clients reservoir engineering and business development services. Before that, Jackson worked with Devon in various positions involving its upstream and midstream value chains.

As for Lafferty, he started his career about two decades ago with Phillips Petroleum, working in its refining, midstream natural gas gathering and processing and then later in its chemicals and plastics divisions.

He left Phillips to work for Canadian-based Enbridge to handle its gas marketing business involving Gulf of Mexico production.

He left Enbridge to join Devon as a crude oil marketer, then moved into its commodity price forecasting office. Later, he took charge of Devon’s strategic planning office as it developed a $6 billion plan to acquire various Eagle Ford Shale properties.

Lafferty also oversaw exploration and production operations for Devon in the Eagleford, the Barnett Shale and in Oklahoma and most recently returned to its strategic planning division while also overseeing the company’s supply marketing, information technology and health and safety operations. He joined Lagoon as its CEO in March.

“I have had a variety of experiences, from operational to financial to technical to marketing,” Lafferty said. “But really, what I am about is about people and leadership.

“So yes, you have technical aspects of the business. But when you can get collaboration and get people working, that trumps technical expertise any day of the week.”