Oklahoma City-based Mammoth Energy Services, Inc. issued a statement in response to a news story from Fox News headlined, “Puerto Rico still owes company $350 million for restoring grid in 2017 as it faces fresh hurricane outages”:
It proved to be something of a stinging rebuke to how his company was treated by Puerto Rico.
“First and foremost, our prayers are with the people of Puerto Rico as they pick up the pieces from yet another natural disaster. Five years ago, when we arrived after Hurricane Maria, we saw with our own eyes the impact of Hurricane Maria and know all too well the devastation widespread power outages bring to everyday life. As Congress begins another discussion about the path forward on the next recovery, those entities still owed for work completed last time need to be made whole. Since Maria, my Company has responded to 17 subsequent natural disaster related power restoration efforts that were funded by the Federal Emergency Management Agency (“FEMA”) and have been compensated fully for each one without issue. Puerto Rico is the glaring exception. If we expect private companies to answer the call of duty when lives are hanging in the balance, government must step up and do its job to ensure its partners are not left twisting in the wind.” – Arty Straehla, Chief Executive Officer, Mammoth Energy Services.
OK Energy Today reported last week about the millions of dollars owed Mammoth Energy. We sought a comment from Straehla but the company did not respond.
In anticipation of Hurricane Ian’s landfall on the west coast of Florida, Mammoth’s subsidiaries are mobilizing crews for a quick response in the event assistance is required to restore power in the United States.
The development comes ahead of the Natural Resources Committee of the House of Representatives holding hearings this week regarding Puerto Rico recovery efforts and expected to feature testimony from director of the Central Office for Recovery, Reconstruction and Resilience (“COR 3”), Manuel Laboy, the executive director of the Puerto Rico Electric Power Authority (“PREPA”), Josué Colón, the director of the Energy Bureau, Edison Avilés Deliz, the president of LUMA Energy, Wayne Stensby, environmental lawyer Ruth Santiago and the president of CAMBIO, Ingrid Vila Biaggi.
According to reporting from Bloomberg News, “a week after Hurricane Fiona swiped Puerto Rico, causing catastrophic flooding and knocking out power to the entire island of 3.1 million, just over half of the US commonwealth has electricity, officials said.”
Following Hurricane Maria (September 2017) in Puerto Rico and its complete destruction of the island’s power grid, Mammoth, through its subsidiary Cobra Acquisitions LLC (“Cobra”), was awarded an initial $200 million restoration contract in 2017. Through five separate amendments to the original contract, the aggregate contract amount was eventually increased to $945 million. PREPA awarded a second contract of up to $900 million to Cobra in response to a Request for Proposals (“RFP”) process.
As of September 1, 2022, Mammoth, through Cobra, is owed $365 million including $138 million in interest charges, as specified in the contract, on remaining invoices for work Cobra completed more than three years ago.
Source: PR Newswire