Light at the end of the IOS tunnel

Rumors of Castronics / Inspection Oilfield Services (IOS) closing its doors are untrue, says Andy Swisher, Area Manager. Despite the fact that oil prices are still low, IOS is not out of the game and has no intention of closing.

Although IOS is owned by LB Foster, a company based out of Pittsburg, and is now a publicly traded company as of March 2015, it is still it's own subsidiary. The company remains fully in business and has working facilities in the Rocky Mountain, Texas, Oklahoma, Ohio regions, however, Kimball remains one of the largest facilities for the company.

IOS recently opened a new facility in North Dakota where inspection and threading will take place, yet Kimball will do all of the billing for the new site.

With the unfortunate decline in oil prices from $120 to $26 per barrel came the unavoidable need to reduce employee numbers. At the peak of production IOS was running two shifts, 24 hours a day with 183 employees. They were down to only 23 in less than a year.

It was a quick ordeal that hit them hard and fast and although they did everything they could to reduce expenses such as cutting costs in uniforms, fuel and vehicles, there really was no other option than to reduce workforce.

For Swisher, it was personally devastating as he knew everyone he had to lay off.

"We had a lot of good people out here," he said.

Swisher said that although the whole situation was terrible, everyone knew what was happening, knew there wasn't really any other choice, and as he said everyone, "was very gracious when they knew it was coming."

The good news, if there ever is good news in a situation such as this, is that because they had lay offs for the majority of their employees, they now will have the ability to rehire some of them as the possibility for future production increases. Swisher and his remaining staff rehired one person last week and are currently working to bring two more back in the coming weeks.

"It's nice that we're able to start bringing some people back," says Swisher.

IOS is actually reporting that August was their second best month this year and nearly their best month since the prices dropped a year and a half ago.

Swisher announced that he has several orders coming in for the fourth quarter currently. He believes the oil drilling will come back, it will be slow but he believes it will come back, although never to the extent that it was.

In regards to current customers, "If we can get above $60 to $65 a barrel, sustain that for three or four months, that's where they can make some money."

And then there is Evraz, a large seamless mill that has purchased from IOS in the past that has recently placed orders for October, November and December.

Swisher said the industry as as a whole has changed and he believes that they as a company IOS needs to go where the customers are. In response to that need, they have moved threading machines around to get that work.

IOS may never again see two shifts working 24/7 but Swisher believes its possible that he might again see two shifts, Monday thru Friday, and that in turn will support IOS, their employees and Kimball county.