Mark Haubert, Vice President at Ranger Energy Services, discusses the organisation’s innovative approach and how it is underpinned by a positive energy culture.
“We drive new thinking.” It’s a mantra that works well for Mark Haubert and Ranger Energy Services.
An oil and gas completion and production solutions organisation focused on well servicing, it was founded in 2014 and has grown to become a leading provider of high specification well servicing rigs and ancillary equipment, known for its ability to pioneer new ideas.
Haubert is the company’s Vice President. From an early age, he foresaw a career in engineering and credits his family as important influences on his career direction.
“Growing up, I was good in math and science so I knew that I wanted to study an engineering field. When I was choosing my career and field of study, the petroleum industry was booming in the U.S.,” he explains. “I also had exposure to the industry through my father and uncle who both worked in natural gas production and storage. It was an easy choice and it sounded like it would be an adventurous career.”
However, by the time Haubert had completed his degree, the industry was experiencing a severe downturn.
“I decided to pursue a backup career as a Navy pilot, but fortunately landed a position in oilfield services,” he says. Having demonstrated success transforming firms into becoming profitable, market-driven organisations within the energy sector, Haubert recognises the importance of company culture and orchestrating successful change management.
Throughout his career, he has experienced a number of growth and contraction cycles. “In the U.S. unconventional market, these cycles have become more frequent and more extreme each time,” says Haubert. “This last contraction occurred due to an oversupply of oil and demand erosion due to COVID-19 causing active drilling rig count and frac crew completion count to contract by two-thirds in a few months. The US land market reached a record low of about 290 drilling rigs in July, which is the lowest rig count ever recorded by Baker Hughes and perhaps dating back to the 1890s.”
Ranger consists of three brands: Ranger Energy Services, Mallard Completions, and Torrent Energy Services that provide services throughout the U.S. unconventional basins. The company employs around 1,000 people across its field locations, with its corporate headquarters based in Houston, Texas.
Haubert values innovation, and driving innovation is at the forefront of decision-making at Ranger.
As a result, the firm strives to transform the well service industry by introducing data capture and analytics throughout its brands and services, and one of these innovations is Ranger Live™.
The Ranger Live™ mobile platform delivers a customised suite of applications to the firm’s field crews at the job site via tablet. This platform allows the crew to access data on the job site and to input data that is stored on Ranger’s servers. The Ranger Live™ Customer Portal offers access via any device from any location to real-time job data and post job metric reports. Providing real-time data and analytics to decision makers leads to safer and more efficient operations.
It is an example of the pioneering spirit housed within the company, a spirit which over the years has been recognised through numerous nominations and awards.
The organisation was recently selected as a finalist in the Houston Business Journal Middle Market 50 Award for 2020. This honour is given to the 50 fastest-growing locally-based middle market companies with annual revenues of $28 million to $1 billion. Ranger Energy Services was ranked as the 21st fastest growing company with 118 percent growth over the two years from 2017 to 2019.
The firm was also selected as a finalist in the Houston Chronicle’s Top 100 Leading Companies for 2020. Ranger was ranked 34th overall, 11th for earnings per share growth, and 29th for revenue growth over the two years from 2017 to 2019.
But for Haubert, while being recognised in such ways is a testament to the company’s success, there are more fundamentally important priorities that need addressing on a day to day basis.
For instance, Ranger is focused on providing the highest quality of service while protecting its employees and the environment in which it works. Haubert explains that in order to make this a reality, his organisation has introduced an award-winning, behavior-based QHSE management system that is formed by six core elements and consists of 36 total elements.
“Together, they form a complex interrelated structure with maximum synergies where one element supports many other elements,” he says. “The six core elements include: Policies and Procedures, Executive Leadership, Employee Engagement, Continuous Improvement and Failure Adaptation, all supported by the Ranger Live™ Mobile Platform.
“Further, we’re pursuing the ISO 45001 certification which is the internationally recognised standard relating to health and safety in a business environment. We anticipate becoming one of the first service companies in the U.S. to receive this certification in early 2021.”
A result of implementing this QHSE management system and developing a safety focused culture is that Ranger has been presented with the Large Well Servicing Rig Division safety award by the Association of Energy Service Companies (AESC) for the previous two years.
Indeed, Haubert places a considerable amount of value on harbouring a high-performance culture that is based on its purpose and values.
“Our purpose, “We exist to generate positive energy” permeates everything we do.” “We continuously strive for our customers, stakeholders and communities to have a positive experience when interacting with Ranger. To accomplish our purpose, we must drive new thinking and encourage everyone’s input to share ideas. We aren’t afraid to engage in healthy debate. The innovation that results is what sets us apart from our competition.”
Haubert strives for high standards and believes that teamwork is essential in order to achieve long-term success. “We take responsibility for supporting one another and our clients in moving forward,” he adds. “We challenge each other to improve and to leave things better than we found them. This means encouraging the best and celebrating so that we all rise up together.”
With the future in mind, the Vice President is excited about the next couple of years and adds that Ranger will be introducing a new solution at the beginning of 2021.
“We will launch our Ranger Elite™ Completion Solutions in early 2021,” he explains. “Ranger Elite™ is a comprehensive frac plug drillout and completion solution including elite personnel, elite equipment, and elite systems and solutions. Our elite personnel are highly trained and qualified with specialised technical and leadership certifications. In addition, they are armed with state-of-the-art equipment and our Ranger Live mobile platform.”
Over the course of 2021 and beyond, Haubert is determined to continue building a positive energy culture across Ranger while strengthening the overall brand awareness.
“It’s important that we continue to develop and implement differentiating technologies while strengthening existing partnerships and developing new partnerships with major independent and multi-national operators,” he says, bringing the conversation to a close.
“We’re in a position to evaluate numerous expansion opportunities and we anticipate expanding our portfolio of companies and services. We rise to challenges. When a roadblock is thrown in our path, we pull together to eliminate barriers and overcome the challenge.
We come to work every day filled with positive energy, a smile on our face and willing to stick through to the end to accomplish what needs to be done that day. We enjoy working together and celebrate each other’s success.”
