During the summer semester of 2014 University of Utah MS Petroleum Engineering students visited 14 engineering operations and facilities. The goal was first hand exposure to oil and gas operations in Utah and Wyoming. Following the visit to XTO’s Castle Valley amine plant [link], students toured Savage Services rail transloading yard in Price, UT. Savage Services has a long history of supply chain and logistics operations for Utah’s energy industry, including its trucking services and Price, UT coal loadout. 
Recognizing the significant growth in crude oil production in Utah’s Uinta Basin, along with the region’s limited take-out capacity, Savage Services saw a new business opportunity to incorporate crude oil transloading to rail at its existing coal rail facility. Although they began operation less than a year ago, Savage Services is already capable of transloading 11,000 barrels of Uinta Basin crude oil per day. Utilizing a truck unloading rack with vapor recovery, crude hauling trucks are offloaded into waiting DOT-111 railcars, which are then used to move crude oil to Salt Lake City and other markets around the country via Union Pacific and BNSF railways. Over the course of the field study, students encountered a diverse range of petroleum-related operations. These encompassed E&P operations, midstream and downstream facilities, as well as end-use applications. Students also met with service providers and recruiters. The Department of Chemical Engineering was fortunate to work with many of Utah and Wyoming’s key energy companies; including ConocoPhillips, XTO, Fidelity, Resolute, Wolverine, PacifiCorp, Utah Geologic Survey, Tesoro, Newfield, Crescent Point, Red Leaf, U.S. Oil Sands, Halliburton, Questar, and ExxonMobil. Each organization’s willingness to showcase their work and their facilities offered our students a unique opportunity to understand the full life-cycle of hydrocarbon commodities and highlighted potential career paths.
