“If you have not heard of CDX Energy Services you have to check them out, They offer a broad range of services that will help maximize your operations.
On this episode, we sit down with the CEO, Nick Rodriguez to discuss how CDX Energy is helping keep the environment safe in the oil and gas industry.
We also talk with his Business Development Manager Breanna Johnson and what all she has going on in Midland Texas!
Please reach out to Nicholas Rodriguez on his LinkedIn HERE
Please reach out to Breanna Johnson on his LinkedIn HERE
Check out StatusJet HERE
THE CRUDE TRUTH Ep 21 Nicholas Rodriguez CEO of CDX Energy Services and Breanna Johnson
Rey Trevino [00:00:00] Well as an operator in that state of Texas, you know that you’re only as strong as the service companies that you work with. We’ll talk about that and much more on this episode of The Crude Truth.
Rey Trevino [00:01:11] Well, I am just so excited to be here today on what is kind of a little rainy day here in the great city of Fort Worth, Texas. Throughout this year, I’m going to be having on some great service companies that spanned all the way from one coast to the other coast.
Rey Trevino [00:01:26] And as an operator in the oil and gas industry, you’re only as strong as those relationships and as strong as those service companies that you use. And today I’m really excited to have on Nick Rodrigues and Breanna Johnson with Codex Energy. Nick, how are you doing?
Nicholas Rodriguez [00:01:44] Great. Glad to be here.
Rey Trevino [00:01:45] Good. Riana, how are you?
Breanna Johnson [00:01:47] Doing Well, thank you. Good.
Rey Trevino [00:01:50] Well, thank you guys very much for coming on. And Breanna thank you for helping schedule this and getting these guys here to Fort Worth. You all are from Midland, correct?
Nicholas Rodriguez [00:01:59] Yeah, Living in Midland currently, that’s where the hub of the operation is. So it’s easier to to be there every day rather than travel, so.
Rey Trevino [00:02:08] Well, okay. I mean, I do know that that is where a lot of HUB the service companies are. And I think that whenever we do mail checks out to those service companies in a 30 day time frame, we’ll talk about that in a minute. That that that’s where a lot of them go. P.O. Box is their mission. That’s right. And that’s right.
Nicholas Rodriguez [00:02:25] At least.
Rey Trevino [00:02:26] At least. Yes, sir. CDX Synergy. You guys are a chemical company, but also you’re a lot more than that. But before we dive into that, Nick, you and I had a chance to talk a while back over the phone and your background is not just in energy service.
Nicholas Rodriguez [00:02:45] That’s right. Started in finance.
Rey Trevino [00:02:47] Yes. And I mean, we’re looking at you. I mean, you’ve got looking at you, you U.S. like the typical successful finance guy, bar none. It’s like.
Nicholas Rodriguez [00:02:56] That’s what I’m going for.
Rey Trevino [00:02:57] You’re like, hey, you know what? I don’t need to answer to anybody, not in a bad way. But I know what I’m doing. I bet you use spreadsheets like there’s no tomorrow.
Nicholas Rodriguez [00:03:05] I sure do. Yeah.
Rey Trevino [00:03:05] Yeah. And so it’s like, as long as you got that, you’re probably on a launcher somewhere having a my time making sure that’s going on.
Nicholas Rodriguez [00:03:12] I wish that was true,.
Rey Trevino [00:03:12] But no, let’s stop for a minute, Nick, And. And tell us about you and your background.
Nicholas Rodriguez [00:03:18] Sure. I started off in finance back in 2008. I got a really good opportunity to do commercial lending analysis for Frost Bank back then.
Rey Trevino [00:03:28] Oh, yeah.
Nicholas Rodriguez [00:03:29] And got very lucky in that because in oh eight was when the economy crashed. So anybody in finance was doing not so great that back then I happened to be working for Frost which is extremely conservative bank.
Nicholas Rodriguez [00:03:42] So that just provided an opportunity to be able to stay in the banking realm for a period of time before the economy could recover and then from there got to move in, not more like IB type opportunities and then from that point went into private equity.
Rey Trevino [00:03:59] Now, when you talk about IB, for everybody out there, that’s.
Nicholas Rodriguez [00:04:01] Investment Banking.
Rey Trevino [00:04:02] Yeah, investment banking and then into the private equity.
Nicholas Rodriguez [00:04:05] Right. Right.
Rey Trevino [00:04:06] And what was it about the private equity world that that you just was like, oh.
Nicholas Rodriguez [00:04:11] At the time it was less workload and a lot more money.
Rey Trevino [00:04:14] Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. And what year did you do that? Because you said you started out in 08.
Nicholas Rodriguez [00:04:19] Yeah. So I started doing private. I made the move out of Ivy into private equity in 2012. 2000. 10,000. Okay.
Rey Trevino [00:04:29] Well, you know, you mentioned 2008, and I remember that’s the year I graduated from college and I crammed a four year. You know, I think I’ve said it before, I crame to four year degree and a Six Years of Solitude in there. I don’t know and I love you know, my father might have.
Nicholas Rodriguez [00:04:44] Different opinions,.
Rey Trevino [00:04:45] Different Opinions on that. But but actually, I started out at UTI close to where you went because you went to training.
Nicholas Rodriguez [00:04:50] In.
Rey Trevino [00:04:51] San Antonio, which is second to none. Sure. I mean, shoot, that’s even one of the. Yeah. And that’s where a lot of people in your in the finance world.
Nicholas Rodriguez [00:04:59] Do they have a solid program?
Rey Trevino [00:05:00] Yeah. And so I remember I was actually in banking. I started out at 22 as a good old fashioned Part-Time Teller at what used to be Bank one, now part of Jp morgan.
Nicholas Rodriguez [00:05:11] Right. Okay.
Rey Trevino [00:05:12] And so I was in the banking world just as a small commercial lender for a bank up in Dayton for a while. Okay. You know, eight when I graduated. So I think that was part of the reason why I was able to understand the world a little bit better in the oil and gas industry.
Rey Trevino [00:05:27] Because in the only gas industry, you create the most millionaires ever. When you go look at it now, real estate sustains the most million.
Nicholas Rodriguez [00:05:39] That’s right.
Rey Trevino [00:05:39] Okay. So, you know, but hey, people become millionaire the quickest in oil and gas.
Nicholas Rodriguez [00:05:43] And also the flip side of that is they also get broke the fast.
Rey Trevino [00:05:48] Yes. Yeah. Right. And so I think having that finance background has really helped us out at people’s country energy, not only and after the first downturn at about 15, 16, but also during this 2021 that we had. Absolutely. It’s important to do that.
Nicholas Rodriguez [00:06:04] Yeah, I think it gives you a little bit of an edge because you can look at your financials and make solid, analytical based decisions off of what you’re looking at from a from a maybe a deeper understanding than, you know, having to rely on an accountant.
Rey Trevino [00:06:17] Right.
Nicholas Rodriguez [00:06:18] You have first hand experience of being able to just let me analyze these numbers, make these decisions and move on. You know, it’s it’s a faster. It is the moving process.
Rey Trevino [00:06:29] Yeah. And you know, you mentioned the accountants, and I don’t know how familiar you are, but here in Fort Worth, we have a lot of family oil and gas companies. And I’m.
Nicholas Rodriguez [00:06:38] Familiar. Sure.
Rey Trevino [00:06:40] Yeah. And I’m proud to say that I am a Fort Worth family oil and gas company. But, you know, the crude truth is I’m not one of the families of the oil industry and accounting is huge. And those guys, you talk about it, you know, it’s hard to trust somebody.
Rey Trevino [00:06:55] So these these families here have have had the same people for 20 plus years to where they can get those quick, you know, the turnarounds that turn, I’m sure.
Rey Trevino [00:07:04] But yet when you’re coming up out of out of nowhere, you know, you strike a well, ah, you get real successful with a trucking company or a service company real quick who you got to trust,.
Nicholas Rodriguez [00:07:13] Right. Yeah.
Rey Trevino [00:07:14] So but no,.
Nicholas Rodriguez [00:07:15] They’re not all created equal.
Rey Trevino [00:07:17] No.
Nicholas Rodriguez [00:07:17] Right. Just because it’s a CPA behind their name doesn’t mean they have your interests in mind.
Rey Trevino [00:07:21] Right. And that’s that’s where the difference is. Because again, these families and you know, and CDX, I don’t think they’re going anywhere anytime soon. You guys are going go in and in. I think part of the reason is why is because of one of your top notch sales development people, which is a Randy Johnson. Breanna How are you?
Breanna Johnson [00:07:41] I’m good. How are you all doing?
Rey Trevino [00:07:43] Well, again, you know, I wanted to say thank you for bringing Nick on here. And we got the CEO, Chad, in the background. We do a shout out to Chad real quick. Breanna You have been just blazing a trail for CDX and just lining up work and you have been moving and doing well. If you were running a campaign, you would definitely be kissing babies and shaking hands right now with all the people that you are meeting.
Nicholas Rodriguez [00:08:07] Yeah,.
Rey Trevino [00:08:08] Right. And so coming in, the CVACs, you’ve been there now what seems like forever because you just know what’s going on. But your background is in HSC, the old health, safety and environmental, which is now ESG. We won’t get into that.
Nicholas Rodriguez [00:08:24] Okay.
Rey Trevino [00:08:25] But but we can probably could talk about that.
Nicholas Rodriguez [00:08:28] Breanna rolled her eyes.
Rey Trevino [00:08:30] Rolled your eyes in that one. But no, Brianna, tell us about you and what was going on at CDX real quick.
Breanna Johnson [00:08:36] Well. So I got in the studio and they’ve been there about eight months now and it’s going really well. I was not expecting to be in oil and gas. I move to Big Spring, which is now 40 miles away from Midland back in 21, and slowly ended up in oil and gas. I’m still trying to wrap my mind around everything because, as you know, things are ever changing and there’s so many moving parts, but it’s going well. And I can say that I’m very happy to be with CDX. Yeah.
Rey Trevino [00:09:16] Okay. Well, you know, and I do think that is one thing that all three of us have in common is none of us expected. I mean, did you none of us expected to be in oil and gas is like we all didn’t wake up one day and it kind of just progressed. And let’s talk about that, because that to me is the most huge thing about about about what you’re doing with a service company. Yeah.
Nicholas Rodriguez [00:09:36] Yeah. It was always a point of interest for me. I mean, I had friends in high school who, you know, they didn’t they didn’t make very good grades. So let’s say they maybe they weren’t the sharpest tools in the shed.
Nicholas Rodriguez [00:09:50] And I mean, as summer jobs would go, roughneck, you know, down in South Texas where I grew up, and they’d come back with, you know, bundles of money. And I was always kind of interested in how were you accomplishing that.
Nicholas Rodriguez [00:10:01] And so as a young adult person, I my impression was that maybe I’ll just go be an oilfield welder. And my mom disagreed with that assessment, thankfully. So she she kind of guided me toward know you’re going you’re going to go to college. Yeah. So and I mean, I did well in high school academically, so I got I’ve gotten to Trinity so, you know, and then it took me a lot of to kind of figure out what what I wanted to do. I didn’t really know. It took me about a year to figure out where my skill set was from an academic perspective. But that underlying fact is that the oil and gas industry was always kind of an interests.
Rey Trevino [00:10:41] Okay,.
Nicholas Rodriguez [00:10:42] Right. So, you know, went down the rabbit hole with finance stuff and I was working for these guys and they were primarily what we invested in were pretrial biotech companies. And that was kind of my my forte was was investing in doing the diligence on those types of companies. Okay. You know, the guys got together one day the the, the main partner group got together and said, well, we want to we want to explore something in the oil and gas or energy sector. Well, I had lots of friends that were still doing that in service.
Nicholas Rodriguez [00:11:10] So I pitched him an idea about how about we acquire. And back then the paradigm was guys would leave big service companies with relationships and start their own service company and build that up. These guys weren’t necessarily back office administrative types. They were more out in the field. They knew how to run the operation from the field perspective. So and they were always under funded, not, you know, undercapitalized, not well managed. You know, the books were always a mess and everything else.
Nicholas Rodriguez [00:11:38] So what I decided, what I pitched to the group was, why don’t we fund a service company that’s already generating revenue and we’ll just install a management team and, and capitalize it. And it went pretty well until 2014 ish oil well started coming down.
Nicholas Rodriguez [00:11:57] And then that was where I took the ah, they wanted out. They want to divest themselves of it. And I just kind of was like, I’m going to stay with you, I’ll take this as a buyout. And they said, Yes, and it was my company after that.
Rey Trevino [00:12:10] Wow Okay
Nicholas Rodriguez [00:12:11] So I kind of ran with it.
Rey Trevino [00:12:13] Well, I mean, you know, you talk about, you know, cash flow and I was I mentioned here at the beginning about, you know, email checks. And and I’m a firm believer in the good old fashioned 30 day, you know, they pay a P paper. Yeah. 30 Day paybook.
Rey Trevino [00:12:31] And I do think, you know I’ve said it before that. I don’t know how I know why they do it, but for other companies to sit there and ask for 45, 60 and 90 days for service companies. I think that is not right. You know, all we’re doing, you’re finding this guy. You know, all we’re doing is sitting on it, collecting the interest a little bit longer. Maybe that’s all. Who knows? Who knows? Maybe I’m taking it, you know.
Nicholas Rodriguez [00:12:58] Well, bonuses are expensive.
Rey Trevino [00:12:59] You. Well, you know what? Let me know. You know what? Do you get? Any bonuses? Those expensive?
Nicholas Rodriguez [00:13:06] Im not going to the operator.
Rey Trevino [00:13:06] Oh, okay. Cause I don’t know about these. I don’t know about these bonuses.
Nicholas Rodriguez [00:13:10] Yeah,.
Rey Trevino [00:13:11] But I. I just don’t. I don’t think that’s right and they can do that because it’s Exxon or it’s, you know, you know, next year and it’s like. And you want to work.
Nicholas Rodriguez [00:13:22] Any any even mid-cap company that you’re going to work for operator or or water midstream or swg company that is I would say midcap and up they have they have the ability to push you around because what are you going to do about it? You know, so. You know.
Rey Trevino [00:13:42] I know.
Nicholas Rodriguez [00:13:42] I dont really have an answer to that yet.
Rey Trevino [00:13:44] I know, I know. And I wish it wasn’t like that, because you guys, you’ve got I mean, how many people do you have underneath you? Now?
Nicholas Rodriguez [00:13:49] We have 30 people.
Rey Trevino [00:13:51] And those people all rely on those coming in the checks. No different than me with the oil. Sure. The oil has to come out of the ground and I have to sell it for me to get a paycheck.
Nicholas Rodriguez [00:13:59] That’s right.
Rey Trevino [00:14:00] And so it’s no different there so, you know, I was talking to charity earlier. You know, I always feel like you guys, you know, in my mind, are guaranteed money more than I am. And the reason why is because we never do a project unless we’re ready to go and we can write a check that they do the whole thing.
Nicholas Rodriguez [00:14:15] Okay.
Rey Trevino [00:14:16] And so and I think that’s why we’ve been able to really build our relationships in North Texas, because it’s like, you know, you know, there’s so many pays on time. You’re going to you’re going to go get that work done and go go continue to work for them.
Rey Trevino [00:14:27] And and especially if they’re not a mean or arrogant and they work with you, be sure that’s one thing when it comes to something like what you guys do. I’m not an expert and y’all are in the chemical world and other parts and it’s like, you know,.
Rey Trevino [00:14:41] I do have engineers and they’re going to talk and then it’s like, if these guys know the area, these guys are there, they’re going to they’re going to figure it out the best way. And and I’ll always believe that being the smartest person in the room means I’ve got the smartest people.
Nicholas Rodriguez [00:14:54] That’s right.
Rey Trevino [00:14:54] And so that’s where I think those relationships, like I talked about at the beginning, are very important with the service companies. And so I just I cannot believe that. But that that the way that they can do that 45, 60 and 90 and that’s just not right.
Nicholas Rodriguez [00:15:09] They can.They can do it.
Rey Trevino [00:15:09] They can do it. And and Midland’s a different beast. I mean, I know for me up in North Texas, if I want somebody that I know is going to do the job right ill wait, it’s like, you know, when you get time, two weeks, you come up there, it’s like, if you ain’t there that day.
Nicholas Rodriguez [00:15:23] Yeah, if you’re within a couple of hours, you can’t be here. We’ll call number two on the list.
Rey Trevino [00:15:27] Yeah, you. How many times do you I mean you probably don’t have that is usually their first time on time.
Nicholas Rodriguez [00:15:32] We usually are they’re pretty quick. We can mobilize pretty fast.. You know, And I know, I know Brie’s probably missed a few opportunities that were, you know. Very fast, like we had to be there yesterday kind of deal.
Rey Trevino [00:15:45] Well, that’s all we do. I think the yesterday thing is always that’s always my fun response to somebody. It’s like, well, you know, Ray, what do you need to say? Well, yesterday, you know, it’s a fun for me. It’s fun, but I don’t joke around in Midland about that because that’s the feel that you get as as a as a service Company Midland. It’s like because there’s somebody else there. but.
Nicholas Rodriguez [00:16:05] Right Behind you.
Rey Trevino [00:16:06] She is second to none. And I mean Breanna , how do you feel about, you know, hey, man, you’re always on it. I mean, your phone’s probably going off all the time trying to get that work going. Is that correct?
Breanna Johnson [00:16:18] Yeah. So I you know, I what I do is I’ve built, I would say, a network and I’m constantly trying to do that. And yes, there are instances where we maybe can’t be there tomorrow because we’re a growing company and and that’s great. But, you know, you want to focus as well as you can on the customer and give them. First off, our best impression,.
Breanna Johnson [00:16:46] And I think in the instance where maybe we can’t be there yesterday or tomorrow or today, those relationships they’re cultivating and so maybe we can’t do it at the drop of a hat. But we’re working with these companies that are going to have they’re going to keep having projects, they’re going to keep meeting us.
Breanna Johnson [00:17:04] And so I think being upfront and telling somebody, hey, you know, that’s we’re not going to be able to make that at your deadline, but they’re going to think about us in the future or next week when they do need something. So.
Rey Trevino [00:17:19] Yeah, no. And again, you know, I wanted to invite you guys on and let’s dive into CDX in which I’ll do it, because you all offer a broad range of services that really help maximize and keep optimal operations going.
Rey Trevino [00:17:32] All we do. That’s right.
Rey Trevino [00:17:34] And so let’s talk about that and what all you all are doing and what you all are finding. I don’t want to give away too many trade secrets of CDX okay. But what you all are really doing to get that upper hand, to get out there and make things to where and I’m sorry to keep random here, but, you know, get keep getting that recurring business.
Nicholas Rodriguez [00:17:50] Sure. Yeah. When I started off in oil and gas, I was more completions centric. So, I mean, really what I did was hired myself on as a hand. So I wanted to know if anyone ever walks in my door. I want to be able to relate directly to what they’re going through. So I hired myself on as a first off, a rig of hand. I actually got fired like two times.
Rey Trevino [00:18:11] No way.
Nicholas Rodriguez [00:18:12] And I just kept coming back.
Rey Trevino [00:18:14] Okay.
Nicholas Rodriguez [00:18:14] And finally just kind of worked my way from rig up hand to flow back, to flow back operator and so on and so forth. And then we started adding services from but they were all completions century.
Nicholas Rodriguez [00:18:23] And a couple of years down the line, got very lucky, had an opportunity with a midstream company to do some paraffin treatment. And like I said, very lucky that we just found a product right off the bat, worked really well. And that’s kind of when the light bulb went off that actually we don’t want to be completions centric.
Nicholas Rodriguez [00:18:46] We want to be let’s let’s check out this production midstream and water chemistry world. Well, let’s actually be a real chemical company, maybe because if we can if we can bring the the completion type service oriented mind set to this aspect, we’ll do great.
Nicholas Rodriguez [00:19:06] So, I mean, most of our hands are from the completion world. I mean, they’re almost all flowback hands or talking testing.
Nicholas Rodriguez [00:19:12] And so that’s kind of I think maybe what sets us a little bit apart is these guys are used to bending over backwards and making it, making it go no matter what. Whereas maybe that’s not always the expectation in this portion of the field.
Rey Trevino [00:19:26] Absolutely.
Nicholas Rodriguez [00:19:26] And so it kind of sets us apart in the eyes, most of the operators that we work for.
Rey Trevino [00:19:31] Well, I want to dive into what Paraffin is here in a second, but as an operator and a producer here in the state, the great state of Texas, the production side is not get a lot of love, right?
Rey Trevino [00:19:42] I mean, I enjoy it whenever we’re drilling a well. It is so much fun than you. You know, you bring in the completions and you get that initial production I mean, you just give it during the rush. Yeah,.
Nicholas Rodriguez [00:19:53] Sure.
Rey Trevino [00:19:54] You get it. RUSH okay. But guess what? That’s almost a false rush because the real rush is in that every day production of oil.
Nicholas Rodriguez [00:20:02] The Grind correct.
Rey Trevino [00:20:03] And the grind is never the I’ll use the word sexy. It is never the sexy parts,.
Nicholas Rodriguez [00:20:08] Thats Right?
Rey Trevino [00:20:08] But it is what makes me money is the production side of things. And that’s why I had to start with you guys, because you guys at CDX Synergy, y’all are there. You know you’re going to be there to help continue to keep my wells flowing.
Nicholas Rodriguez [00:20:25] That’s right.
Rey Trevino [00:20:25] All the time. And that to me, that’s I mean, every part is the most important part. But once that well is done, I got to make sure that they will continue to have to keep going 30 years.
Nicholas Rodriguez [00:20:36] Keep Going Yeah,
Rey Trevino [00:20:36] And I know for us in North Texas, we have a terrible, terrible pair of Oh yeah. And you’ll Parafin builds up on the the rods right as they go on. And so what do you find in that. You know maybe we can get a little technical. What is it about what formations where you all see a lot more paraffin build up or or how is it that you guys kind of see is it because wells are maybe going too fast, too slow, or.
Nicholas Rodriguez [00:21:02] I’m not sure there’s a way to discriminate between where paraffin is and isnt. And I know what we’ve been seeing is it’s kind of cropping up everywhere. So I don’t know if it’s past treatment of of wells or if it’s just what’s happening in the reservoir for certain the circumstances going on down hole. I don’t I couldn’t tell you what would be a reason for the trend in paraffin.
Rey Trevino [00:21:27] But it seems to be getting even heavy. Like I always thought it was kind of a a shallow well issue. But, you know, you guys just don’t do you all do you know, the big boy stuff all day long.
Nicholas Rodriguez [00:21:38] We’re seeing it in. Conventional wells we’re seeing in vertical wells, we’re seeing in pipelines, we’re seeing it everywhere. We’re seeing it in SWD pipelines.
Rey Trevino [00:21:46] Really?
Nicholas Rodriguez [00:21:46] Oh, yeah.
Rey Trevino [00:21:47] Well, I guess it makes sense because you do have a little bit of oil as well.
Nicholas Rodriguez [00:21:50] Some of these guys that are only piping their water and they’re not doing any water. They’re taking massive volumes of water. They’re getting massive and they’re on flowback. And so these operators are flowing back wells. They’re getting a pretty significant amount of oil in these wells. One customer, we skimmed 30,000 barrels of oil for them last month frame.
Rey Trevino [00:22:10] I mean, it’s free.
Nicholas Rodriguez [00:22:12] That is an SWD as a water midstream company.
Rey Trevino [00:22:14] Oh, man. I’m just thinking we have a partner out in North Dakota that we have and he’s awesome.
Nicholas Rodriguez [00:22:20] Yeah,.
Rey Trevino [00:22:21] He he’s designed several for, like, whiting up there,.
Nicholas Rodriguez [00:22:24] Right?
Rey Trevino [00:22:24] Continental Resources up there and his own and, you know, that’s another great industry, you know, not to get distracted and thing, but man, that 30,000 barrels in a month, that’s free money.
Nicholas Rodriguez [00:22:35] Oh, yeah.
Rey Trevino [00:22:36] I mean, and so it’s important again, the production side is very important, whether it is downstream pipeline. You know, we truck all of our oil out. We’re sure we’re we’re not at a at a pipe in yet. Yeah, but that’s coming. That’s the goal. But again, that paraffin though slows down slows down the production of.
Nicholas Rodriguez [00:22:57] The entire process.
Rey Trevino [00:22:58] Yeah. Yeah. And so what other kind of services, you know, again that, that are y’all doing other than just that kind of work You mentioned basically unconventional wells, vertical wells, traditional pipelines or other stuff.
Nicholas Rodriguez [00:23:10] We’ve got chemistries for corrosion programs, both downhole and in the pipeline. We’ve got water based chemistries for all the water guys. Okay. We’ve got any I mean, basically any issue that you can come across, we will find a solution for it.
Nicholas Rodriguez [00:23:30] We don’t really put out. We don’t pigeonhole ourselves, especially I like to I’m the guy that they come to with an issue that they can’t work out. So, like we had we had a project where we were trying to clean meters, custody meters. Right.
Rey Trevino [00:23:45] Yeah.
Nicholas Rodriguez [00:23:46] For a midstream company, they could not get the gunk out of these things.
Rey Trevino [00:23:51] Oh, that’s. That’s important as can be.
Nicholas Rodriguez [00:23:55] That’s. That’s the. That’s the money machine.
Rey Trevino [00:23:57] Yeah, that’s it. Yeah.
Nicholas Rodriguez [00:23:58] That’s the cash register. So what we what we came up with was that if we use an extremely harsh chemical on it, we use PAA on it, so it spins itself out, turns into vinegar. So it wasn’t real bad on the equipment and it was actually effective at getting the the meter clean. The issue was pumping it.
Nicholas Rodriguez [00:24:18] Right. How do we effectively and from a cost effective standpoint, how how do we come up with a rig that can get to where these meters are because they’re out in the middle of nowhere? Right. So you can’t get a tractor truck out there.
Nicholas Rodriguez [00:24:31] So how do we how do we get the fluid into the meter under a little bit of pressure because the pipeline is under a little bit of pressure. So we came up with a basically a compression device. No pump needed that. Got it in. So we like to just we’re not going to pigeonhole ourselves. We’re going to come you have a problem. We’re going to figure out how to fix it. Yeah.
Rey Trevino [00:24:51] I like that. Well Breanna , okay, somebody comes to you with a problem because you are, again, the guru of the sales development woman out there. And thank you. I know you actually are in Midland because y’all are so busy right now that you couldn’t come up to Fort Worth. It was either that or Chad said something about, you know, that you required too much, you were being too much of a diva or something like that. Just. Just too much.
Rey Trevino [00:25:13] So. Something about some something about you had to require only green Eminem’s. And. And I didn’t understand it, but. But no. So somebody comes to you with an issue like, let’s go through the process. You get that phone call from a brand new customer. What are you doing?
Breanna Johnson [00:25:30] Well, I definitely rely a lot on our our tech guys. We have a team of guys who have over 100 years of chemical experience between all of them. And I know I drive them nuts. I called one of them last night at 8:00 at night trying to hang out with his family.
Breanna Johnson [00:25:50] And I was out to dinner and met a superintendent for a very large production company, made a contact with him and became friends with them. And I’m calling Jeremy, who is our corrosion man. That’s what I refer to him as. And, you know, picked his brain. So I, I try not to ever say no or we can’t do that or I don’t know.
Breanna Johnson [00:26:17] Before I’m going to give a answer to somebody, a yes or no, we can’t do that. I make the phone calls. I see if it’s possible. We do the research. And one thing is we try not to say. We try not to say no. One thing about KD is we’re going to come out and look at it and if we can take care of you, we’re definitely going to try.
Rey Trevino [00:26:38] So, well, first of all, shout out to Jeremy and all the rest of you tech guys out there, and I’m sorry that you had that. He got a phone call 8:00 at night. I bet he thought it was an emergency. But but that’s awesome, though.
Rey Trevino [00:26:51] But you said it also out there in Midland and here I’m talking about that 60 day stuff because I just don’t agree with it as an operator myself. But it is important those those relationships, those networks are very.
Nicholas Rodriguez [00:27:04] Extremely important.
Rey Trevino [00:27:06] My good friend JP Warren, I mean, he’s he’s been out he does his own little show called The Connection Crew shouts JP real quick. But he’s out now really talking about how your network is your net worth.
Nicholas Rodriguez [00:27:18] That’s right.
Rey Trevino [00:27:19] So, you know, in what you’re doing for CDX right now is just continuing to build that. But let’s talk real quick. You know, again, you have that health, that HFC background and you guys are striving to be more environmentally conscious, if I’m correct.
Rey Trevino [00:27:34] So what are you doing out there and what are you telling people about how CDX and I’m going to ask you the same thing here in a second, but it’s like, what are you doing? And how are you telling people about, you know, about how you all are being environmentally conscious? BREE.
Breanna Johnson [00:27:49] So I not to correct you, but I do not have an SD background.
Nicholas Rodriguez [00:27:54] Oh, I’m sorry. I thought you did.
Breanna Johnson [00:27:57] Now, so my background is actually I went to school for business and finance, and when I was in college, I waited tables through school to support myself and took that that finance degree. I have it. But during college, I realized my niche was people.
Breanna Johnson [00:28:17] I will say one of my skill sets. I’m very good at reading a room, reading a person and building in connection with them. And I thought to myself, You know, I have this degree and I feel like it has helped me to learn about business and to have those skill sets. But I’m going to try sales.
Breanna Johnson [00:28:37] And right after college I had my first sales job and entry level sales job being so boring. I did pretty well at that. And then I moved into manufacturing, worked for a manufacturing company that built tanks and enclosures for for large projects, for hospitals, for water treatment plants.
Breanna Johnson [00:29:01] We built around that generator, did well, built up a network, and then it kind of transitioned me into oil and gas. So I would say my background is Sales over HSV.
Rey Trevino [00:29:13] I gotcha. Okay. I again, I apologize. I don’t know where where I got the HSC from.
Nicholas Rodriguez [00:29:18] Chaz background.
Rey Trevino [00:29:19] I know Chad’s is. I mean, that that’s where he came from, if I’m correct. Right. And he was with one of the bigger boys.
Nicholas Rodriguez [00:29:26] Yeah. Philips.
Rey Trevino [00:29:28] Philips Yeah, Yeah, that’s right. And so I know he’s no slouch, but, you know, talking about the environment right now. Okay. You know, Bree rolled her eyes a few minutes ago. We talked about ESG,.
Nicholas Rodriguez [00:29:40] It might have been an acident
Rey Trevino [00:29:41] Everybody. But yeah, but it’s like, you know. It’s such a hard word, but. So what are you guys doing to say, Hey, man, we’re environmentally conscious? Cause I know you like to talk about that.
Nicholas Rodriguez [00:29:51] Yeah. So, I mean, we we have been developing what you would consider to be environmentally friendly chemistries for downhole applications and water applications. Our opinion is that and that’s a complicated conversation to have, because typically you talk to somebody. No, I just want the conventional give me the bad stuff. Yeah, that’s what works, right?
Nicholas Rodriguez [00:30:14] Because historically, environmentally friendly or green acid, anything that is things of this nature don’t work as well and are not as cost effective as the the old way of doing things. But I mean, you’re talking about paraffin.
Nicholas Rodriguez [00:30:29] Is that a result of of treatment downhole that’s coming back to bite us? I mean, I don’t know I don’t know the answers to these things are. But are there things happening downhole because of these old school ways of doing things that are coming back around. I mean, H2S? Yeah. That didn’t just we didn’t just hit a magic pocket down home that started producing H2S.
Rey Trevino [00:30:50] That’s right.
Nicholas Rodriguez [00:30:50] There’s a reason why we’re having these issues. So our opinion is if we can find a cost effective, efficacious version of environmentally conscious chemistries, then why would we not do that? You know, so we’ve been going down the R&D rabbit hole with that for quite some time.
Rey Trevino [00:31:07] And that’s awesome. That was another reason, again, so many reasons why one of the CDX Synergy can come on, Nic. And it’s important that you know what the earth is darn right important to.
Nicholas Rodriguez [00:31:18] Oh, yeah,.
Rey Trevino [00:31:18] Mother Nature is important and we do. I like to consider myself old school sometimes. God knows my father’s very old school.
Nicholas Rodriguez [00:31:25] You have to be sometimes.
Rey Trevino [00:31:26] You do, you do and with him, his background was actually software. So technology. And it’s always evolving. Sure. So I think that’s why he’s always at least kept an open mind about new technologies or new ways.
Nicholas Rodriguez [00:31:40] New methods. Yeah.
Rey Trevino [00:31:41] And and so with it being more environmentally conscious because, hey, I know that we’re showing stuff down the hall, That’s okay. Well, if we can do something that actually gets us our product back, if if it clears up and gives us even back better production numbers than we had, but also then doesn’t hurt Mother Earth, that’s a super win.
Nicholas Rodriguez [00:32:04] It’s a win win.
Rey Trevino [00:32:05] Because, I mean, I don’t know about you, but hey, we enjoy the outdoors. Oh, yeah, Yeah, absolutely. And I don’t want it to go away. Sure. So we’re going to do everything that we can. And so that’s why, you know, I would say that you guys are definitely doing your part and going green the best way possible.
Nicholas Rodriguez [00:32:20] We Are trying to.
Rey Trevino [00:32:21] Guess, you know. Sure. So thank you guys very, very much for that Bree. When people are trying to get a hold of you, what’s the best way that they can get a hold of you?
Rey Trevino [00:32:33] So.
Breanna Johnson [00:32:33] Well, so I am very if people don’t have my cell phone number email, I live on LinkedIn. I if my computer is open, my LinkedIn open. I do a most of my connections that I do make. If I don’t make them in person, then I make them through LinkedIn.
Breanna Johnson [00:32:54] So that’s why I have tried to put myself a lot on there because I know I share I share on our LinkedIn page. The CDX page make it apparent if you are interested in working with us or or what have you, There’s an issue that you think we could handle. You know, I’m always message me. I will message you right back or what have you so.
Rey Trevino [00:33:21] All right. And then Nick, you know, I know that finally when the last question went, when oil prices shot back up to go, our service companies actually raised prices.
Nicholas Rodriguez [00:33:34] Most of them did. Yeah. Yeah.
Rey Trevino [00:33:36] And now oil’s back down. I think we’re flirting with 80. Maybe. Hopefully. I know we were at 77,78 yesterday. Where do you see service companies and pricing going here for 2023? I need to know this is the.
Nicholas Rodriguez [00:33:50] Yeah. And it well, I mean what Goldman put out something yesterday saying they thought it was going back to 100 and stay in there until after 24 because the shortages that are coming on are awesome.
Nicholas Rodriguez [00:34:00] So, I mean, you know, it probably depends on the service in our version of service. Like I said, my background is in completion. So I like being a service company, not just a chemical company.
Nicholas Rodriguez [00:34:15] Our actual products, we have to have a margin built in. We keep that as competitive as possible and we communicate to our customers. It revolves directly around what the cost of goods are because we manufacture our own chemicals.
Nicholas Rodriguez [00:34:29] So if our cost of goods goes up, we have to go up. If cost of goods go down, we come down. So. The cost of our service is very much predicated on cost of goods, which is predicated on what are what are the real world applications that are happening. Right.
Nicholas Rodriguez [00:34:46] Like we were trying to buy zinc based products a while back and it was like, well, if we’re going to buy several tankers of this stuff, shouldn’t the price come down? And was like, Well, the construction industry is using all of it so we don’t have to lower our price for this. so what can you do? You know, So.
Rey Trevino [00:35:02] I feel like it’s such a catch because I know that service companies for so long kept everything so low. And which as an operator, love it. I’m happy. Loved it. But you know, that business out of me knows that you guys were thin.
Nicholas Rodriguez [00:35:17] You got it
Rey Trevino [00:35:17] Now. Now prices went up. You all went up. And I’m like, okay, so what I’m afraid of as an operator is when we hit 100 because I’ve been on record and I’ll stay this way at least for another month, but I think we’re going to average $100 oil for 2023.
Nicholas Rodriguez [00:35:30] Okay.
Rey Trevino [00:35:30] And and right now, you know, that means that you’re probably within the next three months we’ll be over $100. And I think as we get into the summer months, we may see that.
Nicholas Rodriguez [00:35:40] You’ll see service companies trying to raise price. We don’t do that. So we operate more along the lines. Like I said, we we directly related to cost of goods and then we communicate that to our customers. Hey, our cost of goods are this right?
Nicholas Rodriguez [00:35:53] So we have to we have to be able to compete with, you know, on our service portions of stuff. We just we’ll just fire off flat day rate that we know is competitive, basically just covers the guys. We’re where our real margins are built into our products because our focus is is getting product on your facility or on on your well.
Rey Trevino [00:36:15] And you can be not only at a facility but again you do unconventional individual anything pipeline
Nicholas Rodriguez [00:36:22] I’ll work I, I personally like to work on the water stuff from.
Rey Trevino [00:36:26] OCD as.
Nicholas Rodriguez [00:36:26] Well. Yeah we we you know my my purview is mainly water right. I like the water stuff. I have my vision for what For treating produced water is that someday I think that there will be a method for cleaning it to the extent that we can discharge it on agriculture.
Nicholas Rodriguez [00:36:43] So I would really like to get to that point. That’s that’s kind of my vision for where we’re going to we’re going to we will develop in conjunction with the mechanical process and a chemical process, a way to clean produce water to the extent that we can use it for something outside the office.
Rey Trevino [00:36:59] That will be huge.
Nicholas Rodriguez [00:37:00] Yes,.
Rey Trevino [00:37:00] that will be huge.
Nicholas Rodriguez [00:37:01] But that’s the vision. That’s what I deal with. And that’s in Chad. We’re both that’s kind of our vision for what we would like to do. Our guys, you know, like like Bri talked about, we are our main tech team, wealth of knowledge. I mean, these guys can work on anything. They’re extremely solutions oriented. So there’s not a problem these guys can’t fix. So if it’s on your wellhead, they’ll fix it. If it’s downhole, they’ll fix it. If it’s in a pipeline, they’ll fix it. So. It’s not a facility. It’s integrity issues.
Rey Trevino [00:37:34] You got it.
Nicholas Rodriguez [00:37:34] We got it. All right. You need a picking crew. We’ll send a guy.
Rey Trevino [00:37:38] Well, Nick, you know I cannot thank you guys enough for coming on. I know I just asked you about. Hey, how to, you know, how can people get a hold of you with CDX synergy? Do you have any last parting words or anything like that that you’d like to share? And then I got to give it to the man in charge after that. But do you have anything you’d like to share?
Breanna Johnson [00:37:58] Well, I will say, and I’ve been planning on saying this, something that I am very, very proud of, with CDX is Nick and Chad have definitely cultivated a work environment where each of us know what everyone is really good at.
Breanna Johnson [00:38:16] Everyone knows what each other’s skill set is and I think that that is what makes our company different and stick out because, as you know, there are there are so many chemical companies out there. Of course, every time I try to reach out to a contact or make a new relationship, yeah, of course they have. You know, they have a chemical company they’re using.
Breanna Johnson [00:38:39] But I think that what sets us apart is we we really want to take care of the customer and the fact that we can all come together and and everyone knows what each other’s skillsets are. I just think it’s a very well-oiled machine, as you can say. And I think that’s what’s going to, you know, set us apart and help us grow and take us to another level. So.
Rey Trevino [00:39:02] Okay. Well, thank you. And Nick, nice to hear that. Very nice to hear that. I would say yeah.
Nicholas Rodriguez [00:39:10] Yeah, yeah.
Rey Trevino [00:39:13] Nick, where are you from? As you know? No, that’s right. Debbie knew about you.
Rey Trevino [00:39:20] Nailed it. Nailed it.
Breanna Johnson [00:39:22] Credit bureaus.
Nicholas Rodriguez [00:39:23] Got it. There might be a comma in this one.
Rey Trevino [00:39:26] Oh, is that recorded? You heard it, right.
Breanna Johnson [00:39:33] Just kidding.
Rey Trevino [00:39:38] Oh, man. Will. Nick, how can people get a hold of you? I know that you’ve got a crew of technical people of of guys on the ground, you know, troops on the ground, boots on the ground. And you’ve got really out there doing what she needs to do to continue to grow CDX, which again, CDX Synergy is one heck of a chemical company I appreciate. But, you know, look, you know, how can people get a hold of you?
Nicholas Rodriguez [00:40:00] I’m also on LinkedIn. My emails pretty easy. First initial, last name at Intercom, so I know I’m pretty good at responding to emails. If I respond to your email or cell phones on there server, then you have me. So there you go.
Rey Trevino [00:40:15] There’s a hook, right?
Nicholas Rodriguez [00:40:16] Yeah, that’s right.
Rey Trevino [00:40:17] That’s how to get a hold. Well, again, I want to thank you very, very much for coming on what you’re doing. And your products are second to none, that you guys are not only getting the job done to help producers produce their oil, try and fix problems down all or get the oil out of the ground the first time, which are also doing it in environmental, environmentally friendly way. Yeah, and I think everybody out there can agree that that’s an awesome thing.
Nicholas Rodriguez [00:40:46] I appreciate.
Rey Trevino [00:40:46] It. So so thank you very much for coming on the Crude Truth.
Nicholas Rodriguez [00:40:49] My pleasure thanks for the invite.
Rey Trevino [00:40:50] Thank you. Well, that’s it on this episode of The Crude Truth. We’ll talk to you next time.
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