Feb 25, 2019 4 min read

Josh Roberts and Tanner Bechtel launched Earth Pipeline Services Inc. in 2012, when the oil and natural gas industry was gaining momentum across the tri-state. Their company specializes in midstream operations, specifically right-of-way acquisition and landowner specific construction services.

Earth Pipeline Services has followed the same roller coaster as oil and gas over the past decade: rapid growth, a leveling off, an ongoing rebound. Overall, though, the firm has done well. “We’ve doubled in size,” said Roberts, chief executive officer of the Southpointe-based operation.

He was beaming when he said that, but is equally proud of the corporate mission — which is reflected at front of the company label.

“Our focus is on doing things the right way,” Roberts said. “We focus on the environmental side and try to have a different standard for environmental compliance. We know how to put the land back the way it should be and make it better when finished.”

Roberts, and Earth Pipeline Services, are getting a lot of support in that endeavor. He also heads The Earth Group, an umbrella organization that oversees five companies that work together and exist together at 135 Technology Drive. It provides financial backing, legal support, accounting, payroll services and guidance for Earth Pipeline Services, as well as Timberland Construction, BlueStar USA Pipeline, Earthland Services, USA Field Services.

An estimated 100 to 125 are working with these five enterprises, which are operating in separate suites on the fourth floor of the Bailey II building, one of the initial structures in a park that opened in 1993. The president of each also serves on The Earth Group board.

“All five had been on first floor and moved to this floor in July,” Roberts said.  “That was a big deal for us.”

If it seems that these five companies are taking over their building, well, in a way, they are. The umbrella group has secured naming rights, and sometime soon, is expected to have its identity emblazoned on the exterior.

Roberts, 35, of Rosslyn Farms, said these five firms work with a number of companies, the majority in the tri-state area. “EQT and Columbia are big customers,” he said. “We also work with MarkWest, Williams and Equitrans (EQT). We were with Rice Energy (a former Southpointe tenant that merged with EQT).”

Other clients include Trans Canada, Energy Transfer and Sunoco.

Teamwork, Roberts assures, is integral to this group’s operations.

“We’re very entrepreneur-based,” he said. “We’ve headhunted and researched all five companies. I can’t say enough about how important partners are. We have a lot of young people who believed in us enough to leave successful jobs to come here. That says a lot about them.”

Alisa Lerman, chief legal counsel for group, has been with Earth Pipeline Services since almost the beginning. She echoes those sentiments.

“We are like a family here,” said Lerman, who resides in Regent Square. “We have a foundation built on people. We have a great group of individuals who bring great knowledge and expertise, a different perspective.” 

Roberts is a transplant with roots far from here. He has spent much of his life in the Kansas City, Mo., area, where — as is evident in his office — he became a Chiefs aficionado. He has a framed jersey of Patrick Mahomes, the wunderkind K.C. quarterback who was recently voted the National Football League’s Most Valuable Player.

A University of Missouri graduate, Roberts is married to a chef, Lauren, who has a retail store on ebay. They have a 14-month-old daughter, Quinn.

He realizes he is in an industry that can be polarizing, that a number of people are wary of the potential environmental and safety hazards of pipelines, the development of which have sparked lawsuits and construction stoppages. A natural gas pipeline exploded in Beaver County in September, causing no injuries but prompting home evacuations.

Roberts, however, is a staunch advocate.

“Pipelines are a little different,” he said. “They are safer than transporting by rail. People worry about pipelines, but many don’t know that during their 15- to 20-minute drive to work, they are passing over hundreds of them.”

He is pleased with the placement of his company, and its four partner firms, in the industry, and where they are located — Southpointe, which he calls “ground zero in the Northeast for oil and gas.” Roberts has great expectations.

So does his colleague, Lerman. “We’re proud of what we’ve accomplished,” she said, “and what we intend to accomplish.”