Blueknight Energy Partners hangs on to Top 10 Oklahoma Inc. ranking
In its second-consecutive year landing within the Top 10 of the Oklahoma Inc. rankings, Blueknight Energy Partners saw a 458.1% change in earnings per share from 2020 to 2021.
Blueknight fell two places in the rankings — from 8 in 2020 to 10 in 2021 — but was one of three companies to remain in the Top 10 ranking from 2020, all while selling its crude oil business to become a purely asphalt terminalling company.
"With this sale, we can now give more attention toward expanding our core asphalt terminalling business that historically contributed approximately 80% of our operating margins but arguably received less focus due to the complexity of managing four operating segments at our size," said Chief Executive Officer Andy Woodward in a march call with investors.
The Tulsa-based company was founded in 2007 and owns and operates the largest independent asphalt storage network in the continental United States, with 8.7 million barrels of asphalt and residual fuel oil storage and 53 terminals across 26 states.
Prior to getting out of the crude oil business, part of the company's portfolio of assets were 6.9 million barrels of above-ground crude oil storage capacity, 604 miles of crude oil pipeline and 63 crude oil transportation vehicles deployed in Oklahoma and Texas.
In a May conference call with investors, Chief Financial Officer Matthew Lewis said the company's sale of its crude oil business in the first quarter of 2021 brought in $75.1 million. This sale also resulted in the consolidation of corporate office space by more than 50%, Lewis said in an August conference call.
The sale and savings associated with it are likely the reason that despite taking a hit in revenue with a 33.3% decrease from 2020 to 2021, Blueknight saw the third best profit growth of Oklahoma's publicly traded companies. In 2020, Blueknight brought in almost $170.4 million and profited $12.6 million, compared to 2021's revenue of $113.3 million and profit of $74.1 million.
The company also saw a 194.8% one year total return, a 20.4% return on average equity and had the best two-year total return with a 303.9% increase in stock prices from 2019 to 2021.
Woodward said looking forward, Blueknight is prioritizing its people as a catalyst for growth.
"Growth for us is not only about progress measured year-over-year, it's also about the promoting and instituting the right culture and organization to facilitate this growth," Woodward said. "We are actively engaging our people at all levels to establish a growth mindset and creating a collaborative and cross-functional approach to our business development activities."
Woodward said the company has four strategic aims that will help it become a leading terminalling business:
Attracting high-quality customers that stick around through "superior service and solutions."
Targeting quality, well-positioned assets that strengthen the existing network.
Maximizing value to all stakeholders through developing a mission-driven organization and culture.
Allocating capital to maximize risk adjusted return.
"We believe these 4 strategic aims, along with leveraging our core competencies and competitive advantages within asphalt will create the most value for our stakeholders over the long-term and lead to new market opportunities as we stay focused on the customer, identify their evolving needs, and ultimately position ourselves to best serve those needs over time," Woodward said.
This article originally appeared on Oklahoman: Blueknight Energy Partners lands at No. 10 in Oklahoma Inc. rankings
