Overview:

Mammoth’s Work Rebuilding Puerto Rico

In September 2017, Puerto Rico and the island’s power grid were ravished by category 5 Hurricane Maria.

Mammoth Energy Services, Inc. (Mammoth), through its wholly owned subsidiary Cobra Acquisitions LLC (Cobra), made a proposal to do restoration work to help restore power to Puerto Rico’s grid. This solicitation was reviewed and accepted by the Puerto Rico Electric Power Authority (PREPA) and Cobra was awarded an initial $200 million reconstruction contract in 2017.

Through five separate amendments to the original contract, the aggregate contract amount was eventually increased to $945 million. A second contract, in the amount of up to $900 million, was awarded to Cobra by PREPA in May 2018 in response to a Request For Proposals (RFP) process.

Cobra’s work entailed repairing the electrical grid in Puerto Rico in an extraordinarily challenging environment. The Island was without power; critical infrastructure, including roads and bridges, had been destroyed or severely damaged; housing was not available for the numerous workers needed to undertake repair work; and there were many other obstacles to the work to be performed by Cobra.

Despite these extreme difficulties, Cobra mobilized and delivered a large workforce, arranged for the delivery of heavy equipment to the Island, and otherwise undertook a herculean effort to perform the work it had contracted to provide.

As part of its efforts, Cobra obtained and transported to Puerto Rico offshore housing for its personnel so that it did not add an additional burden to the already challenging circumstances on the Island. Within 7 days following the initial contract award, Cobra had an advance crew of approximately 35 employees on site in Puerto Rico. Approximately 30 days later more than 600 Cobra employees were engaged in providing critical work.

Mark Merritt, the former FEMA consultant to Puerto Rico, had the following to say about Cobra’s work, “Restoring the power grid in Puerto Rico was uniquely challenging, as the terrain on the Island includes steep mountains and triple- canopy jungles, among other obstacles. Transmission restoration work, including potentially the installation of new transmission towers, required helicopters. Cobra, which brought its own helicopters and pilots, was very effective at performing its work under difficult circumstances.”

Cobra successfully completed its work under the contracts in March, 2019. Indeed, Cobra’s work has withstood two hurricanes that hit Puerto Rico since 2018. Nevertheless, as of January 1, 2021, Mammoth, through its subsidiary Cobra Acquisitions LLC, is owed over $300 million ($227 million for services and an additional $74 million in contractually owed interest charges) for work it completed years ago.

Four years after the category 5 Hurricane Maria hit Puerto Rico leaving it without electrical power, Oklahoma City’s Mammoth Energy Services remains to be paid hundreds of millions of dollars for the power restoration work it performed in the aftermath. The country refuses to pay.