Iron Mountain® Incorporated (NYSE: IRM), the storage and information management company, today introduced a new storage and information management offering for drill core samples used by the oil and gas industry. Called the Geological Core Storage Solution, this comprehensive offering delivers specialized storage and access capabilities designed to maintain the integrity of these samples while ensuring they remain securely protected and private. Additionally, the company is opening its first, dedicated U.S. drill core facility in the Houston, Texas area; Iron Mountain has three other core storage locations in Canada, Norway and the United Kingdom, respectively.

With the demand for fossil fuel energy on the rise, the necessity for more accurate methods of locating these deposits has increased. As the only direct source of subsurface information, geological core samples and cuttings are critical to oil and gas exploration and production. The historical information gained from core samples can confirm other geological and topographical data, allowing for better decision-making to identify drilling targets and, eventually, faster time to profit from drilling.

“Iron Mountain is bringing this solution to market at a time when core samples have never been more valuable for the oil and gas industry,” said Chirag Rathi, principal consultant, Energy and Environment for Frost & Sullivan. “Exploration and production businesses routinely outsource non-core activities as a strategy to reduce costs, increase efficiencies and access expert skill sets. Leveraging the expertise of a third party, like Iron Mountain, for drill core storage solutions is aligned to the outsourcing strategy of the operators. It ensures safety, security and easy access for a company’s drill core samples while providing predictable operating costs, eliminating the need for additional capital investment and enabling skilled specialists such as geo-technicians to focus on their primary job function of analysis instead of storage management of drill core samples.

Iron Mountain’s Geological Core Storage solution offers several benefits and services along with secure storage, including indexing for drill core and cuttings and layout and repacking of core samples when viewing. Leveraging best practices for storage and preservation and the company’s unrivaled chain of custody, Iron Mountain can support processes for core inspections and standard sample retrievals. Its purpose-built core storage facilities offer secure temperature-controlled storage; heavy-duty racking; special layout tables; and full spectrum lighting and equipment for proper, quick viewing. This combination of technology, proven practices and services helps oil and gas customers optimize and streamline their work, allowing them to derive the value from their existing assets and to focus on analysis and the growth of their business.

“Maintaining and storing core samples provides an important data source for critical analysis in petroleum exploration and production,” said Vickie Malis, director of oil and gas product management, Iron Mountain. “Keeping them properly preserved and protected is time consuming and costly for oil and gas companies to do themselves. Our solution can go a long way toward meeting their needs for quick and easy access to their core samples while also freeing their skilled employees to focus on analysis and recommendations. With our 30-year track record in the oil and gas industry and nearly two million cubic feet of core assets being stored worldwide, we’re able to unlock incredible value for our customers and provide them with the peace of mind of knowing their assets are preserved, private and protected.”

New Houston (TX)-area Facility
Iron Mountain will host an open house at the new Houston-area facility, located in Tidwell, Texas (just 10 miles from Houston’s “Energy Corridor”), on April 1. Included in the open house will be a tour of the new facility, showcasing:

  • 200,000 cubic feet of storage
  • 1400+ square feet of viewing labs
  • 145 feet of custom-made steel tables for core sample layout and inspection
  • Available technology – handheld and table microscopes with iPads for image display, an ultraviolet chromatoview unit, and 3MB wireless access.

Those interested in attending the open house and exclusive tour can register at www.ironmountain.com/core-storage. And for more information about Iron Mountain’s Core Storage offering, please visit www.ironmountain.com/Solutions/Energy-Records-Management/Geological-Core-Storage.aspx.

About Iron Mountain
Iron Mountain Incorporated (NYSE: IRM) is a leading provider of storage and information management services. The company’s real estate network of over 67 million square feet across more than 1,000 facilities in 36 countries allows it to serve customers with speed and accuracy. And its solutions for records management, data management, document management, and secure shredding help organizations to lower storage costs, comply with regulations, recover from disaster, and better use their information for business advantage. Founded in 1951, Iron Mountain stores and protects billions of information assets, including business documents, backup tapes, electronic files and medical data. Visit www.ironmountain.com for more information.