Cathedral Holdings Inc., a U.S.-based specialty chemical distribution group, has opened a new 5,000-square-foot technical lab and office facility in The Woodlands, Texas. While the space will support multiple specialty chemical companies under Cathedral’s umbrella, it will serve as the official headquarters for Centrium Energy Solutions, the group’s newly launched oil and gas company. The new facilities are designed to advance Centrium’s mission to reshore oilfield chemical sourcing, accelerate product development and deliver top field performance.
The new facility brings together operational offices, formulation experts and a dedicated performance lab—enabling faster, field-ready chemical solutions and real-time technical support under one roof. Centrium will use the facility to provide rapid answers and reliable results to oil and gas companies of all sizes — with the same pricing power typically reserved for Tier 1 players.
“This isn’t just another chemical supplier office,” said Jonathan Rogers, General Manager of Centrium Energy Solutions. “It’s where oilfield service providers regain control. We’ve taken Cathedral’s proven model from other performance-critical sectors—like personal care and industrial—and tailored it to the realities of upstream and midstream oil and gas.”
In-house oilfield lab
At the core of the new headquarters is Centrium’s state-of-the-art technical lab, built to solve the challenges of traditional oilfield chemical distribution: unreliable formulation support, off-spec field performance and long timelines to validate chemistry.
The Centrium lab enables oilfield service providers to:
Replicate field conditions to test product fit before deployment
Eliminate trial-and-error by dialing in formulation specs using real crude and brine samples
Speed up product development with accelerated stability and compatibility testing
Oil and gas testing capabilities include:
Corrosion inhibition testing (RCE, LPR, digital microscopy)
Wax inhibition testing (cold finger)
Phase behavior and surfactant profiling (contact angle, IFT, emulsion stability)
Custom formulation support and design (freeze-thaw, pH, viscosity and thermal evaluations)
“This lab isn’t just for quality control; it’s for getting oilfield service providers the best product fit faster—with science, not guesswork,” said Tom Fenderson, Centrium’s director of technical services. “Our lab capabilities help customers avoid downtime, reduce reformulation cycles and win more business with performance.”
