Mark Albrecht, project manager for Emmert International, said his firm considered other routes to move the huge coker drums from their manufacturer in Japan to ConocoPhillips' Billings, Mont. plant. "We knew that we were looking at something coming from overseas, so we looked at several of the riverports as well," he said. "Oklahoma was really our preferred area, and there is a hard obstruction there," Albrecht said. "The highest one there is 24 feet, and we could not get these loads down." He said Emmert concluded, "That this load, this size, cut in half ... for transport, that this was the only option."