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PIPELINE NEWSSaskatchewan’s Petroleum MonthlySaskatchewan’s Petroleum Monthly
Focus Edition
Downhole Tools
April 2009 FREE Volume 1 Issue 11
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Photo by Brian Zinchuk
$720 Million Deal Page B1 Lloydminster
Bonspiel Page C6
It’s all about jobs Page A20
CHECK OUT THE NEW OILFIELD EXCHANGE C27
PIPELINE NEWS April 2009A2
NewsNotes
Saskatchewan’s airwaves were abuzz on March
4, when CNN.com ran a good news story about Sas-
katchewan on its main page. For a brief time on that
day, it was one of the most popular stories on one of the
world’s premier news websites.
Th e story highlighted Saskatchewan’s economic
strength, noting that unemployment had dropped in
this province when all other provinces have seen it
rise.
Th e story also made a point of highlighting the
Bakken oil play and carbon dioxide sequestration.
Th e story can be found at: http://www.cnn.
com/2009/WORLD/americas/03/04/saskatchewan.
economy/index.html
Harvest Energy Trust will be holding off on south-
east Saskatchewan right now, and instead be focusing
on Alberta properties according to John Zahary, presi-
dent and chief executive offi cer.
Th e trust has elected to defer capital spending on
some projects future periods with better prices. Up-
stream capital spending will be reduced to $170 mil-
lion, down from $260 million, resulting in forecast
production of 50,000 bbls of oil equivalent per day,
down 11% from 56,000 BOE a day in 2008.
Th e focus will be on the tie-in of some of Har-
vest’s high productivity natural gas wells in central Al-
berta, completions and tie-ins at Hay River and some
EOR activities which will be economic even at current
prices, said Zahary. Although the southeast Saskatch-
ewan light oil horizontal projects are economic at to-
day’s prices, the trust will be hold off on those for now,
along with gas and light oil opportunities in the Red
Earth/Peace River area, he said.
Harvest holds off on SE Sask
CNN takes notice
NuVista Energy Ltd. entered an agreement
to purchase approximately 1,600 BOE per day
of production, primarily in the Ferrier/Sunchild,
Wapiti and northwest Saskatchewan core areas
for about $55 million. Th is acquisition closed on
Jan. 29, 2009.
Nu Vista buys in NW
By Brian Zinchuk
Pipeline News
Regina – Th e provincial
government’s 2009 budget proj-
ects oil priced to average $48.75
per barrel for WTI oil for this
fi scal year. Last year the prov-
ince budgeted $82.36 per barrel.
Land sales are also expected to
nosedive, both in volume and in
dollars per hectare.
Th e $48.75 is derived from an
expected $45 per barrel in 2008,
and $60 per barrel in 2010.
At that rate, the March 18
budget expects $573.1 million
in total oil revenue. Th at’s down
from $1.488 billion from oil for
2008-2009.
For natural gas, the province
is projected revenues of $102.2
million at a rate of $6.25 per
gigajoule in 2009 and $7 in 2010.
Coincidentally, oil on budget
day closed at $48.14 per barrel.
Crown land sales for this year
are projected at $127.8 million,
down from $192.5 billion bud-
geted and $928.1 million real-
ized last year. While the average
price per hectare for land came in
at $1,289 in 2008-2009, that’ is
expected to drop by over three-
quarters to $300 a hectare for
2009-2010
Drilling for oil in 2009 is
expected to drop to just above
2005 levels, around the 2,100
well range, before coming back
up to around 2,250 in 2010. Th at
would put drilling activity in 2010
close to 2006 and 2007 levels, but
behind 2008.
Natural gas wells are fore-
cast to drop to around 1,000
from around 1,200 in 2008. In
2010, the province is predicting a
further drop in natural gas drill-
ing to around the 800 well range,
despite a projected rise in natural
gas prices.
Boyd conservative Energy and Resources Min-
ister Bill Boyd noted they have
taken an average of a wide rang-
ing analysis, and actually lowered
what number it came up with for
an estimated oil price.
“We think it is a very con-
servative number, a number we’re
comfortable with,” he said after
the budget was tabled.
Th at number is a less than
half of what was realized in 2008,
with an average of $99.65 per
barrel.
Th at also accounts for oil’s
slide from expected top performer
to second fi ddle in expected non-
renewable resource revenue. Last
year, the province expected $352.6
million from potash, and got $1.5
billion. Th is year, it’s expecting
$1.926 billion from potash. Pot-
ash actually beat out oil revenues
last year by $11.2 million, but that
doesn’t include the $928.1 million
in crown land sales.
Province predicts
$48.75Oil
FISCAL-YEAR NON-RENEWABLE RESOURCE FORECAST ASSUMPTIONS
The provincial budget forecasts less drilling, particularly for natu-ral gas, in 2009-2010, combined with lower prices for oil and natu-ral gas.
Prairie Mud Service“Serving Western Canada With 24 Hour Drilling Mud Service”
Environmental Division - Darwin Frehlick - Cell: 421-0491
JIM MERKLEY
Cell: 483-7633
WAYNE HEINEstevan, Sask.Cell: 421-9555
IAN SCOTTOxbow, Sask.Cell: 421-6662
JAMIE HANNA
Cell: 421-2435
GERALD SMITH
Cell: 421-2408
Calgary Sales Of ce: Tel: 403-237-7323 Fax: 403-263-7355
Chuck Haines, Technical SalesCell: 403-860-4660
Head Of ce:Estevan, Sask.
Tel: 634-3411 Fax: 634-6694Ray Frehlick, Manager
Cell: 421-1880Ken Harder
Warehouse ManagerCell: 421-0101
JASON LINGCarlyle, Sask.Cell: 421-2683
CHADSTEWART
Cell: 421-5198
Swift Current Warehouse:Derek Klassen - Cell: 306-741-2447
Kindersley Warehouse:Len Jupe - Cell: 306-463-7632
Lacombe Warehouse:Darcy Day Day - Cell: 403-597-6694
Mud Technicians
PIPELINE NEWS April 2009 A3
NewsNotes
In late March, Evraz laid off 75 more staff at its
Regina steel mill, formerly known as Ipsco. Th is follows
more than 100 laid off in January.
Th e company will reduce its shifts from four to three,
running fi ve days a week instead of seven, according to
Greg Maindonald, vice president and general manager
of Regina Evraz Steel. Th e cutbacks are related to oil and
gas drilling, he said.
Th e company is a leading supplier of tubulars and
steel for the Saskatchewan oilpatch.
On March 2, 2009, TriStar Oil and Gas Ltd. com-
pleted the acquisition of a private southeast Saskatch-
ewan company through the issuance of approximately
2.5 million shares and payment of $8.6 million of cash,
including the assumption of the private company's net
debt. Th e acquisition included 550 barrels per day of light
oil production and an operated production facility within
TriStar's Bakken focus area with 2.0 mmBoe of associated
proven plus probable reserves based on TriStar's internal
reserves estimates. Th e private company lands also include
10 net sections of prospective Bakken lands upon which
Tristar has identifi ed 32 net additional drilling locations.
Th e acquisition comes at the same time TriStar worked
out a mammoth deal with Talisman Energy Canada
and Crescent Point Energy Trust on Talisman’s south-
east Saskatchewan properties. In 2008, TriStar picked up
Kinwest Corporation, Bulldog Resources Inc. and Arista
Energy Limited.
Pearl Exploration and Production Ltd is continuing
its cyclic steam stimulation (CSS) at Onion Lake, a core
heavy oil property in Saskatchewan, near Lloydminster.
Pearl last year produced an average of 2,274 BOE a day
from 50 wells on the property. Pearl has an 87.5% to
100% working interest in 41 sections of land.
Pearl initiated two single-well pilots at Onion Lake
in 2008. Positive results were achieved from both pilots.
Each well topped 200 bbls of oil a day.
Th e second CSS cycle is expected to be completed
by the end of March and the company will use the infor-
mation to make a decision on development of a commer-
cial CSS project. Besides the potential CSS projects the
company said it has the potential for 100 conventional
development locations at Onion Lake.
Evraz lays off more
Tristar picks up private company
Pearl expects second CSS cycle results
By Brian ZinchukMedicine Hat – One
of the most vocal junior
producers in Saskatch-
ewan is taking a breather,
selling his company and
maybe spending some
time on his Harley.
Reece Energy Ex-
ploration Corp. is being
acquired by Penn West
Energy Trust in a paper
deal worth approximate-
ly $92.2 million, includ-
ing debt.
Lorne Swalm is
president of Reece and
largest shareholder, at
about 21 per cent, while
management staff hold
about four per cent.
Th e deal involves an
exchange of eight Re-
ece shares for one Penn
West Trust unit. Penn
West will reduce its 2009
capital program by $40
million, the debt it an-
ticipates it will assume
under the deal.
Based on 20 trad-
ing days leading up to
March 9, the exchange
places a valuation of
$1.39 per Reece share, a
50 per cent premium on
Reece’s closing price that
day. Reece is issuing ap-
proximately 4.6 million
trust units.
Th e deal is anticipat-
ed to close at the end of
April, provided there is
agreement of two-thirds
of Reece’s stockholders.
While the exchange
it’s a premium for right
now, that’s down from
the lofty heights the stock
had reached last June,
at over $4.50 a share, at
the time the price of oil
peaked.
“Th e [Saskatchewan
light oil] assets go very
nicely with what we al-
ready hold, so we felt it
would be a good move
to make, especially since
we are already in that
area,” according to Le-
anne Murphy, investor
relations analyst for Penn
West.
Reece may be based
in Medicine Hat, but all
of its production is in
Saskatchewan. Th eir core
production area at Dod-
sland, north of Kinders-
ley, where there are about
75 net wells between light
Viking oil and gas. Th ey
are also partnered with
Aldon Oil of Weyburn,
TriStar, Crescent Point,
Duce Oil and Renegade,
in holdings in the South-
east. “We bought quite a
bit of Bakken potential,”
Swalm says.
Reece also has lands
in the lower Shaunavon
play.
In total, Penn West
wil aquiare 2,100 BOE
production, with two
thirds to light oil and
one third in natural gas.
Th ere are 75,000 net un-
developed acres in the
deal.
As for the staff ,
Swalm says it will be up
to Penn West. “I suspect
some of the staff will go
over.”
But they don’t want
another president, so he’s
out.
Page A8
Reece acquired by PennWest
Reece Energy’s assets in west central, southeast and southwest Saskatch-ewan were a good t for Penn West Energy Trust, who is acquiring the ju-nior company in a $92.2 million paper deal. Here, Wayne Deschner checks out a well for Reece north of Kindersley last year. File Photo
Mission Statement:Pipeline News’ mission is to illuminate importance of Saskatchewan oil as an integral part of the province’s sense of community and to show the general public the strength and character of the industry’s people.
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PIPELINE NEWS April 2009A4 EDITORIAL
Editorial
After years of the high life, the Bang of the
Boom, the oilsands have taken a hell of a beating
over the past few months. Billions in projects that
were supposed to drive not only the Fort McMurray,
but Albertan and Canadian economies for the next
several years went up in smoke last fall after refi n-
ery after upgrader after expansion was cancelled or
postponed.
In one case, we’ve heard of a pipeline welder who
showed up to work one day, and was told everyone
was being sent home, except for a few welders. Th eir
job would be to cut up all the work they’ve done so
far, because the project was being put off and the
pipe wouldn’t be going in the ground. Th is welder,
however, got sent home, like so many others.
Th e projects have been canned or put off because
of precipitous drop in the price of oil, a heavy left
after a haymaker that has left the oilsands stunned.
Now, of all things, National Geographic has come
along to deliver the sucker punch that is going to
cause the oilsands to stagger to the mat.
Nothing like being beaten when you’re down.
Th e March edition of National Geographic (www.
nationalgeographic.com) delivers a crushing blow to
the oilsands’ glass jaw. In its stunning pictures, and a
sharply biased story, the piece refers to the Syncrude
and Suncor upgraders as “dark satanic mills.”
It’s going to be really hard to recover from a
blow like that. Basically, National Geographic de-
scribed the oilsands as the spawn of Satan.
Th e best counterpunch we’ve heard so far has
been CBC/Globe and Mail editorialist Rex Murphy.
In a whithering commentary you can fi nd at www.
cbc.ca/national/blog/video/rex_murphy/, (look for
the Feb. 27 edition) he points out that, “Getting oil
out of the ground has never been pretty. Getting
anything out of the ground has never been pretty. An
Living in caves ugly, tooopen wound on the fair bosom of Mother Nature could
be the caption of every single mine that has ever existed
on this earth.”
He goes on to explain “If we want to live the way we
do in the 21st century, and apparently we do. If we want
to have jobs, houses, hospitals, schools, universities, cars,
communications, a military, a transportation network,
getting stuff out to the ground, and fi nding energy to run
the world, is an absolutely necessary thing.”
For pretty much everything we do or have, including
producing National Geographic, Murphy makes the point,
“all the elements of which were harvested out of from
ugly mines, or out of deep black, sludgy wells, that people
sweated to build, and risked money to start.”
It’s like when Jack Layton fl ew over the Fort Mc-
Murray area and then pronounced judgement during the
last election. How did he fl y? What got him airborne? It
wasn’t fl apping his arms, although perhaps he could have
done it with hot air.
Th is is not to say that the oilsands, or oil industry,
is perfect. Th e oilsands needs to get up to snuff with the
rest of the industry, where reclamation actually means
putting things back the way they were, especially in the
surface mining operations that get all the pictures taken
of them.
In a manner, however, they already have. Th e impact
of in-situ recovery, a la Steam Assisted Gravity Drainage
(SAGD) is miniscule in comparison to displacing every
cubic meter of soil in a surface oilsands mine. In-situ
recovery is the wave of the future, and will keep our
economy rolling for years to come. Reclamation after an
in-situ operation is child’s play compared to cleaning up
a tailings pond.
Yes, easy oil is rapidly dwindling. Yes, operations like
heavy oil and oilsands are becoming necessary to fuel our
economy. And yes, sometimes it is not pretty.
But then again, neither was living in caves.
Opinion
PIPELINE NEWS April 2009 A5
Geoff Lee
Lee Side of Lloyd
PIPELINE NEWS INVITES OPPOSING VIEW POINTS. EDITORIALS AND LETTERS TO THE EDITOR WELCOME.
Email to: brian.zinchuk@sasktel.net
You don’t need one of those hand-held tricod-
er devices from Star Trek to find sources of life in
the oil and gas energy or the overall economy. All
you need to do is check the glum index. It works
like this. The gloomier the news in the media, the
closer we are to a major rebound.
The inverse is the happiness index. When the
media report the economy in terms of booms, like
they did last summer, you know the end is near.
Coincidentally, the stock market began to tank just
as the so-called boom was being called a boom.
Now, the stock market is being compared to
1929 so this is a good time to buy. Trust the gloom
index that stands at nine out of 10 with reporters
tripping over each other to put the worst possible
spin on the economy.
The words plunge and freefall are used almost
with a sense of delight to describe what is a sellers'
market on the stock market by large investment
players.
It was reported in March, that the U.S. GNP
shrank by a whopping (yes whopping) 6.2 per cent
in the waning months of 2008. Can recovery be
far behind given the verbal clues that signal the up
and down glum and happiness indices?
President Barack Obama’s economic stimulus
package has already sown the seeds of a recovery. A
little more sunshine and water are all that’s needed
for some of these seeds to start sprouting.
OPEC is cutting production and sooner than
later, the laws of supply and demand will kick up
prices.
In Canada, all of the major banks reported
profits in their last quarter and a panel of mining
experts from Bay Street was decidedly bullish on
commodity prices. There’s two rays of hope right
there.
Locally, oil and gas companies continue to ad-
vertise for new help and landlords, at least in the
Lloydminster area, where I am based, continue to
get calls asking about vacancies.
Another sign the worst may be over is expec-
tations. Most energy companies and pundits have
all come out and stated the second half of the year
will be better than first half. That in itself could be
a self-fulfilling prophecy.
There's a paradigm shift underway these days,
similar to how the Swiss watch makers who didn’t
think digital watches would ever catch on, and as a
result, their fortunes plummeted for years.
Maybe that’s what is really happening now.
Today, there’s a green shift underway and once
that catches on, the economy could soar again.
The greening of the oil and gas industry is al-
ready generating a lot of new jobs and technology
from the regulations that govern the environmen-
tal side of the industry.
Most of the oilsands deposits area in-situ and
the spinoffs from environmental protection are
endless. That can only mean good things not only
for the image of the industry but for the environ-
ment and the economy as well. Environmentalists
could turn out to be the industry’s best friend.
With Obama’s green energy policy, it ’s not one
form or energy over another. It greening the fos-
sil fuel industry while developing the renewable
energy field as well. Green is also the colour of
money.
Put away your tricoders. If you are feeling
glum lately, you know there is life in the economy
and in your own hopes and dreams. But don’t get
too happy. We know what happens then, eh?
Brian Zinchuk
From the top of
the pile
The glum index gives us reason to smile
It’s funny how the death of someone ‘important,’
like a B-list actress married to an A-list actor, can
get the national media to stand up and take notice.
On Mar. 20, the Globe and Mail realized that
Natasha Richardson, the unfortunate skier, died,
and there was no helicopter to help her if she had
needed it.
She spent 40 minutes in an ambulance getting
to the fi rst hospital, and another hour in an ambu-
lance to a trauma centre before being fl own to New
York.
In the end, she died.
Sounds pretty typical for anyone who lives and
works in the boonies, i.e. outside of Regina and Sas-
katoon. A local ambulance takes you in for stabili-
zation, and hopefully you’ll survive long enough to
make it to a trauma centre.
Th e ‘golden hour’ of treatment in rural Sas-
katchewan, where all the oilpatch, agriculture, for-
estry and mining jobs are, as well as most of the
highways, can be much, much longer. Indeed, unless
you bend the rules of physics, making it to a ma-
jor trauma centre in under an hour is pretty much
impossible by wheeled ambulance, especially if you
factor in dispatch times.
Th e Globe notes that British Columbia, Alberta,
Ontario and Nova Scotia have helicopter-based air
ambulances. Th e rest of the country, does not.
Th at’s beyond surprising. It’s shocking. A popu-
lation the size of Quebec does not have a helicopter
air ambulance? Th at’s ludicrous. Th e same can be
said for Saskatchewan, being as spread out as it is.
Indeed, I’ve had a family member that ended up
being transported by helicopter – after a motorcycle
accident in southern Alberta. In Saskatchewan, it
would have been by road, or airplane if absolutely
necessary.
Th e problem is, you can’t put down an airplane
beside an oil rig, or on a right-of-way, or highway.
You can’t land on a cutline, or beside a fl y-in fi shing
camp at the lake. You need to rely on ground trans-
port to move the patient to an airstrip.
Helicopter air ambulances are not new by any
stretch. In fact, one of the fi rst practical uses of heli-
copters was in the transportation of injured soldiers
during the Korean War, in the early 1950s. Th at’s
nearly 60 years ago. Back then, a wounded soldier
was strapped into a pod attached to a landing skid.
Remember M*A*S*H? Th at’s it.
Yet we here in Saskatchewan still have not got
around to getting our own helicopter air ambulanc-
es.
One of the diffi culties with medical dispatch is
locating just where the patient is. With GPS com-
monplace these days, built into cell phones (though
not active through SaskTel, yet), the chopper can
be told exactly where to go. A cheap program for
Garmin GPS units allows you to enter in land lo-
cations, and it will be translated into latitude and
longitude, meaning that any sign on a lease can be
a landmark.
Saskatchewan should have three air ambulance
bases – Regina for the south, Saskatoon for central,
and Prince Albert or La Ronge for the north. Each
of the base hospitals – North Battleford, Yorkton,
Swift Current, Estevan, Lloydminster, for example,
should have helipads added right away, in case the
patient can’t wait to make it to the tertiary hospi-
tals.
Th ankfully, the provincial government an-
nounced in February it is looking into helicopter
air ambulances. Th ey are working with Ontario’s air
ambulance provider in assessing the implications of
adding helicopters to Saskatchewan’s air ambulance
fl eet, according to a government press release.
Frankly, it’s a no-brainer. How many lives could
have been saved in the nearly 60 years since heli-
copters came to the fore in transporting medical pa-
tients? Th is is not rocket science. Order some birds,
build some helipads, get some people trained as
fl ight medics, and get it done.
Brian Zinchuk is editor of Pipeline News. He can be reached at brian.zinchuk@sasktel.net.
Waiting 60 years for air ambulance
PIPELINE NEWS April 2009A6
Oil Chat Bruce Penton, associate-editor with the Medicine Hat Daily News and syndicated columnist will be contributing a Q&A with in uential Canadian Petroleum personnel each month for Pipeline News.with Bruce Penton
Pipeline News: What’s been more fun for you, be-ing part of the Government of Saskatchewan or farm-ing as you did for fi ve years between 2002 and 2007?
Bill Boyd: I don’t know. Th ey’re very diff erent,
of course. Th e farm has been a lifelong business aff air
and a lifelong love, but being associated with a new
government and changing the direction of Saskatch-
ewan has always been a lifelong goal as well. I don't
know if you can compare them in terms of that, but
I’m very much enjoying what I’m doing here right
now.
PN: What was it that sparked your desire to re-turn to politics after being out of it for fi ve years?
Boyd: I think a great opportunity to see the gov-
ernment change. Th e premier, then the leader of the
opposition, asked me if I would consider it. So I took
the opportunity to think about it and wanted to be
part of a government change.
PN: Were you promised the Natural Resources de-partment at the start of the campaign or did that hap-pen after the election?
Boyd: No. I’m certain the premier made no
promises to anyone about any positions, and certain-
ly none was made to me.
PN: But I’m assuming you were happy to get the portfolio of Energy and Natural Resources?
Boyd: Oh, very much so. It’s a great honour to
get this Energy and Resources department and In-
tergovernmental Relations. I think it’s the best min-
istry there is.
PN: We’re in an era of crazy oil prices which I sup-pose adds quite a bit of stress to your job. What has it been like?
Boyd: It’s been a surprise to everybody to see oil
prices rise as quickly as they did last year and also
to see the drop as quickly as they have. It certainly
challenges a government from a fi scal standpoint to
some degree to see that runup and then backing off
of prices. I think we’ll probably see prices stabilize at
a little higher level. At least that’s what our offi cials
are indicating. But from a revenue standpoint, it does
make it more challenging.
PN: Oil’s around $45 a barrel right now. Whatprice do you see it stabilizing around?
Boyd: We are forecasting for this year just that
— $45. I think a lot of industry analysts are say-
ing they could see it rise toward the end of the year,
if the economy in the United States starts to turn
around and I think that's a big question mark. But
we are using a very conservative number of $45 for
our budget.
PN: Nov. 7, 2007, do you remember that day? What’s one moment from that day you won’t ever for-get?
Boyd: I think one moment is when it was con-
fi rmed that the Sask. Party was going to be govern-
ment. I was in Kindersley at my campaign offi ce with
my family and surrounded by friends and support-
ers.
PN: It was a long time coming, eh?Boyd: Very much a long time. You know, fi rst
elected in 1991 and it was a long time before we saw
a government change and I’m very happy and proud
to be a part of it.
PN: It’s been 16 months since you were elected. How would you rate your government’s performance?
Boyd: I think our government’s performed very
well. If I were to grade it, I’d probably say a B or
B+, something like that. Certainly not perfect, but
doing pretty well. Th at’s probably a pretty conserva-
tive grade if you think about it. Saskatchewan has
vaulted to the head of the pack in terms of economic
performance in Canada and leads in terms of em-
ployment numbers. We are going to have a balanced
budget in a couple of days. A surplus budget. Th at
will be a standout in all of Canada as well.
PN: Having a surplus will certainly garner head-lines across Canada, that’s for sure.
Boyd: I think it will. I think it’s going to be . . .
even though Saskatchewan is not untouched by the
economic realities that we’re facing on a global scale,
Saskatchewan's doing pretty darn good compared to
other places.
PN: What kind of an eff ect has the royalty rate situation in Alberta had on the oilpatch activity in Saskatchewan?
Boyd: Well, it’s had an impact, there's no doubt
about it. It’s diffi cult to measure and I'm not in posi-
tion, nor would I want to be, in a position to criti-
cize decisions that were made in Alberta. However, I
think that Saskatchewan, the very fact that we made
the decision early on that we weren’t going to be
changing royalty rates, clearly indicated to the people
in the oilpatch that we were going to have a stable
regime in respect to that. We saw a huge amount of
land sales last year, a great deal of drilling activity
in our province and I think that stability has been a
positive feature of the government.
PN: You referred to land sales. What kind of re-cords did you achieve last year?
Boyd: In 2008, we were over a billion dollars in
land sales and I think the previous record was in the
area of $250 million, so approximately four times
the previous record, so a tremendous year. Now, 2009
is going to be more challenging. We’re going to see
land sales much lower, unless we start to see a big
increase in oil prices. Of course that’s a big caveat
that you’d apply to all these questions, I guess. But
the companies that paid high prices for land in the
sale last year will be wanting to seek a rate of return
on that investment, so we think the drilling activity
will remain strong.
PN: In your opinion, what’s the single greatest ac-complishment of your government so far?
Boyd: Th e biggest single? I don’t know if I can
nail it down to one. But as a fi scal conservative, if I
had to nail it down to one, I’d say paying down 40
per cent of the debt of the province of Saskatchewan
in one year.
PN: What’s one thing about life as an MLA would you like to change, if you had the power? It must be a tough life.
Boyd: If I were to be able to change one thing,
I’m not sure what it would be.
PN: How about more free time, or something like that?
Boyd: Well that would be nice. Th ere’s lots of
meetings, lots of requests, lots of travel. If one thing
could change, I guess it would be the travel. If there
was an ability to move much quicker than we’re able,
that would be nice. Th e driving and time in airplanes
seems like a waste of time in a lot of respects, but it’s
a necessary part of the job.
Bill Boyd is one of the founding members of the Saskatchewan Party and has been involved on the Saskatchewan political scene for nearly two decades.
Mr. Boyd was the MLA for the Kindersley constituency from 1991 until he stepped down in 2002. Originally elect-ed in 1991 as a Progressive Conservative MLA, Mr. Boyd became the leader of that party in 1994. He was re-elected
in 1995. In 1997, he and three of his colleagues joined with four Liberal MLAs and founded the Saskatchewan Party. When Bill was re-elected in 1999, he was one of 26 MLAs elected under the Saskatchewan Party banner. He was once again elected in the Kindersley constituency in the Nov. 7, 2007 provincial election, when the Sask. Party won the election and formed government.
Premier Brad Wall named Boyd the Minister of Energy and Resources and also Minister of Intergovern-mental Aff airs.
Bill and his wife Lynn operate a pedigreed seed feed farm near Eston. Th ey have two children in their twen-ties.
He chatted in mid-March with Bruce Penton, a couple of days before the government of Saskatchewan under Premier Wall brought down a balanced budget on March 18.
BILL BOYDMinister of Energy Resources
Minster of Intergovernmental Affairs
PIPELINE NEWS April 2009 A7
PN: Given your long history in politics with an old political foe like Dwain Lingenfelter, how will the po-litical winds change if and when he becomes leader of the New Democrats, especially since he’s coming from a career as an oil executive in Alberta?
Boyd: I don’t think it’s a foregone conclusion that
Dwain Lingenfelter is going to win the NDP lead-
ership. But should he, I don’t think he’s going to do
nearly as well as a lot of people think he’s going to, or
some people think he’s going to. I think the very fact
he was part of an administration in the past that na-
tionalized the potash industry and then jumped full
square out of that box and into a senior executive role
in an oil company, which is largely the arch-nemesis
of the NDP administration, and then back to his so-
cialist roots again, I think a lot of people will think
he’s a little bit confused in his direction. And the very
fact that Mr. Lingenfelter isn’t exactly a spring chick-
en anymore is going to be a bit of a deterrent I think
for him as well. Th ere’s a whole generation of people
in Saskatchewan who don’t even know who he is.
PN: You and him go back a long way, don’t you?Boyd: Yeah, he was here when I fi rst came to
the Legislature. He’s probably 10 years older than
me approximately, something like that. But he and I
had a good working relationship over the years. I’m
surprised, frankly, that he’d be interested in coming
back. I don’t think it’s been as easy as he thought it
was going to be, though.
PN: Somebody told me the oilsands potential in Northern Saskatchewan is greater than what they’re doing in Fort McMurray. If that’s true, when can we expect to see some development occurring there?
Boyd: I’m not sure the oilsands . . . what has been
demonstrated to be in existence is greater than what’s
in Alberta but it is very signifi cant, there’s no ques-
tion about it. I’ve seen estimates running as high as
10 billion barrels in play. Th at’s just an estimate, but
nevertheless, I think more and more of that poten-
tial production is being proved up every day. I think,
though, it’s going to take a number of things. First of
all it‘s going to take a higher price than what we’re
seeing now. Th ere’s going to be a need for infrastruc-
ture to be put in place, of which of course we rec-
ognize as a government that’s it’s a responsibility of
ours in terms of things like power, probably natural
gas, probably an infrastructure of roads and we’re
certainly recognizing that that’s going to be a respon-
sibility partly of government. I think the industry as
a whole right now is looking at how to operate with
these levels of pricing. As soon as you see the price
structure change, I think we’ll start seeing develop-
ment move forward. Th ere’s also a few technological
challenges that they have. Th e resource is going to be
extracted by in-situ methods rather than strip min-
ing activity, which is done in Alberta. It’s deeper into
the ground on the Saskatchewan side, so there’s a few
technological challenges, engineering challenges that
have to be met yet. It’ll likely be horizontal drilling,
steam assisted, but again there are some challenges
in terms of that. But I think the companies that are
involved are looking at various models to extract that
resource. and I’m sure they’ll be successful at that. But
I suspect at $45 a barrel, it’s diffi cult to raise the fi -
nancing for these very vast projects. But I certainly
think there’s potential there and I’m sure we’ll see oil-
sands development on the Saskatchewan side before
very long.
PN: It’s pretty exciting, isn’t it?Boyd: It could be an absolutely huge project for
Saskatchewan. A great opportunity for wealth gener-
ation. A great opportunity for employment and jobs
for First Nations and Metis people in the area and
obviously a bonanza of revenue for the Province of
Saskatchewan.
PN: What do you do to relax on a day completelyaway from politics?
Boyd: Well, I like to read in the winter time,
when it’s too cold to go outside and relax that way,
watch a movie, that kind of stuff . In the summer, I
like to golf.
PN: What are your favourite courses in Saskatch-ewan?
Boyd: Th ere are two or three that are favourites. I
like Nipawin, I like Elk Ridge and I like Riverside in
Saskatoon. I also like my little nine-hole local course
at Eston.
PN: If it was my treat, what would you order at afancy restaurant?
Boyd: Greco’s in Regina is not real fancy but it’s
a great restaurant and I would probably order one of
the chicken dishes that they have.
PN: When you’re in the car for a couple of hours — and you indicated earlier you do a lot of driving — what do you listen to? What’s in your CD player, or do you listen to the radio?
Boyd: I usually listen to the radio, actually. I’m
not really musical, but I do like to listen to a wide
range of music.
PN: Who’s your political idol?Boyd: Hmmm. Political idol . . . you know, prob-
ably Ronald Reagan.
PN: I guess if you said Pierre Trudeau, they’d kickyou out of the province.
Boyd: (Laughs) No, Pierre Trudeau didn’t come
to mind.
PN: When you were in high school, was politicssomething you thought might be in your future?
Boyd: Actually, yes, I did. I thought at some point
in my life I’d like to take a run at it. I didn’t know
whether the prospect would ever come around, but it
did, and I’m glad I did it.
PN: Where are you more skilled — in the kitchen, on the golf course or in the garden?
Boyd: Certainly not the kitchen. I’m pretty good
at growing things, since I’ve been in agriculture all
my life, so that’s probably my best. I love golf more
than it loves me.
PN: Who is your favourite MLA across the fl oor of the Legislature?
Boyd: Currently? Oh, I don’t know. I don’t mind
Deb Higgins from Moose Jaw. I would call her a lev-
el-headed New Democrat, if there is such a thing.
PN: Fifteen years from now, Bill, where are you going to be and what are you going to be doing?
Boyd: I hope I’m somewhere warm in the sum-
mer and a few holidays in the winter where it’s warm
as well. Probably still on my farm, but taking oppor-
tunity to travel with my wife.
PN: Are you suggesting you’re not going to be in-volved in politics 15 years from now?
Boyd: I would very much doubt it.
PN: Why is that?Boyd: I’ve been at it a long time and I think there’s
a need for change once in a while and I think my term
has probably gone more than once in a while.
BILL BOYDMinister of Energy Resources
Minster of Intergovernmental Affairs
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Page A3Pipeline News asked Swalm “Why?”
“Th ere are business cycles. Diff erent companies
are on diff erent points of cycles,” he responds. “You
come to these plateaus – spend, grow, recharge. We are
at one of those plateaus.”
Th e company had become big enough to become
of interest of Penn West, Swalm says. “We ramped
ourselves up to get to that point.”
Looking out to the future, Swalm said things
could have gone up, or they could have gone down. “It
can get quite ugly. Oil can drop to $20” he says.
Swalm has lived through that before, and was not
looking forward to it.
He envisioned three scenarios, and placed an equal
probability on each one.
Th e fi rst would see the price of oil drop, and it
would “get ugly” for one to two years. Under that sce-
nario, “We would lose a lot of value.”
Th e second scenario would have Reece “just per-
colate along.”
“We can survive quite nicely at that,” he said, re-
ferring to a certain oil price. Th ey would drill some
wells, but it would be diffi cult to maintain production
because of the decline rates of wells. “We can’t really
show accretive growth for the share price,” he says.
“I’m the biggest shareholder. Th e only reason to
invest in a junior oil and gas company is to see them
double or triple in a medium term.”
Th e third possibility would see a short turnaround
in a matter of months, with a quite snap back to oil
prices around the $85 to $100 range. Th at would put
their share price back in the $3 range at the end of the
year, but more like the middle of 2010, he says.
DinghyBy cashing out now, Swalm says it is like “attach-
ing a dinghy bouncing in rough waters to a big ship.”
Th is stock-swap strategy gives Reece investors li-
quidity. If current shareholders tried to divest them-
selves of Reece, it would have had a downward pressure
on the stock price. But if those same investors divested
Penn West Trust units, the impact would be minimal.
“I’m delivering the Reece shareholders where they
gat get liquidity,” Swalm says.
Alta, base, Sask opsReece has been around in various forms since the
1980s. Th e company was moved to Medicine Hat in
1997 in large part because of Swalm’s dissatisfaction
with the policies of the then-current government and
the general attitude towards business in Saskatch-
ewan.
“Th e Saskatchewan political environment kept
voting for the same stuff ,” he says. Saskatchewan was
not friendly to entrepreneurial risk taking. Th ey were
roadblocked, taxed and demonized.
“You were a bad person and it should be taken
away because you were successful,” Swalm recalls. Al-
berta, at the time, was more open for investment, but
they never bought any wells in Alberta.
Th e political environment in Saskatchewan is
moving in the right direction, even better than Alber-
ta, he says. Swalm at one point was campaign manager
many years ago for the current Minister of Energy and
Resources Bill Boyd.
So now what?What will Swalm do now?
“I don’t know. I wound not jump into anything for
four months. I need a break. I need to fi x a fence, take
some holidays, and [then] poke my head up.”
“I’ve learned a lot of lessons over the years, come
in contact with good and bad people, and can tell the
diff erence.”
One of those lessons is keeping operations more
centralized. He would structure the company diff er-
ently, too.
“I love our assets. We spent a lot of time getting
them there.”
If he does get back in business, he says, “I’d be back
in Kindersley or Estevan or Lower Shaunavon. Sas-
katchewan has come a long way.”
Reece acquired by PennWest
PIPELINE NEWS April 2009 A9
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Melita, Man. – Me-
lita Mayor Bob Walker
was born and raised
in the small southwest
Manitoba community.
Th ere was a time he says
he used to know who
lived in every house in
town.
Th at was a few years
ago. Now, there are times
when he doesn’t recog-
nize people downtown.
“I used to be able to
tell you who lived in ev-
ery house in town. Now,
I can’t tell you my own
block.
“We’ve had a real
infl ux of young people
we know are working
someplace,” says the for-
mer abattoir. He sees the
wives, girlfriends and
kids, but, “I don’t see
the guy because he’s out
working.”
Two years ago, there
were 50 for sale signs in
Melita. Now, just three
or four, he says, and any-
thing open is sold.
“Because of this,
the town is doing a new
subdivision on the north
end,” he says. Th e subdi-
vision will have around
20 lots, and is planned
for this summer.
Th at’s in addition to
a commercial subdivision
planned for the highway.
All the growth has
meant a demand for rec-
reational services. Two
years ago, the town em-
barked on a $750,000
outdoor swimming pool.
Right out of the gate,
the Richardson Foun-
dation, through Tundra
Oil and Gas, donated
$75,000. Th at was quick-
ly matched by Penn West
Energy Trust. Kids were
able to go swimming last
summer. Grand Banks
Energy Corp provid-
ed $5,000, and Petro-
fund Corp gave $2,000
“It’s huge. If we hadn’t
got that off the bat, we
probably wouldn’t have
started the pool,” he
says.
Th e arena will soon
be home to a new Zam-
boni, thanks to a further
$100,000 donation from
Tundra Oil & Gas in late
2008. Th e Zamboni will
be purchased this sum-
mer, Walker says.
Th e curling rink re-
ceived $25,000 for change
rooms renovations and
ice making equipment.
Th e growth means more
population to keep
schools and civic facili-
ties going.
Th ere is some con-
cern about longevity of
the industry, he notes,
but there haven’t been
major issues sometimes
associated with the oil-
patch, like rowdiness.
It’s been very good
for the hotel/motel busi-
ness, but it also means
they have been so tied up
with oil and construction
people, booking avail-
ability is limited, Walker
notes.
Th e town’s most
recent census pegs the
population around
1,100, but Walker says
they know there’s more.
Health board numbers
indicate the community
is old, but that’s not the
case, he says.
Melita, Man. Mayor Bob Walker
Plenty of new, young faces in Melita
PIPELINE NEWS April 2009A10
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To the core of the matter, or formationEstevan – Some
might think coring is in
his blood. Maybe it’s in
Gill Blackstock’s core.
Bad puns aside, Gill
Blackstock looked at dif-
ferent options, but de-
cided he wanted to set up
his own coring business
when the time was right.
Th at enterprise is known
as Blackie’s Coring.
Blackstock started off
with his family’s business,
working for them until it
was sold. “I saw an oppor-
tunity to go on my own,
and I jumped all over it,”
Blackstock says.
His father, Stan
Blackstock, was coring
since the 1960s. He was
coring for potash around
Bethune. He still checks
up on Gill, swapping sto-
ries. “Nearly 50 years lat-
er, I’m coring for potash
around Bethune.”
“I looked at diff erent
options. Why wouldn’t I
do something I enjoy do-
ing and feel confi dent in
doing?
“I can train someone
to cut a core, but I can’t
give them the experience
I have, and the feel for
what’s going on down-
hole.
On the lease, his job
is core supervisor. “My
job is to set up tool, su-
pervise the operation for
cutting core samples for
the geologist.
When cutting a core,
you put your hand on the
Kelly bar, he explains.
“You can actually feel
it break off the bottom.
Ninety per cent of the
time, you feel the break.
Th e other ten per cent of
the time, that’s when the
experience comes in.”
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PIPELINE NEWS April 2009 A11
Page A10Th at includes using procedures to make sure
you have it. For example, pulling a sample from the
Alida formation, he
would pull up
on it and
slowly run back
down. Again, feeling the
Kelly bar, if you’ve taken on weight prior to where
you left off , you have it.
An 18 m core sample weight an average 500 lbs
(227 kg). When pulling on it, you can feel the ten-
sion through the drill string. “It’s like a train eff ect.
A train pulling away,” he says. “Th e caboose is the
last to feel the jar of the engine.”
“My core barrels can cut 27 m, 18 m and 9 m,
but 18 is the most common,” he explains. You get
your top formations, oil-bearing zones, and bottom
formation. “You can get your whole formation in
one core.”
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Estevan (306) 634-5454Regina ...................... (306) 352-2662Saskatoon................. (306) 244-4847Regway..................... (306) 969-2126Moose Jaw ............... (306) 694-4322
Nationwide ServicesInternet Address: http://www.percydavis.com
E-mail Address: info@percydavis.com
QualityLAMICOIDS
Estevan Trophy & Engraving
Phone/Fax: 634-6005Email: estevantrophy@sasktel.net
Call Linda for more informationEf cient Service
& m& metal cable tags
Experience and con dence key to Blackie’s CoringI’m modifying an existing core van, setting it up on
a new truck with four wheel drive.”
A core van is a mini lab on wheels. It has tables
to lay out the core samples, and ultraviolet lights to
bring out the fl uorescence of the hydrocarbons. Th e
van provides a clean, comfortable environment
for the geologist to work in.
Blackstock does a lot of coring for pot-
ash as well as the oilpatch. “In the potash
work we’re doing, we’re cutting roughly
90 to 126 m of potash zone.
“Th ere’s no better proof of what’s
down there than an actual core sam-
ple, whether it’s oil and gas, potash,
or coal.”
Coring is not common with
horizontal wells, however. “To my
knowledge, to date, in horizontal
drilling they don’t core. It’s a proven
fi eld. To date, that I know of, there’s
been three horizontal cores cut, and
I’ve done two of them.”
Th e hardware has changed over the
years, speeding things up along the way. “When I
started, we started with diamond bits. It took 12 to
14 hours to do an 18 m core.
“Th en they came out with a tri-pack, a poly-
crystalline cutter, which reduced times to four to six
hours. From there we went to two to four hours to
cut an 18 m core.”
It makes a diff erence, because time is money on
a drilling rig, he notes.
All that core ends up in the core repository in
Regina. When he walks between the racks there, he
says “I can see cores I’ve done 20 years ago.”
“I’ve seen a lot of core.”
Gill Blackstock red up his own coring com-pany in Estevan after the family business was
sold.
A12 PIPELINE NEWS April 2009
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By Geoff Lee
Pipeline NewsCalgary –Th e Cana-
dian Association of Oil-
well Drilling Contractors
(CAODC) held its 59th
annual ball in Calgary
on March 13, but anyone
who came in work boots
felt out of step this year.
Th at’s because the
CAODC has downgrad-
ed its forecasted drilling
activity for 2009 in the
wake of low commod-
ity prices and tight credit
that small oil companies
rely on.
Th is is the fi rst time
in over two decades that
a revised projection has
been made in the middle
of the usually busy winter
drilling season.
CAODC president
Don Herring thinks the
environment for drill-
ing may improve in the
latter half of 2009 and
has held off his previous
warning of another fore-
cast downgrade following
the province’s three-point
incentive program for the
energy sector announced
March 3.
Th e Stelmach gov-
ernment will off er up a
$200-per-metre royalty
drilling credit for new
conventional oil and gas
wells, and a maximum
fi ve per cent royalty rate
for the fi rst year of pro-
duction on new wells.
Th e program runs
from April 1, 2009 to
March 31, 2010 and in-
cludes work incentives for
service rigs.
“We met with the
minister of energy and we
told him the announce-
ment essentially gives us
some confi dence that we
won’t have to decrease the
forecast again,” said Her-
ring.
“It doesn’t give us a
lot of confi dence that we
would actually make a
positive adjustment but it
might keep us from mak-
ing a negative one.
“Clearly, the decrease
in drilling activity is due
to the commodity prices
and the ability of inves-
tors to get money. In
Alberta, there is also the
royalty issue which tends
to magnify the problem a
bit.”
Th e CAODC is a
trade association rep-
resenting drilling and
service rig contractors
throughout Canada and
Herring says the mood is
glum and spreading.
“It’s not just us but
among the operating
companies too. Th ere are
large multinationals and
U.S. independents, for
example, that are not as
impacted by the credit
freeze than some of the
smaller companies that
require access to bank
fi nancing and access to
investors through selling
shares.
“Banks are not lend-
ing money to smaller oil
companies at these pric-
es,” added Herring.
“It’s an investor is-
sue but I would like to
think if we started to see
oil averaging in the $60
to $70 US a barrel range
and gas at $7 or $8 dollars
we would see quite a bit
more activity. Gas is one
of the critical issues in
the western sedimentary
basin.”
Herring says the
downgrade in anticipated
drilling activity is also due
to lower rig counts fore-
cast in October, 2008 –
and layoff s are occurring.
“As the rigs get laid
down, the crews don’t get
called back to work,”
said Herring. “Th at’s a
very hard piece of news
to give. It’s a reality, but
it’s very diffi cult for man-
agers or owners of com-
panies to convey to their
men.”
Every well drilled
supports about 120 direct
and indirect jobs, accord-
ing to the Canadian En-
ergy Research Institute.
Th e association now
expects the number of
operating days will be
95,000, well below the
129,000 originally esti-
mated.
Measured in terms of
wells drilled, the forecast
is 11,176 wells. Th at’s ap-
proximately 3,100 wells
shy of the 14,325 esti-
mated in October, 2008 –
a 22 per cent downgrade.
Th is is in line with the
revised Petroleum Servic-
es Association of Canada
drilling forecast of 13,500
wells across Canada, a 21
per cent decrease from
the 2008 total.
Th e number of wells
expected to be completed
in 2009 by CAODC is
projected to be approxi-
mately 11,184, compared
with the 16,844 wells
completed in 2008. Th e
2009 projection is almost
half of the 22,127 wells
completed in 2006 and
2005. Page A13
Drilling association blames commodity
“”
PIPELINE NEWS April 2009 A13
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prices and credit freeze for slowdown Page A12
Herring says most
of the drilling activ-
ity in 2008 took place in
northeastern BC “before
things started to fall off .
Of course Alberta al-
ways has drilling activity
but it has nowhere near
as much as it has in the
past.”
“In Saskatchewan,
we typically don’t see a
lot of activity in the fi rst
quarter. It tends to be
north and west and rigs
tend to move south and
east as we get through
break up and into sum-
mer.”
In the wake of lower
drilling counts, CAODC
will host a Drilling Con-
ference in Calgary May
26 to present the latest
developments and ad-
vancements within the
Canadian drilling indus-
try.
Th e conference will
also touch on promot-
ing better understanding
and awareness of best
practices, innovative well
construction processes
and regulatory changes
as well as presenting new
technologies.
Th ere will be a focus
on drilling technologies
and operations to over-
come the challenges of
accessing diffi cult geo-
logical targets. Th e con-
ference will also touch
on emerging technolo-
gies and innovative rig
concepts, drilling equip-
ment, well construction
techniques and innova-
tive rig concepts among
other topics.
Meanwhile, the
CAODC forecasts a rig
utilization rate of 30 per-
cent in 2009 with 262 out
860 rigs actively drilling.
Utilization in the usu-
ally busy fi rst quarter is
expected to average just
39 per cent with 333 rigs
operating.
Th e last time drilling
activity was this low in
a fi rst quarter was 1999,
but there were fewer rigs
back then than today.
Th e best comparable
fi rst quarter to 2009 was
the beginning of 1992
with a utilization rate of
32 per cent.
Th e CAODC esti-
mates there were be only
86 rigs on average drill-
ing during the second
quarter, a reduced level
not seen in 17 years. Th e
utilization rate will be
only 10 per cent.
Some recovery how-
ever, is expected in the
last half of 2009. A third
quarter projection calls
for an average of 267 rigs
to be drilling, similar to
the same period in 2002.
In Saskatchewan, we typically don’t see a lot of activity in the fi rst quarter. It tends to be north and west and rigs tend to move south and east as we get through break up and into summer
- Don Herring
PIPELINE NEWS April 2009A14
Visual InspectionsCerti ed API 510/570/653 InspectionsTank InspectionsUT Thickness (Corrosion) SurveysAdvanced NDE
Failure AnalysisRoot Cause AnalysisIntegrity ManagementPipeline Risk Assessment
Estevan Of ce: 306-634-7513 306-634-7514
Phone: 634-7892 • www.ipc-sk.ca
Locally Owned and Operated
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By Brian ZinchukKisbey – Th ese days, if you want to
work in the oilpatch, you don’t just have to
be safe, you have to prove safety is part and
parcel of your daily business. Th at means
certifi cation.
Cliff Nankivell Trucking of Kisbey and
Lampman received its Certifi cate of Rec-
ognition, or COR, on Mar. 13. It’s a major
step in the increasingly red-taped world of
safety and certifi cations in the oilpatch.
Kevin Mooney of C6 Safety Associa-
tion of Saskatchewan presented the cer-
tifi cate to owners Kalvin Nankivell and
Claudia Mullis. It was the culmination of
two years of hard work by the company.
John Voutour is the safety co-ordina-
tor for Cliff Nankivell Trucking, and spent
a lot of time with the two owners develop-
ing the certifi cation.
Seven elementsTh ere are seven elements for an eff ec-
tive health and safety program, according to Mooney.
Th e fi rst is management leadership. Th is means be-
ing actively involved in safety, and leading by example.
Second, there needs to be a hazard identifi cation
and analysis. Th is will diff er with diff erent work en-
vironments, but can include looking for slip and fall
hazards, pinch point, or H2S. Jumping out of trucks is
another one, particularly for a trucking company.
Th e third element is hazard control. Can the haz-
ard be eliminated or somehow changed? Can a solution
be engineered, i.e. gravelling liners. Can a
barrier be used to eliminate exposure?
Administration control can be used,
instituting rules and safe work proce-
dures. Th en there’s the usage of personal
protective equipment, like hard hats and
respirators.
Th e fourth element is inspections,
making sure the previous controls are
working. Th is includes circle checks by
operators, or the safety co-ordinator go-
ing out and ensuring controls are work-
ing.
Element number fi ve is communica-
tions. Th e work environment is constantly
changing, and everyone needs to be kept
abreast, through methods like tailgate
meetings and a health and safety com-
mittee.
Kalvin Nankivell says that includes
getting participation from front line staff ,
and requires a paper trail. “We kill many
trees,” Mullis says with a smile, describing eff orts to
maintain that paper trail.
Emergency preparedness is the sixth element, hav-
ing a process to respond to an emergency.
Page A15
Getting to the COR of the matter
Cliff Nankivell Trucking of Kisbey and Lampman received its Certi cate of Recognition, or COR, on Mar. 13. From left are Kevin Mooney, C6 Safety Association of Saskatchewan, Claudia Mullis, Kalvin Nankivell, and John Voutour of Cliff Nankivell Trucking. Photo by Brian Zinchuk
A15PIPELINE NEWS April 2009
Oilfield Maintenance Ltd.• General Oilfield Maintenance• Steamer Unit• Mobile pressure welder unit
C & RC & R
Chris ScholppChris Scholpp421-0557421-0557
487-7790487-7790Office 487-2201Office 487-2201
Leading the industry in production& specialty chemicals
OIL TREATING COMPOUNDSESTEVAN OFFICE634-7627Fax: 634-7827Kelly: 861-6045Jeff: 421-7973Chad : 421-0338Lyle: 421-2491Armand: 421-8286Darcy: 421-1551Ryan: 421-9140
CARLYLE OFFICE453-6494Fax: 453-2598Trevor: 577-8046Mike B: 577-8153Mike L: 577-8982Paul: 577-1916James: 577-8650
Announcement of the promotion of Dean Sargent to Branch Manager, Saskatchewan
effective February 01, 2009.
Edmonton, Alberta – Greg McGillis, Vice President of Oper-ations and Business Development of Titan Logix Corp., (TSX Venture: TLA), is proud to announce the promotion of Dean Sargent to the position of Branch Manager, Saskatchewan.
In his 12 years of service, Dean has demonstrated skill, dedi-cation and professionalism. The success of any company comes from strong leadership, the building of cohesive results-oriented teams of employees, and the commitment and enthusiasm to provide customers with superior services and products. “Dean is a great advocate of our company’s business philosophy,” says McGillis. “His promotion acknowledges his achievements, his longstanding loyalty to Titan Logix Corp., its customers and its employees. We recognize Dean’s important role in our plans for growth in North America including Saskatchewan.”
Dean manages the day-to-day operations of Titan’s Lampman, Saskatchewan branch and he will have the added responsibility of working more closely with the company’s sales team throughout Sas-katchewan and Southern Manitoba.
Titan Logix Corp. congratulates Dean Sargent on his promotion and looks forward to a prosperous future with him.
About Titan Logix Corp.:Titan Logix Corp. is an industrial instrumentation and controls company focused on designing, manufacturing, distributing and servicing instrumentation and automation solutions. Our mission is to provide the petroleum and aviation ground support industries with advanced technology solutions to automate essential measurement and control processes safely and ef ciently.
Detailed information on Titan Logix Corp. is available on the company’s website, www.titanlogix.com
Corporate AddressTitan Logix Corp.4130 – 93 StreetEdmonton, AlbertaT6E 5P5Phone: (780) 462-4085Toll Free: (877) 462-4085Fax: (780) 450-8369Email: info@titanlogix.com
Announcement
Branch AddressTitan Logix Corp.Box 460Lampman, SaskatchewanS0C 1N0Phone: (306) 487-2883Fax: (306) 487-2889
Page A14Th e owners smile
about this one, because
their in-house staff is al-
ready the outside response
unit. “It was kind of funny.
All the guys are on the fi re
department,” they note.
Indeed, the trucking fi rm
supplies water for the fi re
department.
Th e last element is in-
vestigations, looking for a
root cause behind an inci-
dent. “Th e defi nition of a
root cause is a breakdown
in the management pro-
cess, the above six steps,”
Mooney explains.
Nankivell says the
whole process is based
on continual improve-
ment. “Th ere is a proactive
component to inspections
– getting people to report
near misses,” he lists as
and example.
But how do you get
people to overcome the
resistance to report on
their own slip-ups?
“It comes down to
a safety culture, focusing
not on placing blame, but
fi nding a root cause.”
“A lot of people don’t
like safety. Th e think it is
a tattle-tale thing,” Mullis
says. It’s easier if you make
it about an individual’s
safety. Put a positive spin
on it.
Long road to put in placeVoutour explains, “A
lot of companies are re-
quiring we have COR.”
Th at includes major play-
ers in their area, like Cres-
cent Point and Talisman.
“Th ey literally ask us, ‘Do
you have COR?’”
Now they can say
they do.
“We’ve been at it for
two years,” Nankivell says.
It meant rebuilding a pre-
vious safety program.
“It’s a very big job,”
Mullis concurs, adding
the bar for safety has risen
quite high in the 30 years
the company has been in
business.
While the ground-
work is done by the com-
pany, it has to be externally
audited to receive the cer-
tifi cation. Th at included
three days with two people
from the auditing fi rm,
talking to roughly 25 of
the 70-person staff . One
of the things they watch
for is a paper trail. Th e
audit verifi es information
through interviews, obser-
vation or documentation,
according to Mooney.
Certi cation a major part of the process
Hei-Bro-Tech Petroleum ServicesA Division of 24-7 Enterprises Ltd.
Box 4, Midale, SK S0C 1S0Phone: (306) 458-2367 or (306) 861-1001
Fax: (306) 458-2373
• Fluid levels• Dynamometers
• Pressure surveys (automated & manual)
• Foam depressions• Equipment sales (new & used),
rentals & repairs• Repairs done on all models including:
Sonolog, Echometer, DX, etc.• Major parts and supplies in stock
at all times
Let me in! Tanker trucks for Cliff Nankiv-ell Trucking in Kisbey will soon have a new 120 ft. by 80 ft. shop to call home.
PIPELINE NEWS April 2009A16
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Custom Ready-To-Move HomesNot sure what you want . . .
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Sales & InstallationInsulated Concrete Forming
Phone 748-5560 Fax 556-2220Box 86, Cromer, MB R0M 0J0Phone 204-748-5560 Fax 204-556-2220
Box 86, Cromer, MB R0M 0J0
Ltd.
DRILLING • COMPLETIONS • PRODUCTIONS• Lab facility • Fresh water available
• Industrial Cleaning Products
92 Hwy. 39 E, Estevan • www.cbsterling.com
Blaine FallisGeneral Manager306-421-2623
306.634.6549
SWIFT CURRENTKevin Burton - Technical Service Rep • 421-3473
Steve McLellanChemist
Rick Breisnes421-5502
Dean CarriereTechnical Service Rep.306-421-1238
Jason Burback421-9418
Phone: 306-634-5304 Phone: 306-634-5304 • Fax: 306-634-5887• Fax: 306-634-5887
Locally Owned and Servicing Southeast Sask. Since 1967Locally Owned and Servicing Southeast Sask. Since 1967
Sales & Service For:Pumps, Meters, Valves, Controls, Switches
Instrumentation Service
PLC/RTU Programming
Treater Parts
Shop & Field Calibrations
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Shop & Field Repairs
Enform COR Certified
321 Imperial Ave., Estevan321 Imperial Ave., Estevan
Estevan – With
things having slowed
down in Alberta last year,
Estevan was looking pret-
ty good for a Medicine
Hat fi rm. So last summer,
they started working in
southeast Saskatchewan,
putting down roots.
Renegade Oilfi eld
Construction moved into
its new shop in March,
constructed on the west
side of Estevan.
It’s Renegade’s sec-
ond facility, with home
base in Medicine Hat.
Ron Lafreniere is
the Estevan manager. He
convinced owners Dar-
ren Schmaltz and Dan
Giesbrecht of the need
to set up in southeast
Saskatchewan. Th ere was
work here, whereas Al-
berta was slowly dying,
according to Lafreniere.
“Royalties are killing Al-
berta,” he says.
Th e prices don’t help
what’s going on now, but
royalties are what killed
it.”
“We should look into
Estevan,” he told them.
Companies in the
southeast told Renegade
they wanted to deal with
someone who is commit-
ted to staying, not tran-
sients. “It’s not like we’re
a fl y-by-night company.
We’ve made a pretty big
commitment with this
building.”
Th e facility is 6,000
square feet, with seven
offi ces.
“We basically moved
fi ve-six people who basi-
cally uprooted.”
Lafreniere person-
ally has been living in a
four-season travel trailer
at a local campground,
with intentions to build
a house.
“We’ve got about 15
locals hired, working for
us now.”
“We’re trying to
break into the market,”
Lafreniere says.
Construction of the
new facility started in
June, “Because of the lack
of people to build, we ba-
sically moved in March.
1.”
“Th e hold-up on the
building has made work
complicated.”
Penn West is their
biggest customer at Es-
tevan, while Enerplus
has given them work in
Manitoba. “We’re work-
ing anywhere from Me-
lita, Man., to south of
Weyburn, to the Ameri-
can border.
One of their special-
ties is fl ex pipe. “We are
one of the fi rst companies
in Alberta to install fl ex
pipe. It’s indestructible is
what it is. Non-corrosive,
unlike plastic, but it has
no memory, so it lays fl at.
Th e company does
oilfi eld pipeline, mainte-
nance, mechanical, weld-
ing work, and facilities.
“We’re revamp-
ing Enerplus’ batteries
and compressor stations.
We’ve been there since
Sept. 10.”
Estevan is smaller
than what he’s used to, he
went from seven days a
week, four hours a day to
six days a week. It’s a nice
change, Lafreniere says.
“Look at what hap-
pens to those working
seven days a week. Th ey
have no more money. But
you have a day off to relax
and enjoy their families.”
“We’re new here.
And it’s going to take
time for the oil com-
panies to trust us. But
those who have used us
are repeat customers,” he
says.
“We bid on every-
thing. We have no issues
bidding on jobs as op-
posed to hourly rates.
Medicine Hat rm comes to
Estevan
Renegade Oil eld Construction moved into its new Estevan home in early March.
PIPELINE NEWS April 2009 A17
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e-mail sk.oilshow@sasktel.net Web Site: www.oilshow.ca
Office located at Prairie Agencies Ltd. 33 Fifth Street NE, Weyburn, Saskatchewan
13th Biennial SaskatchewanOil &Gas
ShowExhibition Grounds, Weyburn, SK
June 3 & 4, 2009
Home of the Saskatchewan Oil Patch Awards
➟Chairman: Ron Carson, Carson Welding and Maintenance
➟Vice Chairman: Dennis Krainyk, Apache Canada Inc.
➟Honourary Chairman: Hon. Bill Boyd,
Minister of Industry and Resources
THE SHOW YOUWON’T WANT TO MISS…
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■ Tuesday, June 2, 2009 – Golfing for exhibitors and guests.Set up and steak or lobster dinner.
■ Wednesday, June 3, 2009 – Show opens at noon— Awards luncheon, Sponsored by SaskPower— Induction into Hall of Fame by Board of Governors of deserving
Saskatchewan Oilmen or Women.
■ Thursday, June 4, 2009 – PSAC breakfast— Noon luncheon with keynote speaker John Gormley
Sponsored by Crescent Point Energy TrustNomination forms are available at the Saskatchewan Oil & Gas Show office for
SE Saskatchewan Oilman of the Year
Westeel/Northern SteelIndustries
Ear dropsInsert into each ear daily.
2009
(780) 875-0203 LloydMall, Lloydminster
Lyle Leclair - Cell: 306-421-7060Larry - Cell: 306-421-7131
LECLAIRTRANSPORT
General Oilfield Hauling
By Brian ZinchukMelita, Man. – Greg
Cousins Construction
Ltd. (GCCL) set up
shop in Melita, Man., in
July, 2007, ready to ex-
pand when the time is
right.
Th e facility used to be
a John Deere dealership,
then a Ford dealer, and
fi nally a trailer manufac-
turer before purchased by
GCCL.
“At this point, we use
it for equipment storage,
primarily tanker trucks,”
says Greg Cousins.
Th ere are two build-
ings, one heated, and one
not. Th e heated building
helps keep valves from
freezing, while the sec-
ond building is used for
storage.
“We plan on devel-
oping it further,” Cous-
ins says, “dependent on
the demands of our cus-
tomers.”
Cousins feels you
need a geographic pres-
ence to get the pulse of
an area. Probably one
quarter of their staff live
and works in the Melita
trading area. GCCL is
headquartered at Carn-
duff , with operations in
Sinclair, Man., as well.
In southwest Mani-
toba, Cousins says their
work is primarily pipeline
installation, but includes
hauling crude, emulsion,
and salt water.
Having a facility in
Melita gives them a toe-
hold to build on in the
future.
“As market condi-
tions demand, we already
have a presence. We’re
there,” he says. “Manito-
ba has become a signifi -
cant part of our business
over the years.”
In return, he notes
they are contributing to
the local economy.
Geographic presence needed: GCCL
PIPELINE NEWS April 2009A18
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By Brian ZinchukEstevan – Estevan’s Board of Commerce, Tour-
ism and Trade is still pursuing installing a camp near
the community to house workers.
Michele Cyrenne, community development
manager, is heading up the eff ort for the board. He
still sees a need for a camp for workers.
Estevan was struck with a profound housing
shortage in 2008, to the point where an emergency
meeting was held in late November to address the
problem. Th e camp idea has come from that short-
age.
Cyrenne says
the housing issue is
not as bad as it was,
“But I don’t think
it’s to a point where
people can be com-
pletely at ease fi nd-
ing housing when
they move here.”
Th ere’s not a
lot of rental or ho-
tel space available,
Cyrenne says.
Th ere haven’t been as many inquiries for accom-
modations as there were when things were still in full
force, he notes.
So do we still need camps?
“It doesn’t seem as much as it did four to six
months ago,” he says. But with the amount of land
purchases last year, as soon as oil prices go up, com-
panies are going to be ready to go to full production
again, according to Cyrenne.
Th e board received four bids for camps, and two
are being seriously considered, with one eventually
being picked.
Th e location will likely be east of the city, likely
along the road leading to the Shand Power Station.
Th is location is close to much of the industrial sec-
tor of Estevan, as well as the power plants and coal
mines. It’s also close to the highway 39 bypass to be
built around the city.
Th ey city will also see
construction of a new
civic centre. All these
are likely to require
workers, and in turn,
places for them to stay,
in the near future.
Th e camp would
have a capacity from
100 to 200, accord-
ing to Cyrenne. As an
open work camp, there will be user fees. Th ose rates
will fall somewhere between $100 and $150 per night,
including hot breakfast, supper, and a bag lunch.
“We’d like to see it set up by the time spring
breakup is completed,” Cyrenne says.
Th e setup costs are all the responsibility of the
operator. Th e board is facilitating discussions between
the land owner and camp provider.
With all these projects, is 100 to 200 enough?
“We want to start at that. Both companies are
fully capable of expanding the camp at the snap of a
fi nger.”
Local camp still in the worksLocal camp still in the works
PIPELINE NEWS April 2009 A19
PO Box 32, Carlyle, Saskatchewan S0C 0R0Phone: (306) 453-4411 Fax: (306) 453-4404
E-Mail: jwaugh@mmmud.ca
Jason Waugh - Division Manager306-577-9900 (Carlyle)
Trevor Van Alstyne - Field Supervisor306-421-0344 (Estevan)
Ryan Toms - Field Supervisor306-452-8182 (Redvers)
Victor VanDresar - Warehouse Manager306-577-9934 (Carlyle)
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Estevan – Th e incred-
ible pressure on the Este-
van housing market has
dropped over the winter,
in line with the decline of
the price of oil.
Th ere are more hous-
es on the market, accord-
ing to Lynn Chipley, city
councillor and broker
with Century 21 Border
Real Estate. When Pipe-line News spoke to her in
mid-March, there were 89
houses on the market, up
from the 30-range during
the mad rush for hous-
ing last year. Having 100
houses on the market in
Estevan is what Chipley
considers a ‘normal’ mar-
ket. “A normal market
for us, forever, was 100
homes, from vacant lots to
Taj Mahals. Well, maybe
not Taj Mahals.”
“We still have a short-
age of aff ordable rental ac-
commodations,” Chipley
says. Rents had increased
to refl ect the market, and
most have stayed there for
the time being, she ex-
plains. “Whether the price
will stay at $1,000 per
month for one bedroom
apartments, I don’t know.”
Rents are high com-
pared to what people can
aff ord.
However, if you want
to buy, things have opened
up a lot, she says, and the
market has dropped 15
per cent from its peak.
John Slatnick, a land-
lord in Estevan with mul-
tiple properties including
a lodge, says his phone is
no longer ringing off the
hook. Late last year, he
was getting as many as ten
calls a day. Now it hardly
rings.
“I’m still fi lled at my
place, but I have hardly
a call now,” Slatnick ex-
plains.
Spring breakup is
traditionally a slow pe-
riod. Slatnick thinks after
breakup, there will still be
a fairly tight market, but
it won’t be as frantic as it
was.
“What the shortage
still is is the guys looking
for accommodations with
a family who want to be
living here.”
Housing pressure drops
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It’s about the jobs say Director of Manitoba Petroleum Branch
Director of the Manitoba Petroleum Branch Keith Lowdon addresses the Melita, Man., Chamber of Commerce. Photo by Brian Zinchuk
Melita, Man. – With oilpatch activity all around,
but not necessarily at Melita, Man., the Melita Cham-
ber of Commerce was given an opportunity to hear
just what is going on from the provincial government’s
perspective.
Keith Lowdon is the director of the Manitoba Pe-
troleum Branch, a division of the Manitoba Depart-
ment of Science, Technology, Energy and Mines. It’s
the equivalent of Saskatchewan’s Ministry of Energy
and Resources. He addressed the Melita chamber on
Feb. 18.
Lowdon grew up in the oilpatch, literally. His dad
is Ed Lowdon, considered one of the founders of the
Manitoba oilpatch.
“He’s seen a lot of changes,” noted Murray Cam-
eron, president of the Melita Chamber of Commerce
in his introduction of the director.
Lowdon explained the Petroleum Branch has
three offi ces – Winnipeg, Virden and Waskada. Th e
Waskada offi ce opened in 1982.
At that time, there were some ‘unscrupulous peo-
ple’ dealing with freehold mineral holders. In Manito-
ba, freehold minerals are the vast majority, 80 per cent,
as opposed to crown minerals. “Th e mineral holders
and farmers are a lot smarter than they were,” Lowdon
said. Page A21
PIPELINE NEWS April 2009 A21
Page A20
Quarterly reports by the surface rights board
show what people have paid for surface rights, a
valuable resource.
“What’s important about the oil industry is the
amount of people that work, not the taxes and miner-
al rights,” Keith Lowdon said, adding there are about
1550 people working in the industry in Manitoba.
At the time of his presentation in mid-February,
there were 2631 producing wells, putting out approx-
imately 23,000 barrels a day.
Manitoba’s domestic consumption is about
50,000 barrels a day, so it produces about 40 per cent
of its oil needs, according to Lowdon.
In 2008, there were 314 wells drilled, and 332 li-
censes issued. Th at resulted in $26.7 million in direct
provincial revenues. Another $90 million went to
freehold mineral rights holders, and $2.5 million for
rural municipalities. Industry expenditures totalled
$360 million.
Since 1951, there have been 6,500 wells drilled.
Public land sales take place four times a year.
Th e main drillers in 2008 were Tundra Oil and
gas, at 172 wells, Fairborne at 18, Enerplus at 14,
EOG at 11, and CNRL at 10.
Prior to 2005, production had peaked in 1969.
But the Sinclair fi eld changed all that, and $400 mil-
lion has been spent on it.
Lowdown showed a map of the Sinclair fi eld in
recent years. In 2003, there were a few wells. In 2004,
a few more. Th e main-B pool had been discovered.
Now, the area is saturated with wells.
By this past January, production from the fi eld
came to 10,400 barrels a day, on a recovery factor of
10 per cent.
Th ere’s already a pilot CO2 project in the fi eld,
being performed by Tundra. “If this pilot works out,
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there potential to leave CO2 in there.”
In 1985, Manitoba saw its fi rst Bakken produc-
tion. “Really, the Bakken production is equal to the
Mississippian production.”
“Even though we think we know so much today,
we really know nothing. Th ere could be oil all over
the place,” he said.
In the Melita area, there are 271 wells near Pier-
son. “It’s very signifi cant,” he said.
Pierson and Waskada have CO2 sequestration
potential, but there isn’t a source of carbon dioxide.
“We’re looking at Estevan,” he said.
Lowdon had previously told Pipeline News that
Manitoba does not have commercial gas production.
But he noted that there may be opportunities in cap-
turing solution gas, as CNRL does. “Are there op-
portunities like that? You bet,” he said.
Predictions for 2009 are diffi cult, Lowdon ex-
plained. He anticipates 200 to 250 wells drilled in
the province in 2009, but since that initial estimate
was made, it may be closer to 200, or less.
Horizontal wells are becoming more common in
Manitoba, he noted.
Employment most important aspect of the oil industryEven though we think we
know so much today, we really know nothing. Th ere could be
oil all over the place- Keith Lowden
“”
PIPELINE NEWS April 2009A22
For A
ll Your: • Hot Oiling
• Flowline Cleaning• Tank Cleaning• Dry Steamer Boiler
• Flowline Jetting• Frac Fluid Heating• Back Pressure Trucks• Steam Heaters
Phone: (306) 634-4797 or 634-7334
T R U C K I N G“MORE THAN JUST GRAVEL”
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Cell: 577-7553Cell: 577-7553Fax: 455-2433 • ARCOLA Of ce:Fax: 455-2433 • ARCOLA Of ce: 455-2429455-2429
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Randy: 634-5405 - Cellular 421-1293Darcy: 634-5257 - Cellular 421-1425 • Fax: 634-4575
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634-6081
Estevan - Th ere are
a wide variety of down-
hole tools, with large
multinationals playing a
big part in the business.
In a pool with a lot of
big fi sh, there’s room for
a smaller fi sh to swim.
Th at’s what Kash
Downhole Anchors is
doing in Estevan. Hav-
ing opened in the sum-
mer of 2008, the com-
pany specializes in one
product – anchors.
“We’re downhole
tubing anchor catchers,”
says Tracy McConnell.
He operates the business
with the assistance of his
wife, Kelly, and Leonard
Th ieven, who helps out
in the back.
Anchors are run in
new and old wells. An
anchor, he explains, is
a tool that goes on the
end of the tubing. You
run it into the hole, set
it, and pull the pipe into
tension. Th e anchor is
usually set just above
the build section of the
well in vertical casing.
Th e vertical section is
never perfectly straight,
McConnell notes. Us-
ing a set of mechanical
slips that take a bite into
the casing, the anchor
allows the tubing to be
somewhat straightened.
Th is anchors the tub-
ing in the well stopping
the tubing from mov-
ing while the well is
pumping. Th is reduces
the wear on the tubing
and rods. Th e anchor
also acts as a catcher. If
the tubing parts (break)
the anchor will hold
the tubing from falling
down the well.
Anchors can last a
long time. “I’ve pulled
anchors out of the hole
that have been there
since the 1950s,” Mc-
Connell says.
He used to work for
a large tool company
for 14 years, and saw
an opportunity. “Th ere
was defi nitely a need for
somebody to special-
ize in anchors,” he says.
Other downhole tool
companies were focus-
ing on tools and open
hole frac strings.
His level of special-
ization includes the abil-
ity to clean with a 150
degree F washer which
not only removes the oil
and grease but by heat-
ing it to 150 degrees it
expands the metal which
releases the trapped H2S
gas and other contain-
ments prolonging the
life of the anchor. Th e
sand blaster is used to
clean and exposes any
cracks or corrosion in
the metal. Th ere’s also
a specialised torque
machine in the back
to torque parts to spec.
“We take the time to
make sure everything is
up to snuff ,” he says.
“I sell anchors to
the new wells,” he says,
but also to older wells.
“When they work them
over for whatever reason,
they pull these anchors,
send them to me and I
redress them. After they
are redressed they are
sent back to the fi eld
where the rig crew runs
them back in the well.”
Room for small specialty player downhole
Leonard Thieven, service tech with Kash Downhole Anchors Inc., rebuilds a TMA belly spring anchor. Photo by Brian Zinchuk
PIPELINE NEWS April 2009 A23
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SaskPower is seeking yet more power generation capability, this time asking for smaller baseload generation. Photo by Brian Zinchuk
SaskSaskPower issues RFP for new baseload generation
Regina - A continual string of announcements has
been coming out of SaskPower of late, seeking new
power generation proposals or announcing its own
power generation projects.
On Feb. 23, SaskPower issued a request-for-pro-
posals (RFP) for new baseload electrical generation.
In January, SaskPower issued an RFP for between
100 MW and 200 MW of peaking generation to be in
service for the 2011/2012 winter peak. Th e deadline for
submissions for the peaking solicitation has been ex-
tended to June 15, 2009, with the successful proponent
now being announced in October 2009.
Th is comes after a Feb. 13 announcement of a new 140
megawatt (MW) gas turbine plant for North Battle-
ford, and a January request for proposals for 100 to 200
MW of peaking generation.
Following a request-for-qualifi cations to fi nd pri-
vate sector partners interested in providing new gen-
eration, SaskPower has invited eight companies from
across Canada to submit proposals for between 200
MW and 400 MW of new intermediate to baseload
generation to be in service for the 2012/2013 winter
peak. Th e companies are NRGreen Power Ltd., Tran-
sAlta Corporation in joint venture with Husky Oil Op-
erations Limited, TransCanada Energy Ltd., ATCO
Power Ltd., EPCOR Utilities Inc., Northland Power
Inc., Ormat and Meadow Lake Green Energy.
“As Saskatchewan’s economy continues to grow,
there is an increased demand for power as people invest
in the province and make it their home,” Crown Cor-
porations Minister Ken Cheveldayoff said. “As part of
this process, SaskPower is exploring opportunities for
private ownership or investment in new generating fa-
cilities.”
Th e deadline for the submission of proposals is
August 28, 2009. Th e successful proponent will be an-
nounced in November 2009.
PIPELINE NEWS April 2009A24
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PIPELINE NEWSSaskatchewan’s Petroleum Monthly
B-SectionApril 2009
By Brian ZinchukCalgary – A substantial shakeup of ownership in
southeast Saskatchewan took place on March 4, with
the exit of Talisman Energy and sale of nearly three
quarters of a billion dollars of assets to Crescent Point
Energy Trust and TriStar Oil and Gas.
Expected to close on June 1, the deal will see ap-
TriStar and Crescent Point team up in $720 million deal
It’s the end of the road for Talisman Energy Inc. in southeast Saskatchewan. The major player is disposing of its southeast Saskatchewan properties and will be focusing on shale gas plays. This sign was found west of Kisbey, where the Bakken potential of Talisman lands was of keen interest of the buy-ers. Photo by Brian Zinchuk
proximately $720 million cash change hands. Crescent
Point and Tristar team up to each take half ownership
of Talisman’s former properties. Th e list is extensive
(see sidebars, page B2), but includes 610,000 acres, of
which 73 per cent is in southeast Saskatchewan, in-
cluding fee title lands. Th e rest of the land is in Daniels
County, Montana. Total net production is approxi-
mately 8,500 boe/d, as well as Talisman owned and
operated infrastructure.
It gets a little more complicated, however, in that
Shelter Bay Energy, a private Bakken growth company
21 per cent owned by Crescent Point, will be getting in
on the action. Crescent Point and TriStar will be sell-
ing a portion of the Bakken assets to Shelter Bay. Th is
transaction will go for $71.1 million, half of which will
be going to each of Crescent Point and TriStar. Th e net
result will be a reduction of the purchase price for each
of the partners from $360 million to $324.5 million.
TalismanYet for such a large dollar value in assets, the num-
ber of directly aff ected employees is small, with Talis-
man telling Pipeline News 24 operations staff at Carlyle
and approximately 12 staff in Calgary are aff ected.
“In Calgary, we’re assessing options to reassign
those people,” she said. “In Carlyle, we’re working with
the purchasers to transition the employees.”
"Th is is in keeping with our strategic objective to
focus Talisman's portfolio on material, core assets,"
said John A. Manzoni, president and chief executive
offi cer in a release. "Although southeast Saskatchewan
has been part of our legacy, the majority of our capital
spending and eff ort in North America going forward
will be deployed to accelerate success in our unconven-
tional natural gas plays."
With a shift in focus to shale gas, Talisman
spokesperson Phoebe Buckland told Pipeline News they will be focusing on unconventional gas plays in
northeast British Columbia’s Montney, the Utica in
Quebec, and Marcellus in Pennsylvania and New York
State. Th at focus was laid out in January by Manzoni
in a media conference call.
Talisman will be maintaining operations in Shau-
navon and at Chauvin near the Alberta/Saskatchewan
border.
Why sell now?
“We see quite a lot of upside in it,” notes Buck-
land, explaining, “Th is will free up some capital for us
to pursue opportunities.”
Th e price refl ects the long-term value of the assets,
she adds. “We fell it is a fair price for the assets.”
While the press releases from both Talisman and
Crescent Point draw particular attention to Bakken oil
play lands aff ected by the sale, the Bakken properties
are actually a small percentage of the total deal.
According to Crescent Point, the assets they
will acquire include 312 net sections of undeveloped
Saskatchewan land. Just 25 of those are in the Bak-
ken play. Of those 25, 16 sections have no associated
reserves booked as of March 31, 2009.
TristarTriStar President and CEO Brett Herman told
Pipeline News, “Our main focus has been to focus on
large oil in place.”
After the acquisition, over 70 per cent of TriStar’s
production will come from southeast Saskatchewan.
“Going in, we were just over 20,000 bbl/day,” he said.
Exiting, they will be in the 25,000 bbl/day range, just
over a 20 per cent increase in production.
“We’re known acquisitors,” he said, anticipating
“extremely smooth transition.”
In the fi eld, they will be looking to hire Talisman
staff , noting “We’re evaluating that as a we speak.”
Operatorship was settled not long after the an-
nouncement. Th e two companies basically rolled out
maps and plotted out who has operations where.
As for development plans, “It all depends on
where commodity prices are.”
Page B2
PIPELINE NEWS April 2009B2
Talisman exits southeast Sask., pursues shale gas elsewhere
Phone: 634-5519 or 634-734124 Hwy. 39 E. Estevan
• GENERAL OILFIELD HAULING • TANK & TREATER MOVING • 24 HOUR PERSONALIZED SERVICE • PIPE CUSTODIAN • PUMP JACK HAULING
L & C Trucking
Tracy McConnellOwner/Manager
104A Perkins StreetPO Box 575, Estevan, SK S4A 2K1
Ph: (306) 634-7552 Fax: (306) 634-7558Email: Kashanchors@sasktel.net
Page B1“Th e intent is to
continue being active in
southeast Saskatchewan.
Our philosophy is to
spend in and around our
cash fl ow.”
Herman said it was
around $250 million when
interviewed on Mar. 19.
Th eir current 2009
capital budget is $200 mil-
lion, 90 per cent of which
is to be spent in southeast
Saskatchewan. Th at leaves
$50 million that could be
used for debt repayment,
acquisitions, or drilling.
Th e deal makes both
of the partners minority,
non-operating players in
the Weyburn carbon diox-
ide sequestration project.
It’s TriStar’s fi rst exposure
to carbon dioxide fl ood.
It’s to get an education on
CO2, according to Her-
man, because at some time,
the Bakken play will go on
water fl ood, then carbon
dioxide fl ood. Th is knowl-
edge will be very valuable
down the road.
While there is some
Montana land in the deal,
Herman said, “Our main
focus was Canadian op-
erations.”
“Th ere was signifi -
cant upside that Talisman
hasn’t drilled.
Crescent Point“You’re looking at
assets that are predict-
able and have low decline
rates,” Trent Stangl, Cres-
cent Point vice president
for marketing and inves-
tor relations, told Pipeline News.
Th e land changing
hands is “pretty much
across the whole south-
eastern Saskatchewan.
“It’s massive. It’s a
checkerboard across the
entire southeast.
“We will be working
in parthership in every one
of those lands and wells.
So why go halfers on
this acquisition?
“It was really the only
way we could get that deal
done in an eff ective man-
ner.”
He notes by partner-
ing up, they each removed
the other company as a
competitor.
“Th ere were lots of
guys kicking tires,” he
said.
“With our southeast
Saskatchewan exposure
and TriStar’s exposure, it
made use leading contend-
ers for sure. We are now
the second largest income
trust after Penn West.”
Indeed, the growth of
Crescent Point has been
so substantial that it is
pushing the limitations
of what it can do within
the income trust business
structure, in part because
it was caught up in some
controversial changes to
income trusts a few years
ago.
“We’ve outgrown the
limits they put on that
structure.”
As a result, on the
same day as the acquisi-
tion announcement, Cres-
cent Point stated it would
be converting to a corpo-
rate structure. Th e change
would be eff ective on or
before May 31.
Like TriStar, Crescent
Point gains some owner-
ship in the Weyburn CO2
project. Stangl calls it one
of the crown jewels of the
deal. Th ey already have a
small interest in the Mi-
dale project.
Th e big focus of the
deal is Bakken produc-
tion. “At $40 US a barrel,
we have a before-tax rate
of return of 100 per cent
and it pays out in about a
year.”
Crescent Point has
140 wells that can still be
fraced, from before the
acquisition. If these oil
prices stay low, we may
drill fewer wells, but frac
more.
“We may be looking
at diverting some of our
projects on the Talisman
lands instead, but it will
still be Bakken-focused.”
As for current Tal-
isman staff , Stangl says.
“We’ll be talking to some
of those guys.”
Shelter BayBoth companies are
reducing their exposure
somewhat, by selling some
of the Talisman assets to
Shelter Bay.
While Shelter Bay
has an independent board
of directors, it has no em-
ployees, explained Stangl.
Th e company is owned
by private investor play-
ers from New York, and a
little over a fi fth is owned
by Crescent Point.
Crescent Point does
the operations for Shelter
Bay.
“It’s a unique situa-
tion where we created the
company and looked for
investment, Stangl said. It
is not an income trust. By
2011, Shelter Bay will be
rolled into Crescent Point,
he added.
“We had no current
operations on that part
of the Bakken play,” said
Herman, thus they were
fi ne with rolling out those
properties to Shelter Bay.
Th e properties in question
are east of Stoughton.
FinancingFor both TriStar and
Crescent Point side, the
money for the transac-
tion will be coming from a
bought deal fi nancing ar-
rangement. Each company
has a syndicate of under-
writers backing them.
“Th ere are so few peo-
ple who can raise money in
this market, a lot of people
are scared to put money
in the stock market,”
Stangl said. “Th at TriStar
and ourselves were able
to show is a good strong
company with good as-
sess, a good business plan,
and a proven management
that can raise money in
this market.”
TriStar’s Talisman acquisitions:Current Production:
4,000 boepd comprised of
3,300 boepd, conventional
(97% light oil) and 700
boepd Bakken production.
Proved Producing Re-
serves: 9.8 mmboe
Total Proved Reserves:
14.6 mmboe
Proved plus Probable
Reserves: 21.1 mmboe
Proved RLI: 10.0 years
Proved plus Probable
RLI: 14.4 years
Undeveloped Land:
197,500 net acres (308.6
sections) of undeveloped
Saskatchewan land includ-
ing 25 net sections which
are prospective for Bakken
Drilling Locations: 61
net Bakken locations (37
booked, 24 unbooked)
57 net Conventional
locations (23 booked, 34
unbooked)
Bakken: 28 net sections
of which only 3 net sections
are developed resulting in
25 net sections of undevel-
oped Bakken land
Fee Lands: Ownership
of freehold mineral rights
on over 135,000 net acres
of land, resulting in overall
royalties of less than 16 per-
cent
Weyburn Unit: 2.2
percent working interest in
the Weyburn CO2 fl ood
Montana Bakken As-
sets: More than 80,000 net
acres (125 sections) of ex-
ploratory land in Montana
Operating costs of
$11.25 per boe
Source: TriStar Oil & Gas
Current production
of approximately 4,000
boepd comprised of 18
percent high netback,
Bakken light oil and 82
percent non-Bakken
crude oil and associated
natural gas;
312 net sections of
undeveloped Saskatch-
ewan land, 25 of which
are in the Bakken light oil
resource play;
16 of the 25 net un-
developed Bakken sec-
tions have no associated
reserves booked as of
March 31, 2009;
70 net low risk drill-
ing locations, 37 of which
are in the southeast Sas-
katchewan Bakken light
oil resource play;
Ownership of free-
hold mineral rights on
217 net sections of land,
resulting in overall royal-
ties of less than 16 per-
cent;
2.2 percent working
interest in the Weyburn
Unit CO2 fl ood;
More than 125 net
sections of exploratory
Bakken land in Montana;
Tax pools estimated
at more than $324 mil-
lion; and
Operating costs of
less than $11.50 per boe
Source: Crescent Point Energy Trust
Crescent Point’s Talisman acquisitions:
PIPELINE NEWS April 2009 B3
Estevan Office:Phone: (306) 634-2681Fax: (306) 636-7227
LynnsTrucking.ca
Benson, SK.
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www.xtremeoiltools.comE-mail: cmcgillicky@xtremeoiltools.com
Waskada, Man. – Long,
long before the 1980s oil
boom in southwest Mani-
toba put Waskada on the
map, Jolly Construction
was playing in the dirt.
Today, they are still
doing dirt and gravel work,
with a good chunk of their
business coming from the
local oil patch.
Sterling Jolly is the
principal behind the com-
pany, which was started
when his father Jack,
known universally as“J.T”
in the Waskada area, got
his fi rst truck in 1946. Jack
used to do everything from
hauling coal and cleaning
out grain annexes to deliv-
ering groceries and parcels
with a tractor and trailer
around the small village of
Waskada. “Th ey called it
dray in those days,” notes
Sherry Louttit, Sterling’s
sister.
Th e two siblings are
part of seven in the Jolly
clan, including two sets of
twins. Four are still active in
the company – Sterling, the
youngest, who heads up the
operation, Doug, who runs
equipment and acts as fore-
man; Don, Doug’s fraternal
twin, heads up trucking ef-
forts; and Sherry, who runs
the offi ce doing everything
from payroll to safety.
Sherry’s identical twin
Shelly got her start in the
business, and now works
in the offi ce of an northern
Alberta oilpatch company.
John now runs a similar
construction business based
in Calgary. Only Ted, the
eldest, did not get involved
in the business.
Sherry says, “It’s been
a good life. A hard life. Dad
worked the hardest. With
all of us pulling together,
we sort of got a business.”
She notes that you
can count on family, even
if sometimes they seem to
talk about the business all
the time.
In the third generation,
Sterling’s teenage daughter
Amanda helps out from
time to time.
“When I’m out on the
weekend, fi xin’, she’s hand-
ing me the wrench,” Ster-
ling says.
It’s not far from that
age that he began working
for his dad, back in the late
1970s, in his mid- to late-
teens. “I was running my
dad’s equipment,” he says,
noting they would gravel
roads, or put down a pad,
making use of a crawler.
Th ere was a little oil
activity in the area before it
really took off in the early
1980s, Sterling explains.
His fi rst oilpatch work
was for Ken Lee, working
for Omega Hydrocarbons
from Midale. Th at included
hauling “a bit of gravel and
pushing some dirt around,”
he recalls.
Th e 1980s went quick-
ly, and they kept buying
equipment here and there
– a backhoe, a few gravel
trucks, a Cat, another Cat.
It was a good time,
Sterling notes, saying at
one time he took a drive
and saw 11 rigs.
Th ey expanded some
more in the last decades, he
says, noting, “In the last few
years, six to ten years, we
bought quite a bit of stuff .”
Th e company’s pay-
roll varies from four to 15,
Sterling says. “It’s all part
time, mostly local people.”
“It’s pretty hard to get
people to move to a small
town,” he says, noting that
while the sign says Waska-
da’s population is around
the 200 mark, it’s less than
that.
Th ings slow down for
Jolly Construction in the
winter, but heavy snowfall
this year has kept things a
little busier.
Wedged in the south-
west corner of Manitoba,
and just a few miles north
of the US border, those
borders can be a little lim-
iting, making it diffi cult to
expand. Th eir area of oper-
ation goes as far as the Sas-
katchewan border to the
west, with occasional forays
as far north as the Sinclair
fi eld in the north. But, Ster-
ling notes, “Ninety-nine
per cent is right around the
Waskada-Goodlands area.”
“We do munici-
pal gravelling. We have a
crusher. We do farm work.
We were in the grain haul-
ing business, but it’s was
too competitive, so we let
that go.”
“I take it day by day,”
Sterling says, “We just do a
little bit of everything, but
mostly to do with gravel
and dirt.”
Th e last year was a
good one for Jolly Con-
struction, and it’s anyone’s
guess what 2009 will bring.
“It was good, probably
very good, for me,” he says.
“2009 is unpredictable.
“Th ings could change
very quickly. If oil goes back
up to $70 - $80 a barrel, [it
could be] as good as last
year. If it stays at $30 - $40,
I might be unemployed like
other people.”
Sterling notes, “Th e
oil’s done good for this
area, and done well for me.
I’m not a millionaire, but
I’m making a living.”
Doug Jolly of Jolly Construction gets ready to do some lease work east of Waskada, Man., the com-pany’s base. Photo by Brian Zinchuk
In the dirt decades before oilpatch cameIn the dirt decades before oilpatch came
PIPELINE NEWS April 2009B4
ENVIROTRAP SYSTEMSSecondary Wellhead Containment
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Register Today
Estevan Safety Training Courses (Rural locations speci ed)
CPR/1st Aid – Apr. 1-2; 7-8; 15-16; 18-19; 27-28; May 5-6; 9-10; 19-
20; Carnduff – Apr. 22-23; May 23-24; Carlyle - Apr. 13-14; May
25-26; Redvers – Apr. 29-30
CPR/1st Aid Refresher – Apr. 9; May 13
Confi ned Space – Apr. 17; May 13; Carlyle - Apr. 3; 23; May 28;
Carnduff - Apr. 20; Redvers - Apr. 27
H2S Alive - Apr. 6; 14; 21; 29; May 7; 21; Carnduff - Apr. 24;
Carlyle - Apr. 1; 16; May 12; 27; Redvers - Apr. 28
Waskada, MB - Apr. 7
TDG/WHMIS - Apr. 9; May 12
Detection & Control - Apr. 24; 25
Ground Disturbance - Carlyle - Apr. 2; 17; May 14;
Carnduff - Apr. 21;
OH&S/WHMIS - Apr. 13; Carlyle - Apr. 15
SECOR Refresher - Apr. 1
COR - Apr. 2-3; Virden, MB - Apr. 6-7
Fall Protection - Apr. 1-2; 4-5
Rig Rescue - Apr. 3; 6
Well Service BOP - Apr. 13-16; 20-23
Service Rig Assessor - Apr. 17
Safety Mgmt. & Reg. Awareness - Apr. 20-22
SMRA Refresher - Apr. 23
1st Line BOP - Apr. 20-23
Motorcycle Training - May 8-10
Early Safety Training Week in Estevan & Carlyle - Apr. 13-19
Students ages 16-21 may apply for an Early Safety Training
Bursary
Carnduff Safety Training Week - Apr. 20-24 - C. Space;
Gr. Disturbance; CPR/1st Aid; H2S Alive
ENFORM Classes at the Estevan Campus:
Supervision, Team Leadership & Motivation - Apr. 6
Safety Inspection Skills - Apr. 14-15
Safety Training for Jobsite Supervisors - Apr. 16-17
SAIT Business Courses at the Estevan Campus:
Presentation Skills - Apr. 30
For more info or to register call toll free
1-866-999-7372
Call us if you need a class set up just for you – we deliver
safety training on our site or yours.
We also off er 1A Truck Driving
Call 637-4921 for info.
Check out our website at www.southeastcollege.org
Ahealthy
lifestyle startshere
See us for the area’s largest selection of
vitamins & natural foods.
Old Fashion Foods405 Souris Avenue NE
Weyburn, SK. • 842-3003
Estevan – Multi-
stage fracturing technol-
ogy has made southeast
Saskatchewan a hotspot
in recent years, allowing
for several new entrants
into the business. One of
those entrants is Xtreme
Oil Tools of Estevan, lead
by president and part-
owner Cory McGillicky.
Xtreme works prin-
cipally in the southeast,
as well as Kindersley
country. “We spend a
lot of time out there,”
McGillicky says.
Th e company is one
-and-a-half years old,
started from scratch.
How do you get es-
tablished in the down
hole tools business?
“You’ve got to have a
proven product line and
the reputation with the
people you’ve worked
with and the people
working with you,” says
McGillicky.
“We have a pile of ex-
perience running around
the shop. Our newest
tool hand has over 10
years experience.”
Page B5
Xtreme focusXtreme focus
Big wrench for the big man. Cory McGillicky heads up Xtreme Oil Tools of Estevan.
PIPELINE NEWS April 2009 B5
634-3009 Estevan
DENNIS TROBERTDENNIS TROBERTOwner - 421-3807
Norm MeyersNorm MeyersSales - 421-8640Les McLenehanLes McLenehan
Dispatcher/Sales - 421-8810
20 & 30 Ton Pickers20 & 30 Ton PickersWinch TrucksWinch Trucks
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634-314467 Devonian Street, Estevan, Saskatchewan
Classic JewelersPh: 634-5338 • Estevan Shoppers Mall • Open Sundays 12 - 4
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Tel (306) 634•5522 • Fax (306) 634-3238Box 549, Estevan, Sk., S4A 2A5
Serving Southeast Serving Southeast Saskatchewan’s Saskatchewan’s
well servicing needs well servicing needs since 1972since 1972
Page B5Most of those people are hands McGillicky says he hired into the industry.
Th ey have seven staff in Estevan, plus two in Calgary doing sales.
A typical day may see a hand go out to a rig, and make a bottom-hole as-
sembly. Or they could be running a common permanent isolation bridge plug
to isolate diff erent zones in a well bore. Th en again, they could be working a
horizontal multi-stage frac system.
Th e biggest part of the business is multi-stage fracs, according to McGil-
licky. “Th is has only become big in the last couple years. Th at’s when it took
right off .”
Typically it means isolating an open hole leg for up to a mile, with eight to
12 evenly spaced stages.
Th ey cost more to do than a vertical well, but they also produce more.
Th e tools can be run in with either a drilling rig or service rig.
We look at some packers in the back of the shop, but no pictures, please.
Th at sort of stuff is highly protected, proprietary information. “I can give you
cartoon drawings,” he says with a smile.
A packer used for a multi-stage frac is basically a balloon on a stick, McGil-
licky explains. As you apply pressure to the inside of the pipe, it sheers screws,
and a ratchet mechanism squeeze the rubber outward, securing its placement
against the wellbore. It’s similar to stepping on a pop can, except it expands out-
wards. When you release the pressure, the ratchet holds the elements in place,
allowing it to stay set.
Th ey are placed at regular intervals, interstitially with liner joints.
On the inside of the packer is a seat that blocks the frac ports. A ball is used
to apply pressure to the seat, opening the ports on the packer. You start with
small balls at the end of the leg, and work your way up as you progress closer to
the surface.
Th e balls are eventually retrieved when the well fl ows back.
Th e result is similar to doing a perforation through the liner.
“What makes every packer diff erent is the major components that go in it,”
according to McGillicky
Th is makes up about three quarters of their business, according to McGil-
licky. “Th at is where the money is – big dollar jobs.”
Th ings have slowed down since Christmas, according to McGillicky.
“Th ere’s no doubt, we’ve been hit hard. We’re not like last year. But last year was
a phenomenal year.
“Usually at this point, it’s an utter panic. But not this year, due to the drop
in the prices of oil.
Th ey’ve felt the drop in drilling rigs, down by over half.
“It’s a change in pace of what we doing things at. It was just a real rate
race.”
Th ey now have more time to prepare, and they have seen a switch back to
conventional cased-hole work.
“Th e biggest thing from last year to this year is there was 97 drilling rigs,
now there are 32, 30. Th e overall outlook is a third of last year.”
“Th e 67 rigs were all focused on Bakken liners, basically,” notes Paul Gigian,
with Xtreme.
How do they deal with that drop off ?
Expansion, replies McGillicky. Move into areas you are not in now. “We can
take what we’ve learned here and apply it elsewhere.”
Xtreme looking to focus skills in new areasXtreme looking to focus skills in new areas
PIPELINE NEWS April 2009B6
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REPAIR SHOPTrash Pumps, Lights, Heaters,
Generators, Compressors, Converters
By Brian ZinchukMelita, Man. – Head
offi ce is hardly notice-
able. Indeed, you might
be thinking you’re going
in renew your drivers li-
cense or perhaps to buy
a house or mutual fund.
Yet Antler River Re-
sources, whose president/
CEO operates out of the
Cameron Agencies of-
fi ce on the Main Street
of Melita, Man., is plug-
ging away, drilling wells
and keeping active.
Th e slowdown in the
patch makes it more eco-
nomical for those who
are active, he says. “Prices
are more negotiable now
than they have been for a
considerable time. Basi-
cally it is an opportunity.
When everyone else is
sitting on the sidelines,
I’m just getting going,”
according to Murray
Cameron.
Th e small, privately-
held junior oil producer
has been active Manito-
ba since 1983, when the
extreme southwest cor-
ner of Manitoba became
active with the Waskada
fi eld
“We’re really junior,”
says Cameron. “We’re
one of the smaller com-
panies in Manitoba.”
Th e Manitoba oil-
patch is to Saskatchewan
what Saskatchewan’s oil-
patch is to Alberta – al-
most an order of magni-
tude smaller. “We’ll have
seven rigs working here
and we’ll think we’re
busy,” he says.
“A number of local
residents came to me,”
Cameron says of the
company’s startup. It’s
got six active partners,
and a number of smaller
partners at present time.
“We’re drilling at
Sinclair in the Bak-
ken,” he says. “We have
six wells up there right
now.”
But that’ not where
most of their wells are.
“In Manitoba, we
call it the MC3. In Sas-
katchewan, you call it the
Frobisher.”
“We do a majority of
verticals, but we are doing
a horizontal in the Fro-
bisher,” he says. In mid-
February, Eagle Drilling
Services punched a hole
from them at Pierson,
just west of Melita. It’s
near where CNRL has
a number of horizontal
wells.
“We’ll drill maybe
three over the winter,
another three over the
summer,” he says, with
six wells a year in total.
“Th at seems to be our
goal at the present time.”
Page B7
What we make on the ferris wheel,
Desk and Derrick
The Southeast Desk and Derrick club checked out Prairie Rat Hole Services Ltd. on Mar. 16. There they provided with a dem-onstration of what a rat hole rig does. In the
coveralls on the left is Mel Trobert, owner. Operators Corey Simon, in the rig, and Travis Paterson set up the rig.
Photo by Brian Zinchuk
PIPELINE NEWS April 2009 B7
1120 East AvenueWeyburn, Sask.
S4H 3E4Ph. 842-7290 Fax 842-7277
Welcome to Industrial Electric
Industrial Electric (Weyburn) Ltd is a major maintenance and installations contractor for manufacturing and processing industries in the oil and gas sector. For over 35 years, IEW has provided high quality maintenance and installation services for some of Canada's largest companies.
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we lose on the merry-go-round
Jack Vanhove, Murray Cameron and Greg Barrows have a brief lunch at the local Chinese cafe in Melita, Man. Cameron acts as president/CEO for Antler River Resources, while Barrows participates with several wells on a farm-in basis. Jack Vanhove does occasional maintenance for Antler River Resources, noting, “I set the jacks.”
Photo by Brian Zinchuk
Page B6“Manitoba has al-
ways been sort of the
marginal area. When
prices did go up, so does
discoveries. “When oil
was $12 a barrel, I’ve
been around then,” he
notes.
“We’re happy with
$50 to $70 oil. We can
do quite well with that.”
Th e company has
about 22 wells, all but
one were active as of ear-
ly February. All are oil, as
he notes Manitoba has
no commercial gas pro-
duction. Grades are from
light to medium crude.
Th e wells are located
in the Sinclair, Hartney,
Coulter and Regent ar-
eas.
Pointing to the loca-
tions on the Manitoba
Petroleum Branch GIS
map, some of the those
fi elds appear pretty tiny,
barely a few miles across.
Th ey’re pretty small too,
he notes.
In the Bakken, one
well is a dual producer,
pulling from the Lodge-
pole and Bakken forma-
tions.
“We’ve hired CNRL
and Tundra to do our
cleaning, knocking the
water out of it.”
All their wells are
tanked, and trucked to
terminals. “We deliver
to Cromer, and CNRL
in Pierson which is
pipelined into Saskatch-
ewan.”
For operational staff ,
it’s pretty small. Th ey
have an offi ce in Pierson,
with a full time book-
keeper. “We hire two
contract operators - one
for north, one for south.”
“Getting leases is
quite economical,” he
says. It helps to be local,
and that people know
they’re trying to build up
the area.
“I think I’ve paid my
price a few times. We’ve
survived a few rough
times. We’re well funded
now.”
“We know there’s
valleys and rises at times.
It’s part of the business.”
It’s important to
keep lifting costs to what
you can handle, he says.
If the price goes too low,
you have to shut in wells.
“Our lifting costs are
fairly reasonable. [Our]
oil is light, fairly clean.”
Th e company has
been re-investing, he
says, noting, “We basi-
cally pay as we go. We do
joint ventures with vari-
ous companies.”
Greg Barrows is
a partner in Cameron
Agencies, and he’s also
a partner on a number
of wells, on a farm-in
basis. Sitting down with
Cameron and this re-
porter at the local Chi-
nese cafe, Barrows notes
with a smile, “Keeping
you broke keeps you am-
bitious.”
“Once you get going,
the income off the other
wells keeps you drilling
wells.”
Barrows is involved
with fi nancial planning
when he’s not in the
oilpatch, but it’s a good
combination, he notes,
as few people in that
fi eld have an intimate
knowledge of the patch.
Quoting from a
former director, the late
Harvey Clark, Cameron
says, “What we make
on the ferris wheel, we
lose on the merry-go-
round.”
PIPELINE NEWS April 2009B8
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Bus: (306) 842-3401Fax: (306) 842-3402
Southern RangeWell Servicing Ltd.
Owned & Operated by Keith & Janice HansonOwned & Operated by Keith & Janice Hanson#306 Wicklow Centre - 1133-4th Street, Estevan, SK#306 Wicklow Centre - 1133-4th Street, Estevan, SK
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By Brian ZinchukEstevan – Trent’s Truck and Tire Repair, located between
Ounger and Torquay has established a beachhead in the Estevan market, setting up shop in a bay of Dart Services on Estevan’s west side.
Th e Estevan location is called Trent’s Tire, and is owned by Trent Emmel. He’s taking advantage of some space available in his brother Davin’s shop. Davin Emmel and his parter Marty Hanson own and operate Dart Services.
Trent Emmel says “We were always getting calls out here for tires from Estevan.”
Lonnie Elder heads up the Estevan location. He says they saw an opportunity to set up in Estevan.
Operations started on Jan. 5, but he notes people were ask-ing for service in the weeks preceeding the actual opening of the story.
Th e tire shop currently employs four.Th eir product line is mostly just tires right now, according to
Elder, anything from ATV to farm tractors. “I just had a customer come in yesterday with a ’59 Ford looking for wide whitewalls. I found them for him.”
“I’m hooked up with fi ve suppliers,” he notes.Inventory is mostly kept in sea containers, with high
throughout items kept on a rack in the bay.Th e shop is equipped with a tire balancer, car tire machine,
and two large truck tire machines.Th ere’s a one-tonne service truck in the works, according to
Elder. Come this summer, Trent Emmel hopes to begin construc-
tion of a new facility nearby the Dart Services building, on the 10 acres Davin Emmel and Hanson own. “Probably right next door,” Trent says.
“Th e shop we want to build is like a drive through. Come in one end, leave the other,” Elder explains.
Th ey would likely expand into servicing and safety, according to Trent Emmel, in the new facility.
Currently they have enough room to get a B-train semi in-doors. Th at’s useful, because a good chunk of their customer base is local oilpatch companies.
Have they had a good response to their entry in the Estevan market?
“Buddy, unbelievable,” Elder says. A minute later, a customer comes in, asking to set up a new account.
Establishing a Establishing a beachheadbeachhead
Mike Saar of Trent’s Tire in Estevan works on an oilpatch truck in the bay. Photo by Brian Zinchuk
PIPELINE NEWS April 2009 B9
Toll Free: 1-888-638-6433 or 1-306-634-6400Plant: 1-306-388-2344 Fax: 1-306-634-7828
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REDLINE WELL SERVICE
Outgrew last shop in two yearsEstevan – Having
outgrown its last shop
in just two years time,
Supreme Oilfi eld Con-
struction moved into its
new headquarters just
east of Estevan in early
March.
Th e new facility is on
the road leading to the
Shand Power Station,
and is a short distance
from where the new by-
pass around Estevan will
terminate on the east
side, joining Highway
39.
“We’re a full ser-
vice oilfi eld pipeline and
construction company,”
explains Kent Pachal,
controller. Th at includes
building batteries and
gas plants.
Don Biette is the
president of Supreme.
Th e company averag-
es about 110 employees,
depending on the season,
and peaked last summer
around 150. While they
have worked in Alberta,
southwest Saskatchewan,
and southwest Manitoba,
Supreme principally op-
erates in southeast Sas-
katchewan.
Pachal reports they
have been busier this past
January and February
compared to the norm,
but not as much as the
last two years. “Th ere’s
defi nitely a big push
right now,” he noted in
early March, referring
to the lead up to spring
breakup.
Construction on the
new shop started in June,
2008. Temporary of-
fi ce space was located in
downtown Estevan, and
the previous shop was
located on the north side
of the city. Th ey grew out
of it in just two years.
Th e biggest diff er-
ence with the new loca-
tion is space – they now
have lots of it. Before,
Pachal says there was
“nowhere for our guys
to do skid work of the
bolting up of headers.
Even the yard wasn’t big
enough.”
Th ere was no room to
manoeuvre trucks, which
is important, considering
they went from one trac-
tor unit to six.
Th e new home is on
one of six lots, four have
been sold or are in the
process of selling. Border
Insulators will soon be a
neighbour, and two other
lots have gone to a pri-
vate party. One more lot
is in the works.
With 19 acres, Pachal
says, “I think we’re pretty
much set.” Page B10
The washbay in Supreme Oil eld Construction’s new shop is large enough to put two trucks in it side by side.
The welding shop in Supreme Oil eld Con-struction’s new Este-van building is three times large than the area they used to work in. Welder Sarah Schi-estel now has far more space to work with.
PIPELINE NEWS April 2009B10
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Page B9Th e building is 240
ft. by 100 ft. Th e red-
roofed shop has three
areas, plus offi ces. Offi ce
space fi lls the east end of
the building, followed by
a mechanical shop, weld-
ing shop, and wash bay.
Th ere’s plenty of storage,
and a plan do to more
gravelling of the lot.
Th e welding shop
is equipped with two
10-tonne overhead
cranes, something that
welder Lorne Turk says is
a welcome addition. “It’s
like heaven,” he says with
a smile, working in the
welding area. He’s par-
ticularly happy to have a
fl at fl oor to work on.
Th e large welding
shop, three times larger
than their previous quar-
ters, means the company
can become more verti-
cally integrated, doing
work they would have
otherwise subcontracted
out.
Th e wash bay is big
enough to put several
vehicles in, and wide
enough to put semis in
side-by-side. It will be
used primarily for wash-
ing, however.
In-fl oor heat is in-
stalled in the shop areas.
Th e offi ce area in-
cludes a board room, and
allows for confi dential
meetings. It makes it
easier for management
to work together, Pachal
notes, saying. “It’s im-
portant you run lean and
mean.”
“We’re going to be
able to manage the whole
business better.
Supreme also has
locations in Oxbow and
Kipling.
Supreme Oil eld Construction’s new facility just east of Estevan provides a lot more room for moving around as well as building things like skid pack-ages.
It’s a lot easier to do mechanical work in a large, heated shop. Supreme Oil- eld Construction’s new shop gives their mechanic a new home to tackle
maintenance issues.
Fast growth
PIPELINE NEWS April 2009 B11
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Estevan – With
oil inching up towards
the $50 mark by mid-
March, Brad Bennett,
area manager for Eagle
Well Servicing, antici-
pates more work come
summer.
“We were going real-
ly hard until Christmas.
Come January, it slowed.
But it looks pretty posi-
tive after breakup.”
Bennett says this on
St. Patrick’s day, when
oil is hovering around
the $47/bbl range. It’s
Anticipating more action after breakup
Eagle Well Servicing Rig No. 31 works on an endless tubing cleanout north-east of Kisbey on March 13. BJ Services Company Canada took part.
Photo by Brian Zinchuk
getting close to what he
feels is a tipping point.
“Most of the companies
are looking at $50+,” he
says.
Prices need to sta-
bilize and stay there, he
notes. Th at’s the thresh-
old where companies
will spend more. “Th e
biggest problem is it
fl uctuates.”
In mid-March,
Eagle had fi ve of seven
service rigs going, drop-
ping to three by Mar. 17.
With roadbans coming
on, everyone’s gearing to
stop, he says.
Bennett expects a
long road ban, given the
weather the southeast
has had. Th ere will be
some work, depending
on what RMs allow, but
breakup will be catchup
time. Maintenance will
be done, and he says,
“We’ve got a bunch of
courses we have to put
the guys through. Road
bans are a good time to
do it.”
B12 PIPELINE NEWS April 2009
Visit us at #1-502 6th Street
Advanced Thinking–Down to Earth ServiceAdvanced Thinking–Down to Earth Service www.cai-esp.com www.cai-esp.com
• Service Technician and Spool Truck available
• For service call Chris at 306.461.6644• For sales call Karry at 306.421.7435• For all other inquiries call 306.634.6281
Estevan Sales & Service Facility Now Open!Estevan Sales & Service Facility Now Open!
Manufacturer of downhole Electrical Submersible
Pumping Systems as well as surface Horizontal
Pumping Systems and Variable Frequency
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Join the Oil Wives Club of Estevan, a social club for women whose significant others work in the oil patch.
We understand relocation and how hard it may be to meet people in a new town.
With our long established “Links of Friendship” via over 29 clubs in B.C., Alberta and Saskatchewan, you will always have a group of friends wherever the patch may take you and your family.
Our motto is “Fostering Friendship” and we meet every third Thursday of the month... just to have fun and a meal.
Come out and meet with women who share similar interests and take the opportunity to make life-long friendships.
Our next meeting will be held April 16w, 2009.
For more information call Cindy Beaulieu at 634-4970 or Connie Spencer at 634-1012
Check out our website at: www.oilwives.com
Hey Girls!Hey Girls!
Just wanna have
fun?
Frac crew needed a home
Estevan – With a
new frac crew having
moved into Estevan last
summer, Trican Well
Service needed some-
where to put them.
Construction start-
ed on the new shop
started last year, and
hopefully they will be
in it by mid-spring.
Th e new facility, lo-
cated on the southwest
corner of their Estevan
yard, includes four bays,
a drive through wash
bay, and a pit for ser-
vicing and inspection.
When completed the
shop wil have offi ces, a
coff ee room and train-
ing room.
“We needed a frac
crew in the area to pro-
vide full service and
compete with competi-
tors,” explains Rod Fisk,
interim manager of the
Estevan location.
“We had employees
transfer from all areas
of Alberta and some
from BC.”
Th ere are about 15
people on a frac crew.
Th e old shop was
getting too congested,
Fisk says.
Th e main thing is
to have a good place
to do services, a place
where mechanics can
make sure equipment is
looked after properly.
Most of their frac-
ing is in the Bakken,
where Fisk notes, “Th e
technology is just over-
whelming and ongo-
ing.”
Prior to the arrival
of the frac crew, ce-
menting and acidizing
was the key ingredient
in the Estevan opera-
tion. It still makes up
75 per cent of Trican’s
southeast Saskatchewan
operations, with the re-
mainingg 25 per cent
coming from fractur-
ing. Th ey have 55 peo-
ple based in Estevan,
with the next closest
Trican bases set up in
Lloydminster, Provost
and Medicine Hat.
“Guys are still go-
ing to work every day,
but we are noticing a bit
of a slow down,” Fisk
says, noting there has
not been as much of a
big push for the end of
the winter season.
“We try to keep
everyone on board,” he
notes, during spring
breakup. Th ere are sign-
up lists for training
posted in the offi ce, and
there will be plenty of
polishing.
Trican Well Service’s new shop, still under construction, will house the frac crew the company brought into Estevan in the summer of 2008.
Photo by Brian Zinchuk
This will be the of ce area for the new shop.
PIPELINE NEWS April 2009 B13
• Sand & Gravel • Sand & Gravel • Rock & Topsoil • Rock & Topsoil
• Excavators • Excavators • Backhoes • Backhoes
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• Basements • Basements • Demolition • Demolition
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2009
(780) 875-0203 LloydMallLloydminster
Last year was great. This year? A little slower
Melita - Last year
was the best year they’ve
had to date, but the man-
ager of the Melita, Man.,
branch of TS & M, ex-
pects things to slow down
somewhat this year.
“Right now we are
in a slow down trend due
to the price of oil,” says
Wayne Sonnenberg.
TS & M is an oil-
fi eld supply store affi li-
ated with National Oil-
well Varco, with its head
offi ce in Estevan.
“Th ere’s going to be
a reality check with the
way prices have infl at-
ed,” Sonnenberg notes.
“Everybody was short
staff ed, everybody had
to pay higher wages to
hold onto the people you
had.”
“I thinking things
will pick back up when
the price of oil picks up.”
“Talking to a few
guys, it looks like it’s go-
ing to be at least fall,”
Sonnenberg said in Feb-
ruary. Not long before, he
was expecting things to
pick up in the summer.
“Overall, last year was
the best year we’ve had,”
he says, noting there is a
correlation to their recent
expansion. Th ey saw a lot
of crew from Estevan
and Alberta, with plenty
of walk-in traffi c from
out-of-province workers.
“We probably doubled
our clothing sales last
year.”
Sonnenberg has
been with TS & M in
Melita since the compa-
ny opened its doors there
in 1983. “I came down
and started it,” he says,
noting he was originally
with the Weyburn offi ce.
One of the original own-
ers of TS & M had come
into Melita a few times a
week prior to that.
Th is worked out the
best,” he says of the Me-
lita location. “We’re cen-
trally located.”
To the southeast is
the Waskada fi eld, with
Whitewater and Hart-
ney to the east, Sinclair
and Virden to the North,
and Pierson and Gains-
borough to the west.
“You’ve got pools
here and there, not one
great big fi eld,” he says.
Some of those pools
are pretty small, like the
Coulter fi eld, south of
Melita near where High-
way 83 meets the US
border.
“Either you go west
to Oxbow or north to
Virden. We’re kind of the
only one left in town,” he
says of supply stores for
the oilpatch.
Two years ago, TS &
M expanded their Me-
lita operations substan-
tially. Where it used to
be just two full-timers,
including Sonnenberg,
for literally decades, now
they’ve got fi ve full time
positions and two part
timers. Th e new shop,
two years old this spring,
is 8,800 square feet, more
than four times bigger
than their older location.
“We probably have
fi ve to six businesses set
up in town that have a
shop or offi ce,” he says
of the local oilpatch.
“Overall, we have about
25 companies that have
people in town.”
“We probably have
as many employees now
as we did back then, but
not as many businesses in
town,” he says, compared
to when the Waskada
fi eld fi rst put the area on
the map in the 1980s.
He says about 95
people live in Melita but
work elsewhere in the
oilpatch. Th at’s a sub-
stantial chunk of the local
populace, and as a result,
he says, “Th roughout the
day, you don’t see much
traffi c in town. Gone at
six to seven in the morn-
ing are Fast Trucking and
service rig crews.”
TS & M in Melita grew from two full time staff to ve, with a couple part timers. Back row, from left” Lynn Vanbe-selaere, admin; Danial Forster, repair shop. Front row: Wayne Sonnenberg, branch manager; James Ternovetsky, coun-ter. Missing are Jen Schoonbaert, admin; Gerry Vanmackelbergh, repair shop; and Ryan Crepeele, repair shop.
PIPELINE NEWS April 2009B14
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By Brian ZinchukEstevan – Ever try to
reach for something that
fell behind the couch?
When you’re lying on
the fl oor, with your arm
behind the couch, there’s
only so much you can do
with your hand to ac-
complish your task.
Downhole tools
are, in a way, like that.
You can push, pull ro-
tate or pressure activate
them. But that’s about it.
Pretty much everything
you want to accomplish,
from setting mechanical
grips to hold on to the
well bore, to opening or
closing ports, to infl ating
plugs, has to be accom-
plished using these lim-
ited actions.
Yet the ingenuity of
the oilpatch has creates
all kinds of tools that can
accomplish a myriad of
purposes thousands of
meters underground.
Weatherford Com-
pletions of one of those
companies working
on and with downhole
tools.
“We run production
and completion tools on
drilling and service rigs,”
explains Brian Fuhr, area
manager for Weatherford
Completions in Estevan.
Just what is a down-
hole tool?
Fuhr explains it is
a mechanical tool for
running the well. It can
include packers, plugs,
infl atable tools, anchors,
injection tools among
others. Plugs will shut
off a well, while a packer
is used to isolate sections
of the wellbore. An an-
chor-catcher anchors the
tubing on a traditional
pumping well, keeping
the tubing in tension so
that it is not moving with
the rod string, as well as
keeping it from falling to
the bottom of the well.
Some tools are re-
trievable, while others are
permanently set. Packers,
for instance, are usually
permanently set once put
into place.
Th ere are service
tools, used for purposes
like cementing or acidiz-
ing. Straddle infl ates al-
low you to selectively
isolate a portion of the
hole, and can be used for
swabbing, as an example.
“We assemble the
tools here, then we have
service reps take them
out into the fi eld, to drill-
ing or service rigs.”
Downhole tools can
be run at the end of a
drilling string, tubing, or
even wireline.
With the Bakken
play, frac liners are the
biggest thing right now,
Fuhr explains. Weath-
erford is a later entrant
into the fi eld, he says,
noting they spent a lot of
time on research, devel-
opment and testing.
“We’ve been doing
a lot of packer work for
EnCana CO2 injection
wells. We’ve been work-
ing with them for a few
years.”
Th at has necessitated
the use of nickel-coated
permanent packers, be-
cause carbon dioxide
creates a highly corrosive
environment. Page B15
Getting a lot done Getting a lot done at downholeat downhole
Brian Fuhr, manager of Weatherford Completions Estevan location, says packers are the big thing when it comes to downhole tools in the Bakken-play. Photo by Brian Zinchuk
B15PIPELINE NEWS April 2009
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Page B14
“It’s been good. We
went to nickel because it
seems to hold up better,”
Fuhr explains.
Most packers use a
single shot sleeve, where
a ball is used to apply
pressure to the sleeve,
opening up the ports.
Once opened, they stay
open.
A less common mod-
el is a reshiftable sleeve,
which allows ports to be
opened and closed using
a tool run on the end of
tubing or a coil.
Yet another design
is the monobore, which
uses a tool to shift open
or closed.
Ball-activated de-
signs are the simplest,
and make up for about 90
per cent of sales, accord-
ing to Fuhr. But having
the ability to shut down
a zone is useful, particu-
larly if you may be get-
ting watered out from a
particular zone.
“We’re trying to get
customers interested in
the reshiftable,” he says,
noting there are more
options with that design
down the road.
“We want to keep
doing traditional stuff
too,” he says.
Th e bulk of their
work is in horizontal
wells.
Other than push,
pull, rotate or pressure
activate, are there other
way a person can ma-
nipulate a downhole tool,
like radio signals?
“We’re working on
that,” Fuhr says, noting
Weatherford is looking
at more intelligent tools.
“We’re there more
for optimizing the well.
If they can increase pro-
duction, they’re better
off . A lot of times in this
area, it’s getting rid of
water.”
RebuildRace car motors are
continuously rebuilt. So,
too, are downhole tools.
“Each time a tool is used,
it is redressed,” Fuhr
says. Th at includes re-
placing O-rings, elasto-
mers, sheers or elements,
as needed. When tool
hands are not in the fi eld
running tools, they’re in
the shop, prepping or
rebuilding. “Sometimes
they look fi ne, other
times, tore right up.”
“It’s a big part of our
job. Half of it is in the
shop, half is in the fi eld,”
Fuhr says. “We have a
machine shop we use
quite a bit.”
Right now a lot of
Weatherford Comple-
tions inventory is in Ed-
monton. Fuhr notes they
would like to set up a
warehouse in their Este-
van yard.
RIght: Sometimes you need a good whack to motivate the part you’re work-ing on. This lesson in motivation is brought to you by the shop at Weather-ford Completions, Estevan. Below: Tools for clients ll the racks in the back of the Weatherford Com-pletions shop in Estevan.
Apex wins Carnduff Oil Ladies Bonspiel
Carnduff – Apex won the A-side of the Carnduff
Oil Ladies Bonspiel March 6-8. Fourteen rinks par-
ticipated.
Th e winning rink was skipped by Tricia Macken-
zie. Th ey beat out Zargon for the championship.
Th e second event went to TriStar, skipped by
Sherrilee Orsted, beating out Carsons, skipped by
Larissa Murray.
Th e third event went to Eagle Drilling’s Misti
Big Eagle Bayliss’ rink. Th ey conquered Betts Con-
tract’s Sandra Chadney’s rink.
Weatherford Weatherford knows the tools knows the tools of the tradeof the trade
PIPELINE NEWS April 2009B16
PIPELINE NEWSSaskatchewan’s Petroleum Monthly
C-SectionApril 2009
By Geoff Lee
Marshall –Canasonics, a Calgary-based company is making waves in the oil-
patch with new downhole tools that use sonic technology to clean, stimulate and
remediate wells.
Two of the most popular tools are the APT acoustic pulse tool that runs
downhole with joint tubing, and the smaller Sonics stimulation tool, used
with coil tubing.
“We have really good success with injection wells,” said Don Tara-
siuk, the Canasonics rep in the Lloydminster area. “Th at’s where
it really shines.
“It works extremely well opening up the formation
and the perforations to accept a higher volume of dis-
posal water.”
An injection well is used by heavy oil companies to
dispose of the salt water that gets pumped to the sur-
face with oil. Th e perforations in the pipe can get
plugged like they do with production wells.
“We go down with our tool and clean
it out,” said Tarasiuk. “Th is enhances their
disposal rate and capacity. Th ey can pump
so much faster and get rid of the salt wa-
ter into the formation faster.”
Canasonics tools have been used to
stimulate or remediate more than 650
wells including many heavy oil and gas
wells with a success rate of 68 to 87 per cent
depending on the type of well and application.
“It has applications in lighter oil too, wherever
there is a problem plugging off the formations or per-
forations,” said Tarasiuk. “It’s a stimulation and a re-
mediation tool.”
Both tools work by creating a pulse in the fl uid
matrix of a wellbore. Th e pulse is an acoustic pulse
that fl ows through the fl uid. Th e tool creates up to 90
hp of pulse pressure.
Th e unit has a fl uidic oscillator with a shut-off
valve so when one side is pulsing, the other side is
not.
“It creates a back and forth motion of fl uid down
in the hole,” said Tarasiuk. “Th e action moves every-
thing around down there and cleans it out. Slots and
perforations in the formation casing downhole have
a tendency to plug off with whatever foreign material
might be down there. Th e tool and the pulse it gener-
ates, clean it out.”
Th e fl uid used is water with a brine-based heavy
oil chemical from diff erent suppliers. Production wa-
ter is also used in conjunction with a pressure truck
to activate the tool to 2,000 to 2,500 lb. of pressure.
Th e tube-driven APT tool requires the use of a
service rig to pull the tubing and attach the tool to
the end of the string.
Th e smaller Sonics Stimulation tool is inserted with coil tubing and goes
downhole between the casing and the tubing, making it ideal for use in horizontal
wells.
“We are hoping the tools end up to be a large part of the production of heavy
oil here and in other countries,” Tarasiuk. “We are looking at possible
work in northern United States and Australia.
“Th ere’s a lot of new technology coming down the pipe from Ca-
nasonics. Th ere are quite a few diff erent pumping units under devel-
opment and variations on our existing tools.
“We are experimenting with leaving them down an injection
well permanently and injecting through them. So far, we’ve got posi-
tive results from those experiments.”
Tarasiuk says a lot of new stimulation and remediation tools are
springing up in the industry as oil companies need to get oil out of
the ground as cheaply as they can with the greatest volume
possible.
“Th e recovery of heavy oil in this area is about eight
per cent of what is in the ground,” said Tarasiuk. “Th ey
heavy oil companies need all the technology they
can to recover the remainder that is down there.
“Th e stimulation or remediation of the for-
mation makes it so the production reaches the
pumps and makes it to the surface.”
Tarasiuk works one or two days a week
out of his home after been coaxed out of re-
tirement following a lifetime of jobs as a mu-
sician, a crop duster and farmer along with
lengthy oilpatch experience pumping wells
for Husky Energy and drilling wells before
that.
As a Canasonics consultant, Tarasiuk re-
builds the tools after each use and delivers them to
the lease and directs their action down the hole.
“I tell the operator what to do with it, how to oper-
ate it and how to stage the tool within the perforation,”
said Tarasiuk. “It’s a matter of directing pressures and
fl uid rates and the rate of movement of the tool in the
perforations to make sure we’re in the right place and
cleaning out those perforations.”
When it comes to well stimulations with Cana-
sonics, Tarasiuk says oil companies gauge the success
of the tools by the cubic meter per day increase in the
well.
“Th e end result of a well stimulation or remedia-
tion with our tool makes it way cheaper than a lot of
other eff ort companies are trying to achieve down
well,” he said.
Canasonics downhole tools making waves
Don Tarasiuk rebuilds the innovative Canasonics APT acoustic pulse tool after each use.
Photo by Geoff Lee
PIPELINE NEWS April 2009C2
Box 1905, Regina, SK S4P 3E1Ph.: 306-721-8888 • Toll Free 1-800-723-3324
Fax: 306-721-5118 Email: caradawntransport@sasktel.net
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CARA DAWNCARA DAWNTRANSPORT LTD.
DAVE WELLINGS Cell: 306-536-3861
RICK ALLEN Cell: 306-536-7656
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CANADA/USA – BONDED CARRIER
By Geoff LeeLloydminster –Brock Johnson, Nex-
en Inc.’s lead production engineer for
coal bed methane (CBM) gas, shared
his company’s remedies for gas pains
over its CBM play in northern Alberta
at the March luncheon of the Lloyd-
minster Petroleum Society.
Formally, the topic was “Produc-
tion Challenges with Methane Extrac-
tion from Alberta’s Mannville Coal”
in Nexen’s Fort Assiniboine CBM gas
play where de-watering is a major is-
sue.
“In our wet CBM wells, we start
out without producing any gas what-
soever,” said Johnson. “We will produce
water from one to three months before
that fi rst ounce of gas comes out of the
reservoir.”
“Th en the water rate will drop off
and typically, the gas rate peaks six to
eight months after we start production.
Th ere’s a quick decline before it levels
out in a very steady decline, so it’s long-
term resource.”
Unlike conventional gas sandstone
reservoirs where gas fi lls the voids be-
tween sand grains, in Mannville coal,
the gas is part of the coal itself, lying
1,000 to 1,300 metres below ground
“It won’t release out of that coal
until you produce a signifi cant amount
of water which will de-pressure the
formation allowing that gas to escape
the coal,” explained Johnson.
“By de-watering it you are reduc-
ing the pressure inside that formation
which allows that gas to escape the
coal. It’s that pressure that is holding
the gas in the coal.”
At the wet Mannville CBM site,
gas is captured at the surface. Th e well-
bore is used as a gas/water separator.
“We produce the water up the tub-
ing and typically, the intake is sumped
well below where the gas is entering
the wellbore,” said Johnson.
“So the gas, by gravity will bubble
up through that fl uid level and get cap-
tured on the casing side of the wellbore
and sent to a processing facility in the
area.”
Th e water will travel up the tubing
that will typically lead to a storage tank
at surface and is injected back into a
disposal well.
Today, a wet Mannville well will
produce an economical volume be-
tween 250,000 to one million cubic
feet of CBM gas a day, depending on
the geology of the well.
Th at goal was achieved by a deci-
sion Nexen made to switch the ar-
tifi cial lift system based on Electric
Submersible Pumps (ESP) to a more
reliable and cost-eff ective reciprocating
rod pump system.
“Th e big challenge is the water,” said
Johnson. “Th e water isn’t crystal clean
water that you would hope to produce.
It’s contaminated with fi nes from the
coal or by chunks that probably broke off
the coal during drilling and make their
way into the wellbore.
“Once that dirty water makes it into
the pump, it will have the capacity to
plug the pump or the intake of the pump
so you can no longer produce water.”
Page C3
Nexen relies on Lloyd know-how
Ryan Roen with the Lloydminster Petroleum Society presents a gift to guest speaker Brock Johnson from Nexen Inc.
Photo by Geoff Lee
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Brock Johnson holds a rock from a “wet” Mannville well that can damage a pump.
Photo by Geoff Lee
Page C2“Th e ESP pumps
are an excellent pump
but even the vendors will
tell you they are not very
good for producing sol-
ids. We didn’t anticipate
the solids in our water
that we later found we
had.”
Johnson said be-
fore the switch, it cost
$153,000 for an aver-
age ESP workover and
there were 3.1 workovers
per well per year. With
the rod pumps, work-
over costs plummeted
to $71,000 and only one
workover per well per
year was required.
“We changed our
focus on artifi cial lifts
and with that change
we drastically reduced
our operation costs and
made the Mannville play
very economical,” said
Johnson.
Johnson credits ICI
Artifi cial Lift Solutions
Inc. and Weatherford
Canada Partnership in
Lloydminster for their
technical solutions that
allowed Nexen to com-
plete the system using
hydraulic pump jacks
made by both compa-
nies.
“My experience in
heavy oil allowed me to
keep those companies in
the back of my mind,”
said Johnson. “When we
were looking to address
an artifi cial lift system,
I knew where to get the
surface equipment.”
In fact, Johnson is
well known in Lloyd-
minster social and pro-
fessional circles. He grew
up on his parents’ acreage
in nearby Blackfoot and
attended high school in
Kitscoty.
After he graduated
from the University of
Alberta in 2001 with a
B.Sc in mechanical en-
gineering, he worked in
Calgary for a year and
was transferred back to
Lloyd where he spent
fi ve years with Nexen on
heavy oil projects. He was
also held executive posts
on the petroleum society
board of directors.
“I learned every-
thing I know today from
heavy oil,” said Johnson.
“Th ere is a huge knowl-
edge base here. Th ere are
a lot of guys who know
a lot about artifi cial lift
systems and I was lucky
enough to learn from
those individuals in the
area. I was able to apply
what I learned from my
stint in Lloyd on CBM
production in Leduc.”
Johnson also told
his audience Nexen has
CBM gas plays in the
Horseshoe Canyon near
Wetaskiwin and Cam-
rose, a resource which
he describes as shallower
dryer coal.
“We also have some
test Mannville wells in
that area too,” said John-
son. “Th ere is still some
research and develop-
ment being done and we
are still proving commer-
ciality there.”
Johnson says the wet
Mannville CBM he spoke
of in his presentation was
in the experimental stage
“but we are at a point
now where we have had
a steady state production
of water and gas. It’s been
a commercial property at
Fort Assiniboine for two
years.
“Luckily, we got
through our biggest pro-
duction challenges just
when the price of gas was
so good. Although we are
re-evaluating how fast
we develop the rest of
our land base, we’re still
going ahead with all of
the production we have
on stream and the future
looks bright for CBM.”
Johnson says despite
the recession, unconven-
tional plays like CBM
gas hold a lot of promise.
“Before the recession
it was always easier to ac-
cess conventional plays in
Alberta and in the world,”
he said. “Th ose plays are
getting harder to fi nd so
when demand stays the
same or goes higher and
the supply gets smaller,
the price of oil and gas is
going to go up.
“Th at price has
reached a point where
unconventional
r e s o u r c e s
that were seen as uneco-
nomical in the past, have
suddenly seen a new
light. Th ey are the next
resource to be addressed
in Alberta.”
PIPELINE NEWS April 2009C4
At Dominion Lending Centres (DLC) – we believe there are only 2 ways to get a mort-
gage in Canada and that’s either from your retail Banker or one of our very own Mort-gage Professionals. The mortgage indus-try in Canada has changed tremendously over the past 10 years alone, and it is not by accident that the Mortgage Broker chan-nel now accounts for well over 30% of all mortgage origination in Canada. With well in excess of one thousand DLC mortgage professional men and women across Can-ada, it’s a trend that continues to grow at a very rapid rate and the ever sophisticated Canadian mortgage consumer is reaping every benefi t. It is important to note that when making the most important fi nancial decision of your life, namely the purchase or refi nancing of a home, the interest rate you pay is absolutely paramount…but it is equally important that the person you deal with is educated and professional in secur-ing the proper mortgage terms that go with that rate.
Some simple points to consider…Your Banker represents the “retail side” of
the mortgage industry and your DLC Mort-gage Expert represents you to the whole-sale side of the mortgage industry. Our im-mediate objective at all times, is to secure the absolute best interest rate commanded by the merits and strengths of our qualifi ed applicants.
Your Banker may be well “rehearsed” when it comes to selling their employer’s products, where as your DLC Mortgage Expert is an accomplished and professional advisor when it comes to all Lender’s prod-ucts.
While your particular Banker only of-fers you limited product choice starting at their higher posted rates, you are benefi t-ing from the fact DLC as a whole, sends 100’s of millions in mortgage business each year to Canada’s foremost and largest Mort-gage Lenders and Brand Name schedule “A” Banks. As a result, our clients benefi t
from the Trust, Confi dence and Security. They are getting the absolute best rates of the day and products to match every one of their mortgage needs.
The math of your interest rate NEVER lies and is undeniably the key factor in whether you will continue to over pay an excessive amount of interest during the life of your mortgage OR possibly worse never real-izing the true buying power of your hard earned dollars. As of February 10, 2009, upon getting my fi nal proof into the SP for this special feature article my 3 year fi xed discounted Broker rate was 3.75%**, a full 2% off the banks posted 3 year fi xed rate of 5.75%. To illustrate this further, lets as-sume a $300,000 mortgage amortized over 35 years and compare the difference in in-terest rates and you decide which is worse:
Your Bank’s quote >> $300,000 @ 5.75% amortized over 35 years = $1647.05 or,
DLC’s Broker quote > $300,000 @ 3.75% amortized over 35 years = $1278.60
The difference of $1647.05 - $1278.60 = $368.45 of pure interest charge each and every month for 3 years or a total of 36 pay-ments = $13,264.20. Now assuming we are all in agreement that your home is quite possibly the biggest investment you will ever make, is it worse knowing that you are over paying every month by $368.45 OR that your hard earned dollars could have actually commanded a better investment or in this case perhaps a better home. Case in point, if you were mentally and fi nan-cially prepared to accept your Banks offer and pay the $1647.05 every month look how much more home you could afford if we now match the DLC Broker 3 year fi xed rate of 3.75% to a mortgage amount that gives you approximately the same payment of $1647.05…and that fi gure comes in at approximately $385,000 @ 3.75% amor-tized over 35 years = $1640.86.
So again you have to ask yourself is it worse knowing that $13,264.20 would have looked a heck of lot better say in your RRSP or that the interest rate is keeping
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PIPELINE NEWS April 2009 C5
By Geoff LeeLloydminster –When it comes to oilfi eld
stuffi ng boxes, Brightling Equipment Ltd. in
Lloydminster has built a better mouse trap that
is catching on with heavy oil customers in a
cost-conscious market.
Stuffi ng boxes are designed to keep oil from
spilling on the ground by redirecting produced
fl uid pumped from downhole to the tank, but
these devices are prone to frequent and costly
breakdowns.
Brightling’s stuffi ng box is called the BEL
FS and features an evolutionary fl oating seal
that company founder Craig Hall designed for
longer life.
“Th e stuffi ng box is the fi rst thing to go,”
said Hall. “Our challenge was to come up with
something that would last longer. If you can the
double the life, you save yourself the down time,
the workover costs and the cost of service crews to clean
up spills on the ground. Th ere is a tremendous cost hav-
ing the stuffi ng box fail.
“Our issue was to improve on the run time and we
also wanted something that would fi t on existing equip-
ment. We didn’t want to sell a new drivehead every time
we put a new stuffi ng box in.
“We wanted to be able to sell something that would
fi t onto equipment that was already out there. Th ere are
thousands of these things out in the fi eld.”
Hall’s leading solution was to design a stuffi ng box
with his fl oating Tefl on seal that eliminates upward or
downward pressure on the seal and reduces wear and
tear.
“Th e advantage is that it lasts longer and saves
downtime,” said Hall who tweaked other parts as well.
“Everybody wants something that works and is cost
eff ective. We’ve had absolutely great feedback. We’re
taking products customers are doing workovers for as
frequently as every two weeks and stretching that out
to a year.”
Hall says his inspiration for the product was a pro-
gressive process based on his analysis of what causes the
failure of so many stuffi ng boxes and he says more prod-
ucts are in the works.
Hall also designed and marketed a Brightling
drivehead with a hydraulically operated gearbox called
a HOG that is compatible with the company’s BEL FS
stuffi ng box.
“It’s very quiet and very small,” said Hall. “It’s what
turns the progressive cavity pump. It has a smaller mo-
tor that can go very fast. It has a small footprint and it’s
very quiet.”
Hall formed the company three years ago and was
joined shortly after by his business partner Daryl Lypkie
whom he worked with at Weatherford for many years.
Hall was an engineering manager and Lypkie
worked in quality control. Both men saw a need to
service local companies better that multi-nationals
could.
“It wasn’t that we saw a product niche but a
service niche,” said Hall. “It seemed people weren’t
serving this area anymore. When we started we had
no customers at all. We walked out of the door and
said this is what we wanted to do and we’ve built
ourselves up from ground one.”
Brightling currently has grown to eight em-
ployees who work out of a spacious shop to rebuild,
repair all makes of rotating stuffi ng boxes and as-
semble Brightling products.
“For the fi rst year, we were strictly a service com-
pany. Th at was kind of a fact-fi nding year,” said Hall.
“Th e last two years, we’ve grown exponentially.”
Even during the current economic slowdown
Hall says business is good. “One of our biggest is-
sues is trying to keep up with demand. Th e market
is strong.
“We are saving down time, so anybody who is cost
conscious knows they have to go with value. Our sales
have been fantastic.”
Brightling reports they have rebuilt and repaired
more than 3,000 existing stuffi ng boxes and sold more
300 of their own designs since startup. Th ey have also
rebuilt a couple of hundred wellhead drives and installed
dozens of their own HOGS in the fi eld.
“We are a service-based company,” said Hall. “We
don’t just fi x the problem and leave it at that. We try to
fi nd out why there is a problem. Th at’s where we are get-
ting our business from.
“We are trying to grow by dealing with customers
on a personal level. As we deal with clients one-on-one,
we spread like wildfi re. Our company grows as people
talk to each other and say ‘Brightling solved my prob-
lem’.
Ainsley Karolat is the focal point of this photo with her avail-able co-workers Arlee Olson, Clarke Code, co-owner Craig Hall and Codey Saville. Photo by Geoff Lee
Better stuf ng box & friendly service drive Brightling’s early successBetter stuf ng box & friendly service drive Brightling’s early success
PIPELINE NEWS April 2009C6
By Geoff Lee
Lloydminster –Th e ice at the Lloydminster curl-
ing rink was in Briar shape for the start of the 42nd
annual Heavy Crude Open Bonspiel but the curling
was vintage oilmen – as it should be.
Th is is an event where fun trumps competition
except for the diehards in the A-event such as de-
fending champion Weather-
ford BBW with tournament
chair John Stayner aboard.
“We’re doing alright. We’re
2-0,” said Stanyer who was
scheduled to face Monte Arm-
strong’s Granite Oilfi eld Ser-
vices’ squad following a break
for the opening ceremonies.
Catch up on how Stayner,
Armstrong and the other com-
petitors fared in the May edi-
tion of Pipeline News. Final re-
sults were not available at press
time for this edition.
Th e ceremonies were held
after a full day of curling with
a parade of players and dig-
nitaries including Jeff Latos,
bonspiel president and Stayner,
the master of ceremonies. Th e
party was led on to the ice by
the Lloyd Pipers.
Stayner welcomed teams to
the bonspiel and he and Latos
presented Oilman of the Year, Frank Jezowski and
wife Claudette with gifts.
Jewoski threw the fi rst ceremonial rock as ice
maker Brian McLasky rallied his crew to restore the
ice to competition form.
“I think the ice is good so far but it’s starting to
get a little dirty,” he said after a whole day. “You try
to clean it as good as you can and not put too much
pebble on it and keep it nice and clean.”
Asked if he picked up any ice maintenance tips
from watching the Briar, McLasky said, “I’ve had
those guys curl here before. I have made ice for a lot
of those guys. Th ey have given me tips when they
were here.
“Maybe it was in Briar shape this morning but
not now.”
Organizers had hoped for 96
teams but settled for 80 which left
Stayner saying he “was a little disap-
pointed.”
He attributes the shortfall in reg-
istration to the economy which has
aff ected all oilmen’s bonspiels this
year.
“Th e support from the oil and
gas companies and other sponsors has
been really good though,” he said.
Ditto that from Armstrong. “Ev-
eryone’s having fun. We have had
pretty good support from all of our
sponsors,” he said.
As for his team’s prospects? “We
got by our fi rst two games but we play
last year’s winner (Stanyer’s team) in
our next game which will be a little
tougher. We will hang in as long as
we can. Where ever we end up, that’s
where we’ll end up.”
Th e bonspiel wrapped up March
22 and included a banquet at the
Stockade Convention Centre.
Lloyd’s heavy crude bonspiel Lloyd’s heavy crude bonspiel as slick as it ought to beas slick as it ought to be
er-
nt
’re
was
m-
er-
ak
er,
m-
di-
re-
ess
eld
th
g-
os,
er,
The
by
g y p
te
St
po
ist
aff
ye
ga
be
er
pr
sp
go
la
ou
to
w
w
Ted Tryhuba and Monte Armstrong measure a rock for the closest to the button event.
Photo by Geoff Lee
PIPELINE NEWS April 2009 C7
PIPELINE NEWS April 2009C8
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By Geoff Lee
Lloydminister – Husky Energy employees and
contract staff continue to be a force for good in the
community by presenting local agencies with a re-
cord contribution of $173,000 raised through the
Husky Energy Charitable Campaign.
Th e total includes $105,779.81 from employees
and approximately $86,000 from Husky to match a
portion of the contributions.
“Th ere is a huge demand for money from chari-
ties,” said Dawn Veltikold Husky community rela-
tions offi cer.
“With the economy the way it is, we are really
excited that Husky employees have come on board
and have upped their ante. Th is is the largest amount
of employee pledges that we have received from the
employee complement.
“It will be a challenge to top this next year,”
added Veltikold. Last year, employees raised over
$85,000.
Veltikold and Husky facilities technician Kris
Stokoe presented cheques to representatives of 10
charities favoured by employees at Husky’s corpo-
rate offi ce on Highway 16 on Feb. 25.
“November is our major blitz but we do fund-
raising all through the year and we do a one-time
dispersal of the funds – that’s today,” said Veltikold
minutes before the cheque presentation.
Some of other fundraisers during the year are a
silent auction during an employee fall BBQ, an offi ce
luncheon, a farmer’s market, coins for the campaign
and the pledge campaign kickoff in November.
Th e Charitable Campaign is Husky’s larg-
est fundraiser of the year supported by employees
pledging to assist one of 10 agencies through payroll
deductions that start on January or by a cheque do-
nation.
“We give it to the charities up front and behind
the scenes payroll takes it off employees’ paychecks,”
explained Veltikold.
“Employees have the option to choose how they
want to distribute the funds. Once we have calculat-
ed the percentage of the fund distribution, then we
distribute the Husky portion in the same percentage
allotment.”
Husky also raises funds for charities each year
during the Autumn Leaves Charity Golf Tourna-
ment but organizations that benefi t from that event
are not eligible for funds from the employee Chari-
table Campaign.
“We try to make sure that we are not double
dipping our charities so we can support a broader
group of charities,” said Veltikold.
Prior to involving employees in the selection and
donation to local charities seven or eight years ago,
Husky contributed only to the United Way.
“Once we started getting more employee in-
volvement, then we opened it up to a lot of agencies
that are very worthwhile,” said Veltikold. “Now it’s a
broad spectrum of agencies ranging from employee
wellness to animal welfare and youth groups.
“It’s an employee based campaign and I can’t say
enough about the support we receive from out ven-
dors who provide us with items for incentive prize
draws. Our vendors have been phenomenal to help
us with the charity.” Page C9
employee charitable campaign
Representatives from 10 Lloydminster agencies are all smiles after receiving charitable cheques from the Husky Energy Charitable Campaign. Photo by Geoff Lee
PIPELINE NEWS April 2009 C9
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Husky’s Dawn Veltikold and Kris Stokoe hold up a cheque for MS reps Te-resa Adams, left, and Johanna Green.
It was smiles all around for SPCA’s Trevor Ollen who shakes hands for a cheque presented by Husky’s Dawn Veltikold. Beside Trevor is SPCA rep Kelly Efford and Husky co-presenter Kris Stokoe.
Page C8Th e fi rst cheque for $5,325.84 went to the Bea Fisher Foundation for home
improvements on their existing shelter for persons with developmental disabili-
ties. Big Brothers/Sisters of Lloydminster were presented with $13,407.48 for
after school programs.
Th e Lloydminster and Area Brain Injury Society received $7,536.76 for
program enhancements while the Th orpe Recovery Centre was presented with a
benefi t cheque of $12,250.73 for a new facility.
A cheque for $7589.53 went to the Lloydminster Rescue Squad to purchase
hydraulic cutters and $8,533.83 was given the MS Society of Lloydminster &
Battle River for multiple sclerosis couples therapy.
Th e Lloydminster Handivan Society received $15,782.22 toward the pur-
chase of a new van and the Lloydminster Region Health Foundation will use its
$28,625.95 cheque for surgical scope and local mammography.
A cheque for $30,713.90 will help the Lloydminster and District SPCA
fi nd a new animal shelter facility. Th e Lloydminster and District United Way
was handed a cheque for $44,013.57 to cover approved projects for 16 local
agencies.
A force for good
Macklin Mayor Pat Do-etzel, at the town of ce, works for Astec Fire and Safety in nearby Provost, Alberta.
Photo by Geoff Lee
PIPELINE NEWS April 2009C10
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By Geoff LeeMacklin – If you
are driving one of the
5,000 vehicles a day that
approach the town of
Macklin, Saskatchewan
,from the intersection
of highways 14 and 31,
think of the asphalt as a
welcome mat.
Macklin is a friend-
ly community of 1,634
people that uses it charm
to host a wide variety of
large and unusual events
like the World Bunnock
Championship and the
Prairie Egg Gathering
of Boler trailer enthusi-
asts who camp at nearby
Macklin Lake Regional
Park.
Newcomers to
Macklin over the past
few years have tended to
be young people drawn
by plentiful and well-
paying jobs in the oil
and gas industry that has
driven growth.
Nexen Energy, Mur-
phy Oil and Husky En-
ergy are some the major
operators in the area.
Macklin has become an
active service and sup-
ply centre strategically
located three kilometers
east of the Alberta bor-
der and 110 km south of
Lloydminster.
Kim Gartner, the
town’s administrator,
says Macklin is putting
its best foot forward to
keep the economic ball
rolling in tougher times
and attract new visitors,
businesses and entrepre-
neurs.
“Our number one
priority is to have our lo-
cal people invest in the
community,” said Gart-
ner. “If you can keep do-
ing that, it provides an
atmosphere where more
young people want to be
here.”
Gartner says young
investors are backing the
construction of a new car
wash under construction.
A new Rona Building
Centre and a motor inn
are scheduled for devel-
opment this year on a
43-acre commercial site
the town purchased on
Hwy. 14.
Th e town has also
purchased land for 34
new residential lots and
about 16 of those will be
serviced this year in an-
ticipation of an economic
rebound.
“We still have inqui-
ries about lots but it’s not
as busy as the last couple
of years,” said Gartner. “I
think there is enough ac-
tivity going on. It’s slow-
ing down, but we hope it
doesn’t last too long.”
A $2 million gym-
nasium renovation for
the Macklin K-12 school
is underway and there
are plans for a daycare,
an outdoor swimming
pool, an historic walk-
ing trail and downtown
beautifi cation and repav-
ing projects.
“Th e oilpatch has
certainly allowed us to
move ahead and build a
new hockey rink, curling
rink and a community
hall, “said Gartner.
“Th e golf course has
seen a lot of upgrades in-
cluding a new clubhouse.
We’ve see a new health
facility go in. Th is is all
in the past 10 years. It’s
been quick and success-
ful and the oilpatch has
been a big part of it.”
Th e construction and
upgrading of Enbridge’s
pipelines beginning in
1995, prompted contrac-
tors Bannister Majestic
Inc. to fund the expan-
sion of the campground
to accommodate annual
summer work crews.
“We’ve had diff erent
pipelines go in at diff er-
ent times,” said Gartner.
“Th e park will fi ll up
completely with pipeline
guys. Th ey are always
willing to help make it
better.”
Th e park boasts 135
serviced sites today and
has made Macklin a sum-
mer destination town.
Th e bunnock champion-
ship draws 4,000 visitors
a year to town.
Young families energize
Economic development of cer, Gary Thompson at the site for new com-mercial development on Highway 31. Photo by Geoff Lee
PIPELINE NEWS April 2009 C11
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Macklin’s character in the oilpatch
This life-like image of a young girl helps to slow traf c near Macklin’s K-12 school. Weatherford sponsored the portable units.
Photo by Geoff Lee
During last year’s gathering of Boler trailer
owners, the Chamber of Commerce rolled out
the red carpet with a pancake breakfast. Th e
Macklin Wildlife Federation ran a trout derby at
the lake.
Macklin will also welcome back yet another
pipeline crew this summer for landscaping work
on Enbridge’s Alberta Clipper pipeline 10 km
south of town.
“Th ere isn’t even a doubt the oilpatch has
had a big responsibility for our community and
the success of it,” said Mayor Pat Doetzel who
works for Astec Fire and Safety in Provost,
Alberta.
“As the oilfi eld has been successful, so has
Macklin.
“Young people have seen there is an oppor-
tunity out there and they weren’t afraid to invest
in Macklin and established themselves here.”
Doetzel says that most of the supply and ser-
vice companies in Macklin have been around for
awhile “so they can weather some of the eff ects
that the industry is going through right now.”
Th e same can’t be said for the town’s infra-
structure that was designed for a community of
1,000 to 1,200 people. A water treatment plant
was built in 2007 for $2.3 million and a costly
new lagoon system and water mains are on the
to-do list.
Gartner says Macklin will receive $140,000
of infrastructure funding from Saskatchewan’s
Ready for Growth initiative to replace old water
lines.
Other projects on the civic wish list like
repaving the old part of town will cost taxpayers.
“It’s getting to the point where people are
saying it’s costing a lot of money to here live but
they are still choosing to do that,” said Doetzel.
Economic development offi cer Gary Th omp-
son helped to celebrate a mortgage - burning
party last year for the arena built in 1997.
“We’re always doing new things,” he said.
“A committee was formed to plan for a new
outdoor pool. Th e cost is $1.6 million and right
now they have raised $700,000.
“Th e whole town is a fantastic place to live.
A lot of young people stay here and build houses
and grow families.”
With about 450 students, Macklin has the
second highest school population in the Living
Sky School Division.
“Growth has been predominately due to the
oil industry and related industries. It’s been phe-
nomenal for us. It’s been excellent and steady,”
said Th ompson.
Building permits for construction and hous-
ing have risen from $545,000 in 2002 to $4.2
million in 2007 but it could be a diff erent story
this year.
“With the downturn, we’ve had a few plans
from diff erent businesses put on hold until
things get back to a more normal state,” said
Th ompson.
“We wonder if we should be advertising. Th e
growth has been there and we’ve stayed away
from that venue. It always seems like we get
more inquiries than we send out feelers for.”
In town it’s unanimous that Saskatchewan
is no longer the poor cousin to Alberta’s en-
ergy industry and that’s another marketing tool
Macklin can use.
“At certain times in the past, I don’t know
if Saskatchewan has been that friendly of a
province to locate in with the PST and the cost
of servicing,” said Gartner. “It’s not as large a
detriment anymore.
Th at tax structure is a lot better and the roy-
alty is a lot better. Th e PST is a lot lower. It all
adds together to create a better environment.”
C12 PIPELINE NEWS April 2009
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Macklin –Justin Bast wears two hats on the job in
Macklin Saskatchewan.
One is for his role as branch manager of MRC-
Midfi eld and the other is when he is called to duty as
the fi re chief of the Macklin & District Fire Depart-
ment.
Bast is a former long-term alderman on town
council who is taking steps to lessen the impact of the
economic slowdown on his operations and protecting
jobs and lives in the community where he grew up.
“We’ve slowed down by about 35 per cent,” said
Bast. “We haven’t had to lay anyone off . We had a few
employees who wanted to be maintenance contrac-
tors, so we set them up as contractors. Th ey pro-
vide maintenance for hydraulic pump units that
are in the fi eld.
“We’ve also worked hard on reducing
our inventory to carry more of what we sell
and less of what we don’t.”
Th e Macklin Midfi eld branch is one
of 85 branches in the Midfi eld Group of
Companies and specializes in the sales and
service of oilfi eld supplies such as pipes,
valves and fi ttings.
Th ey also sell and service progressive
cavity pump systems and provide fi eld ser-
vice mechanics for all types of facility work
such as pipelines and battery construction and
well completion tie-ins.
Midfi eld opened in Macklin in January, 2006
to tap into the heavy oil market.
“It’s been successful so far,” said Bast. “Most of our
business is within a 40 kilometre radius of Macklin for
heavy oil clients.
“It was good timing to come in when we did. We
are not looking forward to the downturn in our third
year of business, but we are committed to being here.
“Th e maintenance side of the business tends to
stay as busy or grows during slowdowns as companies
utilize their customers’ property rather than purchase
new.
“We are hoping to grow our service side by add-
ing more fi eld service mechanics in the future but it’s
tough to predict with the current state we are in.
“From a community standpoint, there is noth-
ing good that can come from a
slowdown. If people lose their jobs, they spend less and
everyone suff ers.”
Community and workplace safety got a big boost
in March when the fi re department took delivery of a
new rescue vehicle.
Th e purchase was made possible, in part, to a
$75,000 donation from Nexen Inc. and a $25,000 do-
nation from Canadian Natural Resources Ltd. during
a 2008 fundraising drive.
“Th e oilfi eld has always supported us,” said Bast in
his role as fi re chief. “Th e oil companies are involved in
their communities.”
Th e new rescue truck can carry seven fi refi ghters
to a call and is equipped with a compressed air foam
system for extinguishing oilfi eld fi res and fi res from
vehicle accidents.
“Fires in the oilpatch can occur in tanks or
shacks,” said Bast. “Th ere are also a lot of vehicle
fi res. Now, we can put them out a lot easier.”
Bast grew up in Macklin and got his start
in the oilfi eld service sector in 1992 with
BMW Monarch, purchased by Weather-
ford, before managing the Midfi eld shop
located on the busy commercial strip on
Highway 31.
Midfi eld boasts a 12,500 square foot
warehouse that includes $1.4 million of in-
ventory, a service bay and space for pump
sales, repairs and maintenance.
Sucker rods, tubing and downhole pumps
are some of the most common production
products in demand.
Bast says the buzz on the street is that oilpatch
activity will pick up in the fourth quarter, but he cau-
tions the spring break up may be tough for everyone.
“Most of the businesses have a lot of owner opera-
tors. Th ere are the guys who get hit. Th ey don’t get the
hours.
“When it’s slow, we do maintenance on our ac-
counts and catch up on paperwork. It’s also important
to pay attention to your customers.
Mid eld takes steps for slowdown and safteyMid eld takes steps for slowdown and saftey
Justin Bast, MRC - Mid eld
PIPELINE NEWS April 2009 C13
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Calgary –If Don Herring were at the controls of the
Alberta’s energy legislation, he would have reset Alberta’s
royalty regime to what it was before Jan. 1, rather than
introduce the short-term stimulus announced March 3
to revive drilling.
“Quite frankly what would be a better announce-
ment would be for the Alberta government to seriously
look at the competitiveness of their fi scal regime and
make adjustments there,” said Herring, who is president
of the Canadian Association of Oilwell Drilling Con-
tractors.
Th e Stelmach government is off ering a $200-per-
metre royalty drilling credit for new conventional oil and
gas wells and a maximum fi ve per cent royalty rate for
the fi rst year of production on new wells.
Th e three-point program runs from April 1 to
March 31, 2010 and includes a $30 million fund aimed
at keeping service rigs busy cleaning up inactive oil and
gas well sites.
Th e energy incentive package follows Alberta’s con-
sultation with representatives from the energy industry
and the fi nancial community about the current challeng-
es facing investment and oil and gas activity in Alberta.
CAODC recently downgraded its forecasted drill-
ing activity for 2009 in the wake of low commodity pric-
es and tight credit that small oil companies rely on and
had warned of a further downgrade if conditions don’t
pick up.
“While we cannot make up for the impact that
global fi nancial markets are having on Alberta, we are
doing what we can,” said Energy Minister Mel Knight
at the news conference in Calgary where the incentive
package was announced.
“Th is short-term incentive program introduces in-
novative ways to help spur activity in our energy drilling
and service sector during this economic downturn.”
Th e number of wells CAODC expects to be com-
pleted in 2009 is projected to be approximately 11,184,
compared with the 16,844 wells completed in 2008.
Herring says the province’s announcement “gives
us some confi dence that we won’t have to decrease the
forecast again.
“It doesn’t give us a lot of confi dence that we would
actually make a positive adjustment but it might keep us
from making a negative one.”
Herring thinks the fi rst two elements of the incen-
tive program are good for drilling while the third ele-
ment will help the service rig industry.
“What they’ve done is recognized the costs of drill-
ing so they are off setting the costs,” said Herring. “Th e
second element is introducing a fi ve per cent royalty rate.
Th is is a lower rate than what would have been in place
if this program wasn’t there.
“Th is is all very much a short term issue and inves-
tors have to believe that that matters. Th e government
has also said depending upon how the program is used
or works or what happens with commodity prices, it may
be extended.
“Th e evidence in the past suggests that you if can
‘come to the party’ and introduce some adjustments
temporarily, people will respond positively to them be-
cause there are tied to a fair regime.
“Now what you’re asking them (investors) to do is
to come in recognizing that they object to the platform
itself. Really, what you are doing is enticing them to the
investment circle using a short term stimulus. Some in-
vestors will do it and others will say forget it. Th at’s the
risk they take.”
Based on drilling forecasts, the two initiatives could
cut $1.5 billion from provincial energy royalties but
Herring says “no one knows what the cost of the pro-
gram is.
“It may not cost them anything if investors don’t re-
act to it. Th at fi gure has a huge assumption on take-up.
Th ere may be very little take-up for all we know. If there
is no take-up, there is no cost.”
Th e energy incentive package follows consultation
with representatives from the energy industry and the
fi nancial community about the current challenges facing
investment and oil and gas activity in Alberta.
Th e province will monitor the impact of the incen-
tive program, and at the end of the year, assess whether it
is necessary or appropriate for it to be continued.
Lobby prefers changes to Alberta’s royalty structure
PIPELINE NEWS April 2009C14
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& Prospect Expo
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Workshops
Technical TalksActivity Updates “Hot Plays”
Regina –News of a
big oil discovery has a
way of attracting a large
crowd.
More than 1,000 en-
ergy professionals, mainly
geologists and engineers
from Canada and the
United States, could be
heading to Regina for
the 17th Williston Basin
Petroleum Conference
April 26-28.
Th e topic of collec-
tive interest is the famous
Bakken oil play, specifi -
cally the subsurface geol-
ogy and the technology
that made the Bakken
bonanza possible.
Th e Bakken forma-
tion of the Williston
Basin is a success story
of horizontal drilling,
fracturing, and comple-
tion technologies result-
ing from the geological
analysis of data on the
decades-old producing
area that has helped to
identify uptapped re-
sources.
“Th e basin is becom-
ing better understood
because there is certainly
more focus and there’s
been more experience
with extracting oil from
the Bakken,” said Chris
Gilboy, event co-director
and director of petroleum
geology with the Sas-
katchewan Ministry of
Energy and Resources.
Oral presentations,
poster displays and
workshops will focus on
practical applications of
geoscience and engineer-
ing technology that help
identify what works –
and what doesn’t work –
in the search for new hy-
drocarbon accumulations
and the development of
known pools.
Th e conference is
sponsored by Energy and
Resources along with the
North Dakota Petroleum
Council and the North
Dakota Department of
Mineral Resources.
“We are hoping for
about 1,000 people,” said
Gilboy. “Last year, in
Minot (North Dakota),
there were about 1,370
people which was a huge
increase over previous
numbers. With the in-
terest in the Bakken last
year, there has been a
major increase in atten-
dance.”
In the early years,
these conferences were
known as the horizontal
well workshops that drew
about 400 people.
Gilboy says now the
emphasis is on anything
that is helpful in terms
of technology or geosci-
ences knowledge to help
with exploration and de-
velopment of the petro-
leum industry.
“Th e conferences
seem to be important be-
cause they are good net-
working opportunities,”
he said. “I think that is
one of the main reasons
why they tend to be pret-
ty well attended.
“Th ere is a lot of shar-
ing on an individual level.
Th e technical sessions are
also a value to people.”
Garth Simmons, who
works with engineering
services at Energy and
Resources, is lining up
some of the presenters
including TriStar Oil and
Gas on its operations in
the Bakken in near Este-
van.
“Th eir presentation
will look at the diff er-
ent lengths of horizontal
wells that are being tried
along with fraccing,” said
Simmons.
“We do ask our pre-
senters to focus on case
studies rather than on
theoretical possibilities.
It’s really experience-
based presentations.”
Presentations will
also be made by compa-
nies from North Dakota
and there will be a series
of speeches on every-
thing from an overview
on exploration and devel-
opment in Saskatchewan
to a review of shale gas
prospects in southwest-
ern Manitoba.
“Th is a technical
conference for geologists,
engineers and some lands
people,” explained Sim-
mons who backs Gilboy’s
prediction that atten-
dance will be strong de-
spite the economic slow-
down.
“It’s held during
spring break up,” he said.
“I don’t think there are
many companies busy
during that period. One
thing about having it in
Regina is that it’s easier
for the Canadian opera-
tors to get to. We tend
to get more people from
Calgary the years we hold
it in Canada.”
Meanwhile, Gilboy
added when things are
really busy, “a lot of the
geologists and engineers
don’t have time to go to
conferences. It’s not high
on their priorities.
“As long as people
are not losing their jobs,
there is more time avail-
able for people to attend
to share their knowledge
at these events.
“Th ere will be a lot
a people coming in from
the U.S. and Calgary. Th e
city will benefi t from
that.”
Williston Basin conference
We are hoping for about 1,000
people- Chris Gilboy,
Event co-director”
“mmhh WW
C15PIPELINE NEWS April 2009
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Phone Joe Reck: 780-808-1952Phone Collin Morris: 780-808-4132
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By Geoff LeeLloydminster – Th e
Lloydminster chapter of
the Petroleum Society of
Canada has voted 92 per
cent in favour of joining
forces with the Society of
Professional Engineers
(SPE). Th e vote was cast
in March with a 40 per
cent voter turnout.
“Th is gives us a
step toward closing that
merger,” said Ryan Roen,
public relations manager
for the Lloydminster Pe-
troleum Heavy Oil Sec-
tion.
SPE is a professional
association with more
than 88,000 members
worldwide engaged in
energy resource develop-
ment and production.
Roen broke the news
of the pending merger
at the March luncheon
in Lloyminster and ex-
plained merger talks
have been ongoing for
over a year.
“Th e petroleum so-
ciety and the SPE have
a lot of overlapping ob-
jectives in terms of pro-
viding their membership
and our membership
with resource technol-
ogy and advancement,”
he said.
“With SPE being a
major international or-
ganization, it just makes
sense that we are moving
in a direction to combine
with them.”
SPE is a leading re-
source for technical in-
formation related to oil
and gas exploration and
production and pro-
vides services online and
through its publications,
meetings, and other pro-
grams.
Roen advised the
luncheon that until all
the paperwork is signed
the vote means, “it’s basi-
cally a name change from
the Lloydminster Petro-
leum Society to SPE.”
Roen also explained
that existing member-
ship with the Petroleum
Society would automati-
cally roll over to the SPE
when the merger is of-
fi cial.
“Any current balance
we have will remain in
Lloydminster to spend
on Lloyd activities,” add-
ed Roen.
“We will still carry
out the same lunch ‘n
learn that’s here and we
will also still hold our
annual heavy oil sympo-
sium. We will be able to
leverage SPE knowledge
and resources.”
Anyone with sub-
missions for the 16 an-
nual symposium to be
held in Lloydminster
Sept. 16-17 is asked to
contact Mahesh Mak-
kar at Husky Energy at
(306) 825-1298.
Petroleum society votes to merge with new professional body
Ryan Roen from the Lloydminster Petroleum So-ciety.
PIPELINE NEWS April 2009C16
By Geoff LeeLloydminster – Dia-
mond B Transport,
based in Lloydminster, is
maintaining good trac-
tion in the heavy haul
business despite the slip-
pery slope of a down-
ward economy.
“Th is year for us has
been good so far because
we have a large contact
list of clients. You really
need the contacts,” said
owner Murray Barnett.
Diamond B special-
izes in the coordination
and transport of over-
sized and overweight
moves – mostly large oil-
fi eld tanks – from 400 to
4,000 barrels to clients
from Manitoba to Brit-
ish Columbia.
“Th e slowdown
hasn’t hit us, but it’s
coming,” said Barnett
who hasn’t had to lay off
any of his 11 employees,
but he has put off buying
new equipment until the
oilpatch perks ups.
“If we were just in
the Lloydminster area,
we’d be dead,” he said.
“We are on the road ev-
ery day. We just haul ev-
erywhere.”
Th e moves are ac-
complished by brute
force with Diamond B’s
fl eet of powerful winch
and highway tractors
and pickers with a six
ton, 30-ton and 45-ton
lifting capacity.
Th e fl eet includes
tri- and tandem axle air
ride hydraulic tank trail-
ers, oilfi eld lowboys and
drop deck trailers.
Diamond B also
hauls cranes, buildings,
treaters and separators
which refl ect the com-
pany slogan, “If it is big
n’ ugly we can haul it.”
Barnett has a set of
framed photographs in
his new offi ce highlight-
ing the biggest move
in company history, a
38-foot diameter tank
moved from North Bat-
tleford to a lease site in
Belle Plaine.
“We haul from the
tank manufacturer right
to the lease site and stand
them up,” said Barnett.
Th e hydraulic trail-
ers can right a 2,500 bar-
rel tank and Diamond
B’s picker trucks can
set a 1,000 barrel tank
in place. A crane is de-
ployed to unload heavier
oilfi eld cargo.
Diamond B hauls
on highway and winter
roads and has a 48-wheel
trailer that can carry up
to a 130,000 lb. payload.
Each move is quar-
terbacked by Barnett or
manager Birnie Syrnyk
who keep in touch with
oil company engineers
who design the tanks
and batteries and expect
cost quotes before com-
mitting to the transfer.
Th e transportation
process begins with a
series of hauling permits
and phone calls to au-
thorities such as power
companies, city utilities,
railways and the RCMP.
“Some of the big
moves involve a lot of
coordination to set up
the move before it hap-
pens,” said Barnett. “We
get into places where you
have to have the RCMP
stop traffi c.
“In some places, you
have to drive the wrong
way to avoid overhead
structures like signs. “
Diamond B has sev-
en pilot trucks and com-
pany drivers have report-
ed people holding them
responsible for being late
for their hairdressing ap-
pointments.
“We stopped a judge
one day and he said he
was going to be late for
court,” said Barnett with
a grin. “When we get
power crews lifting lines,
everything waits.”
You can recognize a
Diamond B convoy by
the sight of the compa-
ny’s white coloured Ken-
worth trucks and white
GMC pickups.
Barnett thinks the
oilpatch is in for a slow
summer but he expects
activity to pick up in
the fall. “We will wait
and see what the patch
brings,” he said.
Diamond B also
moves a lot of equipment
besides tanks which gives
the company a competi-
tive edge.
“We do some of the
biggest moves and a lot
of stuff that other haul-
ers don’t want to do,”
said Barnett.
Barnett has worked
in the oilfi eld hauling
business for more than
30 years and launched
Diamond B with his wife
Echo seven years ago.
“I just decided to
work for myself,” he ex-
plained. “It was the best
decision I made.”
Barnett recently
moved his dispatch op-
erations from his home
to his shop just west of
Lloydminster to estab-
lish improved landline
communication with his
fl eet drivers and custom-
ers.
Momentum drives Diamond B Transport
Two pilot vehicles guide the de-livery of a 4,000 barrel stainless steel tank. Photo submitted
PIPELINE NEWS April 2009 C17
Maidstone – Th ere were lots of high-fi ves and superlatives thrown about on
the fi nal day of competition at the seventh annual Maidstone Oilmen’s Curling
Bonspiel, and deservedly so.
Although only 19 out of a possible 28 teams showed up, everyone, including
Bruce Slade on the A-event championship Hurricane Industries Ltd. team, went
home with prizes and good memories.
Slade and his team each won a $200 gift certifi cate from Keranda Industrial
Maidstone bonspiel comesand goes with three cheers
Keeping a watchful eye on the rock are Glen Chambers and Wayne Kyk-kanen with team 3K Oil Services. Photo by Geoff Lee
Supplies Ltd. for their 8-2 win over SMK Carson Farms and the right to be asked
how they did it.
“Our skip didn’t miss a shot,” explained Slade who admitted he fi red a few
good stones of his own. “Th e important thing was the third and the skip didn’t
miss anything.
“It wasn’t as big of a tournament that we would have liked, but it was a good
tournament. We always have fun at the Maidstone.”
Th e event was held March 5-8 and included an auction Calcutta, a sponsored
breakfast by B & M Coil Tubing from Maidstone, and a banquet and entertain-
ment featuring the comedy of Paul Sveen.
Don Tarasiuk with team Hurricane was the MC for the banquet, and in his
words the entire event was “Excellent. It’s a great place to join up and network
with a lot of people that work in the oilpatch. Th e banquet was excellent, the en-
tertainment was good and the food was great, so you can’t beat that.”
Keranda sponsored gift certifi cates for the top four winners in the A-event
while TWB Construction Ltd. did likewise for the B-event and Husky Energy
followed suit with the C-pool.
Kudos were also heaped on ice maker Cal Donald for his work in preparing
and pebbling the rinks that were in championship form on the fi nal Sunday.
Moments before stepping on to the ice with his Weatherford BMW team-
mates to take on team 3K Oil Services in the B-fi nals, Monte Armstrong let it be
known he came for the fun.
“It’s always worth coming here. It doesn’t matter how you make out curling.
It’s fun to be here,” he said.
Monte normally skips but because he missed Friday’s game for a family mat-
ter, he penciled himself in as a front end sweeper for the fi nals. It’s a strategy
that helped Weatherford down their 3K opponents 5-1 in a game described by
Monte’s brother, Mickey.
“Actually, we played pretty steady. It was a clean game,” he reported. “Our
competition was an awesome team. Th at’s the reason why they made it to the B
fi nal. We got one in the second and stole three in the third and it went from there.
We just kept it clean from there and they ran out of rocks.” Page C18
PIPELINE NEWS April 2009C18
MLA Mike Chisholm and his wife Heather check out the action.
Page C17It’s typical at the Maidstone that a player like Jordi Johner from team Keranda
lost his C-event semi fi nal game but still felt he was richer for the experience.
“We were just lucky that we made it this far,” he said just minutes after step-
ping off the ice. “Th is is our sixth year. We try to make it a family team. Th is year,
two of our family members couldn’t make it, so we picked up a couple of guys and
made it to the C semis. We ended up losing, but I made some money and had
some fun.”
Taylor Field who skipped Midwest Truck to a 6-5 win over Amazon Hotshot
Service in the C- event fi nal credis the victory to what he said was a lucky start.
“Th e other team had a couple of bad breaks,” he said. “We got up 5-0 after four
ends but they did come back and make a game out of it. We played fi ve games. It
was a really good tournament.”
Among the spectators was Turtleford/Cut Knife MLA Mike Chisholm and
his wife Heather who popped in on their way to Regina to catch the start of the
A event fi nals.
“Some years they’ve had more entries but they certainly have had lot of action.
It’s been a really successful weekend for Maidstone,” he said.
“One of my friends, Jim Johnston, is curling in the A fi nals with the SMK
team. I am partner on the Calcutta for that team so I have a monetary interest as
well as just taking it in.”
Another person with money on his mind was curling club president Scott
Owens who estimated the event would raise about $3,000 to $4,000 to help main-
tain the three sheets of ice. Th e club also gets 20 per cent of the Calcutta money
pot.
“Other than the low turnout, every aspect of the event was great, “” he said.
“Th e organizing committee did an excellent job, the draw prize committee did a
great job and the ice conditions were fantastic. We had lots of compliments about
that.
“Th e banquet was fantastic and the comedian was good. He appealed to ev-
eryone.
“It’s a lot of work to organize. It requires a lot of volunteers. All members of
the club stepped up and contributed.
Sponsorships make the happen and the full list of sponsors was included in
the program guide.
Team Weatherford’s Mickey Armstrong , his brother Monte and Glen Moore sweep a rock on route to their B-event championship. Photo by Geoff Lee
Maidstone holds seventh annual Oilmen’s bonspiel
PIPELINE NEWS April 2009 C19
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Lloydminster –An ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure.
Endeavor Machining Solutions is using this philosophy to market its thermal spray coating so-lutions that can extend the life of oilpatch equip-ment subjected to abrasive and corrosive wear.
High pressure seals, packing surfaces, rotary drive components and pump components fi t the bill for Endeavor coatings in a cost-conscious economy.
“Coatings are a value-added product,” said owner Brad Matthews who started the business in Lloydminster during the boom of 2008.
He is keeping busy in the downturn with cus-tomers who he says are “looking for diff erent av-enues to save money.
“Th e phone is ringing more from companies that are re-evaluating how they do business and their products, to look at how far ahead they can be of the competition when the economy picks up, by improving their products now,” said Mat-thews.
“If you have a part that is relatively inexpen-sive as opposed to your entire assembly such as a pump which is $1 million and a small part that is $1,000, it makes more sense to protect that part from failure as opposed to having to tear that pump out in six months.”
Endeavor specializes in the thermal applica-tion of tungsten carbide and chrome carbide coat-ings applied by a high-velocity oxygen fuel spray system which creates a strong mechanical bond.
“Th e main use of tungsten carbide is to create a hard abrasion-resistant surface,” said Matthews. “Th e tungsten coating is a very hard wearing sur-face. Th is coating is good for any high pressure seal or any type of product that is exposed to abra-sive wear.”
Most of the coatings start off in a powder form and are applied at a slow rate in thin layers until the specifi cations are met.
“Tungsten carbide coating is bonded with about 12,000 psi,” said Matthews. “Th at means it
could be broken off if hammered but it’s for a seal application not for absorbing impact.
“Most of the work we do is with cylindrical parts but it’s not limited to that. Th ere’s a lot of fl at work as well.”
Endeavor uses an aluminum bronze coating that Matthews describes as “as sliding wear coat-ing” that can be used to extend the life of stuffi ng boxes for positive displacement pumps.
Th is is applied using a low-velocity combus-tion powder and combustion wire that is com-monly used to protect a cross head for pumps as it ‘slides’ in a casing.
Th e same process is used to apply a stainless steel coating for corrosion protection and for re-storing worn surfaces of parts.
“Th e spray and fuse coatings are a metallur-gical bond that is similar to welding so they can’t break off ,” said Matthews. “Th ey are more of an impact and wear-resistant coating.
“Coatings will save a customer a lot of money for making a part last longer or repairing an exist-ing part and making it last longer.”
Endeavor has a machine shop for preparing parts for coatings as well for fi nishing parts after the coatings are done.
New parts can be manufactured too but as Matthews likes to say, “Our philosophy is that we are a coatings shop fi rst and a machine shop sec-ond.
“We do a lot of consulting with a customer who will call and ask me, ‘Can you fi x this part?’ or ‘Can you make a part and coat it?’.
“We have all of that happening. Over the past year, we have defi nitely got more and more calls about fi xing parts. We are defi nitely repairing more than we are manufacturing new.
Endeavor’s machinists will use a cylindrical grinder with high abrasive diamond wheels for grinding the coatings to a shiny fi nish.
“It’s a very precise machine,” said Matthews.“We also have a numerically-controlled turn-
ing centre for doing multiple parts for prepara-tion and fi nishing. We have a variety of mechani-cal machines for repairs and manufacturing.”
Matthews has four employees and more than 15 years of personal experience working with ro-tating equipment in diff erent types of pumps in the oil and gas industry that allows his to off er so-lutions to his customers in the heavy oil sector.
“I have found it’s an advantage in this busi-ness to understand what a part does and how it works,” he said.
“Th at gives you a better understanding of how it needs to be fi nished and what kind of tolerances it requires. Th at knowledge helps in the parts last-ing longer. I’ve gained a lot of business because of that.
“When a customer feels more comfortable that I understand what his part does and I am asking questions, they realize I can be a benefi t to them.
“I am not just a shop that will apply what they want. I can actually off er solutions to their prob-lems.” So, it’s been pretty steady and hopefully the future holds excitement for us.”
Endeavor is beginning to tap into coating applications for the agricultural sector and Mat-thews sees blue sky ahead for coatings uses and his own business.
“Tungsten carbide is now used as the chrome replacement in the aerospace,” he said. “In the last 10 years it’s come on stronger because of the economic value of it to make parts last longer.”
Endeavor’s thermal coatingstimely in a cost-conscious oilpatch
Joel Bolton polishes a tungsten carbide coating on a Moyno pump shaft.
The shiny top part of this centrifugal pump shaft held by Endeavor owner, Brad Matthews, has a tungsten carbide coating.
Photo by Geoff Lee
PIPELINE NEWS April 2009C20
CALL US TO DISCUSS YOUR NEEDS:
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Tel: (306) 948-5262 Fax: (306) 948-5263Email: info@envirotank.com
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By Jayne FosterFreelance Reporter
North Battleford - SaskPower is looking at a seri-
ous gap growing between expected demand for power
and what its aging facilities can deliver.
With up to 10 power generating sites to be re-
tired over the next two decades, SaskPower is looking
to fi ll the gap with a mix of power producing options.
Amidst the mix is a plan to build a natural gas pow-
ered three-turbine power plant in the North Battl-
eford area. Th ere is also a two-turbine plant going in
near Kerrobert.
When they fi re up the two plants, in 2009 and
2010 respectively, SaskPower’s capacity should reach
approximately 3,800 megawatts (MW), meeting ex-
pected demands for that point in time. But demands
of 5,200 MW or more are projected over the following
20 years.
SaskPower already has four natural gas powered
stations. Th is type of electricity generation is typically
favoured for meeting peak loads, as the aero derivative
turbines can be turned on and off quickly to meet de-
mand for electricity at peak times – such as hotter pe-
riods in the summer, or colder periods in the winter.
Such turbines also produce up to 50 per cent less
carbon dioxide per MW-hour than traditional coal
fi red plants, says SaskPower, fi tting into their plan to
replace aging facilities with cleaner ways to generate
power.
On Feb. 25 in North Battleford, SaskPower held
an open house information session regarding its plan
to install approximately 140 MW of natural gas-fi red
simple cycle turbines in the area.
Simple cycle gas turbines (SCGTs) can be in-
stalled fast enough to meet 2010 power needs, says
Cheryl Stang, an engineer with SaskPower’s Supply
Development department. Th ey are also relatively low
cost installations and allow for operating fl exibility.
SaskPower has already made the rounds present-
ing its plans to local urban and rural municipalities and
First Nations.
Th e exact location for the $250 million project is
yet to be determined, but three sites have been short
listed from fi ve potentials, with a possible decision by
the end of March, said Bernie Bolen, Supervisor of
Environmental Issues Management. Input from the
open house will defi nitely be used to help make the
decision, he said.
Th e three sites being considered include a location
within Parson’s Industrial Park in North Battleford, an
area along Highways 16 just outside of the city lim-
its, and a parcel of Poundmaker First Nation property
southeast of the city.
Th e size of property needed, says Elaine Pearse,
land offi cer with SaskPower, is 400 metres by 400
metres, which is about one quarter of a quarter sec-
tion of land. Ideally, SaskPower will negotiate with
the landowner of the desired site to purchase it.
Th e site decision is to be based on the availability and
cost of the fuel supply, connecting to the transmission
grid, transmission system effi ciency and future trans-
mission system benefi ts (Up to 11 per cent of the elec-
tricity SaskPower generates can be lost during trans-
mission through its 155,000 kilometres of power lines,
so the fewer lines, the better.)
Th e noise factor will also impact the decision.
Wherever it is eventually built, SaskPower intends
to follow the industry’s strictest standards, the strin-
gent regulations used in Alberta.
Using silencers on the plant’s exhaust, SaskPower’s
goal is to see the typical noise level at the fence line to
be about 59 decibels, between that of a passenger car
going 60 km per hour at 20 metres (65 decibels) and
conversation at one metre (55 decibels).
At the fence line, there will also be a lower fre-
quency noise which will be more “felt” than heard,
similar to the “rumble” of a diesel truck passing by 20
metres away.
Th is largely unheard noise, said Justin Caskey of
Patching Associates Acoustical Engineering Ltd., is
the kind of frequency that might rattle windows and
can aff ect some individuals adversely without their
even being able to hear it.
Page C21
Natural gas power plant site decision dueNatural gas power plant site decision due
At a Feb. 25 open house at the North Battleford Don Ross Centre, Harjit Singh Bajwa, a mechani-cal engineer with SaskPower, displayed a map highlighting three areas short listed as favour-able sites for the construction of a gas-powered power plant in the North Battleford area.
Photo by Jayne Foster
PIPELINE NEWS April 2009 C21
NEW LOCATION! Corner of Hwy 16 & Upgrader Road, Lloydminster
Kim LeipertPh. 306.825.5355
Cell: 306.821.2880Fax: 306.825.5356
www.heavyoilfi eldtrucks.compeddlerconsignment@sasktel.net
1980 Cardwell service rig69 ft. teliscoping derrick, power tongs, handtools, 2 years left on level four inspection,
1996 Mack fl ushby 3x5 triplex pump42 ft. fl ushby mast, 50,000 lbs., HL-25 pullmaster winch, 12 m3 wabash tank, weight inicator, sea level gauges, slant compatible, cat line winch.
Coil tubing drilling rig package National oil well RT-100 injectorreel, mud pump, mud tank, BOP,s, safety trailer, drilling rig trailer, control cab, hydraulic system, catwalk skid, combo building
2008 Freightliner accelerater unitLash and C-tech acclerator unit, 10 ton picker, 3 spools, Full locking rears.
Page C20
Air and noise stud-
ies are to be conducted
in the spring, followed
by biological field stud-
ies, geotechnical stud-
ies, and finally con-
struction.
Construction, slated
to commence in August
2009 and scheduled to
run until October 2010,
should employ about
120 to 150 people.
Once the plant is
in operation, it will be
monitored and con-
trolled remotely and
be visited regularly for
maintenance.
SaskPower cur-
rently operates three
coal-fired power sta-
tions, seven hydro-
electric stations, four
natural gas stations and
two wind facilities with
an aggregate generat-
ing capacity of 3,214
megawatts (MW).
SaskPower also has pur-
chase agreements with
the Meridian Cogen-
eration Station, Cory
Cogeneration Station,
SunBridge Wind Power
Project and NRGreen
Kerrobert Heat Recov-
ery Project bringing the
total available capacity
to 3,668 MW.
SaskPower also
operates two wholly-
owned subsidiaries —
NorthPoint Energy
Solutions, which is an
electrical energy mar-
keting and trading ser-
vice, and SaskPower
Shand Greenhouse,
which grows and dis-
tribute seedlings free of
charge to schools, com-
munities and individu-
als for conservation and
wildlife habitat projects.
Bernie Bolen, supervisor, Environmental Issues management, SaskPower, talked with City of North Battleford of cials Tim La freniere, city planner, Jim Toye, city manager, and Denis Lavertu, director of business develop-ment, at the Feb. 25 open house regarding SaskPower’s plan to construct a new electrical generating site in the area.
Photo by Jayne Foster
SaskPowerSaskPowertrying to ll trying to ll the gapthe gap
PIPELINE NEWS April 2009C22
24 HOUR SERVICE24 HOURSERVICE
ERNIE HARVEYOwner / Operator
Cell: 306-821-2227brenkartransfer@gmail.com
Competitive RatesLight Oilfi eld Hauling
Picker ServiceLOCAL OR LONG DISTANCE HAULINGLOCAL OR LONG DISTANCE HAULING
OILFIELD TICKETEDOILFIELD TICKETED
• The coordinating and instrumentation of oversized/overweight load moves.
• Winch/highway tractors• 40 wheel combinations• Tri-axel hydraulic tank trailers
• Tandom-axel hydraulic tank trailers
• Trombones, drop decks, scissor neck trailers• Spreader Bars• Pilot cars • Man baskets• 6 - 30 ton pickers
Specializing in Overdimension & OverweightSpecializing in Overdimension & Overweight
NEW 45 TON PICKER
Member of
ISN • LOI
Diamond B offers our clients a diversity of services and equipment options, working together to deliver products safely.
Check out our new website www.diamondbtransport.com
Box 1602 Lloydminster, ABS9V 1K5
Cell: (780) 808-9123Fax: (306) 825-3518
Email: diambtran@msn.com
IF IT IS BIG N’ UGLY WE CAN HAUL IT!
Lloydminster Paint& Supplies Ltd.
Daryl (780) 875-4454 or(780) 871-41095628 - 44 Street, Lloydminster, AB
ATV / SLED DECKS
Adjustable width decks also available
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• Strongest (and longest) ramp
system on the market
Lloydminster – Ev-
eryone at Avenger Oil
Tools Ltd., even Mr.
Magoo, the company cat,
seems to have fi rm grip
on how to drive business
with customer service
at a time when sales of
their completion tools
are leaner than normal.
It starts with a fi rm
handshake and a smile
from Sheldon Cope-
land, vice-president of
operations in Lloydmin-
ster and his Calgary-
based executive partners
Robert Lawrence, Dale
Miller and Tyler Th e-
berge, who came to town
to greet major custom-
ers and introduce their
business to the Pipeline News. Mr. Magoo sport-
ed a Cheshire grin.
“Every month we
have management meet-
ings and we are visiting
all of our major cus-
tomers in the area,” said
Lawrence who is the
company president and
CEO.
“We try to stay in
close contact with them.
We take great pride in
that. We work directly
with our customers and
we have developed good
close relationships. It’s a
team.”
Avenger operates
as an area partner with
Smith International and
specializes in the sales,
rental and servicing of
Smith completion tools
including retrievable
bridge plugs, permanent
bridge plug, composite
bridge plugs and drilling
motors.
“We have been joint
venture partners with
Smith since we began
three years ago,” said
Copeland.
“Th ey are a heck of
a good company. We
solely run their brand of
tools and product line.
Primarily, everything we
run downhole is a Smith
product.”
Smith cement re-
tainers are used to re-
lieve hydrostatic pres-
sure during cementing
operations.
In Alberta, a per-
manent bridge plug is
“a quick and easy way to
abandon a well or iso-
late a zone” according to
Copeland.
Avenger also has
its own 9 5/8 inch out-
er diamter retrievable
bridge packer used for
isolating a well. Parts
are machined by Orion
Machining & Manufac-
turing Inc. in Lloydmin-
ster and assembled by
Avenger.
“A drilling company
can retrieve the bridge
plug after they frac or go
after a zone of interest,”
explained Copeland.
Customers can also
chose to use Smith com-
posite plugs made of
aluminum and plastic.
“When oil and gas
companies frac their
wells, they will run
stacking composites to
make it easy for them to
drill out,” he said.
Avenger currently
has work from Fort Mc-
Murray to Kindersley
with light and heavy oil
and gas corporations in-
cluding Apache, CNRL
and Husky that get to
know Avenger’s employ-
ees during service calls.
“In today’s market,
the demand for comple-
tion tools is still there
but I think quality and
service are what makes
us strong,” said Cope-
land who likes the face-
to-face contact.
“It’s what you off er
on location – your man-
power and experience –
and being professional.
“We are doing a lot
more servicing right
now. Th ere’s not as much
sales, just more rentals
and service.”
At the shop, tech-
nicians will tear apart,
clean and repair tools
and prep rental equip-
ment.
Page C23
Avenger Oil Tools focuses on service until sales rebound
Avenger’s Sheldon Copeland is framed by these 177. 8 mm OD M1-X double grip coated packers by Smith International. Photo by Geoff Lee
““””
PIPELINE NEWS April 2009 C23
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Phone: 780-440-2855 Fax: 780-440-1050Email: brotherscoating@shaw.ca www.brotherscoating.comEmail: brotherscoating@shaw.ca www.brotherscoating.comEmail: brotherscoating@shaw.ca www.brotherscoating.comEmail: brotherscoating@shaw.ca www.brotherscoating.comEmail: brotherscoating@shaw.ca www.brotherscoating.com
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STRETCH, STRENGTHEN, BALANCE AND BREATHE
Robert Lawrence and Sheldon Copeland display a 244.5 mm OD retrievable bridge plug machined in Lloydminster by Orion Machining & Manufac-turing Inc.
Page C22“Th e rental market
is a challenge now but
I think in Lloydminster
there is still going to
be ongoing work so we
are looking forward to
maintaining our market
share,” said Lawrence.
“Our equipment can
be used in all applica-
tions – heavy or light oil
and gas. Specifi cally, to
the regional market, we
feel we are very strong
with the type of prod-
ucts that we have.
“Our joint venture
with Smith is with the
completion tools and
remedial workover tools
which are the bread and
butter of this local area
for packers, bridge plugs,
cement retainers – that
type of product.”
Th e decision to
manufacture their 9-5/8
inch retrievable bridge
plugs also pays dividends
when it comes to image
and public relations.
“We try to use the
local market,” said Law-
rence. “We have not
manufactured any tools
outside Lloydminster.
We use local vendors
and machine shops in
town to bring some sta-
bility to the local mar-
ket. We like to work
with the people in the
area.”
Customers likely
know that Copeland
grew up in Lloydmin-
ster and had more than
15 years of the experi-
ence in the oil industry
when he and his part-
ners launched the com-
pany to fi ll a product
and service niche in the
local area.
“Th e response has
been good, “said Cope-
land. “ We’ve been very
busy for the last three
years. Th at’s good feed-
back that we have been
busy and we’ve become
a leader in Lloydminster.
We have solid engineer-
ing, solid backing and a
great tool line.”
Avenger is also a
sponsor of the Lloy-
dminster Bandits of
the North Eastern Al-
berta Junior B Hockey
League.
We use local vendors and machine shops... We like to work with the people
in the area.- Robert Lawrence
Avenger keeps it local and focuses on service
PIPELINE NEWS April 2009C24
ONE COMPLETE JOB • ONE INVOICE
• Picker Equipped Service Crews • Oilfield Welding & Fabrication • AutoCAD Drawings & Design • Enviro & Project Consulting• In House Rentals • G-55/S01 Containments • Tank Alteration & Repair • Tank Moving Cradles • Pickers up to 60 Tons • Steel Sales
• Bobcats/Backhoes/Trackhoes/Gravel Trucks c/w Pups or Wagons • Hot Taps & A.P.I. 653 Tank QC • New Wellsite Completions/Re-completes• Wellsite Abandonment & Reclamation • Water Injection Packages • Safety C.O.R. • Journeyman Pipefitter • Journeyman Carpenter
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OILFIELDCONSULTING & CONSTRUCTION
SERVICE LTD.
(780) 808-2272Fax: (780) 808-2273
Clayton, C.E.T. Cell: (780) 205-1599Ken, C.E.T. Cell: (780) 205-1598
Johnny Cell: (780) 205-4090
P.O. Box 1155, Lloydminster, AB T9V 1G1Email: csoil@mwwireless.ca
Clayton “C” Gessner, C.E.T./A.Sc.T. /A.P.I.653Manager/Owner
C.O.R.
Tim SharpCell: (780) 871-1276
Offi ce: (780) 847-4666Fax: (780) 847-4661
Box 82 Marwayne, AB
Welders, Service Crews, Lease Mowing & Bobcat Service
Troy IllingworthCell: (780) 808-3183
Macklin – For those
who follow the leader, let
Kudu Industries Inc. be
your guide with their in-
novative progressive cav-
ity pumps systems with
driveheads and power
units.
Kudu plans to stay
ahead of the curve with
some new pump-related
products that shop man-
ager Kevin Fischer in
Macklin, Saskatchewan
wants his heavy oil cus-
tomers to know about.
Th e new product ar-
rivals are a Kudu-made
PCP well manager, a
thermal pump, a top tag
system and a new anti-
corrosive pump rotor
coating.
“New products are
developed in Calgary and
fi eld-tested before going
into production,” said Fis-
cher. “We want to be the
industry leader and pro-
vide solutions for custom-
ers.”
Th e PCP well man-
ager has been developed to
adapt to hydraulic power
units or electrifi ed wells to
maximize the effi ciency of
well performance.
“It controls the well
from damaging your
pump,” said Fischer. “It
keeps the pump from
starving from fl uid. It is
continually ‘hunting’ for
production. It self-mon-
itors the torque and fl ow
and it’s continually mak-
ing adjustments to maxi-
mize production.
Kudu has also
launched a new thermal
pump called the Vulcain
that is suited to thermal
processes such as steam
assisted gravity drainage.
“It’s a PCP pump
but it’s metal-on-metal
for thermal applications,”
said Fischer. “It’s a high
temperature metal-on-
metal pump.”
Fischer says Encana
has the only thermal op-
eration in his business
area but says the product
is typical of Kudu’s quest
to grow through innova-
tion and helps to attract
new customers during the
slowdown.
“Th e day-to-day ac-
tivity has kept us busy but
we are not breaking any
records,” he said. “We are
watching our costs and
keeping our inventory
levels low.
“We have adopted
the Toyota manufacturing
way of thinking – stay-
ing lean and getting away
from having a lot of in-
ventory. Th e other factor
is innovation.”
Another new Kudu
product is an improved
top tag system that al-
lows the pump operator
to locate the rotor inside
the stator without the
need for the standard tag
system. Th is means there
is no restriction on in-
take and it decreases the
chance of plugging off .
“Th e tag has only
been out for nearly a year
but it’s been very popular
in the Lloydminster area,”
said Fischer. “Th e tag sys-
tem improves the pump
intake.”
Kudu has also im-
proved its PCP rotors
with a new spray coating
called Tough Coat that is
anti-corrosive and abra-
sion resistant.
“Th ese rotors are be-
coming popular in fi elds
with a high C02 and H
2S
environment,” said Fisch-
er who is proud of Kudu’s
ever-evolving product and
service line.
“Corporately, we
have expanded quite a
few times and we have
added some new stores.
In Macklin, we have ex-
panded our service side,”
he said.
“Th ree years ago we
relocated from Provost to
Macklin to be more cen-
tral to our customers. We
have always worked on
both sides of the border.
Drilling in this area has
increased twofold in the
past few years.”
Th e Macklin shop
stocks and services a wide
array of rotors and stators
and its fl agship driveheads
and power units that com-
plete the PCP system.
“We repair Oryx seals
(Kudu brand) and do
everything from engine
rebuilds to welding,” he
said.
Kudu in Macklin hails new pump
Kudu shop manager Kevin Fischer is dwarfed by his parts stock these stators and rotors for pro-gressive cavity pumps.
PIPELINE NEWS April 2009 C25
bpristie@sasktel.net
SAFETY & SERVICE GUARANTEED
Bruce PristieOwner/Operator
306.774.4246306.773.0325
Box 952Swift Current, SKS9H 3W8
CORCertificate of Recognition
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ALL CREDIT & FINANCING ENQUIRIES WELCOME
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Transportation and LogisticsRig Transportation Services
Pipe Storage Facility
40229221•09/05/08
Cold Lake – Imperial Oil has launched a pilot
project at its Cold Lake oilsands operations to test a
new way to recover bitumen from undeveloped de-
posits of the Clearwater formation.
Th e pilot is also a way for Imperial to determine
the best recovery processes for its yet to be developed
oilsands deposits near Fort McMurray.
At the Cold Lake site, Imperial uses its patented
cyclic steam stimulation (CSS) to produce approxi-
mately 150,000 barrels of bitumen a day from what is
the largest in-situ oilsands operation in the world.
Imperial also patented steam-assisted gravity
drainage and has begun the long-term test of a de-
rivative process known as solvent-assisted SAGD
(SA-SAGD) using a natural gas condensate.
“What this pilot is about is ultimately assessing
the long-term potential of conventional SAGD and
SA-SAGD for new reservoir areas at Cold Lake and
also in the Athabasca deposits near Fort McMurray,”
said Pius Rolheiser, an Imperial spokesman.
Th e new pilot project is focused on assessing the
resource recovery performance of SA-SAGD.
“Th is is not about fi nding an alternative to the
CSS process we use at Cold Lake,” said Rolheiser.
“Th is is about fi nding the best process for the por-
tions of the reservoir that we believe might be more
amenable to this type of production.”
Imperial uses CSS at Cold Lake and not SAGD
that it patented in 1982 because SAGD would not be
an eff ective recovery method for most the reservoir.
“Th is is because of reservoir conditions and how
consolidated the reservoir is,” said Rolheiser. “We
recognized there may be parts of the reservoir that
might be amenable to recovery with SAGD as well
as reservoirs in the Athabasca formation.”
CSS, however, is not a one size fi ts all technology
either for some undeveloped portions of the Cold
Lake oilsands with top gas and bottom water in the
formation.
Rolheiser says the SA-SAGD pilot will oper-
ate for a couple of years “until we get fairly defi nitive
data.”
Imperial has increased bitumen recovery from 13
per cent to more than 30 per cent in the past 20 years
through continued research and technology develop-
ment.
Page C26
Imperial pilot testing a new oilsandsrecovery process in Cold Lake
This photo shows Imperial’s Mahkese steam-generation, cogeneration and bitumen process-ing plant in Cold Lake.
Photo submitted
PIPELINE NEWS April 2009C26
Caltech Surveys is fully equipped to take on your well site and pipeline projects, large or small, anywhere in Alberta or Saskatchewan. You can count on us to respond quickly and get your projects completed on time and on budget. From project planning and
preparation, Caltech’s commitment to quality, service and value continues...
w w w . c a l t e c h s u r v e y s . c o m
Calgary403.263.8055
Regina306.775.1814
Unity306.228.4366
40242913•04/03/09
www.greatplainscollege.ca 1•888•ETC•7972
FALL PROTECTION COURSESGet one day ENFORM Fall Protection Training using our new
trailer-mounted simulator. Let us bring the training to you!
Outlook • Rosetown • Shaunavon • Swift Current • WarmanBiggar • Gravelbourg • Kindersley • Maple Creek • Macklin
SK Pipeline_1dayFallProtection_April_09.indd 1 3/19/2009 3:27:52 PM
2009
“Don’t rushinto marriage!”
does not mean you wait for
blessed ever to propose! Propose!
(780) 875-0203 LloydMallLloydminster
Imperial’s Cold Lake operation uses multi-well pads to minimize surface disturbance and to access the largest area of underground reservoir.
Photo submitted
Page C25“Through this pi-
lot, we will be assessing
the recovery potential
which we can com-
pare with conventional
SAGD well pairs,” said
Rolheiser.
“Basically the
SAGD process is work-
ing with a pair of hori-
zontal wells, one above
the other. The top well
injects steam. The bot-
tom well, after a period
of time, is used to pro-
duce the bitumen and
the water that has been
condensed from the in-
jected steam.
“What the SA-
SAGD process does,
is add a percentage of
hydrocarbon solvent to
the steam to see if that
would be more effective
and efficient in recov-
ering bitumen.”
The pilot project
has been set up in the
southwestern part of
the Cold Lake property
near Imperial’s Mah-
keses steam-generation,
cogeneration and bitu-
men-processing plant.
The project site in-
cludes a new well pad
and called for the drill-
ing of two horizontal
well pairs. Imperial also
drilled a number of ob-
servation wells around
the well pairs. The fa-
cilities are tied into the
Mahkeses operations.
“By tying it in, we
can bring steam gen-
erated from the Mah-
keses plant to the pilot
plant and then we can
send the bitumen back
to the plant,” said Rol-
heiser.
“Because we have
existing facilities to
generate steam and
process bitumen, the
main facilities to be
built were the wells.”
A new recovery process being tried out
PIPELINE NEWS April 2009 C27
PIPELINE NEWSSaskatchewan’s Petroleum Monthly
Aluminum Tankers, Backhoes, Boilers, Braking Systems, Casing Elevators, Casing Scrapers, Casing Slips, Cement & Acid Equipment, Cement Bulk Trailers, Cement Mixers, Cement Pumps, Cement Storage, Centrifugal Pump, Centrifugal Pumps, Chemical Pumps, Choke Manifolds, Closing Units, Coiled Tubing Unit Parts, Coiled Tubing Units, Control Systems, Crane Trucks, Cranes, Crown Blocks, Traveling Blocks, Dehydrators, Ditch Witch, Double Drum Workover Rigs, Double Phase, Double Studded Adaptors, Dozers, Drawworks & Substructures, Drift Indicators, Drill Collar Elevators, Drill Collar Slips, Drill Collars, Drill Pipe, Drill Pipe Elevators, Drill Pipe Elevators Slips Combinations, Drill Pipe Spinners, Drilling Choke Control Systems, Drilling Components, Drilling Rigs, Dual Drilling Control Consoles, Duplex Pumps, Electric Motor Drive, Farm Tractors , Fiberglass Tanks, Flat Bottom Junk Mill, Flatbed and Lowboys, Fluid / Mud Cleaners, Front End Loaders, Gas Processing Plants, Gate Valves for Blowout Preventers, Gauges, Gloves, Glycol Pumps, Glycol Pumps, H2S Safety Valves, Handling Tools, Hard Hats, Heater Treaters, High Pressure Hoses, High Pressure Pump Skids, High Pressure Pump Trailer, High Pressure Valves & Fittings, Highway Tractors, Hydraulic Ampli ers, Hydraulic Casing Tongs, Hydraulic Drilling Chokes, Independent Rotary Drive Skids, Laydown Equipment, Laydown truck mounted, Liquid Tanks, Mandrels & Sleeves, Manifold Skids, Manual Tongs and Casing, Metal Tanks, Motors, Mousehole / Rathole, Mud Motors, Mud Pumps, Nitrogen / Cryogenic Equipment, Off-Road Tractors, Pipe Bins / Racks / Material Storage, Pipe Wrenches, Power Swivels, Production Casing, Production Pipe, Production Rods, Production Tubing, Propane Tanks, Pulling Units, Pump Trucks / Trailers, Pumpjacks, Pumps & Pump Skids, Pup Joints, Quintiplex Pumps, Rags, Re nery Equipment, Releasing and Circulating Overshot, Reverse Circulation Junk Baskets, Rig elevators, Road Graders, Roller Reamers, Rotary Slips for Drill Pipe, Rotary Tables & Kellys, Safety Clamps, SCR Houses, SCR Power, Single Axle Roustabout, Single Joint Elevators, Single Phase, Skid Mounted, Skid Mounted Pumping Units, Skid-Mounted Equipment, Slick line Units, Slip Type Elevators , Soap, Spinning Wrenches, Spiral Grapples & Controls, Spools for Blowout Preventors, Stabilizers, Steel Tankers, Steel Toe Boots, Structural Casing, Structural Pipe, Structural Rods, Structural Tubing, Subassembly, H2S Subassembly, Swabbing Units, Top Drives, Trailer-Mounted Equipment, Treaters, Triple Phase, Triplex Pumps, Truck/Trailer Mounted, Truck-Mounted Equipment (Single and Twin Cementers), Tubing Spider, Tubing Tongs, Vacuum Trucks, Wireline Parts, Wireline Skids, Wireline Trailers, Wireline Trucks, Workover Equipment, Workover Service Rigs, Aluminum Tankers, Backhoes, Boilers, Braking Systems, Casing Elevators, Casing Scrapers, Casing Slips, Cement & Acid Equipment, Cement Bulk Trailers, Cement Mixers, Cement Pumps, Cement Storage, Centrifugal Pump, Centrifugal Pumps, Chemical Pumps, Choke Manifolds, Closing Units, Coiled Tubing Unit Parts, Coiled Tubing Units, Control Systems, Crane Trucks, Cranes, Crown Blocks, Traveling Blocks, Dehydrators, Ditch Witch, Double Drum Workover Rigs, Double Phase, Double Studded Adaptors, Dozers, Drawworks & Substructures, Drift Indicators, Drill Collar Elevators, Drill Collar Slips, Drill Collars, Drill Pipe, Drill Pipe Elevators, Drill Pipe Elevators Slips Combinations, Drill Pipe Spinners, Drilling Choke Control Systems, Drilling Components, Drilling Rigs, Dual Drilling Control Consoles, Duplex Pumps, Electric Motor Drive, Farm Tractors , Fiberglass Tanks, Flat Bottom Junk Mill, Flatbed and Lowboys, Fluid / Mud Cleaners, Front End Loaders, Gas Processing Plants, Gate Valves for Blowout Preventers, Gauges, Gloves, Glycol Pumps, Glycol Pumps, H2S Safety Valves, Handling Tools, Hard Hats, Heater Treaters, High Pressure Hoses, High Pressure Pump Skids, High Pressure Pump Trailer, High Pressure Valves & Fittings, Highway Tractors, Hydraulic Ampli ers, Hydraulic Casing Tongs, Hydraulic Drilling Chokes, Independent Rotary Drive Skids, Laydown Equipment, Laydown truck mounted, Liquid Tanks, Mandrels & Sleeves, Manifold Skids, Manual Tongs and Casing, Metal Tanks, Motors, Mousehole / Rathole, Mud Motors, Mud Pumps, Nitrogen / Cryogenic Equipment, Off-Road Tractors, Pipe Bins / Racks / Material Storage, Pipe Wrenches, Power Swivels, Production Casing, Production Pipe, Production Rods, Production Tubing, Propane Tanks, Pulling Units, Pump Trucks / Trailers, Pumpjacks, Pumps & Pump Skids, Pup Joints, Quintiplex Pumps, Rags, Re nery Equipment, Releasing and Circulating Overshot, Reverse Circulation Junk Baskets, Rig elevators, Road Graders, Roller Reamers, Rotary Slips for Drill Pipe, Rotary Tables & Kellys, Safety Clamps, SCR Houses, SCR Power, Single Axle Roustabout, Single Joint Elevators, Single Phase, Skid Mounted, Skid Mounted Pumping Units, Skid-Mounted Equipment, Slick line Units, Slip Type Elevators , Soap, Spinning Wrenches, Spiral Grapples & Controls, Spools for Blowout Preventors, Stabilizers, Steel Tankers, Steel Toe Boots, Structural Casing, Structural Pipe, Structural Rods, Structural Tubing, Subassembly, H2S Subassembly, Swabbing Units, Top Drives, Trailer-Mounted Equipment, Treaters, Triple Phase, Triplex Pumps, Truck/Trailer Mounted, Truck-Mounted Equipment (Single and Twin Cementers), Tubing Spider, Tubing Tongs, Vacuum Trucks, Wireline Parts, Wireline Skids, Wireline Trailers, Wireline Trucks, Workover Equipment, Workover Service Rigs, Aluminum Tankers, Backhoes, Boilers, Braking Systems, Casing Elevators, Casing Scrapers, Casing Slips, Cement & Acid Equipment, Cement Bulk Trailers, Cement Mixers, Cement Pumps, Cement Storage, Centrifugal Pump, Centrifugal Pumps, Chemical Pumps, Choke Manifolds, Closing Units, Coiled Tubing Unit Parts, Coiled Tubing Units, Control Systems, Crane Trucks, Cranes, Crown Blocks, Traveling Blocks, Dehydrators, Ditch Witch, Double Drum Workover Rigs, Double Phase, Double Studded Adaptors, Dozers, Drawworks & Substructures, Drift Indicators, Drill Collar Elevators, Drill Collar Slips, Drill Collars, Drill Pipe, Drill Pipe Elevators, Drill Pipe Elevators Slips Combinations, Drill Pipe Spinners, Drilling Choke Control Systems, Drilling Components, Drilling Rigs, Dual Drilling Control Consoles, Duplex Pumps, Electric Motor Drive, Farm Tractors , Fiberglass Tanks, Flat Bottom Junk Mill, Flatbed and Lowboys, Fluid / Mud Cleaners, Front End Loaders, Gas Processing Plants, Gate Valves for Blowout Preventers, Gauges, Gloves, Glycol Pumps, Glycol Pumps, H2S Safety Valves, Handling Tools, Hard Hats, Heater Treaters, High Pressure Hoses, High Pressure Pump Skids, High Pressure Pump Trailer, High Pressure Valves & Fittings, Highway Tractors, Hydraulic Ampli ers,
CHANGECHANGEBUY SELL TRADE
il eld
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FOR SALE
www.donsspeedparts.com • 1.800.431.CATS
OILFIELD
TRAILER(CT127TE-DHI)
SALE $9,999
PIPELINE NEWS April 2009C28
PIPELINENEWS
Saskatchewan’s Petroleum MonthlyCHANGECHANGE
BUY SELL TRADE
il eld
FOR SALE2008 PJ 30 ft. High Boy Trailer
7000 pound axles, 16” tires, spare tire, 2 front jacks & LED lighting & pintle hitch.
Reduced to clear!!
$$799579950000
Call Wendell at (306) 726-4403
ForFor SaleSale
ReconditionedReconditioned 750 BBL Tanks 750 BBL TanksHeated & Insulated c/w Heated & Insulated c/w
Hawkeye guageboard assHawkeye guageboard assemblyembly
Phone PaulPhone Paul (403)664-0604(403)664-0604Oyen, AB.Oyen, AB.
Successful well established oil eld trucking company located in south eastern Saskatchewan available for immediate transfer or ownership. This well managed company has shown steady year after year growth and does not show any signs of slowing. Long term trained employees in place for a new owner to act in management capacity. The downturn in drilling activity in the oil industry has had no effect on the revenues of this uid hauling company. Take your earning po-tential in your own hands and provide a great income for you and your family. Owner is willing to stay on for a negotiated length of time to train new owner.
Offering price: $750,000Real Estate Negotiable, Earning over 25% ROI
Darryl Fox, B.Admin.,CMA
Sales Consultant201-2750 Faithfull Ave. Saskatoon Sk. S7K 6M6
Tel: 306-382-5075 • Fax: 306-382-5073 • Cell: 306-292-9388d.fox@sunbeltnetwork.com • www.sunbeltwork.com
Business For Sale
The place to go to buy or sell a business.
FOR SALE
2009 CHEVROLET LTZ DIAMOND SPECIAL EDITION5.3 Leather, Convenience Pkg., Rear Camera and much much more$43,500 Call Larry Alward 780-853-0941 or 1-888-773-4646
3.67 acres of prime commercial property on Escana Street, in the east industrial area of Estevan, Sask. Property has great highway
access and visibility. Available for lease, build to suit/development or purchase.
Phone 306-421-0564 or 306-634-5304
www.donsspeedparts.com • 1.800.431.CATS
CLASSIC ENCLOSED
TRAILERCar hauler (CVT2483TE)
SALE $11,499
www.donsspeedparts.com • 1.800.431.CATS
2008 HONDA
TRX700XXFully independent suspension
SALE $9,999
PIPELINE NEWS April 2009 C29
PIPELINENEWS
Saskatchewan’s Petroleum MonthlyCHANGECHANGE
BUY SELL TRADE
il eld
2009 BUICK ENCLAVE8 passenger, Remote Start, Tri Zone A/C, Onstar*, Bluetooth*, Trailer Pkg.$38,150 Call Larry Alward 780-853-0941 or 1-888-773-4646
3 - D.A. Manufacturing Coil Tub-ing Injectors 30,000 lb. push/pull, single speed;
1 - Coil Tubing Reel, ready to install on truck. Can hold 3,000 metres of 1.5” coil tubing;
1 - Complete Arch & Tray c/w Ram to install on Coil Tubing Arch Unit truck;
1 - Complete C15 Cat Engine c/w transmission out of 2002 Ken-worth T800 tandem/tandem truck. Has been in rollover.
Call Ron for Pricing 1-866-363-0011 (toll free)
FOR SALE
Steve HodgsonPH. 1-306-483-2490Fax 1-306-483-2805email- steveh@agrimaxx.com
Fit easily to back of your pickup. Excellent for weed control on
leases. Diaphram pump that will take
agressive chemicals. Call for pricing!
Field Field SprayersSprayersfor for Sale!Sale!
Description: 37 ft. Derrick, 3 x 5 Oil Well Pump – Triplex, 8m3 1 Section Tank, HL 25 Pullmaster Hydraulic Winch c/w 2-speed ¾” Drill Line, Gearmatic Winch c/w 3/8” winch line, 3” Bowie Pump, T6DC Tandem Hydraulic Pump, 25 Ton Single Line Blocks, Spicer Drop Box, Weight In-dicator (Line Type)
Call Ron for Pricing 1-866-363-0011 (toll free)
1992 MACK TANDEM FLUSHBY UNIT
FOR SALE
www.donsspeedparts.com • 1.800.431.CATS
2009 ARCTIC CAT
PROWLER1000 XTZ(Winner of the 2008 Baja 100!)
SALE $14,999
Maureen Tkachuk Leasing Professional Tel: 1-877-875-6183
1-780-808-6182 www.maureentkachuk.ca
Dominion Lending Centres – LatitudeFinancial
Ind
epen
den
tly Ow
ned
& O
pera
ted
ResourcesResources GuideGuidePIPELINE NEWS April 2009C30
Cell: (306) 461-9679
Your Sandblasting, Painting & Coating Specialists with over 20 yrs. experience in the industry
Spool Coating now available
P.O. Box 54 • Benson, SK • SOC 0L0bullyblasting@sasktel.net
BullyBlast & PaintServices Ltd.
• Shop & Field Service• Tank Linings
Bus.: (306) 457-2264
• Structural Steel• and more
• Pressure Vessels• Well Testers• Frac Recovery• Wellbore Bleedoff• Ball Catchers• 400 bbl Tanks• Rig Matting
Dale (306) 861-3635 • Lee (306) 577-7042Lampman, Sask.
• Complete Trucking Services
HYDROVAC SERVICES306.388.2225 - 306.421.5954
TERRY DODDS(24 hrs.) (306) 634-7599
Cell. (306) 421-0316
“All Your Construction and Maintenance Needs”SPECIALIZING IN: ENGINES, PUMP UNITS, UNIT
INSPECTIONS, PIPE FITTING, TREATERS AND PRESSURE TICKET WELDING
Box 1605, Estevan, Sk. S4A 2L7Cell. (306) 421-3174, (306) 421-6410, (306) 421-2059
Fax: (306) 634-1273
M.E.T. OILFIELDCONST. LTD.
Cory BjorndalDistrict ManagerDownhole Tools
93 Panteluk StreetKensington Avenue NEstevan, Saskatchewan S4A 2A6PHONE: 306-634-8828CELL: 306-421-2893FAX: 306-634-7747cory.bjorndal@nov.comwww.nov.com
RP Automotive Inc.Complete Automotive Repair
Reliable & Affordable • Fast & Friendly
• Tune Ups, Injector Purges• Transmissions, Clutches• Shocks and Struts• Oil Changes• Diesel Repair• After-market Accessories• Wheel Alignments• Engine Repair• Steering and Suspension
• Cooling System Flush & Repairs• Brakes• Differentials• Exhaust• Diesel Purges• SGI Inspections• Flywheel Resurfacing
47-13th Street, Weyburn, SK
842-4022®
Certi edService Centre
SONAR INSPECTION LTD.Head Of ce1292 Veterans CrescentEstevan, Sk. S4A 2E1E: sonarinsp@sasktel.net
P: 306-634-5285F: 306-634-5649
“Serving All Your Inspection Needs”UT - LPI - MPI
Wayne Naka 306-421-3177Taylor Gardiner 306-421-2883Cory Rougeau 306-421-1076
COR Certi edEstevan, Sk.
634-7348
VegetationControl
(Chemical or Mechanical)
Southeast Tree Care
4” Hevi Wate Drill PipeBrad Lamontagne
(306) 577-9818 or (306) 739-2263smrltd@sasktel.net
Box 868Carnduff, SKS0C 0S0
Bob BettsOperations Manager
Offi ce (306)482-3566Fax (306)482-3567Cell (306)482-8787
bob.betts@totemdrilling.comwww.totemdrilling.com
Peter Koopman - Industrial Tank Sales, Southern SaskatchewanPh. 306-525-5481 ext. 311 Cell 306-596-8137
www.westeel.com www.westeel.com www.northern-steel.comwww.northern-steel.com
100, 200 and 100, 200 and 400 BBL Tanks400 BBL Tanks
Serving the Saskatchewan Petroleum Upstream from our facilities in Regina & Tisdale.
Please call us with your Custom Fabrication Requirements!
JUSTIN WAPPEL - Division Manager
401 Hwy. #4 S. Biggar, SaskatchewanPO Box 879 S0K 0M0Ph (306) 948-5262 Fax (306) 948-5263Cell (306) 441-4402 Toll Free 1-800-746-6646Email: jwappel@envirotank.comwww.envirotank.com
a l t u s g e o m a t i c s . c o m
Specializing in well site and pipeline surveys
Yorkton
306.783.4100
Weyburn
306.842.6060
Regina
800.667.3546
Swift Current
306.773.7733
Lloydminster
780.875.6130
Medicine Hat
403.528.4215
Edmonton
800.465.6233
Calgary
866.234.7599
Grande Prairie
780.532.6793
Fresh Water HaulingCustom Bailing & Hauling
Gordon HartyBox 95 Marwayne, AB T0B 2X0
Bus. Phone(780) 875-9802
Fax No.(780) 847-3633
Res. Phone(780) 847-2178
Resources Resources GuideGuide
PIPELINE NEWS April 2009 C31
Lloyd Lavigne • Kirk ClarksonOwners/Managers
6506 - 50th AvenueLloydminster, AB
Phone: (780) 875-6880
5315 - 37th StreetProvost, AB T0B 3S0
Phone: (780) 753-6449
Fax: (780) 875-7076
24 Hour ServiceSpecializing in Industrial & Oilfield Motors
Proudly Serving Alberta & Saskatchewan
Full Hydrovac • Services
Capable of • Steam
24 HOUR DISPATCH24 HOUR DISPATCH
780-205-7666780-205-7666Lloydminster, AB
www.silverbackhydrovac.com • geoff@silverbackhydrovac.com
COIL TUBING SERVICESFLUSHBY SERVICES
Serving Alberta, B.C. & SaskatchewanToll Free1-866-363-0011
www.tazwellservicing.com
COIL TUBING SERVICESFLUSHBY SERVICES
OILFIELD HAULING LTD.Specializing in Hauling Well Site Trailers
Bruce BaylissOwner/Operator
Of ce: 482-3132Dispatch: 485-7535Fax: (306) 482-5271
Box 178Carnduff, Sk.
S0C 0S0
Experienced Crew ForemanFOR LLOYDMINSTER AREA
MUST: • Have Valid Drivers License & Be A Team Player• Safety Tickets • Picker & Bobcat Experience An Asset
C’s OFFERS: • Top Wages • Benefits Package• Performance Bonuses • Scheduled Days Off
• Opportunity For Advancement• C.O.R. Safety Program • AB & SK B31.3 Q.C.
• Premium Equipment
DUTIES: • Daily Operation Of A Light Picker Truck• Pipe-fitting & Construction
Apply inconfidence to:
Fax (780) 808-2273
OILFIELDCONSULTING & CONSTRUCTION
SERVICE LTD.
CNC Plasma / Oxyacetylene Operators
Applicants must have welding background.Driver’s license required. Reliable, team player.
Wages depend on experience. Benefi ts available.Performance bonuses.
Only those to be interviewed will be contacted.
Apply in confi dence to: Fax (780) 808-2689
www.suretuf.com
CareerCareerOpportunitiesOpportunities
NYMEXCrude Oil
futures
March 3, 2008 -March 19. 2009
PIPELINE NEWS April 2009C32
1 888-773-4646 www.collegeparkgm.com 1 780-853-0941
#C416 1992 Cadillac #C415 2002 Buick #5012A 2007 Chevrolet #5013A 2008 Pontiac #4966A 2004 Chevrolet #5155A 2004 ChevroletSeville LeSabre Ltd Impala LS Grand Prix Malibu LT Impala Leather
Sunroof 25000 K 35000 K 35000 K 80000 K
$4,500* $9,700* $17,400* $16,700* $10,900* $8,900*
#5079B 2007 Nissan #5129A 2007 Chevrolet #C409 2007 Chevrolet #5248A 2006 Chevrolet #4076 2006 Pontiac #5176A 2005 ChevroletVersa Cobalt SS Supercharged Cobalt Coupe Optra LT Wagon Grand Prix GT Impala
35000 K 14000 K
Take Over Lease
$13,250* $17,900* $335,00/ Month* $11,900* $17,900.* $9,900*
#5078A 2007 Chevrolet #4104 2007 Chevrolet #4734A 2007 Chevrolet #4960A 2008 Pontiac #5264A 2008 Chevrolet #5265A 2008 ChevroletHHR LT Limited Edition HHR LS HHR LT Grand Prix Impala LS Impala LS
35000 K 20000 K 22000 K
#5046 2008 Pontiac #5175 2009 Chevrolet LT #5229 2009 Pontiac #5185 2009 Chevrolet #5152 2009 Chevrolet #5288 2009 ChevroletTorrent FWD Crew 4x4 G 3 Wave Cobalt LS Coupe Cobalt LT Aveo LS
5.3 5 Door A/C ABS A/C 5 Spd
#4998 2009 Chevrolet #5138 2009 Pontiac #5195 2009 Chevrolet #5118 2009 GMC W/T #5233 2009 GMC #5289 2009 GMCUplander G 8 GT Silverado W/T 3/4 Reg 4X4 Canyon Crew 4x4 Cab/Chassis 4x4
V8 6.0 Reg 4x4 5.3 Diesel 161.5” wb
MSRP 27005 MSRP 41725 MSRP 35980 MSRP 43630 MSRP 38110 MSRP 51915
$19,200* $33,500* $27,650* $33,500* $32,200* $41,600*
#5284 2009 GMC #5246 2009 GMC SLT #5269A 2006 F350 #C41A 2007 Chevrolet #5085A 2006 Chevrolet #5143A 2006 ChevroletW/T 2500 4X4 GAT All Terrain Diesel Crew 4x4 LTZ Crew 3/4 4x4 LT Diesel Crew 4x4 1/2 Crew HD 8600 lb
Crew 4x4 Leather 6 passenger Diesel 4x4 71000 K
#5272A 2008 GMC SLE #5292A 2006 Chevrolet #5171A 2007 Chevrolet #5293A 2008 Chevrolet #5204A 2006 Chevrolet #5126A 2007 KiCrew 4X4 Buckets LT Z71 4X4 3/4 4x4 LT Tahoe LTZ Trailblazer LT Sportage AWD
5.3 20000 k Diesel Crew 70000 K 2.7 V6 37000 K
$18,800* $13,500* $14,500* $16,700* $17,400* $17,400*
$39,500* $44,900* $27,000* $44,000* $26,500 $19,500
$31,500* $20,900* $24,000* $42,500* $18,900* $17,900*
$19,500* $12,900* $10,350* $12,500* *35,900 $11,500*
EMPLOYMENT-OFFICE MANAGER
-SALES CONSULTANT*SEE LARRY
ALWARD
$1,250* $9,500* $19,500* $24,000* $12,900*
#3002B 1990 Chevrolet #5291B 2004 Durango #52A 2007 Pontiac #C411 2004 GMC #5124A 2001 Chevrolet3/4 Rwd 5Spd SLT Torrent SLE 1 TON CREW Tahoe 4x4
value point AWD Diesel 4x4 Clean 155000 K
#C410 2004 GMC SLE #4327A 2003 Chevrolet LT #5091A 2003 Chevrolet #5052A 1999 GMC SLE #4727A 2007 GMC SLT #5259A 2003 GMCCrew Diesel 4x4 Silverado Crew 4x4 Silverado 4x4 Ext Z71 Ext 4x4 Acadia AWD Envoy
4.8 Certified 30000 k Local trade in w DVD
*CASH PRICES LISTED
CALL DONNA FOR
YOUR FINANCE
REQUIREMENTS
MSRP 29745 MSRP 43765 MSRP 15390 MSRP 19365 MSRP22760 MSRP 16840
$23,500* $34,700* $11,750* $15,800* $18,250* $13,250*
VERMILION AB