pipeline news november 2014

November 2014 FREE Volume 7 Issue 6

Service

Hwy. 16 West, Lloydminster, AB ∙ 1-866-875-7665 ∙ 1-780-875-7667 ∙ www.tnttankandtrailer.com

2014 Peerless 60 ton. Double drop.We are now a Peerless distributor

New & used insulated and non-insulated Heil & Tremcar. 2 & 3 compt, 407 code, super b’s. In stock

Heil DOT407 Quad Wagon. 32 Cube. In stockNew Stainless Steel Tridems & Quads IN STOCK -

CALL FOR DETAILS.

Tremcar/Heil DOT 407, 38, 42, & 46 Cube, 1 & 2 Compartment. In stock

Doepker Picker Trailers. Scizzor necks, high boys and step decks. In stock NEW 2015 Doepker Impact End Dumps - IN STOCK

2015 Doepker Legacy Super B coming soon. All Alum. side walls, slopes, and hoppers. Pre-Order now!

2006 - 2013 Fuel Super b’s IN STOCK.New 11cu, 16cu, 18cu, & 22cu 1 & 2compt aluminum &

stainless steel body mount tanks In Stock.

New Tremcar TC406 crude spec 38 cube Tridems.

IN STOCK1974-2009 Code & Non Code 34 cu - 38 cu tridems. In stock

SALES & REPAIR

PIPELINE NEWS

Photo by Brian Zinchuk

A3Crescent Point donates $4.5 million to Weyburn Hospital Foundation

A5

B1 Boundary Dam ICCS opens

INSIDESECTION A4 Crescent Point CEO Q & A

7 Opinion

SECTION B

PIPELINE NEWSDec. 2014 Focus

ESTEVAN OFFICE

LIGHT TRUCKS

A2 PIPELINE NEWS November 2014

TOP NEWSA3PIPELINE NEWS November 2014

��

1955 KMS Service Rig Stock# Franks Serice Rig $75,000Skytop Masy 56 ft. 100,000 lbs Max Static hook load , 4 lines, free standing s/n 7397, current level four inspection, Franks model 658 BW Rig Brake Bands, s/n 15144, McKissick Rod block assembly, model 1x24” Sheave, 7/8 wire, 35 ton, s/n 34109, Trico Rod Hook, 25 ton, weight indicator, new transmission with one year warranty from Jan. 20/2014, Rod board, draw works c/w line, sand line drum and sandline, not installed but comes with unit.; 8x2

1996 Mack Flushby RD688S Stock #028415 $295,000C/W Mastco 42 ft mast. slant comaptible, 50,000 lbs rating, 3x5 gardner denver triplex pump, Glodec tank, 1997, TC306 crude spec, Pullmaster HL 25 working winch, Pullmaster PL 5 catline winch, Maxi Lift model 027 crane, c/w rod handling tools. All certs are current , New paint one year ago.

1997 Mack Flushby CL713 Stock#004559 $275,000Mileage and hours are not as shown on meters. C/w Capital Rig Flushby unit, s/n 9697, 43 ft mast, non slant , 3x5 Gardner Denver triplex pump, 2002 Hamm 6m3 tank, PVIK 06/11, Hiab model 015 crane, s/n CEB2, cert good til 12/2014, Level four done on Jan.23/2014, come with hand tools . rod handling tools, HL25 working winch, PL 5 cat line winch, tool boxes, Hydrauilic drive load pump, Sea Level gauges.

1995 Western Star Pressure Truck 4964F Stock #939224 $149,900 c/w 3x5 gardner Denver TEE triplex pump, Hamm’s 12 m3 , 3 compartment tank s/n 47CT2783M91404644, hydraulic drive load pump, and hoses. Heated tool box and hydraulic oil cooler.; 8x2

$295,000

$275,000

$149,900

$75,000

Story and photos by Brian ZinchukPipeline News

Weyburn – With a massive $4.5 million donation to the Weyburn and District Hospital Foundation, Crescent Point Energy Corp. put the community’s long-running campaign for a new hospital over the top. By reaching its funding goal of $20 mil-lion, Weyburn has now put the ball in the province’s court, according to the funding formula put out by the province for new health facilities.

Under the current formula, if a community reaches 20 per cent of the estimated cost, the province will cough up the remaining 80 per cent. That’s a change in recent years, as the split used to be 35 per cent local, 65 per cent provincial.

In this case, a new hospital is expected to cost approximately $100 million for the bricks and mortar. Equipping it will be extra.

The announcement was made on Sept. 24 in the parking lot of Cres-cent Point Place, the arena that the oil

producer had purchased the naming rights for several years ago. Several hundred people, including a strong contingent from Crescent Point, were there for the announcement, made by CEO Scott Saxberg.

Speaking to the crowd, Saxberg said, “We’ve had such great support from the community. We’re really grateful to be able to give back in this way and help build a brand new hospital. We’re proud to announce our donation of $4.5 million to the Weyburn and District Hospital Foun-dation.

“It’s very exciting to help build a new, modern hospital for the com-munity.”

The company has a strong his-tory of supporting health care in the province, being the lead donor on the STARS helicopter air ambulance program in Saskatchewan. Their $5 million donation, announced in 2010, got the ball rolling, and soon other donors stepped up to the plate and the program was implemented.

“One of the unique benefits with

STARS is that STARS, combined with the new hospital, will enhance that project as well,” Saxberg said.

While the building cost for the proposed new hospital is estimated at $100 million, the local community is expected to also pay for the cost of equipping it. Everything from beds and chairs to medical equipment will need to be acquired, and this cost is typically an additional 10 per cent of the building cost, in this case esti-mated to be another $10 million. Thus Foundation chair Mal Barber noted there’s still more work to be done in fundraising.

Barber said, “Crescent Point Energy, you have put us over the top! Your commitment of $4.5 million brought us to our first major goal of

$20 million.”In thanking the corporate board,

shareholders and employees, Barber added, “A new hospital will help us to hire and retain good doctors, good nurses and support staff. A new physical plant will run efficiently, reducing costs. It will make it a safer environment for our patients, reduc-ing cross-infections that can happen in an older-style hospital. Potentially it can increase the procedures that can be done locally, in our own hospital.”

Health Minister Dustin Duncan, who is also MLA for Weyburn, talk-ing about the need to replace aging facilities said, “None of this would be possible without community support, from individuals, municipal council-lors and leaders. Page A8

Crescent Point Energy

-

Crescent Point puts Weyburn Hospital Foundation over the top with $4.5 million donation

BRIEFS

Briefs courtesy Nickle’s Daily Oil Bulletin

A4 PIPELINE NEWS NOVEMBER 2014

Wavefront Technology Solutions Inc. has entered into a technology co-owner-ship agreement with an un-named Canadian integrated energy company to adapt its existing Powerwave technol-ogy for SAGD operations.

Powerwave is a fl uid de-livery technology for maxi-mizing oil and gas reserves.

Wavefront and the inte-grated energy company have fi led two patent applications related to a new stimulation approach, which accelerates communication between a SAGD well pair to reduce the time between well drill-ing, completion and well production.

Wavefront received a U.S. patent for the trade-mark WaveAxe for this new technological approach that diversifi es the strong appli-cation base established for Powerwave in enhanced oil recovery and conventional well stimulation.

Under the agreement Wavefront and its partner-ing companies will be the sole providers of the tech-nology to SAGD operators in the Western Canadian Sedimentary Basin.

Pilot testing of the SAGD well pair stimulation approach will follow in the coming weeks.

WaveAxe to stimulate heavy oil

By Brian Zinchuk

Weyburn – Crescent Point Energy Corp. CEO Scott Sax-berg took the time to speak to Pipeline News while he was in Weyburn on Sept. 24 to an-nounce a $4.5 million dona-tion to the Weyburn and Dis-trict Hospital Foundation. In recent years, Crescent Point has grown to become the larg-est producer in southeast Sas-katchewan. Saxberg tackled some questions about that con-tinued growth and the impact they have.

Pipeline News: Where are you going now, especially in regards to Flat Lake? Th ere was a big announcement this past spring, and now it seems almost everything we’re writ-ing about now is leading to-wards that.

Scott Saxberg: Th e Torquay, or Th ree Forks, as they call it in the U.S. and our discovering in and around Flat Lake is really a huge discovery. It replaces a lot of our drilling inventory that we’ve drilled in the Weyburn area and Viewfi eld. It’s the same high-quality, high-economic return project that we have here.

It’s still early days there, but we’ve got quite a large area. Again, it really hopes the growth of the company and keeps the activity in Saskatchewan going at a pretty good pace. We’re pretty excited about that play.

P.N.: When you say “Flat Lake,” what area are you refer-ring to, because the Ministry of Energy and Resources refers to the area south of Lake Alma. But when you look at RigLo-cator.ca, you see all these rigs working for Crescent Point south of Torquay and south of Oungre.

Saxberg: It’s basically the west edge of the Oungre fi eld, all the way east towards Taylorton, and two or three townships north. It’s a vast, large area. It’s the early days of drilling it. Th e key main lands that we have are in and around that Flat Lake area, where we have most of that activity. It would be southeast of Oungre.

P.N.: You had mentioned this could be as big as Viewfi eld. Are you serious about that?

Saxberg: Oh yeah, just in the Flat Lake area, because it’s Bakken and Th ree Forks, it’s dual-zone. Th e initial discovery there is probably three townships, or the equivalent of six town-ships. Th e Viewfi eld fi eld, the core is six townships and the main fi eld is probably 12 to 14 townships big.

P.N.: At the Williston Basin Petroleum Conference,

Hess, Continental and Whit-ing’s drilling plans show four Bakken wells, and then 12 to 16 wells in the fi rst three benches of the Th ree Forks for a stand-up 1,280 acre drilling unit. Are you looking at similar plans?

Saxberg: No. As we go into Canada, some of those benches, as they refer to them, disappear. Th ere’s really two benches, one refer to as the Bakken, one we refer to as the Torquay.

P.N.: Your website shows drill plans to eventually blan-ket the Viewfi eld. Are you looking at the same thing for this Flat Lake region?

Saxberg: It’s still early days. We envision four wells per section. It’s deeper, a little bit thinner, so it won’t have as many infi ll wells.

P.N.: Are you looking at two horizontal legs on one vertical?

Saxberg: No, separate wells. P.N.: Is that geology or regulations?Saxberg: It’s both. It’s really tough to do dual legs. It’s com-

plicated, so it’s not worth the dollars to do that.P.N.: Th ese are all horizontal, multi-stage frac. How

many stages do you plan on doing on a Torquay well?Saxberg: It just depends on what we’re encountering. We’ve

been doing 25 stage, cemented liner completions as our stan-dard.

P.N.: Crescent Point has a habit of grabbing all the land in an area. You’ve done that in Viewfi eld, you’ve done that in Shaunavon, are you getting close to that in Flat Lake?

Saxberg: Yeah, we’re by a vast margin, the largest landhold-er there. We have close to a thousand sections of land, a pretty large position

P.N.: Every month it seems you buy another company. T. Bird is a recent one, CanEra, yesterday you closed another $750 million dollars. Are you buying the rest of Lightstream?

Saxberg: (laughs) You’d have to ask them that. We’re al-ways opportunistic, looking for things to consolidate, to make it easier for our operations guys. Looking for opportunities, and with technology changes, we see that there lots of opportuni-ties still in some of the older fi elds: anything in our (southeast) Saskatchewan core area or Shaunavon core areas that are easy consolidations that can provide a strong cash fl ow and develop-ment opportunities.

Page A9


Crescent Point CEO Scott Saxberg on Flat Lake development

BRIEFS

Briefs courtesy Nickle’s Daily Oil Bulletin

A5PIPELINE NEWS November 2014

FULL FLUSHBY & PRESSURE SERVICES

BODY VACS,STEAMER/PRESSURE WASHER SERVICES

SALTWATER DISPOSAL PUMPING SERVICES

Ken McConnellOwner/Operator

24 HR Dispatch: 780-205-9001Mike #: 403*11*29001

Fax: 306-397-2697Box 238 Edam, SK

[email protected]

24 HOUR SERVICE24 HOUR SERVICE

Saskatchewan is lead-ing the nation in job cre-ation heading into Novem-ber with the fastest rate of employment growth and the lowest unemployment rate in Canada.

“Having a growing and robust economy has had a huge impact on the job front,” Minister respon-sible for Immigration, Jobs, Skills and Training Jeremy Harrison said in an Oct. 10 news release.

“It is no surprise that Saskatchewan’s job growth rate is the best in the nation now, providing more em-ployment opportunities to support and sustain strong economic momentum.”

Employment was up 3.5 per cent over last Sep-tember (19,300 jobs), the highest growth rate in the nation. Nationally, jobs were up 0.9 per cent. There were 574,800 people em-ployed in Saskatchewan in September.

Sask.tops in job creation

Photo courtesy TransGas

By Geoff Lee

Prud' Homme, Regina – Safety Boss crews are credited with snuffing out a troublesome fire at a TransGas pumping station near Prud’Homme that burned for six days.

“The fire was out Friday night,” said SaskEnergy spokes-person Dave Burdeniuk referring to the evening of Oct. 17. TransGas is a wholly-owned subsidiary of SaskEnergy.

“Safety Boss from Calgary and Red Deer – they worked with us. They used a fire retardant on the well fire just before the new wellhead was lowered into place.

“Then they used the new wellhead to shut off the gas flow. So that happened Friday night.”

Heat-shielded equipment including a boom crane, a track-hoe and a skid-steer loader enabled crews to replace the original wellhead damaged in the fire that began Oct. 11 from leaked natural gas stored in a cavern.

Weir Seaboard had men on site and supplied the replace-ment wellhead, according to Cameron Smith, general manager for Weir Seaboard Canada.

The cavern is one of seven in the area serving the central Saskatchewan region.

“We do know the other six caverns are secure. We did check that throughout this whole process. The other six are in good shape and are not affected by this,” said Burdeniuk.

He estimated the cost of extinguishing the fire and repair-

ing damaged equipment between $5and $10 million.The losses will include the value of gas burned off in the

cavern that held 730 terajoules when fire erupted with flames shooting as high as 250 ft. when the wellhead failed on Oct. 15.

“We don’t know at this point how much we’ve lost. We haven’t done a full pressure test on it yet,” said Burdeniuk.

Burdeniuk said that will be part of the assessment phase to determine the cause and assess the full extent of damage during a phone interview with Pipeline News on Oct. 20.

“It’s now the recovery phase for us and that includes the investigative work,” he said.

“Now we’re looking at the investigative side of things and doing a full assessment at the surface to determine what have we lost for above ground equipment, what can be repaired, and what has to be replaced.

“We probably lost a couple of line heaters. The fire itself did melt the cavern building.

“We thought it might have actually melted on to the well-head, but in one of the final inspections before Safety Boss went in to turn the valve off, their water cannons were actually able to remove the remaining debris from the wellhead building.

“They just walked in with a wall of water towards this and used the water cannons to cool things off and push flames aside so they could actually have a look at things.”

Burdeniuk said Safety Boss came up with two options to safety lower and secure the wellhead in place. Page A10

EDITORIAL

Publisher: Brant Kersey - EstevanPh: 1.306.634.2654

Editorial Contributions: SOUTHEASTBrian Zinchuk - Estevan 1.306.461.5599

SOUTHWESTSwift Current 1.306.461.5599

NORTHWESTGeoff Lee - Lloydminster 1.780.875.5865

Associate Advertising Consultants:SOUTHEAST SASK. & MANITOBA

Cindy Beaulieu Candace Wheeler Kristen O’Handley Deanna Tarnes Teresa Hrywkiw

Alison Dunning

NORTHWEST SASK. & ALBERTA

Krista Thiessen

CENTRAL Al Guthro 1.306.715.5078

SOUTHWEST

Stacey Powell

To submit a stories or ideas:Pipelines News is always looking for stories or ideas from our readers. To contribute please contact your local con-tributing reporter.

Subscribing to Pipeline News:Pipeline News is a free distribution newspaper, and is now available online at www.pipelinenews.ca

Advertising in Pipeline News:Advertising in Pipeline News is a newer model created to make it as easy as possible for any business or individual. Pipeline News has a group of experienced staff work-ing throughout Saskatchewan and parts of Manitoba, so please contact the sales representative for your area to as-sist you with your advertising needs.Special thanks to JuneWarren-Nickle’s Energy Group

for their contributions and assistance with Pipeline News.

Published monthly by the Prairie Newspaper Group, a divi-sion of Glacier Ventures International Corporation, Central Office, Estevan, Saskatchewan. Advertising rates are available upon request and are subject to change without notice. Conditions of editorial and advertising content: Pipeline News attempts to be accurate, however, no guarantee is given or implied. Pipeline News reserves the right to revise or reject any or all editorial and advertising content as the newspapers’ principles see fit. Pipeline News will not be responsible for more than one incorrect insertion of an advertisement, and is not responsible for errors in advertisements except for the space occupied by such errors. Pipeline News will not be responsible for manuscripts, photographs, negatives and other material that may be sub-mitted for possible publication. All of Pipeline News content is protected by Canadian Copyright laws. Reviews and similar mention of material in this newspaper is granted on the provision that Pipeline News receives credit. Otherwise, any reproduction without permis-sion of the publisher is prohibited. Advertisers purchase space and circulation only. Rights to the advertisement produced by Pipeline News, including artwork, typography, and photos, etc., remain property of this newspaper. Advertisements or parts thereof may be not reproduced or assigned without the consent of the publisher. The Glacier group of companies collects personal infor-mation from our customers in the normal course of business transactions. We use that information to provide you with our products and services you request. On occasion we may contact you for purposes of research, surveys and other such matters. To provide you with better service we may share your information with our sister companies and also outside, selected third parties who perform work for us as suppliers, agents, service providers and information gatherers.

NEWSPIPELINE

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.


It’s taken a long time, but we’ve hit the big 4-0. Forty what? You ask. Editions? Pages? Topics

covered? Years old? Pipeline protests?Nope. It’s taken six-and-a-half years, but Pipeline

News editor Brian Zinchuk has finally seen a total of 40 women working in the oilfield, in the field, wear-ing coveralls and gloves, and not working in some sort of geologist or engineer capacity. We’re talking swampers, labourers, equipment operators, truck driv-ers and the like.

This month provided a significant boost to that number, which had been quite stagnant for a while. A couple years ago over 10 were found working on the Vantage Pipeline with A&B Pipeliners. This month, three women were found working as swampers on hy-drovacs. Indeed, of the hydrovacs we visited, nearly all had female swampers. That’s a switch, because we’ve never seen any sampling of any field position where the women we encountered outnumbered the men.

Depending on how it goes and how much experi-ence the swamper and operator have, swamping on a hydrovac can be one of the toughest jobs in the oilpatch. That’s because not only it is generally messy, but it’s also pretty dang cold. You are always working with water and mud, and that’s not a fun combination in the winter, when the temperature hits -27 C and there’s a wind.

Despite gender equality being reached or, in some cases, mightily surpassed in places that were almost exclusively male domains like law schools and schools of medicine, the Saskatchewan oilpatch remains one of the few bastions of almost total dominance of male participation.

Hitting the big 4-0We’ve been on pretty much every type of lease,

right-of-way, gas plant and battery you can imagine. The reason we’ve been able to keep track is because it is such a rarity to encounter women in the field, working with their hands, that when it does happen, it stands out. You would think it’s almost as rare an occurrence as a win-ning season for the Oilers.

The prevalence of women working in the field is so Spartan that when you do bring it up, the people you are talking to will say things like, “Oh yeah, we had three women working on our crew once.”

Or, “We had a woman working for us once….”This month it was swampers. Previously it’s been

pipeline labourers, or truck drivers. One was a jour-neyperson welder. Women working on drilling floors as roughnecks, motorhands, derrickhands or drillers are still as rare as unicorns, however.

Perhaps some day that will change. After all, the Canadian military has long been fully integrated. The American military is finally accepting women into com-bat roles, and into submarine duty. If women can fight in the infantry, they certainly can run tongs on a drilling floor.

Should we keep counting? Will it take another six-and-a-half years to reach 80? If it does, that’s a mighty poor reflection on our industry. Note that with about 78 editions under our belt, that 40 meant an average of less than one woman encountered in the field every two months. Surely we can do better than that.

We’re not envisioning some sort of affirmative action program. Rather, we’d like to see more women applying for field work. We’ve been told they would be hired, if they just applied. Time to get those resumes out.

PIPELINE NEWS INVITES OPPOSING VIEW POINTS. EDITORIALS AND LETTERS TO THE EDITOR ARE WELCOME.Email to: [email protected]

OPINIONA7PIPELINE NEWS November 2014

It’s great to see all the coverage in other media regarding the Boundary Dam Integrated Carbon Capture Project following its grand opening on Oct. 2. However, there are a few things many of the other media are getting wrong. It’s an incred-ibly complex project, and hard to swallow in a press event a few hours long, so that’s understandable. Here are some things I’ve noticed:

This project involves one of four coal-fire units in the power plant, not then entire plant. Thus it is capturing CO2 from one of the four orange smoke-stacks, not all of them. The remaining three are still in operation.

Boundary Dam is not a 110 megawatt power plant. That number is the net power production of the revamped Unit 3, which will produce a gross 165 megawatts. That’s what the nameplate says stamped on the side of the generator. The differ-ence is accounted for by the usage of power in the carbon capture plant, also known as parasitic loss. The net capacity of Units 3, 4, 5, and 6 is now 110+ 139+139+284 = 672 megawatts, making it still the largest power plant in the province. (Units 1 and 2 were recently retired).

While some of the CO2 will go into the nearby Aquistore injection well and thereby into a deep saline aquifer, 3.4 kilometres deep, the vast major-ity of the CO2 will go to the Cenovus-operated Weyburn Unit 70 kilometres away. At the Wey-burn Unit it will be used for enhanced oil recovery (EOR). There it will be injected 1.4 kilometres

underground, not 3.4. This oilfield has been using even larger quantities of CO2 sourced from Beulah, North Dakota, since 2000. The field has produc-ing oil for 60 years as of this fall, and is expected to produce for several more decades as a result of CO2-EOR.

While one report mentioned, “The food and agriculture industries are potential customers,” not one person from SaskPower or the provincial government has mentioned this to Pipeline News in our extensive coverage over the years. Indeed, all CO2 production sales are locked up for the next 10 years by Cenovus and its partners in the Weyburn Unit. If there are to be sales to food and agriculture, this would presumably not happen until 2024 at the earliest.

While there were 250 people in attendance to the invitation-only grand opening, they were not all media representatives from around the world. There were approximately 30 media represented, including outlets from France and Norway. A large number of the attendees were participants in a carbon cap-ture and storage symposium SaskPower hosted in Regina Sept. 30 and Oct. 1, with the grand opening and tour being the culmination of the event. There were also representatives from various companies involved with the production of the plant and SaskPower.

In our October 2014 edition coverage, we noted the cost as “$1.3+ billion.” This was based on the following statement by CEO Robert Watson in a

phone interview on Sept. 17: “It is go-ing to cost more than the original number. We’re still putting our numbers together. Rather than through all kinds of numbers out there, we’d rather not comment now. We’d rather come up with one number. It is going to be more. What I think, it’s not going to be exorbitantly more. It will be at least $1.3 billion. There are still contracts to settle. It’s not fair to come up with a final number, because it could be inaccurate tomorrow.”

The number used by SaskPower and all other media on Oct. 2 was $1.4 billion. If this is indeed the final number, that would put the project at approximately 12.9 per cent over the initial $1.24 billion budget, or $160 million over. One com-mentator noted that if the project was $200 million over budget, it would be $1.6 billion. In fact, if it is $200 million over budget, the final number would be $1.44 billion.

There are a lot of numbers that have flown around. It’s taken a long time to wrap my head around this, so I guess they can be forgiven. The important thing here is to make sure the correct information gets out, because inaccuracies quickly become overblown myths – the prime one being that there can be no such thing as “clean coal.”

Brian Zinchuk is editor of Pipeline News. He can be reached at [email protected].

Straightening out the numbers on Boundary Dam ICCS

There is an unmistakable aura

of confidence these days in the future of heavy oil production in the Lloydminster region.

That confidence was reflected in the keynote speech at the 2014 Lloydminster Heavy Oil Show banquet by Ed Connolly, Husky Energy’s senior vice president of heavy oil and gas.

“We recognize the lifeline of heavy oil is in-novation and new technology development,” said Connolly who built his speech around milestones in technology and what lies ahead to enhance oil recovery.

For example, he was pleased to announce that Husky had just produced its one millionth barrel of incremental oil using cold solvents beginning in 2006.

In the company’s first 68 years, they produced over 900 million barrels of heavy oil with about 1.8 billion barrels of oil in place on the Saskatch-ewan side of their Lloydminster operations to sustain them for another 70 years.

Innovation and technology will lead the way as it always has said Connolly.

Husky produces about 120,000 barrels of day per day in the Lloydminster area with recovery rates from new and existing thermal plants up to 70 per cent.

That’s a far cry from the one half to three per cent recovery rates in the old days from pump jacks.

Connolly said the base resource that Husky has in the region lends itself to SAGD (steam as-sisted gravity drainage) in certain small pools.

Husky plans to double its thermal output in the region to over 80,000 barrels a day by 2020.

One way it is will do this is by capturing car-bon dioxide from its steam generators and inject-ing it into reservoirs to enhance oil recovery.

Husky also has a project underway called hot water vapour production. Connolly said this is a project where they take nitrogen out of the air.

They heat it up saturate it with water and in-ject it into a reservoir to produce oil. They will run that pilot for three years.

Husky is also conducting a couple of ASP (alkaline surfactant polymer) floods to increase the efficiency of the heavy oils they produce.

In addition, the company is testing a couple of microbial projects for enhanced oil production.

Connolly explained microorganisms are inject-ed into the reservoirs where they release gas. That generates energy to push oil into of the reservoir.

In addition, the company is also using chemi-cal floods, and in Alberta, firefloods.

The company produces about 50,000 barrels

a day of its total production in the Lloydminster area from CHOPS (cold heavy oil production with sand).

He noted CHOPS and PC pumps among the major step changes that come along in the devel-opment of new technology including the dyna-drill that revolutionized directional drilling.

Connolly expects production from horizontals will rise from its current level around 13,000 bar-rels a day to 15,000 barrels a day in 2015.

Those are some of the initiatives Husky has under way to look to its future said Connolly.

Husky’s four part formula for sustaining growth for the next seven decades relies on the resource base in place, support from government, support from the community and innovation and technology.

Connolly said he sees the biggest challenge will come from innovation and technology.

In order to innovate he said you need the tools, you need to collaborate and have the will to succeed, all three of which he said industry is well known for in Lloydminster.

“The world needs our oil. Innovation has a way of turning copper into gold,” he said.

No doubt, Connolly was referring to black gold with a lot more of it to be mined in the Lloy-dminster area by innovation and technology.

Husky embraces innovation for Lloyd growth


D&D OILFIELD RENTALS

Contribution part of continuing community support Page A3

“It would not be possible without our health foundations and it would not be possible without our corporate community. I want to thank a very strong corporate partner we have in this province, Crescent Point Energy. On behalf of the province of Saskatch-ewan, thank you.”

Asked about where this puts the proposed new hospital, Duncan noted raising that 20 per cent of funds is “one of the components,” in new proj-ects. “Certainly, it’s a long process from when a project is announced to when a facility is opened.”

Functional planning has not yet begun on a new hospital and he noted before the presentation, “Because a lot of the functional planning hasn’t taken place yet, ($100 million) is really a rough estimate.

“There’s been no discussion of beds, because it’s not an approved project at this point. We haven’t looked at the number of beds or square foot-age. The foundation used $100 million, because down the highway in Moose Jaw it cost $100 million. That’s what a hospital costs today. Certainly that would be determined through a lot of the functional planning.”

Speaking to Pipeline News before the announcement, Saxberg said, “The community here has been so support-ive of Crescent Point, and our opera-tions out here and our staff, we felt this was a great opportunity to give back to the community.”

Among his thanks to dignitaries and volunteers, Saxberg singled out the efforts of Ken and Joanne Cugnet for their support of the Foundation. “They’ve been very key, as supporters of Crescent Point, and in the com-

munity, and really pushing that legacy into the community. We’re proud to be involved with Ken all these years in the growth of our company.”

Long-time Crescent Point direc-tor Ken Cugnet has also been a strong supporter of the hospital project. He and his wife Joanne had donated $1 million to the project on behalf of their family. Asked how instrumental Cugnet had been in securing Cres-cent Point’s donation, Saxberg replied,

“He’s pretty big. He’s been our key guy in the community for Crescent Point for all these years and a big supporter of Crescent Point and the community. His donation as well is pretty amazing, for him and for the things he’s done in

the community. It’s a highlight of the things he’s done in the community.

“We’re pretty excited about this opportunity and for the community. We’re just happy we can be in a posi-tion to donate and to give back to the community in this way,” Saxberg said.

Beyond the donation to the hospi-tal foundation, Ken Cugnet noted the company’s contributions to other wor-thy causes, like STARS. He recounted how some young men were recently

driving around in a farmer’s field and hit a drainage ditch, just a couple miles south of Weyburn. They were seriously injured. STARS, for which Crescent Point instrumental in implementing, was deployed.

Cugnet recalled, “Watching it come in and make a circle, they landed… I just said how proud I was to be part of an organization that sup-ported that. To me, that’s a success of a company – what they put back into the communities they’re working in, and put back into the communities they’re working in.”

Noting donations to places like Weyburn’s Crescent Point Place arena and Estevan’s Affinity place, Cugnet said, “It doesn’t matter where you drive in the southeast, they’ve given sub-stantially to projects, and they’re still giving to minor hockey, ball teams, and supporting them.”

Before the official announcement, Barber told Pipeline News the change from a 35 percent to 20 per cent local contribution made a “huge difference.”

“We’re estimating a hospital might cost in the tune of $100 million to get it built. What’s 15 per cent? Fifteen million. It reduces what we need to raise,” he said.

Prior to the Sept. 24 announce-ment, they had $15.5 million.

“The need is still there. Our Foundation is going to continue to raise money for equipment forever. But we’re over the top for bricks and mortar.”

-


On Oct. 21, Crescent Point Energy Corp. had four rigs (green dots) working in what they refer to as their Flat Lake area. The rigs were working south of Torquay, which is at the

Graphic courtesy Rig Locator

With Crescent Point’s growth, is southeast Saskatchewan becoming a ‘company town?’

Page A4Obviously we’re very concentrated and have consolidated a lot in the area.

Th ose deals become fewer and farther between. We’re always looking.P.N.: Th e last time we spoke, you had talked about getting into water-

fl oods. Can you talk about your waterfl ood strategy?Saxberg: We’re expanding the Viewfi eld waterfl ood, Bakken waterfl ood.

Now it’s 15,000 barrels a day, the third largest waterfl ood in Canada. To put it in perspective, it’s right behind the Weyburn fi eld. It’s already at a scale beyond most conventional reservoirs in Western Canada; almost all of them.

We’re looking in the next couple years to probably double that size, to probably 30,000.

We’ll have our fi rst water injector in the Torquay play here next year. Th at will move rapidly. It will give us a good sense of waterfl ooding into the U.S. and our U.S. lands. We’re pretty keen on that project.

P.N.: We understand you’re doing some work on gas plants?Saxberg: We’re expanding the gas plant in Viewfi eld. We have another

expansion planned for the southwest. We’ve built a gas plant in the Flat Lake area as well.

As these plays develop, we need that gas conservation and compression. Th ose are all part and parcel to the growth of the fi elds.

P.N.: In talking to a lot of service providers, there is a little bit of a concern of southeast Saskatchewan becoming a little bit of a company town, in that if you don’t work for Crescent Point, you may not fi nd much work. Th ere were a lot of concerns last summer, honestly, when you shut down your drilling program and had only one rig instead of 15 working. Everyone said, “Ahh, now what?” Can you address that?

Saxberg: Obviously, we’re concentrated here and in the southwest. I think we’ve been very positive for the community and for the service providers. We work with several diff erent types of service providers and work with them very closely. Th ey’ve been very good to use and treat us well, and we want tend to treat them very well.

It’s long term. We’ve got 15 years, 20 years of drilling here. It’s steady, low-risk work. Th at will always continue as the most economic play in North

America, this and Shaunavon. Th ese will be the last rigs to shut down, if there ever is a shutdown in the oil industry. I think that’s something that should be very comforting to the people here and to the community here and those ser-vice providers. Th is is one of the top economic plays. If they’re shut in, everyone else is, which is pretty unlikely.

P.N.: Th is area was once dominated by Shell and large major players. Some people seem to think you’re setting up to be a size attractive enough for a Shell or Exxon for an eventual buyout.

Saxberg: We’re a $20 billion market cap company, going to $30, $40 (bil-lion). We’ve never entertained any of those, or had anybody approach us. So we’ll focus on growing the company and being successful. We have a fi ve year, 10 year plan to do that.


... ON THE

MARK WITH

TARGET

Page A5“One was to knock the fire down and then work in the gas stream,” he said.“One was just to keep it burning and work in the flames, and they opted

for knocking the flame down just as the boom crane was about to lower the wellhead into place.

“They hit it with retardant and then just worked in the gas stream.”Once the fire was out, crews spent the remainder of that weekend doing

integrity work with the well and checking out the rest of the casing and the cavern itself.

“We made the determination it was performing as per its design and it was holding the gas in the cavern,” said Burdeniuk.

An evacuation order was lifted by 6 p.m. on Oct. 19 allowing 13 affected people from four families to return to their homes.

“We’re glad that they are back in their homes because that’s asking a lot of

your neighbours,” said Burdeniuk who noted there were no injuries or service outages during the emergency.

“We didn’t want anyone hurt including the final stages when the new well-head was installed and locked down,” he added.

“Safety Boss told us there was nothing spectacular about this; that is was a fairly normal routine fire for them. I think what they do is quite extraordinary.”

Safety Boss and its CEO, Mike Miller, became famous by becoming the number one firefighting company in Kuwait after the 1991 Gulf War, when the retreating Iraqi army lit over 600 oil wells and “oil lake” ablaze.

“They are one of the contractors we can call on in these situations,” said Burdeniuk.

“We’ve been operating caverns since 1964 and this is our first wellhead fire so it is good to have access to a company that is one of the best at what they do.

“They were on the scene Oct. 11 to start their assessment.”

By Geoff LeeLloydminster – Covax Tank Company Inc.

came to the 2014 Lloydminster Heavy Oil Show fresh from the first customer delivery of its vacuum and pressure trucks designed and manufactured in Edmonton.

The company formed in May 2013 has quickly become a sought-after manufacturer of vac trucks, trailers systems and hydrovac excavator units.

The fast growth company plans to build 60 to 100 units in different configurations in 2015 out of its new 45,000 sq. ft. facility in south east Edmon-ton acquired on a five year lease.

“We’ll be moving in our first phase of people around Nov. 1,” said Covax CEO Bruce Wispinski in a follow-up phone interview on Oct. 15.

Wispinski is also the owner and CEO of the parent company Blowertech Ltd. that he founded in 2011.

His company has jumped to 201 on the 2014 Profit 500 list of Canada’s fastest growing compa-nies after holding down the 376 position the previ-ous few years.

Blowertech is a booming business that repairs all types of mechanical and rotating machinery in-cluding blowers, fans, gearboxes, centrifuges, pumps and heavy industry machinery.

The company currently has a combined total of 70 employees including 55 at Covax that needs room to expand.

“We’ve already outgrown our facility. We are sharing a shop between the companies right now and we’ve outgrown that space and we need to increase production,” said Wispinski.

The first unit produced by Covax was delivered to Gibson Energy in July with many more to roll out of the plant in the coming weeks.

“The industry backlog is at an all-time peak,”

said Robert Hawkes, chief operating officer at the Covax vac exhibit at the Lloydminster Exhibition Grounds Sept. 10-11.

“I’ve been in the industry for 25 years, and I’ve never seen it this busy. Right now, our lead times are six months which is considered good.”

Wispinski said dollar-wise, the backlog at Covax is valued at about $12 million and quantity-wise about 30 units.

“We have a lot more capacity. We can build multiple units a month for any fleet that needs volume,” he said.

“We have a lot of capacity because of our back-ground in welding technology and the quality of our people.”

One of the keys to the quick success of Covax is an alliance with Kenworth for what Hawkes calls a joint venture rigged-and-ready program.

Page A11


Lloydminster6203 - 56th Street, Lloydminster, AB T9V 3C1Direct Line: 780-875-6211 Toll Free: 800-661-3926

Page A10

“It’s a combination of Edmonton Kenworth supplying the truck chassis, and then we build the backend section with our vacuum tank systems,” he explained.

Th e choice of truck chassis, however, is purely customer driven and can be any make and model.

“It’s whatever the customer demands. Th ey can bring their truck – they can have their truck sent from a dealer of their choice,” explained Wispinski.

“Th e Kenworth working relationship does give us some trucks that are in our calendar that aren’t spoken for yet. It does give the end user the option of having very quick access to units.

“We have a number of build slots with the Kenworth relationship that aren’t committed to yet but the truck is ready to be built.

“It really speeds us the process for someone needing a truck right now.”

Th e Kenworth class 8 T800B heavy truck chas-sis supports a variety of Covax vac units including tri-drive straights, combo vac wash units, tri-drive hydrovacs, and semi-vac trailer systems.

“We have numerous other confi gurations – track mounted vehicles, diff erent trailer systems, skid systems – whatever’s in demand for the oilpatch in Alberta,” said Hawkes including custom builds.

“We have diff erent kind of computer CAD programs where we can model and profi le the truck and come up with a system that is suited to what a customer’s requirements are in the fi eld.

“We like to work with fl eets and we will also work with the independent contractors.”

Th e industry demand for vacuum and pressure wash units is driven in part by an increase in oil production and a lack of pipeline capacity to trans-port oil to market.

“When there is no access to pipelines, 400 barrel tanks are popular on the site. Our equipment will move that product from point A to point B,” explained Hawkes.

Covax’s new manufacturing facility will employ some of the last welding technology to boost capac-ity including semi automatic welding equipment.

“Th ere will be laser seam tracking and welding vision cameras. We are adopting some fairly new technology to improve and streamline our opera-tion and increase effi ciency,” said Wispinski.

Combo vac wash units are among the most popular products in demand by customers in West-ern Canada along with the export of various units to the United States and South America.

“Combo vac wash units seem to be popular right now and semi-vacs for long distance waste disposal are very popular. It’s a little bit of every-thing,” said Hawkes.

Th e feature list of a Covax combo vac wash unit includes a fresh water tank, a diesel-fi red hot water heater, a powerful vac pump and pressure wash pump and a containment tank for waste disposal.

Th e straight back vac Covax brought to the oil show is strictly intended for the transportation of dangerous goods typically from drilling rigs to regulated waste disposal sites.

Covax was founded by a decision made two years ago to acquire the vac truck assets from the former owner of Almac Machine Works who sold out to an Australian mining company in 2010.

“Th ey decided that vac trucks weren’t part of their core competency so that was shut down and we took the opportunity and bought those assets,” explained Hawkes.

Th e purchase included $500,000 of vac truck inventory for building the trucks along with $250,000 of tank design as intellectual property.

“It was a natural progression for Bruce to pick this company up,” said Hawkes.

Prior to that Blowertech purchased the rotating equipment repair business from the new owner of Almac that included a large service facility situated on 4.5 acres of land.

Wispinski went on to form Brudon Air Vac Ltd. in 2011 as the exclusive North American dis-tributor for Kay International positive displacement vacuum blowers based in India.

“We weren’t happy with the product we were getting from the North American Canadian sup-plier. We sourced a supplier that will actually listen to our needs” said Wispinski.

“We are effi ciency driven and also driven to give the customer an effi cient truck that gives them the maximum amount of payload possible.

“We are constantly looking at alternative meth-ods of manufacturing that can lighten up some components.”

At the oil show, Hawkes said with Wispinski’s background he was able to go to the factory to set up this North American distribution agreement and make this blower Alberta tough.

Th e technical merits and performance bench-marks included in the KAY blower design signifi -cantly reduce pulsation, slippage and noise levels.

“Th is will work at 40 below and 40 above. It off ers a two year warranty which is double other manufacturers,” said Hawkes who was pleased with the traffi c to his outdoor display.

As for sales of vac units Hawkes reported, “As a result of the Lloyd oil we did receive orders.”


NuWaveIndustries Inc.

An Innovation in Safe, Clean Well Abandonment

THE NUWAVE SYSTEMThe typical cut-and-cap procedure involves excavating a deep, wide, sloped hole around the wellhead. The cutting process is time-consuming and labour-intensive, using a welding torch to cut casings and breaking up lining cement by hand.

NuWave’s innovative technology features an abrasive water jet cutting tool that is lowered into the well casing and cuts from the inside, slicing through layers of steel and cement with incredible speed. Then the entire casing is pulled right out of the ground, leaving only a small hole. Our ERCB-approved vented cap is compression-fit to the casing strings, the hole is backfilled, and the job is complete, with minimal ground disturbance.

SAVE TIME, EQUIPMENT , AND MONEYDepending on the number of layers of casings and cement, NuWave’s cutting process takes from 20 minutes to an hour. The traditional excavation cut-and-cap method, in many cases, is a full-day job for a single well; in that same day’s time, NuWave can complete six abandonments.

NuWave’s technology is mobile and portable. It can be used on any terrain, in any temperature. The system is ideal for use in wet muskeg conditions that would otherwise require a hydrovac to dry out the well hole. Saving on time, manpower, and resources all translates to saving big money!

SAFETY BENEFITSThe part of the NuWave innovation we’re most proud of is the dramatic increase in safety. For starters, you’re not putting a man down a pit— that eliminates all kinds of potential injuries right there. There’s no exposure to harmful gases or chemicals.

NuWave’s process involves no flame or sparking tools, eliminating dangerous fire hazards.

ENVIRONMENTALLY FRIENDLY

A NuWave jobwon’t blow up in your face.

NuWave Industries’ safe, clean

well abandonment system is a true

game-changer in the oil and gas industry.

Once you see the NuWave system in action,

you’ll never cut and cap any other way!

Box 63Marwayne, Alberta

T0B 2X0

(780) 871-1276

[email protected]

NuWaveIndustries.com

The NuWave system uses only water and natural abrasives - no harmful chemicals. The procedure involves minimal ground disturbance, dramatically reducing the time it takes for the area to return to

it's natural state. With traditional excavations, it can take 3 to 5 years to get your environmental reclamation certificate. NuWave sites have received theirs in as little as 8 months.

APPROVED HYDROCUTTING FOR PIPELINE ABANDOMENTS

By Geoff LeeEdmonton – Member pipeline companies of the Canadian Energy Pipeline

Association will take a new collaborative approach to respond to future emer-gency situations.

CEPA tested its mutual emergency assistance agreement (MEAA) for the fi rst time on Sept. 24 from an incident command post set up at Northlands’ Expo Centre in Edmonton to deal with a mock oil spill.

Th e exercise brought 70 industry employees and evaluators together to test their ability to work together to contain and recover a large volume of virtual oil detected on the North Saskatchewan River near Edmonton.

“Th is is an historic occasion. Th is is the fi rst time the agreement has been tested, so let’s really put that to the test and see how it works,” said Sean Reilly, the lead controller for the exercise during a group orientation.

“Th e purpose really is to test the agreement to work through an organiza-tion so everyone has a chance to work into an ICS (incident command system) organization.

“At the end of the day, I hope to have a laundry list of things that we can look at and say, ‘Maybe we need to modify the agreement here, maybe we need to fi x this, maybe we need to tweak that a little bit.’”

Th e agreement made last November, allows CEPA member companies to call upon each other to share additional manpower and equipment to increase their existing response capabilities during a major emergency situation.

“Today is an opportunity to meet somebody new, exchange business cards, exchange ideas, talk about how you do things, how they do things. Steal shamelessly. Learn something new,” said Reilly.

“My goal for the day is for everybody to learn one new thing and meet one new person. Th e purpose is to focus in on that agreement and getting that organization to work through some of these initial reactive phases.”

At the ICS centre, pipeline employees and role players were grouped into the fi ve functional areas of command, operations, planning, logistics and fi nance administration wearing coloured section vests.

A tour of the command centre was led by Jared Serviss, supervisor of emer-gency management at Inter Pipeline and chairman of CEPA’s emergency and security management working group.

Page A13

Spill drill preps pipeline companies


NOW HIRING

Snowmobile & Motorcycle

Ornamental Rims

Any Colour

Dry, clean, highly durable nishExtended life = cost savings

All Colours, Textures and Finishes

Skid

POWDER COATING

Page A12“They can come into here, leave their company or organization at the door,

put on the appropriate vest and easily find their location and that tells that what function they are going to be doing,” explained Serviss.

“Everyone will be working on their pods or particular activities. We will see a lot of that cross pollination – that working together. You might see blue vests working with red vests.

“We’ve got at least eight or nine companies minimum in the room, all working together. We have looked at all the companies with CEPA and they all adhere to the principles of ICS.

“It’s a very disciplined approach.”CEPA represents 12 transmission pipeline companies who operate about

130,000 kilometres of pipelines in Canada and the United States.The member pipeline companies are Access, Enbridge, Pembina, Trans-

Canada, Alliance, Inter Pipeline, Plains Midstream Canada, TransGas, ATCO, Kinder Morgan Canada, Spectra Energy and Trans-Northern.

Serviss said it’s definitely not unique for pipeline companies to work to-gether even before CEPA made the mutual emergency agreement.

“We always had an informal agreement. We put aside the business-type goals. When something happens everyone pitches in. This just formalizes that,” he said.

He went on to say the agreement “is formalizing what already existed in an informal way in industry.”

At the midpoint of the exercise, Reilly liked the pace of group dynamics in the room that he said is central to a successful ICS operation.

“I see a lot of good communication. I see a lot of good coordination be-tween the different parties,” he said to Pipeline News.

“That’s really how I can gauge an exercise. It’s how well people are talking to each other. In the early stages, that’s usually the hardest thing.

“It’s to get them to work together and come together and kind of develop the organization and develop a response to a potential incident.”

Reilly said the key is to make the exercise realistic enough to give people an idea of what they need to do.

“It’s getting them to understand that there are artificialities. They have to learn to move past the artificialities.”

Page A14

70 pipeline employees and evaluators turned out at Northlands’ Expo Centre in Ed-

Sept. 24.

-


Page A13Oil just mysteriously appears on the North Saskatchewan River by a

pipeline right of way to set up the scenario for the mock exercise explained by Reilly.

The mock spill he said is detected by an Inter Pipeline crew on a routine equipment deployment exercise.

The crew then deploys equipment and calls West-ern Canadian Spill Services about equipment, before realizing the spill could get bigger enacting the mutual assistance agreement.

“Any emergency where extra support would be helpful would trigger it,” said Brenda Kenny, presi-dent and CEO of CEPA to Pipeline News.

“It would be something like where you have a two alarm fire instead of a one alarm fire. It’s anything that could impact the safe opera-tions of the companies.”

Kenny said having a well-tested plan in place goes beyond the regulatory requirement of companies to conduct their own emergency response plans.

“I think it’s really important for two things. One is, that if we do need to activate the MEAA, we’ve tried it out and we know where there might of be-ing some pitfalls that are remedied because of this exercise today,” she said.

“Also as we go through the exercise, you have representatives and experts

from a range of companies. By rubbing shoulders together in the midst of an exercise, they’re going to be learning from each other.

“So I am sure folks will leave today saying ‘I hope I never have to do the MEAA because I hope I never have an incident that requires it.’”

Kenney also said the exercise and the mutual agreement reflect the desire of CEPA members to continuously improve pipeline safety by work-ing together.

“I think that we, as an industry across these big transmission pipe-lines, now really under-stand more than ever, we do not compete on safety,” she said.

“It is absolutely fundamental that we look at this an opportunity to learn together and to accelerate improvement. We have a goal of zero incidents.

“I think working to-gether is the way forward. Emergency response is one of those things that

you plan for and hope that you never actually have to do.“When you are dealing with an incident in real time, it’s a time of crisis. “Going through this kind of exercise today, individuals get to know each

other, trust each other, know where they’re coming from and they have a shared language and a shared conviction.”

Mock oil spill on North Saskatchewan River


HAULING

780-872-1017

[email protected]

&HOTSHOT

H2S Alive, TDG, WHMIS, First Aid

Lloydminster – A stuck pig can bleed the fi nances of a pipeline operator if production is shut down to free it.

Th at’s why it’s a good idea to purchase ID-controlled steel to polyethylene fi t-tings manufactured by Hawkeye Industries Inc. in Edmonton for the oil and gas market.

“Our ID-controlled fi ttings are one of the only ones made here in Canada where the ID of the steel is the same ID as the polyethylene so it’s very easy to pig,” said Jeff Eliuk, sales manager.

A pipeline pig tool is typically deployed by an operator for cleaning, inspection, and product removal for fl ow assur-ance.

Hawkeye’s ID-con-trolled transition fi tting for easy pigging was one of the featured products

on display at Hawkeye’s booth during the 2014 Lloydminster Heavy Oil Show held Sept 10-11.

Th ere was also a related assortment of fl ange adapters, backup rings, tracer wire, end seals and RACI casing spacers on exhibit.

RACI spacers iso-late carrier pipes from casing pipe.

“Th ey are very unique to the industry and we are one of the only companies that have this product,” said Eliuk.

Th e unique RACI design provides projec-tions around the entire circumference of the carrier pipe, and has no fasteners to scratch or mar the casing during installation.

“A lot of oil com-panies use our fi ttings because of the quality. We’ve been making them for years,” said

Eliuk who works out of the Calgary sales offi ce.

He described the goal at the oil show as “just getting our name out – awareness and people understanding what we sell and the quality behind what we make.”

Hawkeye Industries is a manufacturer of

tank level-gauging and vapour-control prod-ucts, pipeline products and oil well production equipment.

Th ey sell a full line of high density polyeth-ylene fi ttings including Ts, elbows and laterals molded and fabricated at the Edmonton plant.

Th eir ID-controlled steel to polyethylene

fi tting is manufactured without heat by cold fl owing the polyethyl-ene that creates a good seal and a strong fi tting.

It’s marketed as a piggable alternative to traditional, non-ID-controlled fi ttings with several applications.

“It would be used for fuel gas lines, coal-bed methane – any-

where where they need to pig a line,” said Eliuk.

“So they put in say three kilometers of polyethylene. Th ey need to transition to steel at the surface and if they ever have to pig those lines, they would choose our fi tting so the pig would not get stuck within the connection of the two.”

Hawkeye sees opportunity in Lloyd


INDUSTRIAL INTERNET BIDDING AVAILABLE


24 HOUR SERVICE

Complete Machining for the Oil & Gas,Complete Machining for the Oil & Gas,Complete Machining for the Oil & Gas,Complete Machining for the Oil & Gas,Complete Machining for the Oil & Gas,Industrial & Agricultural IndustriesIndustrial & Agricultural IndustriesIndustrial & Agricultural IndustriesIndustrial & Agricultural IndustriesIndustrial & Agricultural Industries

(780) 875-4780

By Geoff LeeLloydminster – The only thing missing from

the outdoor exhibit of oilfield trucks by First Truck Centre at the recent 2014 Lloydminster Heavy Oil Show was popcorn.

The local Western Star and Freightliner dealer propped up its display with the Optimus Prime truck featured in the Hollywood summer block-buster movie Transformers: Age of Extinction.

Ed Durocher, a truck sales rep had a front row seat so to speak to a show of visitors taking photos and videos of the flashy looking movie truck that served as a conversation ice breaker.

“Everybody’s stopping by and taking photos and they all want to see it. It was a big movie,” said Durocher at the Lloydminster Exhibition Grounds.

“You don’t normally see that many children at the oil show, but everyone wants their photo taken with it.”

The Optimus Prime truck is a Western Star truck with a vastly different aerodynamic look from the Peterbilt truck used in the first three Trans-former movies.

“It’s built on a Western Star chassis, but Daim-ler Trucks North America is the parent company for both Freightliner trucks and Western Star trucks,” explained Durocher.

Optimus Prime took its styling cues from a new fuel efficient Western Star 5700XE highway truck unveiled in Las Vegas the same week the Lloyd-minster oil show was held from Sept. 10-11.

The 5700XE is the truck maker’s first foray into the aerodynamic on-highway tractor segment. Dealers will begin taking orders for the truck later this year for delivery in the spring of 2015.

In Lloydminster, Western Star truck chassis like the 4900 model are used to build a variety of oilfield trucks including the hydrovacs, and pressure trucks that First Truck Centre displayed.

“Here in the booth I think we have seven units. We’ve got a small picker, we’ve got a pressure truck and we’ve got a hydrovac unit,” said Durocher.

“We’ve got a tank unit as well as just a regular oilfield haul tractor that’s rigged up.”

First Truck Centre also sells a lot heavy haul spec’d trucks and a long list of other vocational heavy trucks on the Western Star 4900 set forward or set back axel configurations.

Western Star trucks often get the nod from companies seeking to rig up a hydrovac or pressure unit to the chassis which is Durocher’s sales spe-cialty. Page A18

Optimus Prime breaks ice in Lloyd

Ed Durocher, a sales rep for First Truck Centre in Lloydminster was one of dozens of people to pose for a photo next to The Hollywood truck drew


“Your Complete On-Site Medical, Rescue & Training Solution”

Specializing in advanced medical services.

1-855-MUD-MEDXNORTHERN FACTORY WORKWEAR

4006 - 50th Avenue

Lloydminster, AB

Phone: 1-888-875-9288

RED WING SHOE STORE

#3 - 602 Circle Drive East

Saskatoon, SK

Phone: 1-877-653-4800

RED WING SHOE STORE

10 - 1708 8th Street East

Saskatoon, SK

Phone: 1 - 306 - 244 - 4800

$2799

$32999

$36999

$1799

$5999

$16499

Signature

Sleeve Logo

Long-Sleeve

T-Shirt

Flame-Resistant

Duck Traditional

Coat and Duck

Bib Overall/

Quilt-Lined with

Reflective Striping

Fleece 2-in-1

Headwear

Midweight

Signature

Sleeve Logo

Hooded

Sweatshirt

New Quick

Duck® Jefferson

Traditional

Jacket

Carhartt Knit Shirts

Carhartt Flame Resistant

Carhartt Accessories

Carhartt Sweatshirts

K288

100632

K231

100161, 100171

A202

Carhartt Outerwear

THE MORE YOU SPEND THE MORE YOU SAVE

ON YOUR NEXT VISITTWO OPTIONS:

GET A $30 COUPON CARDWHEN YOU SPEND $150

OR

GET A $50 COUPON CARDWHEN YOU SPEND $200

*BEFORE TAXES

Page A17“Everyone really likes the Western Star brand for this. It’s a very durable

well known oilfi eld style of truck,” he said.“Th e pressure trucks that we got built are very popular around here.”First Truck Centre makes a point of referring customers to a list of well-

known local companies for rig ups.“We usually let the customer make their choice as to who they want on the

backend, but the manufactures here locally, they just build quality stuff ,” said Durocher.

Durocher spoke about out a pressure truck rigging on the backend of a Western Star truck on display as an example of what local suppliers can do.

Th e unit in subject was built by Ronera Trucking, a local manufacturing company.

“Our local customers like to deal locally. If there are any warranty issues or parts supply issues or anything like that – they don’t have to run to the city,” said Durocher.

Also on display was a hydrovac unit rigged up to a Western Star chassis by Foremost in Stettler Alberta for Pentacon Utility Services in Vermilion.

“Th is is unit that a customer had built. It’s a hydrovac unit built on a West-ern Star. Th is is a tri-drive chassis. It’s a very nice unit,” said Durocher.

Although the made-for-Hollywood Optimus Prime truck stole most of the attention at the First Truck Centre booth, Durocher said the crowd reac-tion to their oilfi eld trucks was as good as expected.

“Everything that’s here that’s rigged up is kind of nice because the custom-ers can actually be here, see it, and touch it kind of thing,” he said.

“It’s very easy to see the durability and everything that’s built into the Western Star and the Freightliners.

“It’s a chance to experience the unit as it’s built and ready to go to work. “

Rig ups often done locally

First Truck Centre sales rep Ed Durocher showed

ern Star 4900 chassis


SEWEURODRIVE

www.kelro.com

NOW AVAILABLE!

Ken Mehler306-421-9576

Randy Franke306-421-2244

Lloydminster – Badger Daylighting Ltd. contin-ues to add to its fl eet of hydrovacs in Lloydminster to keep pace with the demand for non-destructive excavating.

“We have seven in Lloydminster and we are planning on growing,” said Bruce Slade, area man-ager, at the 2014 Lloydminster Heavy Oil Show.

“We’re up to 12 employees now and we’re still growing.”

Th e company has been on a tear since the grand opening of their 9,100 sq. ft. facility in Lloydmin-ster last spring when fi ve hydrovacs were in service.

“We have been doing really well actually. It’s been good for us,” said Slade who noted there is space available in the new shop to park more hydrovacs.

“We purchased Fieldtek, so we have storage there if we need it.”

Fieldtek Holdings Ltd., purchased in Novem-ber 2013, specializes in production tank cleaning and removal of waste oil and sand.

At the Lloydminster branch, daylighting un-derground gas lines and electrical is the main focus of operations.

“About 90 percent of our work is for the oil and gas industry in Lloyd,” said Slade.

“Bigger branches like Regina and Calgary – they do a lot of construction.”

Hydrovacing services at Badger include line exposing, pole and piling holes, debris removal and tank cleanouts along with growing shoring applica-tions.

Badger uses its own hydrovacs built in Red Deer to provide non-destructive excavation to customers in the oil and gas, power, municipal, transportation, industrial and commercial construc-tion sectors.

“We make everything for all of North America. We are the largest hydrovac company in North America. We push out 1.4 trucks a day,” said Slade.

Badger has more the 900 hydrovacs in service from more than 100 locations in Canada and the United States.

Th eir hydrovac systems are mounted on the back end of Peterbilt trucks.

Badger hydrovacs use a pressurized water stream to liquefy the soil cover, which is then re-moved with a powerful vacuum system and depos-ited into a storage tank housed on the truck.

As for Badger’s expectations at the oil show, Slade said, “It always works out real well for us. Ev-ery time we come there is always good connections to be made at the oil show.”

Badger digs a niche in Lloyd


www.scopeproduction.com24 Hrs Service780-875-0715


Manufacture, Repair, 780-875-6535Proprietary Information Agreement - TK4040

By Geoff LeeLloydminster – Th ere was a lot to see during the 2014 Lloydminster Heavy Oil

Show held at the Lloydminster Exhibition Grounds Sept. 10-11.Th ere was a record 260 exhibitors indoors and outdoors that attracted 6,200

people from all over the world.In case you missed the event, we are pleased to share these images of the show

with you. Now that the Lloyd show is over, this would a good time to plan to attend the

Bonnyville & District Oil & Gas to be held at the Bonnyville Centennial Centre June 17-18, 2015.

Visit the event website at www.bonnyvilleoilandgasshow.com for details on how to register and where to stay.

Ground zero pix of the Lloyd oil show

The outdoor exhibits at the 2014 Lloydminster Heavy Oil Show drew sizable


13m3 Debris 7m3 Water 8” Boom 26ft Reach/Depth

2 Single Axle 6m3 Debris 5m3 Water

NOW WITH UNITSIN BONNYVILLE!

HURRICANE HYDROVAC SERVICES

6” Boom 18ft Reach/Depth

4 Kenworth Tri-Drives

P.O. Box 4 Midale, SK S0C 1S0 Phone: (306) 458-2367 or (306) 861-1001

Well Optimization Sales & Services

Lloydminster – United Safety Ltd. deployed three of their innovative safety devices to defi ne their booth space and presence at the 2014 Lloyd-minster Heavy Oil Show.

Th e show of equipment included a blinding air cart the can be used both as a breathing air delivery system and a pneumatic tool air source; a tower cart for portable tool storage, and a Typhoon remote community alarm system.

Th e display is in keeping with United Safety’s profi le as a global safety provider of H2S safety services, specialized equipments and personnel and safety solutions to the oil and gas industry.

“We provide breathing air equip-ment and manpower for turnaround and shutdowns,” explained Justin Pel-lerin, a business development rep with the Fort Saskatchewan offi ce.

“We also support the upstream market with H2S advisors as well as gas detection equipment.”

United Safety has conducted over 735 turnarounds during its 27 year history including approximately 30

over the past year.“On average, we have about 150

full-time employees and we ramp up – I think the last count was up to 800 – just to support the turnarounds in the region,” said Pellerin.

“Next year, we are projecting close to 1,600 people.”

Growth in Western Canada is be-ing driven by strong maintenance and turnaround activity with an uptick in drilling activity as well.

“Also with our occupational health and safety technicians we’re seeing more growth supporting projects with construction capital and things of that nature – so supporting them from a health and safety side,” said Pellerin.

United Safety is based in Airdrie with offi ces throughout Alberta and worldwide with a blue chip list of oil and gas customers.

Th eir objective during the Lloyd-minster oil show held Sept. 10-11 at the Lloydminster Exhibition Grounds was “to get our brand out there” as Pellerin put it.

“We want people to understand

who we are. I think the end goal would be to eventually have a facility here in Lloyd supporting the area as well as into Saskatchewan.”

What sets United apart from the competition said Pellerin is their innovative equipment for improving safety and effi ciency on the job site.

“We take breathing air very seri-ously. Th at’s where we started. Our tag line is Powering the Safety Revolu-tion,” he said.

“So some of our equipment and innovations like our Typhoon emer-gency alerting system – it’s all pow-ered by air.”

Th ere are no compressors or any other electronics aside from a solar panel to power transmitter functions.

Th e Typhoon can be programmed to provide alerts for high levels of gases such as C02 or H2S gases at oil and gas or industrial sites.

Th e units are activated from a command center and are equipped with a proven multi-pitch horn system for maximum sound travel in remote areas.

“Another innovation that we are looking at driving is our new blinding cart,” said Pellerin.

Th e cart is ideal for use when a pipe is blinded or sealed off to prevent fl ow during maintenance operations.

“Th is blinding cart can actually provide breathing air as well as the ability to work pneumatic tooling right off the air cart,” he said.

Th e blinding cart is equipped with ample storage compartments for tools, consumables and safety equip-ment necessary for the task at hand.

“It’s completely improving ef-fi ciency and at United Safety, we’re always about making safety not a cost centre,” said Pellerin.

“We are an effi ciency driver, so we are here to help make the world safer and at the same time improve effi -ciency and tools.”

Th eir tower cart is a mobile tool and equipment carry-all that elimi-nates the need for workers to leave their work area to visit the tool crib for needed equipment.

“Th is is a very simple product that we brought out to improve effi ciency,” said Pellerin.

“Overall it improves effi ciency and tool time.”

United Safety showcases innovation

The trademark Typhoon by United Safety Ltd. is a solar powered remote community alarm system that can be programmed to provide a warning alert for high C02 or H2S gas levels around oil and gas sites.


Lloydminster – What’s going on? Th at question, heard many times by J Barr at the Northwind Radio Ltd. booth during the 2014 Lloydminster Heavy Oil Show, was music to his ears.

It allowed Barr, an installation technician and sales rep, to demon-strate the special com-munication features of the blue headphones he wore without having to remove them to chat.

“People come up to you because you are wearing this crazy head-set and they say, ‘What’s going on’ and then you tell them about it,” said Barr.

Th e conversation piece was the 3M Peltor Lite-Com Pro II two way radio headset with functions that allow you to hear what you want to hear while remaining protected from harmful noise.

“It’s an intrinsi-cally safe UHF radio headset that’s frequency programmable, mak-ing it ideal for manu-facturing, oil and gas environments, as well as assembly line work,” said Barr.

“It allows you to use it as a noise suppression

headset to reduce the loud noises around you.

“It also has a built in microphone that al-lows you to have a con-versation with someone without having to take off the headphones.”

Th e fully program-mable UHF radio headset allows an orga-nization to connect with their team of employees with up to 30 channels

It also off ers push-to-talk or hands-free voice-activated transmit functions among the many features.

Wearing the device during the show was the best way for Barr to demonstrate how it works for the oil and gas show crowd at the Lloydminster Exhibi-tion Grounds Sept. 10-11.

“I’ve only been here for a little while so far it’s been really posi-tive,” said Barr with his headset on.

“We’ve had a couple of ladies that have come by in the industry and they found it very interesting that some-one’s come up with a headset that you can wear for hearing protec-tion without having to take it off to speak with somebody.

“It blocks out the high and low frequen-cies and any sharp heavy noises. I am still hearing the din of the crowd as

I am wearing them, but overall it’s not loud.”

Barr said the two-way radio headset is ideal for anyone in the oil and gas indus-try working in a loud environment and needs to communication with other people.

“I know sev-eral companies that use them,” he said stressing they are 100 per cent intrinsically safe or explosion proof.

An optional throat mic is also available to allow for unobstructed

conversations while wearing a respirator.

Th e 3M Peltor Lite-Com Pro II head-set was priced at $899 during the oil show in-cluding the rechargeable lithium-ion battery.

Barr said wearing the headset for an hour or so at the oil show fi ts Northwind’s focus on customer relations and communications.

“You try and in-teract with people get them to know what you have to off er and learn what they have to off er

at the same time,” said Barr.

“At Northwind Radio, we deal with cellphones and boost-ers and two way radios, towers – all sorts of communication prod-ucts.

“We deal a lot with the oil and gas industry; we deal with farmers, construction workers – just about anybody who needs to communicate.

“We even deal with the public sec-tor – people who need a cellphone.”

J Barr interacted with visitors at the Northwind Radio Ltd. booth during the 2014 Lloy-

Northwind oil show demo all ears

The Safety Association for Candada’sUpstream Oil and Gas Industry

Leased Ops & Company

Drivers always welcome to

apply.

Office/Dispatch 306-455-3774Serving SE Saskatchewan & SW Manitoba

crescentpointenergy.com

Crescent Point is proud to be part of the community.

Sharing the Energy


TIGER CRANES

MACVVEHICLE MOUNTED COMPRESSORS

VANA IR®

™A I R P O W E R T O G O

682 Okanagan Ave E., Penticton, BCCanada V2A 3K7

Toll Free: 1-866-344-6480Fax: (250) 492-0686

[email protected] CUSTOM TRUCK BODY SPECIALISTS, COPIED BY MANY, EQUALLED BY NONE

Brutus Boxes with or without Cabinets

Service Bodies Welding Decks Lube Trucks

Service DecksOilfield Decks

Lloydminster – James Robson, president and CEO of Petro Motion Inc. should have given $5 to every heavy oil producer who came to his booth during the 2014 Lloydminster Heavy Oil Show.

Th at would have sold them on the per bar-

rel potential payback of his company’s EZ Flow product.

“Actually, the use of EZ Flow reduces the amount of diluent needed by 50 percent or more, therefore saving the operator about $4 to $5 for every barrel of oil he currently produces per day,” said Robson.

“EZ Flow creates more space in the pipeline to be able to add more oil – about 35 per cent more space.”

With a shortage of condensate or diluent – light oil – needed to allow heavy oil to fl ow in a pipeline, EZ Flow could be the right product at the right time.

EZ Flow is a 100 percent hydrocarbon additive that reduces the viscosity of heavy oil while main-taining its density.

“It ‘accentuates the behavior’ of regular dilu-ent allowing it to act a super viscosity reducer,” said Robson.

Traditionally, producers need to mix 10 to 40 percent diluent with their oil to reach pipeline specifi cations.

“With heavy oil on the rise and increasing daily, the availability of condensate is not ever going to keep up with the heavy oil production,” said Rob-son.

“Th erefore, with the use of half of what is the number one expense all producers have, we feel like it’s a very attractive thing to be doing.”

Page A25

James Robson, a career Oklahoma and Texas oil man and

EZ Flow cuts pipeline diluent costs


Saskatchewan’s First Choice For Oilfield Waste Bin Rental

E-mail: [email protected]

IT’S ABOUT TIMEIT’S ABOUT TIMEJACK!JACK!

www.annugas.comToll Free 1.866.ANNUGAS

ANNUGAS PRODUCTION ENHANCERANNUGAS PRODUCTION ENHANCER

PAYS FOR ITSELF– 4 WEEKSThe increase in oil/gas

production isimmediately

measureable not only in time, but

real dollars.

INSTALLATION – 1 DAY

It only takes a few hours to have your compressor

up and running, practically eliminating production downtime.

YOUR TIME – ZERO

Our safety qualified installers willperform maintenance checks when required,onsite, saving you the

trip in.

Jack knows time is moneyJack knows time is moneyJack knows time is money

COMPRESSION CONSULTING LTD.Calgary,

AB 403-263-8055

Unity, SK

306-228-4366

Regina, SK

306-775-1814

Virden, MB*

204-748-1053

*Services through Caltech Surveys (MB)

Page A24

In June, the Canadian Association of Petroleum Producers forecast oilsands production would rise from its current level of 1.9 million barrels per day to 4.8 million bpd by 2030.

The cost of diluent needed to flow that oil to market is about $125 per barrel and likely to keep going up as the available supply can’ t keep up with the demand.

“What EZ Flow really does is makes the condensate go twice as far as it does today,” said Robson.

Operators can simply add EZ Flow to an exist-ing condensate tank with no capital expenditure required.

“Because EZ Flow is 100 per cent natural hydrocarbon taken from oil and gas reservoirs, once it mixes with heavy oil it becomes family,” said Robson.

“It just becomes an oil, but an oil of a better quality. It’s refinery-approved and there is no waste product to it.”

EZ Flow is the brainchild of Christy DeWalt, vice-president of research at Petro Motion and CEO of Petroleum Field Laboratory Inc. in Fox Creek, Alberta.

“A year ago, I was contacted by a group that she knew in order to be able to get with her and bring the business end to EZ Flow and bring it to the oil and gas producers,” explained Robson.

Petro Motion was incorporated in January, 2014.

Previously, Robson built Pontotoc Production Company in Oklahoma – from the ground up – through an initial public offering in 1997 and sold it to Ascent Energy Inc. in 2001.

Robson is also the current chief executive of the Tyner Texas Operating Company Inc., a wholly owned subsidiary of Tyner Resources, a publicly

traded company on the Vancouver Stock Exchange.The potential for EZ Flow to gain a foothold

with heavy oil and oilsands’ producers in Western Canada is what brought him to Calgary.

“I’ve never seen anything like it. If I was in the oil business and someone told me I could save $3 to $4 a barrel, I would follow them all around town,” he said.

“I’m here to take EZ Flow to the producers so they can see the savings.”

Finding early adapters for new products like EZ Flow is a challenge not unexpected for a new company like Petro Motion.

“Nobody likes change, so we’re fighting a little uphill stream,” said Robson in a Sept 11 interview at the Lloydminster Exhibition Grounds.

“We’ve had some interest some rather large producers. Yesterday, I got together here with a local producer that’s very interested in EZ Flow.

“Naturally, we are all attracted to the big oil

companies because they’ve got the most production and the most impact on your business.

“I think – that’s why I am here in Lloydmin-ster – that the smaller companies will end up being more co-operative and we can build proof of EZ Flow in the field.”

Robson came to the Lloydminster show armed with the results of an independent field test con-ducted in Alberta on May 7.

The test involved the mixing of EZ Flow with a tanker of heavy oil produced by Baytex Energy Corp.

The hydrocarbon condensate used in the test was provided by Pengrowth Energy Corporation in North Central Alberta.

The full test results are posted online where Robson said, “The independently verified test results showed the addition of EZ Flow cut the required quantity of expensive diluents to get oil pipeline standard by 53 per cent.”


Lloydminster – Westech Vac Systems Ltd. pro-vided some eye candy for visitors during the 2014 Lloydminster Heavy Oil Show with an outdoor exhibit of its best selling combination vac unit.

The looker wore a shiny new coat of blue and white paint fresh from the factory in Nisku that makes a variety of pleasing to look at vac, combo, and hydrovac systems for the international market.

“We make several different types of vac and pressure trucks starting from your basic straight back to combo hydrovacs and semi-vacs,” said Paul Watkins, territory manager next to the combo beauty.

“We actually just pushed out a semi-vac combo which was a unique build for us. We are also work-ing on a bunch of other engineered products that make these a lot more efficient.”

The Westech factory uses 3D-computer aided design that allows Westech to optimize the geom-etry, weight distribution, and payload maximization across all of its mobile vacuum lines.

Westech is known for its mobile vacuum technology innovation reflected in every unit from tridem drive 822 hydrovacs to light weight semi straight vacs.

The company is owned by Advance Engineered Products, a North American manufacturer of bulk tanks and vac equipment.

Most of Westech’s hydrovacs including the best selling combo unit shown at the Lloydminster Exhibition Grounds Sept. 10-11 are designed as TC407 hazardous waste hauling trucks.

“The combo units are getting a lot more popular just because you get the ability to wash and steam on site,” said Watkins.

“They can clean out the tanks.”The combo units are available from Westech as

single axle, double axle, tri-drive and trailer mount-ed units

The combo unit has similar capabilities as the popular hydrovac design, but without the heavy boom and associated hydraulics.

“With a lot of the stuff they can dig holes and suck out for daylighting,” said Watkins.

“So, if you’re doing any fiber optic daylight-ing where you’re trying to find a line in the ground – you don’t want a backhoe to come in there and possibly hit the line – it’s a lot safer.

“You don’t get any accidents like you might with a backhoe operator where they hit the line and do a power outage across the city or something like

that.”Typically, a Westech combo unit comes with

equipment such as combination in-tank water stor-age, high output boilers for water and steam and high pressure water pumps.

Some other built-in features are high capac-ity blowers and vacuum pumps, a hydraulic lift for cleanouts, hydraulic valves for automated control systems and remote control operation systems.

There are many more standard and optional features available on Westech vac trucks that are in strong demand especially in Western Canada.

“Our customers are real loyal to us. We have orders out to 2017,” said Watkins. Page A27

-drovac and pressure unit at the 2014 Lloydminster Heavy Oil Show. Westech designs and manufactures a variety of mobile vac systems in Nisku.

Westech combo vac worth a look


Page A26

“We do have a few open spots in between there, but our customers continue to book with us because they enjoy our product.

“We make good quality products that custom-ers are loyal to. We have a customer base right across Canada.

“Th e vacuum side of things – most of our busi-ness is in Western Canada from Saskatchewan to B.C., but we also have sales that go out to North

Dakota and California. “We also have trucks out in Texas and we’ve

seen them out in Mexico as well.”Watkins said sales are also strong in the Lloy-

dminster heavy oil region with Westech’s goal at the oil described by Watkins as being, “basically marketing, grabbing a couple of leads that kind of thing.

“We like to be like the other companies and show off the product – make sure people don’t forget us.”

Watkins said what sets Westech’s line of vac trucks apart from their competition is quality and service.

“Basically, we do off er a higher quality product and we stand behind our product as well,” he said.

“We have a great service and a great quality product. We stand out because our customers enjoy using our product. Th ere is less downtime.

“Th ey are very hard worked equipment. For what they are worth, we have a piece of equipment that lasts a long time.”

Vermilion – Fall term enrolment at Lakeland College is up six per cent over last year.

Th ere are 2,223 full-time and part-time stu-dents enrolled in classes at Lakeland compared to 2,098 at the same time last year according to a Sept. 30 report.

An extra group of heavy oil and power engi-neering students, growth in trades and technology as well as agricultural sciences enrolment, plus an increase in students taking courses online are some of the reasons for the enrolment rise.

Th e increased fall enrolment also includes 71 fi rst year and 28 year second year students in the Heavy Oil and Power Engineering program off ered at the Lloydminster campus.

Th e campus has another 32 students are enrolled in the one year Heavy Oil Operations Technician certifi cate program.

“Th ese strong numbers refl ect our focus on providing programming that meets the needs of students and industry,” said Tracy Edwards, presi-dent of Lakeland College in a news release.

Th ere are 982 students at the Vermilion cam-pus, 859 at the Lloydminster campus, and 382 students in online and off -campus programs.

Th e numbers will rise during the academic year with seasonal intakes for apprenticeship technical training, emergency services, university transfer, business and human services.

“We know we will have record enrolments in our apprenticeship programs. We expect to provide apprenticeship technical training to more than 1,500 people this academic year,” said Edwards, noting that depending on the trade, apprentices spend two to three months at the college taking training.

Th is year’s class includes students from every province and territory in Canada except Prince Edward Island and the Northwest Territories.

Th ere are also 49 international students at Lakeland from Australia, Barbados, Brazil, Cam-eroon, China, India, Jamaica, Mexico, Nigeria, Pakistan and the Philippines.

“We’re thankful that so many people open up their homes to provide rooms or basement suites

for our students,” said Edwards. “We could not accommodate the number of

students we do without the support of the Vermil-ion and Lloydminster communities.”

Rigger Fraser MacQueen from Prairie Crane in Saskatoon was dressed for the cold on the morning of Oct. 8 when

Lakeland fall enrolment spikes


About Altus GeomaticsFrom extensive mapping services to site surveys, Altus Geomatics is the market leader in advanced, customized

solutions for a wide variety of consulting projects. Utilizing innovative and proprietary technology that not only makes

research-gathering more efficient and less costly, but also ensures accurate, effective geographical data, our experts

facilitate complex decision-making for businesses, communities, governments and industries. Our complementary

and diversified range of service offerings includes Construction Surveys, Mapping Services, Field Surveys, Internet

GIS Mapping, Legal/Municipal Land Surveys, 3D Laser Scanning, and Light Detection and Ranging (LiDAR), and

Environmental & Forestry. Altus Geomatics is strategically positioned in all four western provinces, as well as New

Brunswick and Nova Scotia, to deliver the service and expertise that guarantees results, and mitigates risk, across all

project phases, regardless of sector, scope or region.

Equipped and strategically located to drive your project forward in 19 locations across Canada.

About Altus Group Limited

Altus Group is a leading provider of independent commercial real estate consulting and advisory services, software and data

solutions. We operate five interrelated Business Units, bringing together years of experience and a broad range of expertise into one

comprehensive platform: Research, Valuation and Advisory; ARGUS Software; Property Tax Consulting; Cost Consulting and Project

Management and Geomatics. Our suite of services and software enables clients to analyze, gain insight and recognize value on their real

estate investments.

Altus Group has over 1,900 employees in multiple offices around the world, including Canada, the United States, the United Kingdom,

Australia and Asia Pacific. Altus Group’s clients include financial institutions, private and public investment funds, insurance companies,

accounting firms, public real estate organizations, real estate investment trusts, healthcare institutions, industrial companies, foreign and

domestic private investors, real estate developers, governmental institutions and firms in the oil and gas sector.

OUR NETWORK

Altus offers diversified services

and unparalleled expertise

to a broad range of clients, in

various industries across North

America and internationally.

* Serviced in affiliation with Altus Geomatics Manitoba

CALGARY

840 7th Avenue SW Suite 900

Calgary, Alberta T2P 3G2

Phone: 403.234.7599

Fax: 403.261.4712

EDMONTON

17327 106A Avenue

Edmonton, Alberta T5S 1M7

Phone: 780.481.3399

Fax: 780.481.3841

GRANDE PRAIRIE

11417 91st Avenue

Grande Prairie, Alberta T8V 5Z3

Phone: 780.532.6793

Fax: 780.532.7694

LLOYDMINSTER

1812 50th Avenue

Bay 10

Lloydminster, Alberta T9V 2W7

Phone: 780.875.6130

Fax: 780.875.1658

RED DEER

303A, 4406 50 Avenue

Red Deer, Alberta T4N 3Z6

Phone: 780.236.1603

MEDICINE HAT

1601 Dunmore Road S.E.

Suite 202

Medicine Hat, Alberta T1A 1Z8

Phone: 403.528.4215

Fax: 403.528.4287

HIGH LEVEL (FIELD OFFICE)

High Level, Alberta

Phone: 708.926.4123

Fax: 780.926.4550

REGINA

311 Albert Street

Regina, Saskatchewan S4R 2N6

Phone: 306.522.5628

Fax: 306.359.0992

SASKATOON

226 Cardinal Crescent

Saskatoon, Saskatchewan

S7L 6H8

Phone: 306.343.8187

Fax: 306.343.3325

SWIFT CURRENT

300 Begg Street West

Swift Current, Saskatchewan

S9H 0K6

Phone: 306.773.7733

Fax: 306.778.3678

WEYBURN

615 Railway Avenue

Weyburn, Saskatchewan

S4H 0A9

Phone: 306.842.6060

Fax: 306.842.7872

YORKTON

38 Smith Street

Yorkton, Saskatchewan S3N 3X5

Phone: 306.783.4100

Fax: 306.782.4440

BRANDON *

100 - 158 11th Street

Brandon, Manitoba R7A 4J4

Phone: 204.727.0651

Fax: 204.727.5247

VIRDEN *

280 Ashburton Street East

Box 307

Virden, Manitoba R0M 2C0

Phone: 204.748.6860

Fax: 204.748.6165

WINNIPEG *

661 Century Street

Winnipeg, Manitoba R3H 0L9

Phone: 204.272.2600

Fax: 204.272.2620

MONCTON

835 Champlain Street

Suite 200

Dieppe, New Brunswick E1A 1P6

Phone: 506.858.2787

Fax: 506.858.2792

DARTMOUTH

Atboro House, Suite 9 South

130 Eileen Stubbs Avenue

Dartmouth, Nova Scotia B3B 2C4

Phone: 902.468.5798

Fax: 902.468.6919

1.800.465.6233 altusgeomatics.com [email protected]

By Geoff LeeLloydminster –

Tarpon Energy Services Ltd. stood out at the 2014 Lloydminster Heavy Oil Show in September by spot-lighting personnel and services at their booth.

The main attraction was the talking points about the company pre-sented by Jason Seely, corporate sales manager for Tarpon’s Electric & Controls division based in Calgary.

“We do have our

SCADA panels, but most of our work is done through field services, so it’s people. That’s the big sell,” said Seely about the division.

“We are an electri-cal and instrumentation field services provider and we work in the oil and gas sector.”

To be precise, Tar-pon Electric & Controls is a full service provider for the engineering, design, supply, construc-tion and installation of electrical, instrumenta-

tion and control sys-tems.

“We’re across the western sedimentary basin, so we’re in British Columbia, Alberta and Saskatchewan. We also have field offices in the U.S. and we operate internationally as well,” said Seely.

“Lloydminster is ac-tually one of our larger hubs and we focus on the heavy oil group out here.

“We have approxi-mately 89 employees

that do electrical and instrumentation field services and program-ming and high voltage.”

The Lloydminster employees work at oil batteries and gas facilities as well as at the Lloydminster Husky Upgrader and refinery facilities and at local pipeline and midstream operations.

Tarpon Energy Services is a growing privately-held Cana-dian company with over 2,000 employees world-wide including those in the Structures division that designs, engineers and manufactures mod-ular and pre-engineered building systems and components.

Tarpon Construc-tion Management Ltd. located in Edmonton is a business entity that focuses on electrical and instrumentation con-struction for the energy

sector.The parent company

is PTW Energy Servic-es Ltd. a privately-held company based in Nisku Alberta.

Seely said training is a big of the job with continual changes and advancements in instru-mentation and controls with high demand for automation by the oil and gas industry.

“One of the biggest things that we try to do as a company is stay up on our training. Right now, (human) resource attraction and retention is a big thing,” he said.

“I think as a compa-ny, our biggest challenge right now is employee shortages and we try to get more people and draw them in.”

“In terms of the growth that we are try-ing to experience this year, we’ve got connec-tion with the foreign worker trade program, too (temporary foreign worker program).

“We’ve been in-volved with Ireland try-ing to get good quality skilled workers.

“Obviously, Canada is our first draw that we try to look for. But right now with the demand being so high, we are looking at all sorts of programs to help bolster our ranks.”

Seely said Tarpon Electric and Con-trols maintains strong connections with post secondary educators like SAIT in Calgary and Saskatchewan Polytech-

nic (formerly SIAST) based in Regina to at-tract trades graduates to work for them.

“We are one of Canada’s 50 Best Man-aged Companies and we are a gold member for our safety program, too,” he said.

Tarpon Energy won top employer in the oil and gas category of Canada’s Safest Em-ployers Award in 2013.

The company was awarded platinum club status with Canada’s Best Managed Com-panies in 2013 for the second year in a row for maintaining the best managed designation for seven years in a row.

The 2014 awards will be held in October.

Seely said his main goal at the oil show was to connect with new and existing customers within a wide radius of the heavy oil centre of Lloydminster.

“We’re hoping to not only see our regular customers that we deal with on a day to day ba-sis, but we’re also look-ing to deal with clients that we don’t necessarily deal with today – so our future clients,” he said.

“Lloyd offers a whole host of opportu-nities, not only directly in Lloydminster, but in Kindersley and Provost.

“There is a potential here to just do more business not only for field services, but for all of the other host of services that we offer as well.”

Jason Sealy, corporate sales manager for Tarpon Electric & Controls, was pleased to talk with visitors at the 2014 Lloydminster Heavy Oil Show.

Tarpon puts its best foot forward


Lloydminster – Insulation Snakes uncoiled samples of their wrap on or strap on insulation for oilfield, commercial and RV and recreational markets during the 2014 Lloydminster Heavy Oil Show.

The standout selling point of the Insulation Snake brand products for the oil and gas show audience is that they are removable, reusable and weatherproof.

“The Insulation Snake is adaptable to most heat tracing applications and it’s a very cost saving product,” said Tim Burns, international sales man-ager at the company booth inside the Lloydminster Exhibition Grounds.

Insulation Snakes manufacturers an extensive line of removable, reusable and weatherproof in-sulation products manufactured at its main base in Breton, Alberta and in Casper, Wyoming.

The products are sold through distributors in both Canada and the United States.

Insulation Snakes is one of three companies in the Gazelle’s Group of Companies that also includes Gazelle’s Oilfield Service Ltd. and Canline Pipeline Solutions.

The Insulation Snake is widely used to insu-late and protect oilfield pipes, hoses, valves, vessels, tanks and wellheads among a list of outdoor field equipment.

Specialized insulation products are available for unique insulating applications such as wellheads and plunger lifts. Insulation hoods are made to fit over equipment that sticks out.

“Heavy oil industry uses our product. They would use it for facilities and pipelines –anything that’s outside,” said Burns.

“They would use it as a cost-saving solution as opposed to using hard insulation.”

Some of the cost savings come from not having to hire special crews to install hard insulation with similar R-10 to R-14 values to Insulation Snake products.

“There’s lot of money associated with that

whereas with our product you don’t need large crews,” said Burns.

The removable, reusable benefit of the Insula-tion Snake also saves time and money if crews need to fix or change parts that can be rewrapped quickly when the job is done.

“It can be attached primarily through straps or it can be attached sometimes with tape or anyway you want,” said Burns.

The best-selling original Insulation Snake with an R-12 rating is made from a fiberglass batting that’s protected with a 5 ml UV treated .polyethyl-ene covering.

It’s available in widths from 6 inches to over 96 inches and in lengths up to 40 feet.

The Insulation Snake company name said Burns was derived from the look of the original product that’s been in the Canadian market for over 20 years.

“It was black, it was long and it wrapped around a pipe – it snaked around the pipe,” he said with a laugh.

Burns added the oil show held Sept.10-11 was also an opportunity to promote their newest Super Snake product with an R-14 rating.

This new insulation serpent is protected by 5 ml

of UV treated polythene plastic and is also rodent retardant.

It’s available in black or a new Cobra tan poly-ethylene intended to ward off damage from crows and ravens because it’s not black like most garbage bags.

Insulation snakes uncoil in Lloyd


Primary supplier of frac tanks fresh water, trucking service, and frac heating equipment in SK and MB.

Combo Vac TrucksPressure Units & Steamers

Winch Tractors

Horizontal 80 m3 Frac Tanks16, 21 & 35 Million BTU Super Heaters

Hot Oilers

A Leader In Oilfi eld Service Equipment

Lloydminster – The cover of the Rebel Metal Fabricators Ltd. product brochure depicts a straight back hydrovac with an agi-tator system for land spreading drilling mud.

A similar function-al unit made by Rebel was on display during

the 2014 Lloydminster Heavy Oil Show as an example of their ability to produce custom de-signed vacuum systems and hydrovacs.

“We make all sorts of different vacuum trucks and trailers – anything with a vac system on it essentially for the oilfield,” said Duane Hirsekorn, a sales rep at the com-pany booth.

The straight back hydrovac on exhibit at the Lloydminster Exhibition Grounds from Sept. 10-12 is equipped with an agi-tator system designed and built at the Rebel factory in Red Deer.

The business is privately owned and operated by Gary Layden and has been manufacturing vacuum systems and equip-ment since 1978 for operations primarily in Western Canada.

The company also

ships a lot of vacuum systems to global mar-kets in Alaska, Austra-lia, South America and the Middle East.

“We market all over the world. We are expanding into other countries like Australia and Argentina,” said Hirsekorn who noted sales have been strong the past few years.

“We are booked out about a year and a half. We have been for about two years.”

The combo vac and wash units and hydro-vacs designed and built by Rebel are among the most popular pieces of oilfield service equip-ment used in Western Canada.

The Rebel combo system offers a vacuum system combined with a high pressure wash system for clean-ing tanks, buildings and wellheads in the oilfield.

Page A31

Rebel with a cause to sell vac units

Welder fabricator, David Hohn from Rebel Metal Fabricators Ltd. in Red Deer displays

-


GILLISS CASING SERVICES INC.

FLOAT EQUIPMENT-REAMERS

Estevan, SK

www.gillisscasingservices.com

Tel: (306) 634-6768Fax: (306) 634-6738

Sales & Safety:Ryan Wallington

421-7011

Manager:Dylan Gilliss

421-8158

Sales:Logan Gilliss

421-8481

Gilliss Casing Services Inc. handles casing sizes from 2 3/8” up to 20”

Page A30

At Rebel each combo unit is designed manufactured to meets the fi eld requirements of the customer.

Rebel can install vacuum pumping systems and blower units ranging in capac-ity from 200 cubic feet per minute to 3,400 cfm depending on the ap-plication.

Likewise, their customers can choose a pressure wash pump ranging from 2 gallons per minute to 20 gpm of output.

Some combo units can be installed with a diesel-fi red boiler with heating capacities up to 980,000 BTUs for hot water or steam applica-tions.

“It’s just getting more and more popular and hydrovacs in the oilfi eld,” said Hirsekorn for environmental reasons.

Hydrovacs are used for oil and gas, mining, industrial and municipal applications for non-destructive excavation.

A hydrovac uses pressurized water and a powerful vacuum to quickly and safely expose buried pipes and cables.

“Th ey can just expose the lines with water, suck up the dirt and get that out of the way and see the lines and crossings and con-tamination and all that stuff ,” said Hirsekorn.

“Th ere’s no back-hoes coming in that can damage the pipelines.”

A Rebel hydrovac comes with a high vol-ume vacuum system up to 6,200 cfm and a high pressure pump with ca-pacities of 20 gpm and 4,000 psi.

Th ey also come equipped with a wireless remote controlled six or eight inch boom for hands-free operation.

Rebel specializes in rigging up vacuum systems mounted to any type of truck chassis a customer wants.

Th ey even fi tted a hydrovac unit with an agitator system on a Volvo truck depicted on the cover of their brochure.

Rebel has about 30 employees and is certifi ed and qualifi ed to repair, retrofi t and re-certify any type and make of vacuum unit.

Hirsekorn said Rebel has been steadily growing its market share in the Lloydminster region over the past few

years by design.“Our market is

growing. We’ve been busy enough before, but over the last four years we probably had about 20 per cent versus about four percent come up in this area of our market,” he said.

He described the response to their exhibit at the oil show as being pretty good.

“It depends on the weather. It seems like a guys in our industry are working a lot, so they don’t get a chance to come to the show all the time to see what we do.

“But between the show and us just pound-ing the pavement and calling on guys and word of mouth our units actually sell themselves,” he said.

custom designed and built straight back hydrovac with an agitator system during the 2014 Lloydminster Heavy Oil Show in September. The company is privately owned-and-operated by Gary Layden who started the business in 1978.


Leading The Wayg y

Setting new standards for performance

Fast Growing Company

www.CanElsonDrilling.com

Box 312Carlyle, SK S0C 0R0Office: 306.453.2506Fax: 306.453.2508

Suite 700, 808 - 4th Avenue SWCalgary, AB, Canada T2P 3E8Phone: 403.266.3922Fax: 306.266.3968

TSX: CDIOffices in Calgary, Nisku, and Carlyle, as well as Midland, Texas and Mohall, North Dakota

�


Regina – The October harvest month sale of petroleum and natural gas rights reaped $21.6 mil-lion in revenue for Saskatchewan with the focus on land near the Manitoba border.

The sale of 29 leases and two exploration licences located between Carnduff in the south and Moosomin to the north along the Manitoba border yielded $10.4 million.

This area is considered prospective for several targets, including the Jurassic, Mississippian and Devonian.

“Industry has been developing the Bakken-Three Forks play quite extensively on either side of the Saskatchewan-Manitoba border for several years now, and the ongoing acquisition of oil and gas rights in that area bodes well for future eco-nomic activity in local communities,” said Econo-my Minister Bill Boyd.

Receipts from the latest sale raise the 2014 rev-

enue total to $179.6 million with one sale remain-ing on Dec. 1.

The October sale saw the Weyburn-Estevan area receive the most bids with sales of $14.4 mil-lion.

The Kindersley-Kerrobert area was next at $4 million, followed by Lloydminster at $3 million, and Swift Current at $115,086.

The highest price paid for a single parcel was $3.5 million by Plunkett Resources Ltd. to ac-quire a 1,554-hectare exploration licence south of Moosomin.

The highest price on a per-hectare basis was $27,367 by Petroland Services (1986) Ltd. that bid $20,799 for a 0.76-hectare lease southeast of Estevan.

Weyburn-Estevan (numbers rounded off )The top purchaser of acreage in this area was

Plunkett Resources Ltd. that spent $5.6 million to acquire one lease parcel and one exploration licence.

The highest price paid for a single lease in this area was $2.2 million by Plunkett Resources Ltd. for a 259 hectare parcel situated 3 kilometres east of the Pinto Midale and Frobisher Beds Oil Pools, 40 kilometres east of Estevan.

The top price paid for a single licence in this area was $3.4 million by Plunkett Resources Ltd. for a 1,554 hectare block located 20 kilometres north of the Ryerson Bakken-Torquay Oil Pool, 15 kilometres south of Moosomin.

The highest dollar per hectare in this area was received from Petroland Services (1986) Ltd. that paid $27,367 per hectare for a 0.76 hectare parcel

located within the Pinto Midale and Frobisher Beds Oil Pools, 30 kilometres southeast of Estevan.

Kindersley-KerrobertThe top purchaser of acreage in this area was

Plunkett Resources Ltd. that spent $1.3 million to acquire 12 lease parcels.

The highest price paid for a single lease in this area was $277,278 by Northend Resources Ltd. for a 194.25 hectare parcel situated partially within the Forgan Viking Oil Pool, 20 kilometres southeast of Elrose. This is the highest dollar per hectare in this area at $1,427 per hectare.

Lloydminster areaThe top purchaser of acreage in this area was

Gear Energy Ltd. which spent $771,370 to acquire eight lease parcels.

The highest price paid for a single lease in this area was $564,278 by Stomp Energy Ltd. for a 259 hectare parcel situated adjacent to the Celtic Mannville Sands Oil Pools, 50 kilometres east of Lloydminster.

The highest dollar per hectare in this area was received from Windfall Resources Ltd., at $3,438 per hectare for a 32.37 hectare parcel located with-in the Furness Sparky Sand Oil Pool, 11 kilometres southeast of Lloydminster.

Swift Current areaThe top purchaser of acreage in this area was

Scott Land & Lease Ltd. which spent $115,086 to acquire one lease parcel.

This 32.37 hectare parcel is situated within the Eastbrook Upper Shaunavon Oil Pool, 22 kilome-tres southeast of Eastend. This is the highest dollar per hectare in this area at $3,555 per hectare.

October land sale reaps $21.6 M


Complete Rod Pumping Design, Supply, Optimization & Field Services

NOW LEASING

PLUS

2.57 acres

Call Elmer at 403-678-8372

DEL EQUIPMENTA division of Diesel Equipment Limited

Gaston LaCosteBranch Manager & Product Sales

1265 McDonald Street,

Regina, SK S4N 4X5

Tel: (306) 359-1477 Fax: (306) 565-0650

Toll Free:1-888-888-8171

E-mail: [email protected]

Over 60 years of service to the North American trucking industry.

By Geoff LeeLloydminster –

Lakeland College took delivery of the fourth and final teaching boiler in early October for installation inside the new $23 million Energy Centre at the Lloyd-minster campus.

The firetube boiler

was trucked 1,900 miles from the Vic-tory Energy factory in Cushing Oklahoma to Lloydminster by Karl Speiser from Anderson Trucking Service.

Speiser awoke from his truck sleeper at Lakeland the morn-ing of Oct. 8 willing to

shoot the breeze with a newsman while waiting for unloading instruc-tions from a Prairie Crane crew.

“A wonderful trip, I got here last night,” he said with his truck and loaded step deck in backup mode for hoist-ing by a 75 tonne Terex

crane.“It’s my fourth or

fifth time in the Alberta Saskatchewan area.”

Speiser shrugged off being congratulated for picking good weather for the drive north noting that he prefers a challenge.

“I wish there was snow on the ground.

Other drivers won’t take loads like this,” he said with a straight face.

“If the money’s right I’ll take it.”

Anderson Trucking is based in St. Cloud, Minnesota, but Speiser was driving in the east-ern U.S. when he got the call to head to the midwest. Page A35

U.S. banker trucks to Lloyd campus

A Prairie Crane crew lowers this teaching boiler onto a skate skid to roll it into place inside the new Energy Cen-tre at Lakeland College in Lloydminster.


We will deliver gravel, rock, and

screened bedding sand

HWY. 39 WEST, ESTEVAN

Concrete

Page A34“I dropped a load over in Tulsa coming from

the east coast, and then they sent me this load to pick up in Cushing,” he said noting that’s where the Victory Energy plant is.

“It’s a new little facility in the middle of God’s country.”

Speiser is a lease driver who picked up his 36,000 lb. payload in Cushing behind the wheel of a 2015 Freightliner SD truck.

“Th e SD stands for super duty, so it’s an engine that can take it,” he said.

When mounted and secured on the fl at deck, the fi retube boiler was about 9 ft.-six inches wide with no escort vehicle required in Western Canada.

Speiser’s main task at Lakeland College was to unchain the fi retube in preparation for the crane crew.

“Th is is the work part. So, I don’t mind the cold weather at all when it comes to this part of the work,” he said.

Th e arrival of the boiler was delayed by over a month and a half, but Jeff Dustow, Lakeland’s manager for capital projects was pleased to see the delivery.

“It’s a great day,” he said on a chilly morning with the crane ready to lift the boiler and lower in on a skate skid through a door opening in the Energy Centre.

“Prairie Crane has hauled every piece of equip-ment, and I think there is a condensing economizer yet to come and they will probably be involved with that also,” said Dustow.

“A condensing economizer is used to capture all the heat out of the fl ue gas so it literally recovers all the heat that’s going up the chimney.

“It’s a teaching tool. We actually have several diff erent types of economizers just for training purposes.”

Dustow said it will take three month months to commission the plant once all of the new equip-ment is hooked up.

“Th ey’re tying in the steam header. Th e main steam header is in, but there’s still a lot of the fuel train and the auxiliary piping to be done yet,” he explained.

Th ree of the four teaching boilers were made by Victory Energy in Cushing.

Cushing is major oil storage hub for Trans-Canada Corp.’s Keystone pipeline and its proposed Keystone XL pipeline that Speiser chatted about.

“It’s a shame what’s going on with the Key-stone. I grew up with many farmers up in the Nebraska area. Th ey don’t mind it.,” he said because of the jobs it will create.

“If you poll a lot of Americans down there, you’d get probably 66 per cent of Americans who want that damn thing done because of that simple reason – there’s a lot of jobs.”

Speiser acquired a commercial driver’s licence after losing his job as a commercial credit banker with Wells Fargo in Knoxville, Tennessee.

“Back in ’09 when the U.S. economy tanked, me and a bunch of older guys got laid off ,” he said.

“So that’s when I got my CDL. I’ve been happy ever since.

“I was 25 years in banking. I told my wife ‘You know, honey, I want to do something diff erent and see the country’ so I thought to myself to become a truck driver. So far it’s paid off .”

Speiser lives in Tennessee and has been driv-ing truck for three years. He found a job quickly after training, but cautioned new drivers have to pay their dues.

“Th ey’re not going make very much money the fi rst year, but if you stick with it and do everything correctly and safely then the world opens up. Th at’s the best way I can put it,” he said.

“I’m lovin’ it. I love travelling. My wife trav-els too, so it’s not really that hard on the family life. She works in the hotel industry. My daughter spends time with her mom (maternal mother).

“…I miss my daughter. Th at’s the biggest part of the sacrifi ce that driving makes, is missing your family. And it is hard, but the money is something you can’t turn away.”

Long haul trucking he said is good money and “far better than banking.”

Page A36


115 Breeze Street, Estevan, SK

Office: 306-634-0070Fax: 306-634-0071

Estevan and Weyburn Locations

Come see us at our new location!

Pressure Trucks, Acid Trucks and Pups, 406/407 Tri Trailers,Fresh Water Trucks, Vac and Hydro Vac Trucks, Hot Oilers, Heating Units

Supplying: Acid, Fresh Water and Methanol

For hiring opportunities please email [email protected]

www.crsafetyltd.ca

CLIFF REANEY P: 306.861.9966 E: [email protected]

Classroom64-3rd St. N.E.Weyburn, Sk

Call For Possible On-site Training!Schedule listed on website.

Call if alternate dates required.

Page A35

Speiser drives all over North America and recommends taking a trip to Cushing Okla..

“Have you never

been down there? Go down there someday. It’s a nice little place. It’s booming,” he said.

“It’s absolutely booming – not as much as northern Canada.

Th at’s a happening place up there, Fort McMurray.”

Speiser’s been to Fort Mac numerous times delivering oil-fi eld products, and he

continues to be awed by the sprawling pace of oilsands extraction in the region.

“It’s a long drive especially when you get north of Edmonton, there’s really nothing out there. But when you get to Fort McMurray, you’re surprised how many people live up there,” he said.

“Th ey just bus them up from Edmonton.

“Unless you have been up there, you have no idea. It’s huge, it’s actually huge. I haul a lot of pipe and stuff like that.

“From a driver’s perspective, a lot of guys don’t like coming here in the wintertime, but stuff has to get up here.”

Speiser often backhauls goods and products from Canada to the U.S. to make the trip pay for itself.

“Sometimes you get lumber out of White-court west of Edmon-ton. Today, I am going over to Humboldt, east of Saskatoon picking up trailers and I’ll take them over to Wiscon-sin,” he said.

On route he’ll have his Sirius XM satel-lite radio tuned to the Road Dog talk show for trucker news.

He recalled hearing a recent show on the impact of crude-by-rail shipments on the drive up from Cushing.

“Th ey were saying with the amount of oil that’s being pushed out of North Dakota and from Canada, it’s cut-ting back on the truck-ing and the rail lines for agricultural products.

“It’s hurting that industry because there’s so much oil to move.”

Trucking beats banking, says driver

U.S. truck driver Karl Speiser from Anderson Trucking Service gets out of the cab of his


North Shore was founded upon the principle that a smaller, flexible consulting firm could provide superior client service and satisfaction. We offer technical expertise in a range of disciplines to help our clients meet their environmental and regulatory requirements. And with a family of diverse professionals, including agrologists, air quality specialists, biologists, foresters, engineers, and geologists, you can be assured that you’re in the right hands.

We are professional , we are unique, we are North Shore.

REGINA 700, 2010 - 11 Ave Regina, SK S4P 0J3Ph: (306) 206-2736 Fax: (306) 206-270124-HOUR SPILL RESPONSE 1 (855) 700-NSEC (6732)WWW.NORTHSHOREENV.COM

NORTH SHORE

RECLAMATION & REMEDIATION

EMERGENCY SPILL RESPONSE

AIR QUALITY & EMISSIONS

CORPORATE CONSULTING

WATER RESOURCE MANAGEMENT

CALGARY SHERWOOD PARK LACOMBE REGINA

405 Kensington Ave. Estevan, SK. 306-634-9846

Lloydminster – Th e fi rst of two technical luncheons in October by the Lloyd-minster section of Society of Petroleum Engineers dished out a serving of science on formation damage.

Formation Damage Matters was the title of an Oct. 8 presentation by Mi-chael Byrne, global technical head of formation damage for Senergy in Aberdeen Scotland.

His abstract noted the impact of formation damage on diff erent reservoirs and wells has often been the subject of conjecture and speculation rather than science.

Byrne came to Lloydminster to provide some insight into new understand-ing, modeling and theories on the impact of formation damage.

Byrne is a SPE distinguished lecturer who delivered the same talk to sections in Grande Prairie, Calgary and Regina during a swing through Western Canada.

He began by defi ning formation damage “as a reduction of near wellbore permeability that is the consequence of anything we do like drilling, completions and production or injection.”

It’s estimated the oil and gas industry losses $140 billion a year in production from formation damage.

Often damage is a result of a foreign-fl uid invasion into the reservoir rock such as drilling mud that Byrne used as an example.

Because it is pressurized, the drilling fl uid fi ltrate (fl uid and fi ne particles) can fl ow radially into the formation.

A fi lter cake or mud cake forms typically within the fi rst twelve inches of the wellbore radius.

“Some of the mud liquids go beyond that into the rock. Th ese things can cause reduction in permeability which is formation damage,” explained Byrne in a media interview.

Byrne made a point of telling the audience in the Prairie Room at the Lloyd-minster Exhibition Grounds, that sometimes formation damage matters and sometimes it doesn’t.

“Sometimes because of the well geometry, the fact that we have formation damage doesn’t have as big an impact as we might think,” he said.

Page A38

Formation damage under study

Grounds.


JASON MATHESON NORTHERN SK

306.230.9822

DEAN HOLOIENSOUTHERN SK

306.537.6372

BUILT TO WORK.Kramer Ltd. is pleased to be the exclusive Saskatchewan distributor of the Premier Oilfield Equipment Co. Hydrovac.

With seven branches strategically located throughout the province, Kramer is dedicated to providing you the parts, service, and support you need to keep your business at maximum efficiency.

KRAMER.CA

Self-framing & Panel

Oilfield Buildings

contact 306.487.7102

[email protected]

Page A37“Equally, because of

different well geometry, a shorter well perhaps, that formation damage has much more impor-tance. So sometimes it doesn’t matter and sometimes it does mat-ter much more.

“Formation dam-age during drilling or completion can have a big impact on the life of the wells.

“It’s really impor-tant to understand what impact formation damage has on the well productivity not just

that there is forma-tion damage, but what impact it has.”

The way to do that he said is by computer modeling to determine, among other things, the permeability of a well in the design phase.

Byrne argues for less reliance on what are called skin factors in the industry to help to explain and predict well performance.

“A skin factor is something that we use to describe a well’s per-formance and it includes a whole multitude of

different components like the geometry of the well, flow convergence, or formation damage,” he said.

“It is what we use to describe whether a well is good or bad, because we use a single number called a skin factor.”

A skin factor is a numerical measure of formation damage as a dimensionless pressure drop caused by a flow restriction in the near wellbore region.

“We should try to remove that from our description of well be-

havior,” said Byrne,He advocates the

use of modern compu-tational power to solve complex physical chal-lenges and do away with skin factors.

Byrne held up and flew a paper airplane to make the point that other industries that have complex fluid flow problems use computer simulation to model fluid flow.

“In aircraft design, it’s the flow of air over the wings of the plane. In our industry, we are looking at flow of oil, gas and water through formations and into wellbores,” he said.

“That to me, should be fully numerically modeled because we have big computers now.

“If we can model fully the system, that is a much more thorough description and there-fore better prediction of what different wells will do and what chemicals will do when it comes to drilling and complet-ing.”

He told the audi-

ence that it is important to model a well to avoid damage for optimal drawdown of oil.

“If you have damage in the well then you can have considerably less daily production than if you don’t have damage,” he said

“Designing the well properly in the first place gives you a much better chance of sustaining productivity and ultimately higher

recovery.”Byrne said the topic

of formation damage is relevant to all parts of the industry and therefore, hopefully for all SPE sections on his tour.

“This topic is relevant for unconven-tional oil, conventional oil, and unconventional low permeability and conventional high per-meability like heavy oil,” he said.

Formation damage has big impact

-

Photo


From volatile commodity prices to changing client

spending plans to erratic weather, Oilfield Service

companies face ongoing challenges. To increase

profits in dynamic market conditions, MNP’s

industry specialists help OFS business owners and

management teams focus on the factors within your

control. By optimizing the financial efficiency of

your operation, we help raise profits and keep your

opportunities flowing.

Contact your local MNP Oil & Gas consultant or

visit www.mnp.ca

SWIFT CURRENT

Jeremy Rondeau, CA

T: 306.770.3679

E: [email protected]

ESTEVAN

David Hammermeister, CA

T: 306.637.2310


WEYBURN

Melissa Swayze, CA

T: 306.842.8915


Strategies Produced for

Today and Tomorrow


A Schlumberger Company780.875.7145

Lloydminster AB | Provost AB | Drayton Valley AB | Medicine Hat AB | Kindersley SKwww.platinumpumpjacks.comwww.platinumpumpjacks.com

southeastcollege.org | 1.866.999.7372

NEW! SASKATCHEWAN POLYTECHNIC WELDING APPLIED CERTIFICATE 20 weeks

Graduates may fi nd employment in refi neries, pulp and paper mills, construction, manufacturing or processing plants, mines or repair shops.

Trade time and academic credit may be available for graduates who fi nd employment in the trade and register as appretices. Please contact the Saskatchewan

Apprenticeship and Trade Certifi cation Commission (SATCC) for further information.

COURSE DATES February 2, 2015 - June 19, 2015

NEWSPIPELINE SECTION B

November 2014

Boundary Dam project opens

By Brian ZinchukEstevan – Speeches were made, tours offered

and a ribbon cut. With that, Saskatchewan made history, with the grand opening of the world’s first commercial-scale post-combustion carbon capture plant.

Approximately 250 invited guests attended the Oct. 2 grand opening of the Boundary Dam Integrated Carbon Capture and Storage Project, with several dozen media covering it. The question of whether or not the world was watching was an-swered by the presence of reporters wearing “France 24” jackets and others speaking Norwegian. Repre-sentatives from Mitsubishi Hitachi Power Systems to the International Energy Agency also were there.

There was a lot of consternation in the months leading up to the opening of the $1.4 billion proj-ect, which rejuvenated the existing Unit 3 of the Boundary Dam Power Station with a new turbine and generator, improvements to the boiler, and the construction of a new carbon capture plant adjacent to the power plant. Would it work? Was it worth the investment? Those questions were addressed on that day.

“It’s working,” said SaskPower president and CEO Robert Watson, noting about 2,300 tonnes of CO2 was going into the pipeline to the Cenovus-operated Weyburn Unit for enhanced oil recovery.

“And we’re getting paid for it,” he added to

both applause and some ironic laughter.“It sounds pretty lofty, but this truly does put us

in a world-leading process.”He noted that Saskatchewan’s power demands

increased by six per cent last year alone. “Now we have option for the future to deal with it.”

Premier Brad Wall said, “One of the biggest challenges we face in the terms of public policy is this balance, this quest for balance between the energy we need for a growing economy and envi-ronmental considerations. This has been a challenge exasperated with what happened in 2008 in terms of world-wide economic decline.

“We seem then, to be left, with this Faustian choice; this rock and a hard place choice, between low-cost energy, that coal can provide; that’s good for the economy, good for the consumers, but may-be not so good for the environment. That choice is contrasted with higher-cost forms of energy that aren’t maybe as good for the economy and as good for the consumers, but are better for the environ-ment. This has been the choice, that we’ve had, until today, I would say.

“It’s interesting, as we look around the world, to see how nations and decision makers around the world are dealing with this very difficult choice,” Wall said, noting they are going for the cheaper choice, and that 1,200 new coal-fired plants are be-ing planned world-wide. China and India account

for 76 per cent.China alone is planning the equivalent of a

Poplar River Power Station every 12 days. “There’s reason for hope, today, as a result of

what we’ve seen in Estevan, in terms of this chal-lenge, this Faustian challenge. For today, from this particular plant, Boundary Dam 3, in southeast Sas-katchewan, from the nation of Canada, the message is maybe there’s more choice after all.

“Maybe coal, affordable coal, can continue to be part of the more sustainable energy mix, here and around the world.”

Wall suggested that carbon taxes should go to technology like seen at Boundary Dam rather than general revenue funds. “They’re not really about the environment, are they? They’re about taxes,” he said.

“Maybe this project here allows decision-mak-ers to analyze the effectiveness of contrived carbon markets that basically move carbon around. Heavy emitters pay and that drives price pressure down to the economy and consumers and doesn’t deal with the problem. Maybe what we’ve done here in southeast Saskatchewan, what you have done, is we should focus on technological solutions – that we should invest in this kind of technology. That’s the solution we seek, to avoid that choice between coal and the environment.”

He noted this is the first generation of the technology, with virtually no fly ash, virtually no CO2 to be emitted, no SOX, 30 per cent less nitro-gen oxide, and the ability to sell CO2.

He noted that with human ingenuity and the advances we’ve made here, what’s next for us?

“We should think about how far we come,” Wall said, thanking Prime Minister Harper for financial support, SaskPower, its board, the union workers, and other officials who worked hard to make it happen.

“I was told by some officials I shouldn’t use the term ‘clean coal,’ because people just don’t believe it, because it’s an oxymoron. Well they can believe it today, because of you.”

Federal Minister of Natural Resource Greg Rickford said it is a world-leading initiative.

“Today Saskatchewan is on the leading edge of clean technology development, and Canada is proud to be with it, as we say in Rider Nation, to move the chains.

“Today’s CCS project opening is a world first. Sorry, President Obama, we’re leading the way on this file,” Rickford said.

“This project represents a major, major step forward for Saskatchewan and for Canada in the development of world-class and in fact world lead-ing technology”.

He noted that the federal government has over half a billion dollars invested in CCS projects, $240 million in this project. That establishes a strong Canadian CCS research advantage.

Premier Brad Wall said ‘clean coal’ is no longer an oxymoron. See more photos on B20.

B2 PIPELINE NEWS November 2014

[email protected] Dyer

126 - 130 Perkins

StreetMLS®# 505819

$2,950,000

380 Highway 18

WestMLS®# 504616

$829,432

230 Third

StreetMLS®# 504620

$175,000

RM of

Coalfields

MLS®# 504606

$199,900

115 Highway 47

SouthMLS®# 514206

$485,000

112 Jahn Street

19.88 Acres

$3,400,000Exclusive

Brokerage, Independently owned and operated.

Claman Drive Lot

For Lease®# 508162

$4,000/ LeasePer month

Didier Houssin, of the International Energy Agency, came from Paris to attend the grand opening of the Boundary Dam Inte-grated Carbon Capture and Storage Project in addition to the sympo-sium in Regina that led up to the big day.

“I have a team of eight people working full-time on CCS. We

are great believers. We think CCS is a very important technology if we want to move to a low carbon economy. Considering the impor-tance of fossil fuels that continue to be used, we need CCS in the future to de-carbonize the power sector as well as industry.”

Asked if he sees this technology being used in Europe, partic-ularly Germany, which has similar lignite coal to Saskatchewan, he said,

“We’re not as

advanced as you are here in Canada. Th ere are some projects in the U.K. Th e U.K. is very interested in CCS. Th ere are some de-bates in Brussels about providing more support to CCS projects to see them emerge.”

He noted Europe has limited oil produc-tion, and thus lim-ited CO2 enhanced oil recovery opportunities. Deep saline aquifers are an important option, because the potential for storage are much larger.

IEA attends grand opening

grand opening.

Yoshiro Inatsune of Mitsubishi Hitachi is responsible for that company’s work on the Shand Carbon Capture Test Facility.

Th ere’s more at play in the carbon capture world than just the Boundary Dam project.

Yoshiro Inatsune of Mitsubishi Hitachi, who is attached to the Shand Carbon Capture Test Facility, spoke to Pipeline News during the grand opening of the BD3 project.

Asked how impor-tant the Shand project is, he noted, “SaskPower is building the test facil-ity. We will supply the solvent to absorb CO2. Th at is a key technology of our CCS technology.”

“We developed our solvent and we are test-

ing the viability and the performance. It will start next spring.”

“We are doing tests in the U.S.A., Norway and Japan. Now we’ve built the facility here. It’s the biggest one. In Norway and U.S.A., we are just supplying the solvent. Th ey are testing it in their facility.”

Th is is the second test facility of its type to be constructed, he noted, with the fi rst being built in Japan in the 1990s.

One of the main vessels has been built

partly out of carbon steel, instead of stainless steel, to see if it can hold up. He said they are testing for performance against corrosion, high CO2 loading and dete-riorating factors in the fl ue gas. “We are now testing if carbon steel material can be used, using our solvent.”

If carbon steel is vi-able, it would reduce the cost of facilities, since much more costly stain-less steel is normally used.

He confi rmed that

the Hitachi-supplied turbine for Boundary Dam Unit 3 is the fi rst of its kind, and they see a future market for more like it.

“I think so. We hope the CCS market will grow in the future, not soon, but in the near future.”

Can this change the world?

“I think so, I hope so, and we would be having a large market share by using this new turbine,” Inatsune said.

Mitsubishi Hitachi present at opening

B3PIPELINE NEWS November 2014

By Brian Zinchuk

Wadena – The morning of Oct. 7 saw an evacua-tion of the community of Clair, Sask., near Wadena following a train derailment and subsequent fire. Highway 5 was closed as heavy black smoke billowed from the wreck, which saw 26 of 100 cars leave the tracks.

According to Wadena RCMP in a press release, “10:39 a.m., Wadena RCMP were called to a train derailment approximately one kilometer east of Clair, Saskatchewan, which is approximately 21 kilometers west of Wadena, SK. The derailment occurred near Highway #5 and a one kilometer radius barrier has been set up at the site. Highway #5 between Wadena and Watson is closed.”

RCMP officers from Wadena, Wynyard, Lani-gan, Rose Valley, Punnichy, Humboldt are assisted on scene as well as Quill Lake and Wadena fire and Wadena EMS. There were no reported injuries.

The train in question was what is often referred to as a manifest train, one carrying multiple cargoes, as opposed to a unit train, carrying one cargo. There were three engines for this train, and they did not derail.

Jim Feeney, CN spokesperson addressed the wreck the following day on CJME’s John Gormley Live, where he explained what had happened.

Feeney said, “There were 26 cars that derailed. They were carrying a variety of goods This was a mixed freight train, with everything on it from grain to some fertilizer to used automobiles; various products. Of the cars that derailed, six were carrying dangerous goods. Two were carrying caustic soda; those cars are intact, they did not leak. There was no breach.

“Two cars were carrying hydrochloric acid. Those cars are intact and did not breach as well.

“The cars of concern were two cars carrying petroleum distillate, a product. Think of naphtha, kerosene. Those cars did breach. They leaked. The product, the petroleum distillate caught on fire. That product burned through the morning and afternoon and through the night. It was greatly diminished by last night.

“As of this morning, the fire is out, all the derailed cars are clear. The evacuation order for the affected residents has just been lifted and we’re in the process of rebuilding the track at this moment.”

Feeney noted the Transportation Safety Board had investigators on site by the first evening. As of Oct. 7, it was too early to make conclusions.

The derailment took place on the “Prairie North Line,” which Feeney referred to as a “secondary mainline.” That line goes from west of Winnipeg to east of Edmonton, and passes through Canora, Wadena, Saskatoon and North Battleford within Saskatchewan.

“CN is busier than it’s ever been in its history in

terms of traffic we’re carrying,” Feeney noted. The company had spent $100 million on up-

grades and infrastructure on the Prairie North Line in the last year. There were no speed restrictions on this section of track, and the train had been travelling at 40 miles per hour, the speed limit on that portion of track.

Train carrying petroleum distillate derails near Wadena

Visit our website: restonmanitobahomeforsale.com

New Home for Sale in Reston, MB

204-570-2725 or e-mail: [email protected]

1455 sq. ft., 9‘ insulated concrete form basement

$275,000 $6,000 rebate through RM of Pipestone


CALL US TODAYDoug Wyatt

(306) 577-194824 HOUR SERVICE

KISBEY, SK

Crude Oil & Saltwater Transfers

Hot Fresh Water

Access To Fresh Water Available

Freshwater Hauling

Service Work

EXPERIENCE

Customer service is our top priority and for more than 60 years Import Tool has been a leader in providing liner tool completions, stage cementing tools, casing packers, innerstring cementing service, float equipment and casing accessories to Canadian oil and gas companies who demand the best.

FIRST IN SERVICE, FIRST IN QUALITY TOOLSSaskatchewan and Manitoba

78 Devonian Street ~ Estevan, Saskatchewan

INNOVATIONFOCUS

Ener-TestWell Servicing & Rentals Ltd.

Dale306-861-3635

24hr On Call Management

ProductionsCompletionsWork Overs

Specializing in SourFluid - Gas Management & Safety/Coil & Ball Frac

FlowbackFoam Cleanouts

DrilloutsN2 Blowbacks

Custom Spacing of Test Equipment

Spotting & SetupRig Ins

Custom Trucking of all Test Equipment

In-fi eld Management24 Hour Crews Provide

Extra Service to Maintain Effi ciency

Production TestingWell Testers

6-Pressure Vessels

Flare Stacks

400 BBL Test Tanks

100% Saskatchewan owned and operated

Well Trained+Supervised Employees

By Brian ZinchukEstevan – There’s a

need in the Saskatch-ewan oilpatch for people qualified to look after larger boilers, accord-ing to Sheena Onrait, regional manager for Southeast College, the parent organization of the Saskatchewan En-ergy Training Institute. As such a new program, Special Oilwell Boiler Part B, will be offered.

“We’ve always delivered a prep class for Part A, for 500 kilowatt or less. We’re finding as companies build bigger rigs, the boilers they are using are bigger, up to

1,000 kilowatts,” Onrait said.

While there has been a program on the books for years, it hasn’t been offered recently. That’s now changed.

The Part B program has been approved for delivery from TSASK, the Technical Safety Authority of Saskatch-ewan. With the course re-affirmed and re-instated, Southeast Col-lege is now currently the only school authorized to offer it.

“We have two upcoming courses last week in October and the first week of No-

vember,” Onrait said. It will be offered at other Southeast College cam-puses in the future.

The Part B course runs five days, includ-ing the exam. Up to 25 students can take part in each session. The class will require a minimum of 12 students and will cost $600 including tuition and materials. Onrait expects a strong response to initial offer-ings of the class.

“Our first class will be full,” she said, noting CanElson Drilling and Red Dog Drilling had taken up the slots.

There is a strong

demand for this train-ing, according to Onrait. “It was one of the first things that came up in a recent CAODC meet-ing,” she said.

Depending on the year, plans are to offer the program in the fall, prior to boilers be-ing fired up for winter drilling. Spring breakup is another option for training.

They won’t be using a rig boiler during the class, but they will be doing a field trip to the Shand Power Station.

Larger boilers are driving demand for the Special Oilwell Boiler Part B course to be revived. It will now

College. Photo by Brian Zinchuk

Drilling rig boiler training now offered at SETI


306-482-8886 Carnduff, SK

www.banditoilfi eld.ca

By Brian ZinchukEstevan – Th e

Saskatchewan Energy Training Institute, or SETI, is launching its new welding applied certifi cate program, a Saskatchewan Polytech-nic course.

“We’ve never of-fered this at SETI be-fore,” said Sheena On-rait, regional manager for Southeast College, the parent organization of SETI.

“Big news – we will be off ering $1,000 en-trance scholarships for our upcoming welding program,” she said on Oct. 14.

For welding stu-dents she added, “Th is is a huge opportunity to invest in their future.”

Th e new program will use a mobile train-ing lab supplied by Saskatchewan Polytech-nic (formerly SIAST). It will involve two semi trailers set up in a T-shape on the south side of the building. Th e mobile lab will include a lab and supplies, while classroom space will be accommodated within the main building.

In the past this mo-bile facility has run off generators, but in this case it will be supplied by grid power. Th ree-phase power has been installed within the last

month.Th e program starts

Feb. 2, 2015, and will run to June 19, 2015. Th e pre-employment welding course will be 20 weeks in length, after which time students can become indentured ap-prentices.

Th ere’s room for 12 students. As of mid-Oc-tober, applications had not yet been received, but interest has been expressed.

SETI has secured used of the lab for all of 2015, and another program is in the works for the latter half of the year. According to On-rait, the lab can be used for a number of other courses.

Explaining why they are using this lab for the program as op-posed to those already a part of the building, she said, “We would have to hugely retrofi t our lab. Ventilation is key.”

Having access to this lab was a positive, according to Onrait.

Onrait noted the Canada Job Grant, a new federal/provincial initiative, is applicable to the program. It’s a training tool for compa-nies to expand train-ing for employees or prospective employees. Employers pay one third of the cost, and the grant will cover up to two-thirds, for a maxi-mum grant contribution of up to $10,000 per person. In this case, the program is expected to cost a total of $2,720 for tuition and $750 for materials.

“We did an em-ployment survey last summer. Welding was a long-term career op-portunity that was in the top fi ve of the list,” she said.

Applications will be taken through the col-lege.

File photo

New welding program at SETI$1,000 entrance scholarships offered


Oxbow – His face shows a lot about his personality – you aren’t going to fi nd Kim Janke in an offi ce if he can help it.

Janke is partners with co-owner Trevor Spearing in Extreme Excavating, a nine-year-old hydrovac business based in Oxbow.

Th e business came

about after they “re-tired,” when Spearing sold his interest in Spearing Service Ltd. to the Mullen Group.

“We needed some-thing else to do. Th e kids were in school, so we thought we might as well work,” Janke said on the side of a grid road near Hirsch after the completion of a line locate job.

Th ey have nine hydrovacs and two single-axle, seven cubic metre fresh water trucks to keep them full. Th ere’s a reason they are running single axle units – a person with a Class 5 drivers licence can operated them. With ongoing shortages of drivers in the indus-try, that’s an important consideration.

Th ey work within a 100 mile radius, from Weyburn in the west, to Parkman in the north, and just inside the Manitoba border.

Th eir three Ken-worth hydrovacs are equipped with “tag axles,” two wheel axles under the centre of the truck that can be lowered to take up more weight. “It does help when you go in a situ-ation off the ditch. It’ll hold up the truck better, but they’re not recog-nized by the department of highways,” said Janke

All their units are single steer units. One unit is a “mini.”

“It’s exactly half the size of this. It’s single axle, fi ve cubic metres instead of nine. In the cities it’s more maneu-verable,” he said.

Th e company has

been growing every year, Janke said. Th eir shop, built three or four years ago, is full of hydrovacs. Th ey could use a larger shop, but he noted, “We’ll see what this year brings.”

Th ere’s 16 people working the trucks, plus Spearing and Darlene Sibley, their secretary.

As for Janke, you’ll fi nd him on a truck. “I’d rather be in the fi eld than that pencil-push-ing part,” he said.

“I like to meet the people and keep my equipment, and my workers on their toes, I guess. I can train him (he pointed to his swamper, Leslie Munroe) and train him safely.”

Janke and Jeff Anderson, their fi eld supervisor, handle the training for the compa-ny. Extreme takes a little diff erent tack when it comes to operating their units.

“We don’t re-ally play that operator/swamper game here. It’s out there to be a team. You work to get the job done. (An operator) has the licence to drive the truck, the swamper doesn’t, so he’s classifi ed as the operator. But they do the exact same job.”

Th ey’ll trade off on the wand and take “winter breaks,” or lunch breaks. “We work on the fl y,” Janke said.

About 80 per cent of their work is oilpatch-related. Th ey do a lot of work for SaskPower, and town work, making up the remainder.

Page B7

Ground conditions so wet, sight holes become water wells

Photos by Brian Zinchuk


ENVIROTRAP SYSTEMS 1-306-483-7330Sales Contact: CHEYENNE OILFIELD SERVICES 1-306-483-7924

E-mail: [email protected] www.envirotrap.com

THE PROBLEM

THE SOLUTION

Responsible Product From a Responsible

Company

Page B6A common practice

for oilpatch compa-nies in the Oxbow and Carnduff area is to have staff housing. Extreme is no diff erent, and has room for six people. Th ree spots were fi lled, and a fourth would be shortly after a new hire joined.

Extreme doesn’t use a rotation basis for work, instead opting to work when they can, because you never know when the weather won’t co-operate. A half-inch of rain, given recent soil conditions, can shut down operations for up to four days. “You might as well go home for two or three days. We have enough people locally to cover,” said Janke.

Asked about how 2014 has gone, Janke responded, “Stupid weather. Th at thing weighs 60,000 pounds

approximately. Look over there (he pointed to the fi eld they just came out of ) We broke through three times.”

Th ey didn’t get stuck, though, due to “excellent driving,” he said with a smile. “If a guy had backed off , he’d have been done. You’d need a trackhoe to pull it out.”

Th e culprit has been ongoing wet soil condi-tions for the past several years. In this case, there hadn’t been any rain in two weeks. “Th e ground is so saturated, we’re just nicely getting going again. It was an extend-ed road ban. We sat a lot of July,” said Janke.

“It’s like mush. Th e water table is, on aver-age, is probably at fi ve feet. When you have to dig a seven-foot deep hole, it’s just mush. Th e poor pipeliner, after we do a crossing, they dig

through that and go to put the fl owline in, well they’re up to there (he pointed). Th ere’s water and mud and pumps go-ing. I wouldn’t want to be a pipeliner right now. Th is would be the worst year for a pipeliner right now.”

Th e hole they did earlier that morning was 52 inches deep. “When we were done, water came in at the end,” Janke said.

What it comes down to is they’re doing sight holes, but in reality the end result is often water well.

During the mid-summer fl ood that ham-mered the area along the Saskatchewan/Man-itoba border Extreme volunteered light plants, but other companies provided vac trucks. Photo by Brian Zinchuk

Don’t ask Leslie Munro, 21, of Truro, Nova Sco-tia, of what he thinks of his home province’s recent ban of fracking.

“It’s disappointing to see that,” he said, frustra-tion on his face.

“Th at’s why he’s here,” according to his boss, Kim Janke, co-owner of Extreme Excavating.

Asked if the provincial government had enabled that industry in Nova Scotia, would he be at home, working in it, Munroe said, “Yeah, I would be. Gas and oil are the highest paying jobs in all of Canada. You gotta chase it.

“I’ve been out here for over a year now in Sas-katchewan and Alberta. I just moved from Edmon-ton the other week.

He notes that Saskatchewan is “fl at,” but being from a small town, it doesn’t bother him.

His brother-in-law, Richard Kennedy, has been working for Extreme for two year. Kennedy initially came out for almost a year, going home every three months, roughly, then his wife and daughter came out to Saskatchewan to join him. Munroe is now staying with them.

Munroe had been working on hydrovacs before coming to Extreme.

Asked what brought his brother-in-law out to Saskatchewan initially, Munroe responded, “To make a living back home … he was making $16 an hour, which is really good back East, but it’s not enough to cover the bills and put food on the table and try to save.”

“Th e wage here is double. Probably more than double, with overtime, and in the winter time, there’s no shortage of hours,” said Janke. “By the time road ban comes, some guys are so burnt and tired, they don’t want to work those last few days before road ban hits. Th ey’re just exhausted.”

Saskatchewan gains another worker


IN PRICE ADJUSTMENTS(2014 FPO FPO FPO FPO amount shown)

UP T

SWAP

RIDE

Tammie W.Non-Ford driver

XLT WITH XTR PACKAGE SHOWN

Phone: (306) 634-3696, Fax: (306) 634-4262

118 Souris Ave. N., Estevan, SK S4A 1J6E-mail: [email protected]

www.senchukford.ca

Driving a hydrovac over a questionable bridge to help

Carnduff – Not that anyone would wish a flood on anyone, but if a flood were to occur, Carnduff, with numer-ous hydrovac and vac units based there, would have more capacity to deal with it than many other communities in the province.

That bore out this past summer, when torrential rains hit the region. One of the com-panies that responded was Suck It Up, which spent a lot of time down the road helping neigh-bouring Gainsborough get back on its feet.

Lyndon and Brycen

Mains, the father-son co-owners of Suck It Up Hydro Vac Service, spoke with Pipeline News on Oct. 6 about this past summer, the upcoming winter, and their newest hydrovac.

Flood responseCarnduff and

area got hammered with flooding around the Canada Day long weekend. “That rain cost millions and millions, from Cat skinners to moving rig, vacs, back-hoe operators. Anybody that’s employed in the oilpatch,” Lyndon said. “For farmers in this corner, it cost them lots

of money. It was wet somewhat before, but it was a killer.

“We did a lot of volunteer work for that flood in Gainsborough. We would load later on the north side of the highway, back up to the south side and dump.”

They’ll get wages and fuel back, he noted. All but one of their trucks were deployed, including three hy-drovacs and one water truck.

“One truck sucked up outhouses and campers’ septic tanks for a month,” Brycen added.

Basements were flooded and needed to be cleaned out. They found themselves sucking gravel out of manholes.

“You want to see a community come together, you see them when a disaster strikes,” Brycen said, comment-ing that sandbags were filled by the thousands.

Lyndon noted there were some scary mo-ments at times. “The first three days were the worst. We had to run equipment over a closed bridge at our own risk.”

Page B9

A local famer had a problem. They had a bin with soggy, rotten canola that had to be cleaned out. While hydrovacs are usually used to locate under-ground utilities, their unique capabilities can be useful in cleaning out nasty, stinking bins.

Glenn Preston, a hydrovac operator with Suck It Up of Carnduff got to wash down the inside of the bin. His swamper, Tierra Carpenter, got to deal with the debris at the bottom of the hopper.

Carpenter, 23, is from Carievale. She used to jointly own a

small business clean-ing out oilfield shacks on leases and in yards.

“I sold my half when I went to Aus-tralia for six months,” she said as she geared up for the job of clean-ing rotten canola.

“I like the physical work. I’m not scared to get dirty,” she said.

In this case, the job would mean sweeping debris away from the bottom of the hopper and ma-nipulating the vac hose to suck it up.

The work is quite a bit different from her training as a certified dog obedience trainer.

“This pays better,” Carpenter said.

More money swamping than

dog training

Tierra Carpenter


Page B8“It was the day after

the rain quit the fl ood-ing hit,” Brycen said. “We both had water in our own basements. Dad got fl ooded. Mine got water.

“I’d never seen anything like that in my life.”

Indeed, they had to get equipment out of some areas before it was stranded.

“Th ere were a lot of people who couldn’t work who helped out,”

Brycen said.Lyndon added, “Our

men said, ‘Let’s go give them a hand if we can.’”

Most of their eff orts were in Gainsborough, probably the worst-hit community in Saskatch-ewan. Th ere, basements were fi lled with four to six feet, and sometimes nine feet of water.

Suck It Up donated squeegees and shop vacs, but Lyndon noted, “We’re not the only ones who donated by any means. A lot helped

out.” New unit

Th e last time Pipe-line News spoke to Lyn-don and Brycen Mains, they had just gotten a truck back on the road after a lengthy odyssey repairing it due to a fi re. Th is time around, things have been going a little smoother.

Indeed, the com-pany now has one of the latest off erings in the hydrovac market.

“We bought a new 2015 Cat hydrovac

CT660,” Brycen said. “It’s working out

okay. It has a slopped fl oor on it. Th at’s why we ordered it, to unload a lot easier,” said Lyn-don.

“Th e truck is very user-friendly,” Brycen added.

Th e unit also has a spread bar inside to wash the tank out.

Th e addition brings their fl eet up to three hydrovacs and two water trucks, one tandem and one tandem steer/

tandem drive. Th at’s important, because the enforcement of weight standards “are getting pretty thick, said Lyn-don. “We can haul more water legally.”

Th e water trucks are used to service the hydrovacs in the fi eld. Th ey usually dump their debris on site.

“When they run out of water, we run out and service it,” he said.

Th e water trucks are only used for fresh water. Typically they buy town

water. A certain breed“A hydrovac opera-

tor takes a certain breed. It’s not like a winch driver, where you load and sit for half a day,” Lyndon said.

Operators take pride in their work, i.e. making a straight hole. Working around un-derground utilities, they have to be careful.

Most of Suck It Up’s work is local.

Th ey have seven people on staff , plus the ownership. As of early October, they were hir-ing another operator and swamper.

Increasingly, those workers are coming from a little to the east.

Brycen said, “Our last three drivers were from Manitoba, Winni-peg and Morden.”

Th e summer months have been steady at best, but not busy. How-ever, as freeze up comes, Lyndon expects that to change. “When the frost hits, it’ll be 110 per cent busy.”

Usually they don’t run on the weekends. Th at may change this winter.

Brycen and Lyndon Mains, co-owners of Suck It Up Hydro Vac Service, pulled their brand new Cat CT660 hydrovac unit out of the shop for a picture. On the side it says, “If you can’t dig it, Suck It Up!” Photo by Brian Zinchuk


CORROSION-RESISTANT PIPELINE SYSTEMS

Flexpipe Systems’ FlexPipe Linepipe (FPLP) is hard at work in Southwestern Saskatchewan on a large gathering system for a prominent oil and gas company. The project tied 31 oil wells to seven central testing facilities. As many as 17 lines were run in one ditch with a right of way (ROW) of only 20 meters.

Chosen because of reduced installation, lifecycle and land costs, Flexpipe Systems is the answer to your next pipeline project

fl expipesystems.com


TIME TO BOOK YOUR

CHRISTMAS PARTY!

Call today to

book your

party. Many

options for

all group

sizes!

306-634-64561305 9th St., Estevan

Jay’s

Weld

ing L

td. Facility Maintenance

Construction WeldingPipeline WeldingFabrication

Equipment RentalHot Shot Services

Dwight Hall306-421-3792

Jason Bembridge306-421-6056

Bienfait, SK

Dispatch Rod/Larry: (306) 421-9295Shop: 433-2059

Office phone/Fax: 433-2069Larry Cell: (306) 457-7712

By Brian Zinchuk

Carnduff – The name can throw you off, but make no bones about it, Competition Environmental Land Spreading Ltd. knows a thing or two about land spreading.

The first time Pipeline News heard of the company, it was from talking with a vac wagon operator on a drilling rig on a very cold winter night near Stoughton. That conver-sation went something like this:

“And who do you work for?” was the question.

“The Competition,” was the response.

“Competition to whom?”

“The Competition.”“But who are the

competition?”“The guys that I

work for. The Competi-tion. In Carnduff.”

You get the drift. There were shades of Abbott and Costello’s “Who’s on First” rou-tine all over that con-versation. It took about five minutes to realize that the name of the company was “Compe-tition,” and indeed, the man did work for “The Competition.”

The name makes sense when you realize that the majority owner, Dennis Day, has a habit

of choosing interesting names for his compa-nies – one of which is called “Runcible Oil.” He swears to never tell anyone why that name was chosen. Those who do know are sworn to secrecy, but it may be tied Edward Lear’s best known poem, the Owl and the Pussycat, where they “They dined on mince and slices of quince, which they ate with a runcible spoon.”

On Oct. 8 Pipeline News spoke to Charlie Bayliss, general manag-er, and Jason Hollinger, safety and accounting manager. Bayliss and operations manager Greg “Henry” Wang have become partners in the firm in recent years.

Land spreadingCompetition Envi-

ronmental specializes in the collection of drilling fluids and disposing of it either through land spreading (spraying it over the surface of farmland) or trans-porting it to disposal facilities.

The company was founded in 1997. Over the years it has grown to approximately 20 vac trucks and 10 vac wagons, two semi-vacs and one combo-unit hydrovac.

“We bought a vac truck in 1998 and I started operating it,” Bayliss said.

From 1997 to 2006, the year Hollinger joined, expansion was slow. By that point they had approximately eight wagons and five trucks. Since then they’ve added one or two units a year on average. Deci-sions to add units are typically made a year in advance. Many of the wagons are original, but three new ones have been added since 2006. One has been retired.

Bayliss was one of the first employees. Initially the com-pany started out using subcontractors. “Den-nis and I were the first employees. The others were subcontractors. They had their tractors, and Dennis bought the wagons,” he said.

The “wagons” Bayliss referred to are large vacuum units typically pulled behind large four-wheel drive or tracked farm tractors. They have large tires for high flotation. The wagons are typically used for collecting and then dispersing drilling fluids. The vac trucks are used in a similar manner. Several have high flotation “floater” tires.

Page B12

Who are you working for? The Competition

This is the view from the boom, look--



Land spreading, once new, is now the norm Page B11

Bayliss noted around 1996 and 1997, land spreading of drill-ing fluids, common in Alberta, came to Sas-katchewan. “We started out with Vista Petro-leum at the time, as an alternative to drilling with sumps,” he said.

Prior to that an ex-cavator would dig a hole on the lease and all the drilling fluids would go in the pit. That practice is still used by a few small junior operators in the area, but has largely been abandoned in favour of land spreading.

“There are some, but not very many,” Bayliss said.

“We’re sucking up the drilling fluids used for the drilling process.”

Hollinger said, “We basically spread surface mud, intermediate mud, end of the hole, and some floc water.”

“Every time they change their mud system, clean their tanks, we spread,” added

Bayliss. The total is usually

four rounds of spread-ing. Bayliss explained, “Surface mud is just mud and water. They’ll set their cement and casing, and we clean tanks. Then they’ll drill to about 1,000 metres with fresh water and calcium nitrate. That’s their floc water system. Some will reuse that as makeup water, as cen-trifuges will make that back into water. Some will spread it. It varies rig to rig and com-pany to company. So we spread the floc water.

“When they mud up, building their curve in the intermediate sec-tion, they have another mud system for that to go to the intermediate casing point. Then we spread that,” he said.

Of the four dif-ferent times they pull off fluid, Bayliss said, “Ninety per cent of the time, it is spread on soil.”

The other 10 per cent is hauled away.

That’s when their trucks, or someone else’ trucks, are used.

“That goes to a disposal facility like NewAlta, Plains, Gib-sons,” Bayliss said.

The mode of truck depends on the fluid. If it’s more like water, it could end up going in a tank truck. If the mud weight is too heavy, like intermediate mud, then a vac truck such as a semi-vac is more ap-propriate.

Bayliss said, “Nowa-days the tank trucks can haul it (intermediate), but we take the heavier stuff and salt with a semi-vac.”

Once in a while product will go to the caverns at Melville, operated by Plains En-vironmental. This is par-ticularly the case when drilling with invert, or distillate-based muds.

“We don’t get as much of that now, but we get from potash (drilling) going there. We had some a couple weeks ago,” Bayliss said.

In addition to cleaning out the mud tank, there’s daily little cleanups on site, like sucking out trenches or the drilling cellar.

Usually there’s a worker staying on lease in trailer. Most of their trailers are locally pro-duced in Weyburn by Demby Trailer Ltd.

Their vac wagons

range from 15 to 20 cubic metres.

Nearly all their fleet of tractors are company-owned, all but one.

Ninety per cent of their tractors are Case, purchased from A&E Chicoine in Storthoaks. They go for wheeled 4-wheel-drive trac-tors, as opposed to Quadtracs.

“They don’t get worked hard, so they last a long time,” Bayliss said. “One had 20,000 hours on it and we hardly touched the engine. We just replaced it.”

Hollinger added, “We’ve only bought three tractors in the last five or six years.”

Page B13



$12, 375.87

$70, 600.76Get a FREE

quote today.

30x56-14’

POST FRAME BUILDING

c/w 16x14

STEEL SLIDING DOOR

60x200-20’ POST FRAME BUILDING

c/w 40x20 NON-INSULATED BIFOLD DOOR

Ph: (306) 634-5111 407 Kensington Avenue, Estevan ESTEVAN MCLEAN TISDALE

Page B12Some, but not all of the tractors have blades. In a bad year, the blades are

handy for snow removal for the area they’re spreading, or to clean up the lease. With wet soil conditions over the last four years, more companies want the

tractor units for land spreading, or flotation tires on the trucks. “You don’t even go on a field without floater tires anymore,” Bayliss said. “Right now, as of today, everyone is using floaters or they’re not going in

the field.”The distance from the rig to the area where the spreading occurs can vary

from just adjacent to the lease to 10 miles. About three-quarters of Competition’s work is working directly with drill-

ing. The rest is service work, including spills, cleanups, and treater turnarounds. That’s truck work, not vac wagon work. Contaminated mud can’t be hauled in wagons. Thus the wagons are dedicated to drilling, and the trucks are dual-purpose.

Steady growthForty-five people are currently working with Competition Environmental.

Their working area is primarily southeast Saskatchewan and southwest Mani-toba, but they have done some work in the Shaunavon and Kindersley areas, as well as supporting potash drilling operations.

The company moved into its current shop, the former Totem Drilling building, in 2010. Prior to that the operation was somewhat scattered, with trucks at the Fast Trucking yard.

Competition saw substantial growth occur beginning in 2006. Hollinger said, “It was crazy. For me, I was checking mud and working in of the office.

“It was just steady growth. It wasn’t like we bought five trucks a year. We’ve just had steady growth since then.”

Starting in 2011, summers aren’t as busy as they have been, likely due to wet soil conditions impeding drilling.

“It seems to be a later start in the spring,” said Bayliss. The whole train of thought has changed, he added. Now there’s a two week

shut down at Christmas, whereas it used to be a few days. A lot of their workers come from Manitoba. “I don’t remember the last

time we hired someone from southeast Saskatchewan,” said Hollinger, who noted many come from more northern parts of Saskatchewan like Prince Al-bert and Nipawin.

They have a variety of shifts to accommodate their workers needs, varying from three weeks on, one off; others two weeks on, two off; and yet others trade off on each hole with their counterpart. Flexibility is necessary to keep staff.

Housing is continually an issue in Carnduff, but Hollinger noted that their guys are usually staying at the rig. They have a few shacks at their shop if needed.

“We do have some guys staying in apartments now,” Hollinger said.Testing

Another side of Competition is their sampling of products before it is spread.

“We’ll line up water for the drilling rig, and a spread field, and sign up the land owners. We’ll send out guys to test the mud. If they’re spreading four times, we’ll test four times,” Bayliss said.

The testing is done on site. “We test for pH, your chlorides, sodium, salt content, oil content, nitrates,

magnesium … there’s a set of guidelines set out by the government we follow.”The testing is done with a field kit. Six people, in addition to Bayliss, are

tasked with the testing. “I usually run two guys during the day and one guy on call at night, be-

cause a lot of our stuff is at night. They run 24 hours. We could be out at 10 o’clock, we could be out at midnight,” Bayliss said.

“We do a lot of the same things a mud man does.”

BB&OILFIELD HAULING LTD.

Drivers WantedTop wages for experienced winch tractor drivers and picker operators. Health and dental benefi ts. Living accommodations available.

Jeff (Beaver) Bayliss306-339-7136

[email protected] 144,

Carnduff, SK S0C 0S0


Carnduff – His truck is still pretty new, but Lance Merkowsky, one of two supervi-sors with Competition Environmental Land Spreading Ltd., has already put a lot of kilo-metres on it.

Merkowsky’s coun-terpart supervisor is Kevin Belmore.

Merkowsky’s going on seven-and-a-half to eight years with Com-petition. He joined “just before things went crazy. We had 18 employees when I started.”

That number is now 45.

“I was on a vac on a rig for four years, on a truck,” he said.

Prior to com-ing to the southeast Merkowsky was from Meath Park, northeast of Prince Albert. He commuted to south-east Saskatchewan for six years before finally moving to Oxbow in December 2012.

He’s worked in dia-mond mines and spent 10 years logging. But in Merkowsky’s words, “Logging went to hell, so I had to find some-thing else. I wish I had come (here) 10 years sooner.

“I hauled logs for 10 years all over north-ern Alberta, Meadow Lake, Prince Albert, Swan Hills. I did lots in Edson, Fort Mac, Athabasca.

“My experience from logging helps now, fixing breakdowns, working off road. I already had the truck knowledge. I had to pick up the oilfield knowl-edge.”

The 37-year-old father of two girls was widowed four months ago. The company was supportive during dif-ficult times. “I wouldn’t have been able to do it without working at Competition. I can’t see myself working any-where else.”

In the field, he’s run everything in their inventory. “Kevin and I can do wahever. If they have troubles, they phone.

“Kevin does main-tenance. I’m usually out in the field, he’s the one in the shop, oversee-ing. He relieves Henry, the operations man-ager,” Merkowsky said, referring to operations manager Greg “Henry” Wang.

On this day he was driving Pipeline News out to their hydrovac, working just out of Carnduff exposing a telephone line. While he’s run it, hydrovac work isn’t his favourite.

“I don’t much care for it. If it needs doing, I’ll do it,” he said, noting the work is often cold, wet, and frozen.

However, cold weather does have one good point, he noted, as at least you can get out there when the ground is stiff.

Environmental Land Spreading Ltd. Photo by Brian Zinchuk

He wishes he came here sooner


www.tarponenergy.com

Partner with us to achieve your goals.

By focusing on safety, quality and service,

we deliver a superior client experience every time.

Contact our team today!

Estevan: 306-634-5617

Lloydminster: 306-825-3363

Kindersley: 306-463-6462

Swift Current: 306-773-5626

306.634.8001

PAVING The WaySpecializing in Hot Mix Asphalt

Heavy

Assoc.

Assoc.

any job

Weyburn – Stewart Steel is work-ing on their next generation of vac wagons, the large vacuum units pulled behind agricultural large tractors for land spreading. Th ey are used primar-ily for handling drilling by-product disposal.

“We are going to come out with our Mark III,” said Brad Stewart, owner, on Oct. 15.

Th is model of Vac-U-Spread will be a straight-PTO (power take-off ) drive. Th e Mark II was both PTO or hydraulically driven.

Stewart explained that they have found the PTO-driven design work fi ne and is a proven design. High fl ow hydraulics are needed to operate the “huge agitator” in the tank if using the hydraulic option.

Th at agitator is unchanged from the Mark II. It was made smaller, but with more torque, than the Mark I. Th at level of torque has been found to be satisfactory in operation.

Hydraulic drive will still be avail-able as an option for the Mark III.

“We mainly made changes to the pump drive, and made it more user-friendly,” he said. “We simplifi ed it.”

High fl otation is a key item for these units, as they carry a lot of

weight. With a larger capacity than typical farm units, their 100 per cent capacity is 23 cubic metres, with a us-able capacity of 20 to 21 cubic metres. Including the unit, the gross total weight is up to 85,000 pounds.

Th e primary usage may be land spreading, but in recent years some units saw usage sucking production fl uids out of tanks and bringing them to the road to be transferred to trucks.

Stewart noted this product is a low-volume business, with a very specifi c target market.

Land spreading drilling fl uids has become commonplace in Saskatch-ewan, but not so in the hot drilling market of North Dakota. “We’re wait-ing for that (market) to develop for this product,” Stewart said.

In addition to its vac wagon line, Stewart steel produces several other products for the oilfi eld and for the agriculture sector. One of those lines is buildings for drilling rigs – boiler buildings, pump houses, and mud tanks.

“We hope to make mud tanks a regular product. Th ere are lots of tanks that need to be replaced out there,” he said.

A typical mud tank might be

expected to last six to seven years, he said, but there are many in the area that have seen eight to 10 years. However, by that point, they’re shot.

Addressing that means tackling erosion, corrosion, and ensuring mix-ing capability.

Th ese buildings are generally custom-fi t to the particular rig.

“We were always doing that busi-ness,” Stewart said, noting they have built buildings for Panther Drilling and Alliance Drilling.

“Pipe tubs are the other thing we’re doing.”

Th ose tubs include larger tubs to handle longer range 3 pipe, used by some larger rigs.

Vac-U-Spread Mark III to be launched

This is the Vac-U-Spread Mark II. The next unit of the Stewart Steel line will be the Mark III. Photo by Brian Zinchuk


Turnbull Excavating offers full construction services

We have the manpower, equipment & knowledge to get your job done.

No job is too big or small!

By Brian Zinchuk

Estevan – Are you really getting the most out of your oil well? Could some refi nements improve production?

Th at’s what well optimization is all about, and that’s the area of expertise of Estevan-based Level Best Technologies. Th e company is owned and operated by Dave Gallaway.

Level Best has four well optimization specialists, including Gallaway. Th ree work out of Estevan, and one works out of Weyburn.

“It’s not a big world in optimization,” Gallaway said. “Th ere are just a handful of companies.”

Yet it’s a very specialized knowledge set. “I often have to explain it to engi-neers,” he said.

OriginsGallaway grew up on a farm northwest of Estevan“I help out on the farm. I’ve been working in the oilpatch full-time since

1989. I shot my fi rst fl uid level in 1979 when I was a summer student,” he said.He got his diploma in agriculture. But Gallaway noted, “Th e 1980s weren’t

good for the farm.”Th us, he got into the oilpatch. “I was operating for Home Oil in Estevan. Th at’s how I got into optimiza-

tion.”Th e training was hands-on. “In 1997 I started doing optimization full-time in the fi eld and in the of-

fi ce on the engineering side. I did that for just about 10 years, then jumped ship to another company and was division manager for Western Canada.”

Striking out on his own in 2009, Gallaway said, “I wanted to do it well, and do it better. I saw too many people trying to cut corners and save money. I don’t believe that’s the way to do it.”

Page B18

Many strategies in well optimization: Level Best Technologies


www.westernstarhotels.com

Toll Free: 1-855-766-9606www.reginaeastgatesuites.hamptonbyhilton.com

Rooms with full kitchenette.FREE FULL HOT BREAKFAST

With locations in Carlyle, Redvers, Esterhazy, Stoughton, Carnduff and Melita to serve you.

NOW OPENHampton Inn & Suites

Regina Eastgate

306-721-6000

10CelebratingYEARS

315A Kensington Ave., Estevan, SK

(306) 634-2835Fax (306) 634-2797

1730 Ebel Road, Weyburn, SK

(306) 842-5081 Fax: (306) 842-5309

www.apexdistribution.com

See your local Apex Distributionstore for all your

vapor recovery needsVRU Units In Stock

Developing new well optimization tools of the trade Page B17

His preference is for a lot of data collection, making more oil while reducing costs.

“The first thing people think of is you’ll make more oil. In more cases, you’ll probably reduce your costs with proper optimization,” he explained.

That may mean using less electricity or performing fewer repairs on the equipment. Putting a service rig on a well is expensive, he noted.

Some items to watch for include pounding on fluid, which can happen if you pump off too fast. A void forms in the pump. Slowing it down can

deter that situation.“Experience in

optimization plays a big part,” Gallaway said. “There could be a multi-tude of different things.”

Pump cards, the graphic record of how a pump is performing, used to be created by an instrument-guided pen on paper. Now they are generated by software. Reading them properly is a prime diagnostic tool. But there’s a catch – you have to under-stand how they come together.

“If you don’t under-stand what that software is telling you, it doesn’t matter if you can read the card or not,” Galla-way said.

Acoustics

One of the key tools of a well optimization specialist is the use of acoustics to determine fluid levels in a well. Sending a sound wave down a well and record-ing the echoes can indi-cate a lot of information. The tubing collars, for instance, can indicate depth, including depth of the fluid.

“You can see each well collar and count how far down the well you are,” he said.

Other items of consideration include rod stretch due to tem-perature and harmonics. When a new rod string goes into a well, it goes in cold. As they warm up, you can get an addi-tional three or four feet, at times. This can result in compression of rods.

Well deviation is another factor.

More than speed

So what can you change when optimizing a well?

“The easiest is strokes per minute, or speed,” Gallaway said.

On a pumpjack, you can also alter the stroke length. In some cases, it’s a combination of stroke length and speed.

Moving up the complication scale from simple to difficult, the next step would be to upgrade or downgrade the size of the equip-ment. This could include the pump or even the pumpjack. It might also mean moving to a differ-ent artificial lift system, like electric submersible pumps or progressing cavity pumps.

BackpressureIt’s also possible to

reduce the backpressure – an avenue that has resulted an additional venture for Level Best,

providing casing gas compressors. They are similar in style to an air compressor, and function by sucking off wellbore gas from the annulus and sending it down the flowline.

“The result is you reduce the backpressure on the well itself,” he said.

One example is usage in Bakken wells. “The Bakken is a tight reservoir. It can’t flow against a lot of pressure. Low pressure reservoirs react really well when you reduce that pressure. Wells with poor pump efficiency due to gas interference also ben-efit by the addition of a casing gas compressor. It helps produce the gas up the annulus instead of through the pump allowing the pump to produce the fluids more efficiently.

“We’ve seen the best results on Bakken wells. Not only are they making more oil, but increasing gas flow. “

The product they are aligned with is PC Compression, out of Ni-sku. Level Best provides sales and service for the product.

Other optimization strategies

Other strategies include adjusting a waterflood or CO2 flood. “We optimize wells in a CO2 flood. We’ve helped develop software to analyze data from wells in a CO2 flood,” Galla-way said.

A foam depression test is used to determine producing pressure. A reservoir pressure is tested via an acoustic buildup. The well is shut in and monitored for pressure over time.

Page B19


306.634.5555

is pleased to introduce the newest addition to our fleet of cranes

245 Ton Terex-Demag 5800 Explorerwith a tip height to 350’

Call dispatch for additional specifications and pricing

Page B18Gallaway noted he did a lot of data gathering

prior to the implementation of CO2 fl oods in the

area. “It generates a lot of work for us. CO2 fl oods

require a lot of optimization because so much

changes,” he said. With the recent addition of new CO2 from the Boundary Dam Integrated Carbon Capture Project, Gallaway hopes that will result in more work.

Instruments“I’m involved in developing new equipment and

fi ne-tuning it,” he said. One such device is an S2S, or surface-to-sand-

face logger. Th at’s acoustic equipment developed by an engineering fi rm from Calgary. Gallaway said it is a state-of-the-art instrument with better software and better response with microphones. Th e result, he said, is more accurate pressures and levels.

Th is product is four or fi ve years old.It is equipped with a 40-day battery, allowing it

to be left on a well for continual monitoring. “You can leave it on a well for a month,” he said.

Th e units are also capable of being programmed wirelessly.

All told, Gallaway said, “Th ey’re a big im-provement in an industry that doesn’t have a lot of products to choose from.”

Indeed, Gallaway added, “I have a patent pending on another piece of equipment, on the gas compression side.”

It is his fi rst patent.Level Best is in discussions to sell another opti-

mization product, a pump-off controller. “We’re looking to expand, but not take over the

world,” Gallaway said.Engineering

“Another thing that sets Level Best apart is the engineering group we work with. Th ey’re the most experienced group of optimization engineers,” he said.

Th e company they are partnered with is NR-Tec of Calgary.

Gallaway thinks Canada is “pretty much ahead of everybody,” when it comes to optimization.

Dave Gallaway of Level Best Technologies works on a casing gas compressor, a system that reduces the backpressure



Dave:Pat:Andrew:

LEVEL BESTLEVEL BESTTechnologies Ltd.

YEARAnniversaryof service to the oil patch


This is the control centre of the carbon capture plant.

Numerous tours packed the car-bon capture plant. Here media from around the world got to see the guts of the plant.

Photos by Brian Zinchuk

The inner workings of the carbon capture plant are full of stainless steel piping and vessels.

Federal Minister of Natural Resourc-es Greg Rickford praises the CCS ef-fort.

Watson cut the ribbon.


All payments are bi-weekly and are taxes and fees paid drive away “OAC”2012 Focus SEL

Auto, rear view cam, Nav, htd. seats,

spoiler, only 11,000 km

$129 B/W $17,900

2003 Sebring LXMint, only 93,000 km

$6,900

2007 Pontiac G6SE, 3.5L, only 56,000 km

$96 B/W $9,900

2013 Chrysler 300Loaded right up, 3.6L,

only 52,000 km

$193 B/W $26,900

2010 Chev Cobalt LSAuto, air, very clean,

only 81,000 km

$66 B/W $7,900

2008 Edge Limited AWDLeather, Moon

$143 B/W $14,900

2011 Dodge Journey

ExpressOnly 9,200 km!

$129 B/W $17,900

2006 GMC Sierra 1500

CC 4x4Nevada Edition, 5.3L

$11,900

2008 Ranger SC 4x4 FX4PW, PL, new tires, 135,000 km

$115 B/W $11,900

2009 Escape Limited AWDLeather, moon

$114 B/W $13,900

2007 Dodge Grand

Caravan SE3.3L

$68 B/W $6,900

2011 Ford Edge SEL3.5L, 78,000 km

$143 B/W $19,900

2006 Escape XLT 4x43.0L, 137,000 km

$9,900

2006 Escape Limited 4x43.0L, leather, 135,000 km

$12,900

2007 Explorer Sport Trac

Limited 4x4Leather, moon, 4.6L, 129,000 km

$171 B/W $17,900

2008 Taurus X SEL AWDPS, 3.5L, 87,000 km

$115 B/W $11,900

2009 Expedition EddieBauer 4x4

Leather, TV, quad buckets, 5.4L

$163 B/W $19,900

2009 GMC Acadia SLT AWDLeather, moon, DVD, 3.6L, 134,000 km

$187 B/W $22,900

2008 Saturn Outlook XR

AWDDVD, 3.6L

$124 B/W $12,900

2008 F150 CC XLT 4x4XTR, trailer tow pkg.

$124 B/W $12,900

2009 F150 CC XLT 4x4XTR, 5.4L, 116,000 km

$187 B/W $22,900

2009 F150 CC Platinum 4x4Loaded, new tires, leather, moon, Nav,

5.4L, 139,000 km

$227 B/W $27,900

2009 F150 CC XLT 4x4XTR, 5.4L

$155 B/W $18,900

2011 GMC Sierra CC 4x4Nevada Edition, 83,000 km

$158 B/W $21,900

2007 Freestyle Limited

AWDLeather, 3.0L, 68,000 km

$124 B/W $12,900

2008 Pontiac Torrent GXP AWD

Leather, moon, 3.6L, 85,000 km

$162 B/W $16,900

2011 F150 CC Lariat 4x4Leather, Nav, moon, 80,000 km

$214 B/W $29,900

2007 F150 CC XLT 4x45.4L

$115 B/W $11,900

2011 F150 CC HarleyDavidson 4x4

Leather, Nav, 6.2L, 82,000 km

$264 B/W $36,900

2011 GMC Sierra 1500

CC 4x4

$158 B/W $21,900

2010 Cadillac EscaladeEXT

Loaded, 6.2L, 78,000 km

$299 B/W $36,900

2007 Ranger SC 4x4 FX4 Level 2

4.0L, 131,000 km

$115 B/W $11,900

2010 Dodge GrandCaravan SE

83,000 km

$123 B/W $14,900

2011 F350 CC XLT 4x4Diesel, warranty

$214 B/W $29,900

2008 F350 CC XLT 4x46.4L diesel

$190 B/W $19,900

2013 F350 CC Lariat 4x46.7L diesel, leather

$285 B/W $39,900

2011 F350 CC Lariat 4x46.7L diesel, leather, 94,000 km

$285 B/W $39,900

2012 F150 CC FX4 4x4Leather, new tires

$199 B/W $27,900

2012 F350 CC Lariat 4x46.7L diesel, leather, moon

$250 B/W $34,900

2008 Escape XLT 4x43.0L

$96 B/W $9,900

2007 Lincoln MKX AWDLeather, DVD, 95,000 km

$218 B/W $22,900

2011 Expedition LimitedMax 4x4

Leather, Nav, 136,000 km

$207 B/W $28,900

2014 Expedition LimitedMax 4x4

Leather, Nav, 5.4L, 29,000 km

$373 B/W $49,900

2005 F350 CC King Ranch 4x4

Diesel, leather

$16,900

2010 F150 CC

XLT 4x4 XTR

$155 B/W $18,900

2007 Chev Equinox LT AWDLeather, Nav, 3.4L, 122,000 km

$124 B/W $12,900

206 Sim Ave.Weyburn

306-842-2645

EVERYTHING REDUCED!

Estevan – CEDA Specialty Services has been operating out of Estevan since 1977, four years after it was founded, but it’s still adding new services.

In recent months it added a hydrovac unit to the fl eet, one of the new services. Th e other is vapour phasing.

“A new one is vapour phasing to clean out bullets to get rid of unwanted gas,” said operations

manager Normand Riopel. “We just got into it this summer.”

Th e process is used to clean out the big bul-lets (pressurized storage tanks) seen at gas plants. With new venting and fl aring regulations resulting in a substantial growth in the gas plant business in southeast Saskatchewan, there will soon be more bullets in the region.

Vapour phasing is an alternative to a nitro-gen process. Riopel explained, “We go in with dry steamers and bring the temperature up to 40 to 60 C. Th en we inject some chemicals to get the tank prepped for inspection.”

Brian Fleck, who has been with CEDA for de-cades, said, “We’re killing the LEL (lower explosive limits) and gasses. Th e chemical you inject captures some of that.”

In Estevan CEDA has one hydrovac unit now, and is getting a second. Th ey have two wet vac trucks, and fi ve steamers, all equipped for dry steam. Th ey have two water trucks and four bulkers used

for water hauling. Th e company also operated frac fl uid heaters and hot oiling.

Th eir services include hot oiling, chemical cleaning (using chemicals to clean treaters, tanks and the like) and turnaround in both the oilfi eld and in industrial applications.

Th at industrial application includes substantial work at SaskPower’s power plants, during turn-arounds.

“We do a lot of mechanical cleaning and boiler cleaning as well,” he said. Boilers tend to be on a 10 year cleaning cycle, but that cleaning can be more frequent. “Some years you do two (units) in the same year.”

Th e process involves cleaning the inside of boil-ers tubes.

A boiler cleaning is typically a seven to eight day job, with perhaps three days of operations, and the remainder spent in setup and rig-out. High pressure units and chemical units are used.

Page B23

CEDA tackles large industrial turnarounds

GOT OIL?Free property assesment for

mineral rights owners.Top royalties paid on

suitable drilling locations.

Call 403-291-0005Toll Free 1-877-784-9696www.briskenergy.comLicensed Operator

Have your land co-ordinates available.

Leading by Experience

s.


1-306-448-2260

tk trailer salesmanor, sask.

T R A I L E R S E R V I C EA V A I L A B L E

-tilts-flatdecks-carhaulers--dumps-utility-enclosed-

Sam WebberIndustrial Territory Manager

Manitoba Contact 204.894.3324 [email protected]

Brody MalekIndustrial Territory Manager

Saskatchewan North WestContact 306.250.5043 [email protected]

Chad CazaIndustrial Territory Manager

Saskatchewan SouthContact 306.514.8655 [email protected]

Call today to add your equipment to this auction

Hwy 12 North & Cory Road, Saskatoon, SK

Unreserved Public Auction

SASKATOON, SKTuesday, December 2, 2014 | 8 am

rbauction.com | 800.491.4494

Dan FerdererIndustrial Territory Manager

Saskatchewan North EastContact 306.715.0784 [email protected]

2006 Caterpillar D7R XR Series II 1997 Caterpillar D7R XR

2008 Peterbilt 386 &2008 Cancade 30 Ft 2009 GravHaul CG3800

Page B22“It’s a specialty service we pro-

vide,” Riopel said.The company works from Alberta

to Ontario, going where the work is. When the Regina refinery does its annual turnarounds during spring breakup, it’s an all-hands-on-deck affair, with staff pulled from all direc-tions to support the Regina office. The Estevan branch will maintain a skeleton staff and send almost every-one else to Regina to assist. Up to 75 of CEDA’s staff can be working on a shift.

Another service offered is hy-drotesting for pipelines and tanks. In October they were working on the new line that ties into the Vantage pipeline, a recently installed ethane pipeline that runs from Tioga, N.D. to Empress, Alta.

About a third of their work is oilfield turnarounds. “Most of our work is emergency work,” Riopel said. As an example, he said there could be a leak, or a flowline plugged.

Waxing off of a flowline is a com-mon occurrence, caused by paraffins in the oil clogging up the line. Fleck said they will “jet a line” by feeding in a high-pressure water jet on the end of a line, going 400 feet or more in each direction from where the line is dug up and opened. The jet head, which shoots streams both forward and backward, will actually pull itself into the line as it progresses. Their vac trucks are then used to suck up the residue.

“We can supply the vac truck, water truck, pressure truck and a hose

trailer with a reel on it,” he said. That hydraulically-driven reel takes care of the several-hundred feet of hose needed for the job.

As for where waxing off is most problematic, Fleck said, “It’s kind of all over,” but he added, “Bakken oil is thinner, so you hardly get plugging with wax.”

Early winter, when the ground hasn’t yet settled on a new pipeline, is often when plugging can become an issue. That’s because the air gaps in the backfilled soil can allow the ground to get colder and allow the waxes within the pipeline to cool down.

That being said, Fleck noted, “They plug them all.”

An operator who was supposed to pig a line may miss a few days, and the next thing you know, it’s plugged.

Riopel said, “We’re 24 hours a day, seven days a week, 365 days a year to provide a wide range of diversified services.

“In the oil industry, when some-thing goes down, they need it right away.”

Fleck said that means getting prepped as soon as the call comes in. “They want us booked so when they’re ready, we’re there.”

The Estevan location has 19 people working there.

Unlike most of the companies Pipeline News has spoken to in the southeast in recent months, CEDA reported a busy summer. Riopel attributed that to being a well-diver-sified company that works in a wide geographic range.

Dale Daly moved from Regina to Estevan to run a hydrovac unit for CEDA.

EXPOSING IT ALL.....RIGHT BEFORE YOUR EYES!

Residential, Municipal and Industrial Certifi ed

Call Todd 24/7 at (306) 577-7437

SERVING SOUTHEAST SASKATCHEWAN


OILFIELD CONST. LTD.

Dale Daly has spent three years with CEDA, but he recent moved from their Regina operation to Estevan to run the new hydrovac unit, a tri-drive, single steer 2014 Peterbilt. He had previously been doing hydrovac work in Regina.

Th at new unit has a four-cubic metre water capacity, and fi ve-cubic meter debris capacity. It’s equipped with a sloped fl oor inside the tank to make emptying a breeze.

Asked if it is one of the dirtiest jobs in the oil-fi eld, he responded, “Hydrovac isn’t that hard.”

He added practice does make a diff erence. He noted that his new swamper, Debbie Tinsley, found that out the day before. He stayed pretty clean, and well, she did not.

“If you know how to work the truck and work the wand, you don’t get dirty,” he said.

Th at high-pressure water wand will put out from 500 to 4,000 psi of pressure. Th ere are six dif-ferent styles of wands, he said. Two are carried on their truck.

“One wand will cut three inches wide, one will cut four inches,” he said.

Most use a spinning, rotary action where the angled spray spins around in a circle.

“Knowing your pressures, temperature and the material you’re cutting will determine what you use,” Daly said.

Tinsley has spent seven months with CEDA, often working with hot oiling. “I just go where I’m needed,” she said.

Asked when she started on the hydrovac, she replied, “Yesterday.”

Tinsley used to do maintenance work at the Weyburn Leisure Centre. “I was building, ground maintenance and pool operator,” she said adding, “I prefer to get out in the fi eld.”

Originally from British Columbia, she moved to Saskatchewan in 2005. She went back for a year-and-a-half before returning in 2012. Her children are in Estevan and Regina.

Hydrovac work isn’t always messy, but it can be

Debbie Tinsley recently joined hydrovac operator Dale Daly as the swamper on CEDA’s new Estevan hydrovac unit. Photo by Brian Zinchuk

Oxbow – Courage Oilfi eld Services of Oxbow off ers a little of everything, but a good chunk of their business is related to vac units and steamers.

In addition to their diverse operations which include a truck wash and recently acquired cattle hauler semi-trailer (which keeps a driver working during breakup), they have fi ve steamers, four vac trucks, one combo unit with dry steam, and one hydrovac, according to Whitney Davis, who looks after human resources and safety.

Oxbow was on the edge of the fl ood zone that dominated activities in southeast Saskatchewan since breakup. “Once things dried up from fl ooding, it’s been steady,” Whitney said. She expects winter to be busy.

“Our steamers go out more in the winter. We would like to get a few more operators and swampers with them. We have tonnes of swampers applying, but we can’t bring them on without op-erators,” she said.

A Class 1 drivers licence is needed, in addition to standard oilfi eld safety tickets. She added they would like to see a minimum of six months experi-ence as well.

Page B25

A bit of everything


Your Home Away

From Home

Estevan Location Now Serving Breakfast

A hotel for any length of stay

700-12th Ave. EKindersley, SK306-463-5000

www.choicehotels.ca/cn996

404 Kensington Ave.Estevan, SK306-634-8332www.choicehotels.ca/cn923

N AV P R O P H OTO

F E AT U R E S $89.99 $299.99 $39.99

Display in and Zoom to:

LSD, UTM, 3TM, 10TM, Lat and Long

LSD Offset, NAD 27 and NTS P&NG Grid

Route to LSD, UTM, Lat Long and NTS P&NG Grid

Convert Between Coordinate Systems

Navigate in Custom Maps

Garmin GPX File Import and Export

Store and Manage Pins

Store and Manage Tracks and Routes

Scale

Compass

Show Township Fabric:

1/4 Section-Section-Township-Range

LSD

Show Bearing and Distance to Destination

View in Google Maps

Photo Showing Position, Direction and Time

Single or Continuous Timed Photos

Comment Field

LSD NAV & NAV PhotoPosition yourself for success with the award-winning LSD NAV and NAV Photo

For iPhone and iPad

NAV PR

O

PHO

TO

Never get lost again. With real time navigation, the LSD NAV and LSD NAV Pro apps give you an aerial

perspective and coordinate information about where you are. This will not only prevent you from getting lost

but will also increase your productivity.

If a photo is worth a thousand words, a NAV Photo is worth a million. Easily record and share not only what you saw in the field but when and where you saw it.

*Association of Canada Lands Surveyors (ACLS) David Thompson National Geomatics Awards

David Thompson

Awards* 2012

WINNER

Innovation in Geomatics

FINALIST

Contribution to Society

Designed for use in the four western provinces, this NAV suite of positioning apps is a must-have for anyone working outdoors. LSD NAV and LSD NAV Pro display your real time position with the township lines and aerial photo as a background. They also show your position in your choice of coordinate systems. NAV Photo records the time, direction and location of a single or a series of timed photographs.

Every common coordinate system is supported and LSD NAV Pro includes LSD offsets and the NTS P & NG grid which are used in the oil and gas industry. LSD NAV Pro also allows you to navigate within your own custom maps. Additional features are included in each app that make this NAV suite your complete positioning tool.

Protect Your Truck Bedwith Reflex Spray-on Truck Liners

These durable, water tight, rubbery non-slip textured

surface liners won’t crack, peel or warp.

New Special Price!6 Foot Boxreg. $ 600

now $ 500 !

8 Foot Boxreg. $ 700

now $ 600 !

Call or stop by

Senchuk Ford Body Shop

for more information.

Page B24Th e company has 19 people

working on its oilfi eld side, and a further six in the truck wash and convenience store. Th at truck wash, established a few years ago when they built a new shop east of Oxbow, has been working out really well.

“In the spring we were booked two weeks in advance. We’d have ser-vice rigs come and rent it for a day,” she said.

Courage’s other services include six rental catwalk trailers, H2S scrub-bers and auxiliary trucks.

“We started increasing our gravel hauling. We just added a new gravel semi to the fl eet,” Whitney said.

Like many other companies in the region, they fi nd the local housing shortage has an impact on business.

“We just recently purchased a house that allows us to house fi ve guys,” she said. Th ey took possession of that Oxbow house in October. Courage rents another house in Glen Ewen for two more workers, and they have a 60/40 wellsite trailer for yet another two more.

Th e company charges rent at a reduced rate compared to the local market.

Whitney noted the necessity of providing housing because it’s not a camp job, and it’s a hard sell to get people to come to rural areas.

One operator/welder rotates in and out, for instance. “We work with them on their schedule,” she said. “For some from northern Manitoba, it’s quite a hike.”

To make life a little easier on those who get in the thick of things, the company has been pursuing tear resistant, warmer wetsuits for the swampers. “Th e swampers that are good will make or break your job,” Whitney said.

Th e winter of 2013/14 was a busy one for Courage. “Our guys were out non-stop for thawing – not just oilfi eld, but farmers’ water bowls,” she said.

“It was a long winter that turned into a longer spring. Steamers were active washing during the spring, cleaning out mats and equipment in yards.”


Busy winter last year for steamers, and expected again


Est

ev

an

Tru

ck R

ou

te

Proposed Intersection

Future Home of PetroCan Truck Stop

King Street

Hwy 39 - 1 Mile South

N

SOLD 4.39Acres

4.39Acres

4.39Acres

LOT 11 LOT 4 LOT 5 LOT 6

689’

277.2’277.2’277.2’277.2’Service Road


SAFE & SOUND

Westeel liquid storage solutions

Double Wall Above Ground Storage

Single Wall Above Ground Storage

Secondary Containment Systems

Portable Petroleum Service Tanks

Used Oil and Fuel Oil Storage

800-665-2099 [email protected] WESTEEL.COM

Oxbow – Spearing Service LP of Oxbow continues to add more vacuum capacity to its fl eet.

“We’ve got seven combo vacs and an eighth is on its way,” said Ken McClement, operations manager for Spearing, part of the Mullen Group.

It can take four months to build a combo vac, McClement said on Oct. 9.

“We book spots a long way in advance. We send them a unit, a Kenworth or whatever, and they build it. Eighty per cent is probably stan-dard, and we spec the remaining 20 per cent.”

Th ose items include pumps, washer, heater, hoses, type of tank and weight confi guration.

“Th e last fi ve have been built in Red Deer at a company called Rebel (Rebel Metal Fabricators),” he said. Th ey also run Advance and Westech units.

A combo vac has a steamer unit on the front and a vac unit on the back. Th at steamer unit may have up to a million BTU washer and up to a 15 gallon per minute pressure washer unit, according to McClement.

Th ey see a lot of usage in turn-arounds for tanks and treaters during the summer. In the winter they can be used as a steamer unit.

“Th ey’re set up to steam as well as wash,” he said.

Th e majority of Spearing’s vac

fl eet are tri-drives. Th e trucks are generally built to haul the water they will need to do a job, he noted. “Th e biggest factor is the type of debris they have,” he said.

Only potable water is used.Most of the jobs are washing and

maintenance, he noted, including a lot of turnarounds of treaters and tanks.

Th e combo vac is a much more versatile piece of equipment, he feels, saying they are “entirely effi cient and suffi cient for most jobs.”

Th e alternative is to use separate steamer and vac units.

“Th e combos are the best way to go,” McClement said. “Th ey’ve really gained popularity.”

However, for a big cleaning job, he said you still need oversized steamers.

Th e fl eet is spread out between their four operation locations, in Oxbow and Carlyle in Saskatchewan and Pipestone and Waskada in Mani-toba.

“We don’t do any hydrovacs. We still run two steamers,” McClement said.

Hydrovacs are made to haul dirt, he noted, while these units are “spec tanks,” and can haul crude oil or oil waste. Th ose loads go to disposal sites.

New Carlyle shopSpearing moved into a new shop

in Carlyle this past June, leased from Faber’s Electric.

Th ey leased the whole building, which includes six winter parking bays and one wash bay. Th ere are also four mechanic’s bays with two pits, one 50 feet, and one 80 feet.

Th e old shop will be for sale.Th e new shop has better space

effi ciencies and is more modern, Mc-Clement said.

It’s a good size, too, at 90 by 280 feet.

“We’re building another in Pipe-stone,” he said. Th at one will be 80 by 160 feet, providing a separate winter parking shop.

Flood response

Two of Spearing’s operations were in some of the worst fl ooding areas when torrential rains hit on June 30 last summer. “We had units out in Manitoba and the town of Virden, working a couple days and nights there. We were moving fresh water and working at the sewage lift station,” McClement said.

Reston, near Pipestone, had a fl ooding event the year prior, he added.

Th ese vac units are called upon when sewage lift stations have their power go out.

“You can’t pump water with a vac. You can pick it up, and then blow,” he explained.

Spearing Service adds another combo vac, new shops


320 Park Ave. East, Brandon, MB

204-727-0019

T H E L E A D E R I N T H E F I E L DF A R M T I R E S

SEE US!

“TIRE SERVICE BY PEOPLE WHO CARE”

1004 North Front St., Moosomin, SK

306-435-2949

By Brian ZinchukAlida – When it comes to turn-

around, Classic Vacuum Truck Ltd. of Alida knows a thing or two about the process. As manager Randy McCan-

nell puts it, their business is “mostly turnarounds and cleanups.”

Additionally, he noted, “We haul a lot of contaminated material, i.e. mud from rigs that can’t be spread.”

Th e company operates eight vac

trucks, one hydrovac, three steamers (plus one leased-on steamer). Th ey also have a fi re truck that sees a lot of use in turnarounds. Th e vac units are up to 20 cubic metres in capacity.

On Oct. 16 Pipeline News asked spoke to Classic Vacuum Truck’s management team of Randy Mc-Cannell and Tim Erickson about the steamer aspect of the business.

SteamersWhile some companies’ steamers

are used primarily in winter, McCan-nell noted, “We’re steaming all year round.”

Tim Erickson looks after the steamers, which have a diesel-fueled boiler capable of heating the water up to 200 Celsius, thus turning it into steam.

He owns three and operates them under Classic. He noted they are set up for turnarounds of tanks and treat-ers, and have a “wet steam” as opposed to a “dry steam” that is used by some steamers for thawing frozen lines. Th at said, their steamers are still used

for thawing during the winter. Th e summers are spent doing turnarounds.

Occasionally the steamers will be used to wash a wellhead or piping on their own, or to “sit on” a service rig to make sure everything stays thawed out. Usually they are paired with vac units for turnarounds.

Th ese steamers are often used with a Gamajet system for cleaning tanks. Inserted into the top of a tank through a port like the thief hatch, the Gamajet has nozzles that spray a rotating pattern to wash down the interior.

“It sounds like a dishwasher. It cleans from top to bottom,” said Erickson. Indeed, the Gamajet looks a lot like the spinning wash arm you will fi nd inside a typical dishwaser.

“A steamer is a high-maintenance item with the water quality around here. Th ere’s big problems replacing the coil if it shales off and you can’t acid through it,” Erickson noted. As such, it’s important to have access to good water. Page B29

Steaming vessels clean enough to eat breakfast in


RIGMOVING

Serving the Oil & Gas Industry for more than 50 Years.

We have a modern fl eet of trucks including class 5 pickups, pickers ranging from 30-50 tons, bed trucks up to 8 x 8

Box 700Carnduff, SK306-482-3244 NOW

HIRIN

G

Page B28“We have our own source wells,

and dugout at Carlyle,” Erickson said. With three very wet years in a row, he noted there is no shortage of water in the area.

If they do need to pull their own water, the steamers have a buoy pump onboard to load their own water if need be.

Almost all of Classic Vacuum Truck’s steamer work in the summer is related to turnarounds. Depending on the weather, that season can run up to the middle of November.

When it’s colder, they will be used to deal with sand frozen in the bottom of tanks that are used to col-lect frac flowback. There’s also work emptying tester vessels.

Additional units

“We also have fresh water trucks to haul water to keep the steamers supplied,” Erickson said. They have two tandems and one semi water hauler.

One semi truck as a scrubber for gas while loading. It is used for haul-ing away fluid from vac units.

Getting in thereSteamer operators often have to

climb into tanks to pressure wash off residue inside, allowing vac units to suck out the remains. It’s messy work, in a confined space, sometimes work-ing on supplied air. It is very loud and can be very hot, since they are work-ing with steam, after all.

“The heat is unreal,” he said. Typi-cally the two workers on the steamer will change off every 20 minutes.

“There’s not much fat on them,”

he added.“They’re paid fairly well,” Erick-

son responded, when asked about the working conditions. He noted there’s hazard pay for going in.

“I’ve had one guy for five or six years. Another, 15 – plus years on a steamer, four working for me. He’s good at what he does.”

When cleaning, a half-hearted job just won’t do.

“The inspector basically wants to be able to sit in there and eat break-fast in that treater,” Erickson said. Anything missed can cause issues later.

Turnaround processErickson described the process

of a typical turnaround. First the vac truck will suck the vessel down. Then the fire truck pumps foam in. That foam displaces and traps gas. The fire truck is good for washing out sludge.

The vac truck then sucks out the foam.

The steamer is then used to either clean with a Gamajet or the operator will go into the vessel to clean it.

Clearing out the wax

An additional use of the steam-ers is in jetting plugged flow lines due to wax. A special jet head is attached to the line with jets pointing both forward and back. The forward-facing ones break up the plugs, and the rear-facing ones wash the residue back. They also push the jet further into the line. The process is something like how an earthworm moves through the ground, eating its way ahead.

After the flowline is daylighted with a hydrovac, bellholes are dug every 600 feet or so to access the line, and they will jet 300 feet in each direction from where the line is split. Using water, the temperature has to be kept below 60 to 70 C so that it doesn’t damage the fibreglass line.

This tends to be more of a winter issue.

As for the vac units, they often respond to spills, which are more frequent in winter due to the cold weather. This can lead to packing fail-ures, thus resulting in cleanups.

McCannell said, “Last winter, the frost went so deep, the older flow lines would fail.”


306-443-2424Alida, SK

Crude Oil, Emulsion, Produced & Fresh Water Hauling, Condensate, Butane, Propane,

NGL HaulingCanada & United States Oilfield Tank Trucks

Hot Oil Trucks and Pressure TrucksPressurized Trailers

Gravel Trucks, Backhoe, BobcatCombo Vac Units & Steamers

Custom built skid units for all your oilfield needs.

OILFIELD FABRICATIONOILFIELD FABRICATION

Transport Canada Registered

CARGO TANK REPAIRAll Types of Welding & Fabricating

Red Seal Journeyman17’ x 60’ Semi Downdraft

Paint BoothIndustrial Sand Blasting

& Painting Oilfield Internal Tank Coatings

Heavy Truck Body & Paint

One of the largest oilfield tank trucking companies in the industry, operating continually in Saskatchewan for more than 50 years!


Carson Energy Services works with clients from 13 locations across Alberta and Saskatchewan and

southwest Manitoba.

Calgary – Strike Energy is one of the early adapters of new software from Microsoft and Hitachi Solutions that supports both operational and administrative processes for its oilfi eld construction.

Strike was named in a project by Hitachi Solutions Canada during the successful go-live implementation of Microsoft Dynamics AX 2012 R2, one of the most important strategic initiatives for Strike Energy in the past decade.

Th e project launched on Sept. 18 also included Hitachi Solutions’ Build/AX solution, a solution built on Dynamics AX and tailored to the construction industry.

Hitachi Solutions Canada’s enter-prise resource planning solution has prepared Strike Energy for the future by providing the company with access to better, more accurate and timely information required to reach signifi -cant growth objectives over the next fi ve years.

“With the help of Hitachi Solu-tions Canada, Strike Energy is well positioned to meet future business demands and provide our custom-ers with even better customer service and improved project controls,” said Jerome Beaudoin, chief information offi cer, Strike Energy.

“Like many organizations in the construction industry, we were us-

ing outdated technology and lacked standardized processes across the organization.

“We knew that Microsoft Dy-namics AX was the right solution for us; we just had diffi culty partnering with the right vendor.”

“What Hitachi Solutions Canada brought to the table was fl exibility, a strong understanding of Dynamics AX R2, and a solid understanding of the construction industry.

“Th ey worked with our aggressive timelines, and together we were able to complete the project on time and on budget.

For us, this is not only the most important non-construction initiative in 2014, it is the largest strategic non-construction initiative for the organi-zation in 10 years.”

After previous failed attempts with other vendors, Microsoft Dy-namics AX 2012 R2 was successfully implemented with Hitachi Solutions Canada on schedule, in record time (just seven months), and within two percent of the established budget.

Divided into three phases start-ing February of 2014 and going live Sept. 1, 2014, the implementation of Dynamics AX resulted in the follow-ing benefi ts for Strike:

Insight into the complete project lifecycle, resulting in more strategic project management

Standardization of business pro-cesses across all business units based on best practices

A single system of record to aid in making better business decisions, en-hancing communications, and improv-ing operational and fi nancial reporting

Improved fi nancial visibility and project controls resulting in greater profi tability

Technological advantage in an increasingly competitive landscape

“True partnership is the key to our success and, most importantly, to the

success of our customers,” said Mike Gillis, chief operating offi cer, Hitachi Solutions America.

“We are very proud of the fact that Hitachi Solutions Canada has worked hand in hand with the Strike team to help them move towards their vision.

We look forward to a long term business relationship with Strike, as-sisting them in further realizing the benefi ts of the joint Microsoft and Hitachi Solutions’ software project.”

Strike Energy adapts process software


www.gillissoiltools.com

All sizes in stock Available for immediate delivery

Go to our website for information on how toWin 3 Nights in Toronto plus 4

Blue Jays tickets

Available in:

The “Bulldog Clamp”

The Bulldog Clamp allows rig hands to pick up and lay down tubulars quickly and

safely.

The patented design uses a cam to close and positively lock the clamp around the

pipe. The safety lock keeps it closed, even when there is no tension on the lifting

line. When the winch line is slack, pulling the handle on the safety lock releases

the clamp.

Using the workover/service rig’s winch line means no more lifting pipe by hand.

The result is an efficient, quick way to pick up and lay down pipe without having

to use nylon slings or back-breaking labor.306-637-3460

40 of serving the oilfieldin S.E. Saskatchewan

Years

Arcola – Littlehawk Enterprises Ltd. operates what could arguably be called some of the shiniest hydrovacs in southeast Saskatchewan, and the num-ber of those shiny trucks is growing.

Th e company is owned and operated by Graham and Ghislaine Carter, with Brian Hagel acting as manager. It’s not uncommon for any of them to be out in the fi eld as needed. Th e fi rst time Pipeline News wrote about the compa-ny, Ghislaine was several months pregnant, yet she was running a water truck. On Oct. 16, she was nine months pregnant, but this time she wasn’t driving truck. She was in the offi ce, where she heads up administrative eff orts.

“I got a promotion,” she said with a smile, adding she’s very rarely in the

fi eld now. Graham was running a pressure truck that day, a refl ection on the diffi culty

at times of fi nding staff . Hagel is also found on a hydrovac as need be.Th e fl eet includes 14 units, with three more on the way to be added mid-

November. Th at’s a substantial increase since they set up shop in Arcola three years ago. One is operated by a sub-contractor, while the remainder are com-pany units.

Th e company has one pressure truck, one water truck, one steamer, and the remainder are hydrovacs. Th ose hydrovacs focus on daylighting, according to Hagel, but they also see some use in sloping sides for trenches and bellholes.

“If you’re unsure about what’s in the ground, you can’t put a hoe in,” Ghis-laine said, referring to an excavator.

Th at’s why hydrovacs are needed. Using a high-pressure spray wand to wash away soil, and a high suction, truck-mounted vacuum to suck up the debris, hydrovacs are used to “daylight” underground utilities like pipelines and cables. “Daylighting” means exposing to daylight, such that a hidden utility is no longer hidden.

Page B33

Littlehawk grows by leaps and bounds

File photo


JAYSON KING306-736-9169

SE SASKATCHEWANBRAD ALLAN

306-457-7028

SW SASKATCHEWANDENNIS LEAHY306-672-7619

www.jkcontainments.com

306.457.7028 STOUGHTON, SK

PATENTED

*Rate is subject to change without notice. Interest is calculated on the daily closing balance based on the portion within each tier and paid monthly. Interest is paid as follows: 1.30% on deposits up to $250,000, 1.35% on deposits between $250,000.01 to $5 million and 0.25% on deposits above $5 million. Available in-branch only.

Bundle it with an operating account and get even more benefit. Find your nearest branch at cwbank.com and start earning today.

1.35%*

There when you need it,growing when you don’t.

Business Savings Account

Page B32

In addition to fi nd-ing an underground line, often they will open up a metre or two on each side of exposed utility so that the mechanical equipment doesn’t have to get close. Th ere are rules in place limit-ing how close you can excavate near a pipeline, for instance, with me-chanical equipment. Th e hydrovac is used within that safety zone to clear that soil away,

Having a high pressure water wand with a boiler on board has other uses as well.

Th e company is cur-rently working on the Enbridge Line 3 Replacement program in Manitoba, doing club root decontamination of equipment.

“Clubroot decon-tamination is a big thing in Alberta and Sas-katchewan. It’s recently become an issue in Manitoba,” Hagel said.

A few years ago their trucks could be seen working on the Enbridge Bakken Ex-pansion Project in their own neighbourhood, working near Redvers. Another recent project has been the Mistral

pipeline, from Viewfi eld to Beaubier.

Littlehawk’s op-erating area runs from Manitoba to Alberta. When they’re not busy at home, you might fi nd them in Kindersley or Fort McMurray.

“When it’s busy, we focus on this area. Dur-ing spring and breakup, we’ll go more afi eld,” Hagel said. “We want to take care of our back-yard fi rst.”

Ghislaine added, “When it’s busy, it’s very busy.”

Flooding in south-east Saskatchewan this past summer had an

impact. “Oh yeah, it was a dead crawl for a while in June and July,” Hagel said. “We’re going again here now.”

One of their hydro-vacs is a tandem steer, tandem drive, while the rest are single steer, tridem drive. Th ey are

equipped with sloped fl oors within their tanks, an innovation Graham Carter played a part in developing. Th at slope makes it much easier to empty out tanks when unloading.

Th eir equipment is by-by-and-large the same, but Hagel noted there’s constant refi ne-ment.

Littlehawk is get-ting to the point where their shop won’t be large enough for the fl eet, but they are considering establishing a satellite elsewhere.

Th e company has 26 drivers and opera-tors, and a further fi ve offi ce and management staff members. More

people will be added to go along with the new units due in a few weeks.

Ghislaine noted they are looking for “good, quality people.”

Hagel said, “It’s all word of mouth. People like the image we por-tray.”

Ghislaine added, “Th ey like the shiny trucks.”

“Th at hour (clean-ing) is worth it. A clean truck is a safe truck,” Hagel said, adding it makes inspections easy. Th ey have two wash bays that get used a lot. It generally takes an hour to clean a truck.

“If you keep it up, it’s easy to maintain.”


Estevan – Estevan-based well-head specialist Metra Equipment Inc. has been acquired by the Weir Group PLC.

Weir, whose businesses include Weir Seaboard, is based in Glasgow, Scotland. They operate in over 70 countries, according to Cameron Smith, general manager for Seaboard Canada. He was in Estevan along with Preston Schnellert, sales manag-er. Both are originally Saskatchewan boys, with Smith having grown up on a farm near Nipawin, and Schnellert originally from Regina. Smith is now based in Edmonton and Schnellert is in Calgary.

Metra was founded in 2007 by Burt Bondeau and Lyle Grube, both of Estevan, along with an unnamed silent partner. The two will continue to manage the operation under the new ownership for a minimum of an-other two years. With Weir purchas-ing 100 per cent ownership for an undisclosed amount, the third partner is now out. The transaction closed on July 29.

“Weir is one of the world’s largest engineering businesses, that

brings enormous opportunities and I intend to do my bit to capture them. When you’ve been selling wellheads for 26 years, it becomes your pas-sion, I don’t know anything else,” said Grube.

Blondeau said, “The intention is to help this business grow further, this time as part of a much bigger op-eration. It’s been some journey since we started in 2007 and I am sure we still have a long way to go.”

Blondeau is the operations man-ager, and Grube handles sales and techical support. Blondeau will be managing the Estevan location.

Weir has three primary divisions, including minerals (mining equip-ment), power and industrial (power generation) and oil and gas. In 2013, the Group, which is listed on Lon-don’s FTSE 100 index, generated CAD $4.3bn in revenues. Seaboard is a part of the oil and gas division.

Seaboard has operations globally, however specifically in Canada, they are in Fort St. John., B.C., Grande Prairie, Red Deer, Edmonton, and Lloydminster, Alta., as well as a sale office in Calgary. Estevan will be the

first Saskatchewan location, depend-ing on how you consider Lloydmin-ster.

“We’ve grown through a combi-nation of organic growth and acquisi-tions, but we tend to leave businesses somewhat autonomous,” said Smith.

The oil and gas division also has locations in Medicine Hat, Edmon-ton, Fort St. John, Grande Prairie, Red Deer and Edmonton, focussing on pressure pumping, flow control and safety critical equipment used in hydraulic fracturing operations.

Metra has grown over the years to a staff of 17 people, according to Grube. They were up to 25 at one point, and he said hopefully they will

be adding staff for the winter.Asked how the deal came about,

Grube said, “We heard that (Weir) was kicking tires around here.”

An ex-employee of Metra, now working with Weir in Edmonton, suggested they take a look at Metra. That happened in the fall of 2013. The process took a while to complete.

As for what the new entity will be known as, Smith said, “We’re still working on branding. The Metra name here is well-respected.”

Metra’s product lines are primar-ily well heads and frac trees sales, rentals and service. The wellheads are typically sold, while frac trees are usu-ally rented. Page B35

Metra sells to Weir Group

Metra service technician Paul Mantei straps down a rod pumping wellhead. Photo by Brian Zinchuk


(306) 634-4797(306) 634-7334

www.cedagroup.com

Page B34

The purchase will have the benefits of more capital backing the company to foster more growth. There are also engineering and safety programs that Metra will be able to take part in. They will also have broader ex-posure to international supply.

Grube noted they gained a sales team in Calgary, a presence they did not have before.

It is common for operations in southeast Saskatchewan to have sales representation in

Calgary since that is where most of the deals are made. Conversely, it can be difficult to make sales in an area where you don’t have a pres-ence. That changes for Weir Seaboard with the addition of Metra.

Schnellert, who heads a seven person sales team, said, “There has always been a chal-lenge for us to compete in this region.”

The acquisition al-lows the larger firm to cover a greater propor-tion of the Western Canadian Sedimentary Basin with the addi-tion of an established,

respected business, he noted.

There are also synergies with sister companies and new product lines at the wellsite. Without going into detail, he referred to “bolt-on pieces.”

Smith alluded to product offerings that will assist in drilling and completing wells more quickly, and thus cheaper.

He added that be-ing part of a larger com-pany allows employees to broaden their hori-zons if they wish.

“This does open up opportunities if they’re

interested in work-ing outside this area, outside this division or even outside the coun-try,” he said.

Already some staff members from Estevan have been working in Grande Prairie.

“It gives people more options,” said Grube.

Weir Seaboard also has operations south of

Estevan in Williston, N.D., one of 18 facili-ties in the U.S.

Blondeau con-cluded, “I would like to thank all our customers and vendors in support-ing us as Metra and we’re looking forward to continuing a strong working relationship as a new member of the Weir Seaboard organi-zation.”

Grube. Photo by Brian Zinchuk


CA

REE

R

Carlyle – When Enform fi rst set up a Saskatchewan offi ce, they held a safety conference in Regina. However, there aren’t a lot of oil wells near Regina, so in the following years they have taken a diff erent tack.

In mid-October Enform hosted a series of lunch-and-learn sessions throughout Sas-katchewan, including Estevan, Weyburn, Carlyle, Swift Current, Kindersley and Lloydminster.

Th ere were two areas focused on by Enform presenters. Bob

Ross, Enform Saskatchewan manager, spoke on engaging young workers, while Christian Brown, safety advisor, touched on ergonomics in the workplace.

Ross noted that 29 per cent of Workers Compensa-tion claims for young workers involved them being struck by an object, while a further 23 per cent involved being struck against an object.

His main topic touched on the “great generational crew change.”

Th e Baby Boomers, those born between 1946 and the mid-1960s, are retiring in large numbers. Th e smaller Generation X, borne from 1965 to 1980, are more of the “silent group,” while Gen Y, born from 1980 to 2000, are “Th e next wave/tsunami.”

Th e challenges of this crew change include knowledge trans-fer, skill loss, attrition among new workers, short term focus, early retirements and high risk among inexperienced workers.

Page B37

Great generational crew change


Apply today!Email resumes to: [email protected]

Or call: 306.634.8235www.eaglerigjobs.com

HIRING ALL Positions

FLOOR HANDS DERRICK HANDS DRILLERS RIG MANAGERS

H2S and First Aid tickets as well as a valid driver’s licence required. Preference given to candidates possessing a class 1A or 3A

licence. Experience is necessary.

Comprehensive Health & Dental BenefitsMatching RRSP Contribution Package

Bonuses for Completing Rig CrewsCAREER

Page B36Surveys show a sig-

nificant labour need in geosciences, petroleum engineering, drilling services and oilfield maintenance, Ross said. A further 60,000 to 100,000 workers are needed in the oilsands and conventional pro-duction.

Some generational differences he pointed out between those leav-ing the workforce versus those coming in include physical fitness. Boom-ers didn’t grow up with gaming consoles. They were told to go outside and play. They tend to be the most active and physically fit generation, he noted. They’re also the wealthiest.

Jumping to the Gen Y group, they are much more networked with their friends. They want to know what the wages for a job are up front. They also grew up with the Internet.

“They are more wired than you or I will ever be,” Ross said.

He also added Gen Y has “trophy kids,” whose mere participa-tion in activities was enough to earn them a reward or trophy.

Ross noted that Gen Yers prefer to work within their own age group. Boomers will have a tendency to speak down to them.

A Boomer might have stayed with a company for 25 years or more, while a Gen Y person might be around for five. They’re much more likely to walk if they get ticked off.

“If you don’t address their concerns, they’re shopping for another job,” Ross warned.

The problem is, as boomers retire, they take their long and hard-earned knowledge with them, creating what Ross called a “crippling knowledge gap,” with

“hundreds of years of experience walking out the door.”

Combatting this, he noted the important of demonstrating com-petence when training younger workers. “Make them show you they have the skill set,” he said, using an example of servicing a pumpjack.

Boomers “may actu-ally read the company manual,” while a Gen Y member might shelve that manual until they are tasked with a ques-tion.

Bridging those gaps can be done by ensuring a level playing field and recognizing altruism, he said.

“Recognize in public, reprimand in private,” Ross said.

It also pays to involve the younger people right from the beginning of a project, tasking them with du-ties to make them part of it from the get-go.

Enform Saskatchewan manager Bob Ross addressed a lunch-and-learn session in Car-


Perma-Column concrete posts only from Integrity Post Structures in Canada

Commerical Buildings | Shops | Storage

Call 780-870-8190 for more rental information

LECLAIRTRANSPORT

Lyle LeclairCell: 306-421-7060

General Oilfi eld Hauling

RENTAL EQUIPMENT & HOTSHOT SERVICES

Lawrence Stovin(204) 522-6542

Justin Hodgins(204) 264-0711

Box 214, Waskada, MB R0M 2E0

(204) 522-6542 (204) 522-5436LAWRENCE CLAYTON

Waskada MB

The AMSOIL product line includes the finest quality synthetic motor oils, diesel oils, gear lubes, greases

and industrial and motorsports lubricants

For more information and to order online go to www.usethisoil.com

Authorized Dealer Darrell Zimmer Ph. 306-584-2713

Your best choice for accommodations

in Carlyle, Sk.

Reservations: 306-453-2686

sssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssss

RICK CORMIERManager

Box 609 Bus: (306) 453-6111Carlyle, SK Cell: (306) 577-8833S0C 0R0 Fax: (306) 453-6102www.truetorq.ca [email protected]

RESOURCE

Calgary – A new free mobile oil patch app that enables anyone to see all current rig locations, statuses and operators across Canada in real time has gone viral.

Th e app, called the Petrofeed app, named for the Calgary-based software startup company that invented it, has become the most-downloaded business app in Canada according to a corporate update on Aug. 25.

“We are extremely proud of what the company and team have accom-plished in such a short period of time,” said Ashley Dunfi eld, CEO and com-pany founder.

Th e application launched this past February is the fi rst to provide free pub-lic access to industry drilling data in real time map view on a mobile device.

“Until now that information was very diffi cult, time intensive and expen-sive to get,” said Dunfi eld.

“Our belief is that everyone in the industry should be able to see what is happening, where it is happening and be able to connect to the people, rigs, and wells involved.

“Mobile technology will bring a new era of effi ciency and change how the industry does business.” said Dunfi eld who noted the company is aiming to add new features to the app once a month.”

With the Petrofeed app, users can view all drilling rigs currently operating in Canada and easily fi nd out which operator the rig is working for, what it is doing, as well as the rig’s previous wells drilled and history.

Th e information can be fi ltered based on geographic area, the rig contrac-tor, current status (drilling, moving, or down) and well type (vertical, horizontal or deviated), and operator.

“PetroFeed is at the forefront of change that is thrusting the oil and gas in-dustry into an era of a digitally connected, mobile workforce,” said Troy Bilon, director of strategy for Petrofeed.

“Th is change will bring a giant leap forward in effi ciency and competitive-ness for the entire industry, making an already world class industry even better for Canada.”

Users can also access the Petrofeed website that includes map view data on well licenses and land sales plus a reporting tool to monitor activity by com-pany, area and well details.

Th e Petrofeed app also provides users with notifi cations when a rig moves or changes its operation status.

“Making rig information universally available is an important fi rst step towards enabling the mobile revolution,” said Dunfi eld.

Rig crews are provided with some additional features on the Petrofeed app. A crew member can connect to a rig.

After they verify their company and position, their work history is tracked in the system and they are connected to a private network with their other crew members.

Th ey can choose to make their work history public which gives them vis-ibility and credibility in what is already a very hot employment market.

“Our goal with the app for our fi rst phase is to provide universal accessibil-ity to the people, wells, companies and equipment in the industry,” said Dun-fi eld.

Petrofeed began business in April 2013 with $3.1 million in closed fi nanc-ing.

Public drilling rig app goes viral


202 Melville Street, Saskatoon, SK. (306) 931-9777

41 Liberty Road, Sherwood Park, AB (780) 417-0193

Darren Williams - VP Of Sales Tremcar Inc. Sales (306) 361-5559

Northern Saskatchewan - Chris Campbell (639) 471-8265

Southern Saskatchewan - Suzanna Nostadt (306) 861-2315

Tremcar West Inc. offers our customers a certified

repair shop with qualified workers specializing in:

Suzanna Nostadt - Vice President of Operations (306) 861-2315

Bruce Palmer - Service Manager (306) 861-2841

Bill Hunter - Parts Manager (306) 842-6100


Antler River Lodge - NOW OPEN! Ask us about our competitive rates.

1.877.234.8983 | [email protected] | civeo.com

Boundary Lodge, Estevan | Redvers Lodge, Redvers | Antler River Lodge, Melita

Working and living away from

home can be easy. At Civeo,

we cater to our guests’ wellbeing.

That’s why you get a full breakfast,

take-away lunch, and delicious

dinner buffet every day. With

access to our exceptional fi tness

and recreation amenities and

in-room internet and cable TV,

our guests stay healthy, productive

and connected.

445

ANTLER RIVERLODGE

North St

1st Ave Boundary Commission Trail

Centre St

Boundary St

Main St

Summit St

Souris Ave

Front St

MELITA

83

833

NewsPiPeliNe seCTiON C

November 2014

Pipeline News was 2 sections this month.

stay tuned for next month focus: Light trucks

pipeline news november 2014

Documents