Cover | Digitally Transforming Frac
DIGITALLY
TRANSFORMING FRAC COLD BORE’S BRETT CHELL ON BEING AT THE FOREFRONT OF THE DIGITAL REVOLUTION OF WELL COMPLETIONS by Melanie Darbyshire
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Brett Chell, co-founder, president & CEO of Cold Bore. Photo by Bookstrucker.
iven the state of the hydraulic fracturing (also referred to as ‘fracing’, ‘frac’ and ‘well completions’) industry over the past five years, one might assume it’s a tough business to be in today. In the last year alone, everything that could have gone wrong for the industry seemingly did: oil fell to negative $37/barrel; a surge of bankruptcies and consolidations swept North American oil and gas companies; the COVID-19 pandemic caused a seesaw in the demand for energy; and, a newly-inaugurated U.S. President Joe Biden banned fracking on U.S. federal land. If there has ever been a difficult time to be in the well completions business, now seems to be it. In fact the opposite is true for Calgary’s Cold Bore Technology. Founded in 2014, the company’s SmartPAD - the world’s first and only completions master control system, which allows for truly autonomous frac has transformed the fracing operations of producers across North America, making Cold Bore a singularly valuable ally to an industry working through turbulent times. It’s been a slog to be sure, as many tech startups can relate. But, having emerged stronger than ever from a challenging 2020, with the price of oil stabilized and forecast to continue a slow and steady rise, and given the push towards greater automation in the hydraulic fracturing industry, Cold Bore is now capitalizing. “We’re a survival story,” says Brett Chell, cofounder and president of Cold Bore, proudly. “There’s a triple recession, oil and gas gets crushed, we pivot, we refinance - all of it. We started as two guys and now we’re 65 people. Last year our revenue was $6 million - almost double the year before - during what was
conceivably the worst year possible. And we are on track to pass $25 million this year.” The core of the business is SmartPAD, a completions master control system. “SmartPAD acts as a centralized nervous system,” Chell explains of the made-in-Canada product, “to connect all of the control systems from different service companies on site. It’s a network, a platform that universally brings the whole operation together. Literally brings the whole pad together - from a physical and data perspective.”
8 • Business of Energy • April 2021
