Pipeline News November 2009

PIPELINE NEWS Saskatchewan’s Petroleum Monthly

November 2009

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Volume 2 Issue 6

Focus Edition: Directional Drilling

Tyrone Bird fuses pipe used to feed SaskPower’s 140 megawatt natural gas turbine plant in North Battleford. See story on Page B1.

Sask-Montana project stalled Page A2

Seismic pace heats up in Southeast Page B6

Directional Drilling with Panther Page C4

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PIPELINE NEWS November 2009

News

Notes

Sask-Montana project stalled

Traxion reports drilling results Traxion Energy Inc. says its summer drilling program has resulted in one gross (net 0.3) producing Bakken heavy oil well and one gross (net 0.3) dry and abandoned well.

Oil Reserve Corp. provided the funds for the summer drilling program as part of the previously announced purchase and sale agreement effective June 1, 2009.

This latest drilled well is producing approximately 30 bbls oil per day (net nine bbls) which brings Traxion's total net production to approximately 24 bbls heavy oil per day.

Traxion and its joint venture partner, ORC, hold a total of 5,585 acres of potential Bakken, Mannville and Viking oil bearing land in southwest Saskatchewan.

Pending financing arrangements, Traxion said it intends to grow its land and production position in this core area.

Shand Power Station, near Estevan, is the top candidate for producing carbon dioxide for the joint Saskatchewan-Montana carbon capture and storage project. The problem right now is getting the federal government to cough up their share of the cash for the project.

Provident completes sale of Sask. assets Provident Energy Trust has closed its previously announced sale of its oil and natural gas assets in southeast and southwest Saskatchewan for cash consideration of $226 million including closing adjustments.

Effective Sept. 30, 2009 Provident has also completed the sale of a minor property in the Lloydminster area of Alberta (Dolcy) for $13 million.

Current production from the Dolcy property is approximately 350 bbls of oil equivalent per day.

Proceeds from both transactions will be applied to Provident’s revolving term credit facility.

The trust said it continues the previously announced disposition process for its heavy oil assets in the Lloydminster area.

By Brian Zinchuk Pipeline News Regina – It was announced to much fanfare in early May, but the Saskatchewan-Montana carbon capture and storage project has stalled. It’s ambitious timelines called for construction of the reference plant to begin in July, and power plant site work to begin between October and December. Both have not progressed.

The reason? Money, or lack thereof.

Saskatchewan committed $50 million to the project, and is seeking federal government assistance to the tune of $100 million. Montana is similarly seeking assistance from its federal government. So far, the money from senior government has yet to materialize. The whole project is estimated to cost $270 million.

It’s not that the feds haven’t been thinking about such things. On Oct. 8, the federal government announced it would be contributing $120 million to Shell Canada Limited's Quest $1.35 billion carbon capture and storage (CCS) project.

The Quest project will also be receiving $745

million from the government of Alberta through its CCS fund. The federal dollars are from the Clean Energy Fund.

“There was a submission made in Ottawa Oct. 2,” says Malcolm Wilson, Ph.D.. Wilson is the head of the Office of Energy and Environment for the University of Regina, and Saskatchewan’s point man on the project.

The idea behind the project is to capture postcombustion carbon dioxide at a Saskatchewan coalfired power plant, pipeline it to Montana, and store it underground there.

“I really hope it’s extremely soon,” Wilson said when asked about when the project will get going.

“The longer we leave it, the lower value for everyone.”

“The value is in getting it out there quickly.”

“We’re in discussions with Montana. If we can move forward quickly, a good deal of the US money is already in place,” Wilson says.

While that money is there, he says, it is not yet cemented in an agreement. ɸ Page A6

PIPELINE NEWS November 2009

News

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Notes

Nordic plans up to 12 oil wells With a new heavy oil well on production at Lloydminster, Alberta, Nordic Oil and Gas Ltd.’s land consultants have started the approval process to licence up to 13 new wells in the area.

The company’s newest well at 16-6-50-2 W4M is producing from the General Petroleum zone, the first Nordic well to produce from this zone.

Drilling is expected to get underway in November with funds from the recently announced debenture offering used to finance this new drilling program, Donald Benson, Nordic president and chief executive officer, said in a news release.

Nordic also will be drilling a new well at Joff re, Alberta that will test the Viking formation.

Alberta and Saskatchewan are working on cutting red tape for easier and safer inter-provincial trucking and shipping on major highway border routes.

Photo by Brian Zinchuk

MOU to accelerate seamless interprovincial trucking border

By Geoff Lee Pipeline News Regina – Welcome to Saskberta. The governments of Alberta and Saskatchewan are working toward a seamless inter-provincial highways border to ease the flow of trucking and shipping including oil and gas truck traffic.

Both provinces signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) in October to help harmonize policies and regulations for commercial vehicle operations, reduce barriers between the two provinces, and address safety regulations.

Special permits, vehicle weights and dimensions, co-operative enforcement activities, national safety code issues and research are subject to review.

“What we are trying to do is reduce red tape and help the economy in both our provinces. We want to make it easy for business to do business,” said Jim Reiter, Saskatchewan Minister of Highways and Infrastructure.

“Harmonization is going to help the oil and gas industry as far as trucking goes just like every other industry – but maybe more so – just because of the

simple fact a lot of the work we’re doing will involve the movement of oversized and overweight vehicles.

The oil industry has an awful lot of that.”

The establishment of an inter-provincial heavy haul/high clearance corridor and harmonizing special permit conditions for oversize and overweight indivisible loads would specifically benefit oil and gas trucking.

“There is equipment in the oil industry that is oversize and overweight,” said Reiter. “That will be a big benefit to them. The heavy haul high clearance corridor is going to be significant as well.”

The inter-provincial transportation issues named in the MOU are not new but Reiter says the signing helps to move the issues to the front burner.

“The problems developed on an ad hoc basis over many years,” said Reiter. “It’s not anyone’s fault but the world is changing and it’s was time to do something.”

As an example, Reiter says conceivably truckers can be stopped on one side of the border by compliance officer and be stopped and checked on the other side. ɸ Page A6

Result looking at Tatgwa Result Energy Inc. said its exploration and development plan will focus on high netback Cardium light oil plays at Pembina, Garrington and Kakwa as well as a Triassic light oil play at Sweeney in northwest Alberta and its Bakken light oil prospect at Tatagwa, Saskatchewan.

Diaz selling Parkman property Diaz Resources Ltd. has entered into an agreement to sell its interests in its Parkman, Saskatchewan property for $2.5 million. The sale was effective Sept. 1, and was scheduled to close on Oct. 16.

Diaz’s net production capability from the property is 50 bbls of oil equivalent per day and the sale equates to $50,000 per bbl of oil equivalent a day.

The proceeds from the sale will be used to finance Diaz’s heavy oil development in the Lloydminster, Alberta area and to further reduce Diaz’s bank debt.

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EDITORIAL

PIPELINE NEWS November 2009

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Editorial Energy gets noticed in throne speech The energy sector got a fair bit of notice in the Oct. 21 Speech from the Throne, brought down by the Brad Wall government.

Specifically, the government is talking about a broad and diverse energy spectrum here in prairie chicken land. “My government believes we need to look at all energy options – gas turbines, cogeneration, clean coal, wind, hydro, biomass, solar, import contracts and nuclear – to determine the best way to meet Saskatchewan’s future energy needs in the most affordable, reliable and environmentally-friendly manner.”

A few of those, it is actively working on, such as clean coal and gas turbines. They get lots of headlines.

More headlines will be generated by this paragraph: “Over the course of the next year, SaskPower will develop an electrical power generation strategy to meet our province’s future needs. This strategy will include a significant commitment to increased wind power.”

By hearing that, you can pretty much guarantee Hitachi in Saskatoon will be building more wind turbine towers in the near future. How much, and where, we’re not sure, but if there’s one thing Saskatchewan has, it’s wind. Most likely it will end up in the Swift Current area, like the other wind projects. After all, just because you put a windmill on one hill, it doesn’t mean it’s less windy on the next hill.

The Saskatchewan Party government has also gone a lot further down the nuclear path than the previous administration. But don’t hold your breath. Even if they decided next week to go with nuclear, there’s enough time for three elections – each of which can kill the deal – between now and a nuclear plant going online.

The biomass reference is of course to the Prince Albert pulp mill. If they can actually get that white elephant productive again, so much the better.

The questionable point comes with hydro. Just what are they saying here? Are we to expect some announcements on future power dams in the north? Have we even been considering more dams?

There’s nothing some people in the North Battleford area would like more than to put up a mammoth Gardiner Dam-sized dam across the North Saskatchewan River, just northwest of the Battlefords. But the price tag on this is in the billions, and its power potential is small. Indeed, the new peaking gas turbines being installed at North Battleford will put out more power than this dam might.

And what’s this about solar? Oh, sure, it might be sunny in the land of living skies, especially in the southeast, but it’s also a fair bit north of the southwestern United States, where solar projects are all the rage. They have this little advantage of the sun shining close to straight down on them, whereas here it’s more at an angle.

The result is less actual energy per square meter reaching us. That’s why it gets cold here in the winter.

As for import contracts – that’s a little rich. Saskatchewan boasts some of the most bountiful energy resources in Canada, and we’re looking at imports?

The throne speech notes, “The Standing Committee on Crown and Central Agencies recently completed the first phase of hearings on Saskatchewan’s energy future, with a second phase to take place early in the new year.”

Now is the time to make sure the government hears just what we want to do to keep the lights on in this fair land, and what we think is out of bounds. Time to talk your MLA.

PIPELINE NEWS November 2009

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Opinion October turning point shows strength From the top of the pile Brian Zinchuk

Saskatchewan saw something of a turning point in mid-October in the oilpatch.

Nickle’s Rig Locator, the official publisher of rig data for the Canadian Association of Oilwell Drilling Contractors, placed Saskatchewan’s drilling rig count at 50 per cent utilization.

That number is a bit of a rounding up, because the count, as of Oct 19, was 65 rigs working out of 131 in the fleet. I suspect the 131 saw one rig move over from Manitoba, because its fleet has dropped to 9.

Anyhow, when the total fleet was 130, that meant that half of the fleet was working. That’s something of a psychological number, one would think, because it mean at least as many people are working as not. It’s also the first time since December we have seen this many rigs working.

This is in stark contrast to Alberta, where the just one quarter, 148 of 589 drilling rigs were active. British Columbia saw 40 of 111 rigs active, for a 36 per cent utilization rate.

Manitoba’s fleet is so small – just nine right now, that its numbers are easily skewed. One rig laid down means 11 per cent of the fleet is inactive. That said, Manitoba’s 6 of 9 rigs active means two-thirds of their fleet is on the go.

This month also saw land sales for the Lloydminster region surpass southeast Saskatchewan for the first time in a long time. That doesn’t mean land sales in the Estevan and Weyburn region were particularly bad. They were nowhere near the stratospheric levels of 2008. There’s a reason they are called records. But it’s good to see the Lloydminster region pick up after the tough hit it took when oil plummeted earlier in 2009.

Then there’s seismic. I’ve heard there is a substantial amount of seismic work happening along the US border this fall. That happens to be the area where the Three Forks-Sanish formation happens to be prevalent. Any coincidence?

If that takes off like the Bakken, are we going to see another land rush, followed by frenzied drilling?

Before you have drilling, you need seismic. It may be a few years before seismic studies are actually used, but one thing’s for sure, if you don’t have seismic done for an area, you’re not likely going to have much drilling there, either.

In Estevan, it is again very difficult, if not impossible, to find a hotel room during the week. A new Canalta hotel opened this summer in Weyburn, and management there are now reporting they are full up.

Other Weyburn hotels are showing “No Vacancy” signs.

Topping this all off, before I went to bed last night, CTV news showed oil at $79 a barrel. It could rise or fall $5 or even $10 by the time this is published, but that’s still a pretty decent level compared to earlier this year.

All these positive indicators are pointing to strength in Saskatchewan’s oilpatch over the coming winter, and possibly longer term.

October is also the season of municipal elections.

New councils will be sworn in this fall, and there’s one question that they need to be asked: If we see another strong push in the Saskatchewan oilpatch, how are they going to deal with it? Are they going to have residential, commercial and industrial land, serviced and ready to go? Are they going to be able to accommodate more housing starts? Will they have accommodations for workers?

There may not be a 2008 boom for a long time, but there can be sustained growth. They may have taken something of a beating this year, but Lloydminster had hundreds of housing starts each year reaching back several years – way before the big push.

It didn’t have a Bakken rush. That community may have had its growing pains, but that’s to be expected.

Communities like Estevan, Weyburn, Carlyle, Stoughton, Swift Current, Kindersley and Lloydminster all need to ensure they are ready. With new councils in place, this should be the first item on their agendas.

Brian Zinchuk is editor of Pipeline News. He can be reached at brian.zinchuk@sasktel.net.

Greenpeace barks at Ottawa from Fort Mac Suncor and Shell both had their bitumen operations in Fort McMurray interrupted in September by international Greenpeace activists who want the “tar sands” stopped.

Greenpeace and other environmentalists point out that making crude oil from bitumen produces three times as much carbon dioxide as extracting conventional oil.

Activists with Greenpeace likely chose the oil sands operations of Shell and Suncor as an ideal forum to score points against its primary target the Canadian government. Their bark against the oil sands seemed worse than their bite.

Greenpeace is one of dozens of lobby organizations in Canada that want to pressure the federal government to adopt a strong second phase of the Kyoto Protocol at the upcoming United Nations Climate Conference in Copenhagen, Denmark in December.

This larger fight becomes clearer in Greenpeace’s messaging on the day it chose to disrupt the operation of two bitumen conveyor belts on Suncor’s oil sands property.

“Greenpeace has taken action here today in the heart of climate destruction to drive the message home to world leaders that we need urgent climate leadership, and that means stopping the tar sands,”

Lee Side of Lloyd Geoff Lee

said Bruce Cox, Greenpeace Canada executive director.

The two protests follow a warning from Rajendra Pachauri, head of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), the world’s leading body on climate science that Canada is failing on climate action, and should consider putting the tar sands on hold.

The fact that the “tar sands” is a major national economic engine pressures Canada to at least follow through on its previously announced goal to set a 20 per cent hard cap on emissions reductions by 2020.

As for companies like Suncor and Shell, they need to capitalize on publicity opportunities of their own to shine the spotlight on all of the research and

development happening to reduce carbon dioxide emissions, treat and recycle water, improve tailing ponds design and management and reclaim disturbed lands to support wildlife.

There a lot of good environmentally sound environmental projects such as carbon capture and water treatment going on that the public should know about.

When Greenpeace pulled off their publicity stunts, Shell and Suncor reacted to these intrusions by telling the media that have beefed up security.

Hardly a word was reported about their ongoing commitment to improving the environments of their operations when the whole world was watching.

On the other hand, the general public largely realizes Greenpeace is an activist organization that uses stunting to make news, and unlike Suncor and Shell, does not contribute to the gross national product of the county.

No one then is seriously considering shuttering Fort McMurray because they wish it were so.

Most likely Greenpeace was really in Fort McMurray to challenge Ottawa and world leaders heading to Denmark to act to protect our global environment and personal health. For that they grudgingly deserve a bone.

PIPELINE NEWS INVITES OPPOSING VIEW POINTS. EDITORIALS AND LETTERS TO THE EDITOR WELCOME. Email to: brian.zinchuk@sasktel.net

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PIPELINE NEWS November 2009

Government funding stalls project ɺ Page A2 “It would make a huge difference if we had an announced commitment from the federal government here,” Wilson says.

“We’re gradually getting there, no doubt,” he adds. “A lot of preliminary work has already been undertaken.”

That includes a lot of the engineering work on items such as cooling flue gas and sulphur removal.

He says they are getting close to the point where procurement activity could begin.

“We’re still keen to get it going and still believe it is a good concept,” Wilson says.

Michael Monea is SaskPower’s vice president looking after integrated carbon capture and sequestration.

“We are in a holding pattern, without a doubt,” he says, when asked about the Saskatchewan-Montana project. “Once we get funding, we can start very quickly.”

Monea says if Saskatchewan is in the game, we should know soon regarding funding.

He notes the Saskatchewan-Montana project would be about a quarter the price of one of the Alberta projects.

The project would draw a slipstream of the exhaust of a coal-fired power plant, demonstrating the technology. It would not capture all the exhaust gas.

“If we find one very efficient and cost-effective, we would like to use it in the future,” Monea says of the technologies.

“The only way we can do it is if it’s cost effective.

If it’s going to be an expensive process, we can’t do it.”

The has not been any physical work yet done to

“

We think it should be Shand. That’s the most logical choice.

facilitate the project. They have contacted commercial vendors, getting feedback on potential components.

Changes will be coming to provincial borders ɺ Page A3 “What we are trying to do is avoid duplication of services,” he said.

“As far as weights, we’ve got some differences on allowable weights between the two provinces that cause the trucking industry headaches. We are trying to

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As for which power station the Saskatchewan end of the pipeline should connect to, Monea says, “We think it should be Shand. That’s the most logical choice.”

The Poplar River facility at Coronach has water issues, no natural gas, and is far from oil reserves. They also don’t want to interfere with the carbon capture project on Boundary Dam Power Station’s Unit 3.

Work on that is progressing. “We are evaluating three capture technologies,” Monea says, noting they will likely make a selection by the end of this year. It would then be presented to the board of SaskPower in the second half of 2010. “There’s a lot of work to be done. The engineering group is full out, determining the technology.”

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harmonize that so there is a level playing on both sides of the border.”

The MOU also notes the need to streamline the permit process for the trans-border movement of manufactured homes and is embraced by trucking advocates in both provinces.

“The trucking industry is pleased to see this spirit of co-operation to allow us to move more seamlessly between the two provinces and to literally help us keep the economy moving,” said Glen Ertell, president of the Saskatchewan Trucking Association in a news release.

In a similar statement, Alberta Motor Transport Association president Richard Warnock noted the MOU is good news from a trucking perspective “because it highlights all the work that has been done on transportation between Alberta and Saskatchewan over the years to

benefit the economy.”

As for when the trucking industry can expect changes and improvements to take effect, Reiter says “there are a number of fronts we will be working on at a time.

“There will be different things applying to different highways.

For instance, they are working on one particular heavy haul/high clearance corridor to start with. This is a work in progress. There will be announcements coming on harmonization.

“It will be much easier to do business in both provinces which is going to be good for the business sector, which in turn, will good for our citizens on both sides of the border.

When asked if any decision has been made on twinning the busy oil and gas corridor of Highway 39 through Estevan and Weyburn, Reiter would only con-

cede the route is on the radar screen.

“We have a lot of capital projects we need to get done. Highways were left in a dilapidated state for a lot of years,” he said. “We are playing catch up.

“Certainly, we are not prepared to make an announcement on that yet. There is heavy traffic there and we are concerned about safety.

There are a lot of projects we will have to evaluate.

Reiter says he would also like to see improvements to trucking at Canada and U.S. border crossings in Saskatchewan but cautions “you have to walk before you can run.

“We are focusing on the relationship with Alberta because it fits in so many ways. Our provinces are similar.

We have the oil and gas industry in common. It just seemed like natural fit.”

PIPELINE NEWS November 2009

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Canada-Alberta funding boosts two CO2 reduction projects

By Geoff Lee

New carbon capture technologies like chilled ammonia planned by TransAlta show tremendous promise but are not commercially viable at this time.

“Government and industry partnerships such as this are a critical catalyst Edmonton – Lightning struck twice in October with funding commitments from the provincial and federal government to kickstart carbon capture and stor- required to accelerate implementation of these new technologies that will make Canada a global leader in CO2 reductions through CCS,” added Snyder. age projects (CCS) from Shell Canada Limited and TransAlta Corporation.

Shell Canada’s proposed $1.35 billion Quest CCS project could become ecoBoth projects are aimed at reducing harmful carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions nomically viable in the coming months thanks to combined funding commitment through the development of leading edge technologies.

TransAlta Corp. with its joint venture partner Capital Power is set to move of $865 million from the Alberta and Canadian governments announced Oct. 8.

The Quest project would be a fully-integrated CCS project capable of capahead with Project Pioneer to capture and store up to one million tonnes of CO2 a turing and storing up to 1.1 million tonnes of CO2 per year from the Scotford year at its Keephills 3 coal-fired electricity generation plant west of Edmonton.

The green light follows a funding commitment of $431 million from the upgrader in the Alberta Industrial Heartland area northeast of Edmonton.

The plan calls for CO2 to be transported by pipeline to an injection location Alberta government through its $2 billion CCS fund and $343 million from the northeast of the Scotford complex and stored more than two kilometres underfederal government’s Clean Energy Fund announced Oct. 14.

Alberta’s CCS-funded projects are eligible to receive up to a maximum of 75 ground. The CO2 could also be made available for use in enhanced oil recovery per cent of the total cost to capture, transport and store CO2. Funds are dispersed projects.

The government of Alberta is committing $745 million to the project through once the partner companies have signed funding agreements.

Project Pioneer will store captured CO2 almost 2,600 to 2,800 metres under- its CCS fund while the federal government has pledged $120 million through the ground near the plant’s Wabamun location beginning in 2015. The project will $1 billion Clean Energy Fund, a program included in Canada’s Economic Action Plan. also purify CO2 for future use in enhanced oil recovery.

The five-year Clean Energy Fund is for advancing Canada’s leadership in The CO2 will be captured using a new chilled ammonia process, a technology that can be applied to a variety of emission sources such as coal, natural gas and clean energy technologies and the reduction of greenhouse gas emissions from energy production. oil sands production.

“Quest still has a long way to go before it becomes a fully operational CCS “Perfecting technology to reduce greenhouse gas emissions from coal-fired electricity generation will not only have a significant impact in Alberta, but it project, said Graham Bojé, a vice-president at Shell Canada at the news ancould help throughout North America and in developing nations like China,” nouncement.

“We’re still in the project development phase and the final investment decisaid Premier Ed Stelmach in a news release.

“This project provides an opportunity for Alberta to be a leader in developing sion still depends on a range of factors, including further technical work, public game-changing carbon capture technology that could be used around the globe.” consultation and of course seeking and gaining regulatory approval for the projProject Pioneer would integrate leading-edge, post-combustion, chilled am- ect,” he said.

“Finding ways to reduce greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions is one of the most monia capture technology with the coal-fired power plant to capture CO2.

“Carbon capture and storage provides Alberta and Canada a global leader- important challenges facing society, and developing substantial CCS capability ship opportunity to develop new technologies to reduce CO2 emissions,” said with governments and key stakeholders is one of our greatest priorities.”

Steve Snyder, president and CEO of TransAlta, Canada’s largest indpendent power producer.

“We are pleased to have partners in the Government of Canada and the Government of Alberta to join us in this important initiative.”

Dark Room Lorne Rose’s Power Manufacturing Ltd. in North Battleford has made 150 of these Àberglass shell dark rooms for use in mobile x-ray units. The units are sold through IR Supply & Services in Edmonton.

Photo by Geoff Lee

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PIPELINE NEWS November 2009

Mined salt caverns recycled for Unity Cavern disposal facility

By Geoff Lee Unity – Where is the waste? That’s one of the first questions a visitor asks when arriving at the Unity Cavern facility operated by CCS Midstream Services, a division of the CCS Corporation group of companies.

The answer, provided by plant manager Dale Fittes, is in an abandoned underground salt cavern mined years ago by Sifto Canada Inc. adjacent to the Unity Cavern facility.

“The cavern has no other practical use and we are using that as our long-term storage for oilfield waste,” he said. “We actually have two caverns with a total capacity for approximately 1.5 million cubic metres.”

The facility was built in 1997, handles the disposal of oilfield waste, sludges and sands, including drill cuttings and drilling mud produced in the upstream oil industry.

“Most of our waste is production fluid from the production of heavy oil,” said Fittes who runs the plant similar to a drive-through operation.

“We have a very unique system with the potential to move a lot of truck traffic through in a very short period of time,” he said.

“We can handle three to six large vacuum trucks an hour. On peak days, we can have anywhere from 75 to 80 trucks. It’s been a little slower now because of the industry downturn.”

“The waste is trucked in, unloaded into our system and by the time the driver is leaving, the waste is already in the cavern.”

When a truck pulls into to the yard, it backs into

Dale Fittes the manager of the Unity Cavern says up to 85 vacuum trucks a day unload oilÀeld waste at the plant.

an unloading dock and flows off its liquid cargo into a grate that feeds the material into what’s called a receiver.

A remote-controlled high-pressure water system is used to safely and efficiently remove residue from the vacuum trucks.

“Typically, the material we receive has as much of the oil removed as possible,” said Fittes. “We don’t do any treating on the surface. We basically bring it in and dispose of it.

In the receiver, the material is blended into a slurry with brine from the cavern with a static mixer and pumped into the caverns by pipelines that run approximately 500 feet to the nearest cavern and 1,800

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Solids left behind are washed and cleaned and what can’t be put through the grates are taken to a secure Class II landfill.

“We have no surface storage of waste products,” said Fittes. “That reduces liability for the generator and for us by not having any potential for an environmental incident.”

Fittes says one of the unique features of salt caverns is that they won’t leach any contaminates.

“It has a unique property,” he said. “The cavern is self-contained. Once it receives material – if it gets a crack or fissures – it will heal itself and won’t allow material to leach.

“The U.S. uses caverns to store crude oil. Once it’s in there it just doesn’t leak. It’s safer than putting it into a tank.”

CCS Midstream Services, formerly Canadian Crude Separators, operates a variety of waste management facilities for the energy sector in Saskatchewan, Alberta and British Columbia.

Another large vacuum truck pulls into Unity Cavern facility to dispose of oilÀeld waste in abandoned salt caverns.

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PIPELINE NEWS November 2009

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PIPELINE NEWS November 2009

SuperSump would divert sand to caverns for heavy oil producers Lloydminster – The goal of producing heavy oil without sand moved a step closer to reality with a promising new research process called the SuperSump that would divert sand directly into a salt cavern below a reservoir.

If the process works in the field, it could extend the production life of oilfields, substantially reduce operating costs and open up new reservoirs that are not currently viable.

That’s the belief of Brian Wagg, manager of CFER’s New Technology Ventures in Edmonton that

is working with Distinct Resources Corp. on plans to launch an $18.1 million five-year pilot project as early as the third quarter of 2010.

C-FER and Distinct are scouting for an industry pilot partner to test the process that Wagg introduced to a full audience at the Lloydminster Petroleum Society Lunch ‘n Learn in October.

“With cold heavy oil production with sand (CHOPS), the sand is transported to the surface, separated and then disposed of in salt caverns,” said Wagg.

Lloydminster Petroleum Society Lunch ‘N Learn facilitator Dale Luedtke presents guest speaker Brian Wagg with complementary gifts.

“What we are trying to do is short circuit that process by forming a small cavern below the producing formation so the sand flows directly into the caverns and stays there permanently rather than bringing it to surface.”

Wagg says the SuperSump process will eliminate the cost associated with handling and disposing of produced sand, including costly well clean-outs so pumps can operate properly.

“You don’t have to handle the sand through pumps with this process,” said Wagg. “It allows you to flow-line the oil. One of the issues with sand now is that it may plug flow lines.

“By eliminating sand on surface – if you can put flow lines in – you can eliminate the trucks, waste tanks and pumps can run longer because they are not pumping sand.”

Another side benefit of C-FER’s research and development of the SuperSump process is a measurable reduction in greenhouse gas emissions.

“By eliminating lease tanks you are eliminating burners,” said Wagg. “By centralizing the wells a little more, you can collect vent gas more economically. By reducing trucking, you can reduce the emissions from those trucks.”

The key to the commercial process and its benefits will be the design and size of the salt cavern to ensure stability and proper separation of water, oil and sand into three layers.

Wagg says the initial research shows that the optimal size for a cavern would be 20 to 25 metres in diameter for an eight-well drainage pattern.

“There will be multiple drainage wells going into one cavern,” explained Wagg. “Eight or nine drainage wells might go into one cavern. There may one or two production wells out of the cavern that are removing the oil and water as it flows in.

“Gas will also be separated and collected at surface and used or transported to a central facility.

“We can have a stable cavern and a relatively small cavern can be used to develop this process. It is looking very promising right now.”

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Chopping the sand from CHOPS ɺ Page A10 C-FER’s economic analysis of the process indicates it might have a higher capital cost to implement because of cavern construction and more complex well designs, but it might pay out faster than conventional CHOPS operations with single well batteries.

“You are eliminating lease tanks and simplifying the pads,” said Wagg.

“There is the potential for reducing or eliminating the batteries where the oil is treated. All those things add up to reducing operating costs.

“It also allows you Students from the Heavy Oil Operations Technician or HOOT program from Lakeland College listen to pump through water to guest speaker Brian Wagg. cuts. After water cuts try partner. positive. We have a tech- companies we have been As C-FER’s Dishave increased or the oil “We think we will nology that bridges the speaking to there’s been tinct partner, Graham rate has dropped off, it get a partner soon based nexus of salt cavern de- great excitement.” has 16 years of experiallows you to pump lon- on the sustainable ben- velopment which needs Graham is also the ence developing salt ger because your operat- efits from a business to be used for the dis- vice-president of corpo- caverns in Saskatchewan ing costs are lower.” perspective in terms of posal of sand and heavy rate development and and Atlantic Canada and The next step is long-term utilization oil production which operations for Landis several years experience commercializing the and the redevelopment has its challenges fight- Energy Corporation that in heavy oil production process with a pilot to of existing fields,” said ing gravity and bringing is developing salt caverns and services in the Lloybe funded 50 per cent by Dick Graham, vice- sand to surface. for natural gas storage in dminster area. government sources, 25 president of Distinct “We are marrying Nova Scotia to serve AtHe says there is a per cent by C-FER and Resources. the two allowing gravity lantic Canada and some “wide swath of prai25 per cent for an indus“The reaction is very to do its job. With the New England states. rie evaporite” the runs

from Moosimin through the Lloydminster area to north of Edmonton that’s ideal for developing salt caverns. The formation is overlaid by a wealth of heavy oil production as well.

“It’s the nexus of the technology of salt caverns and heavy oil production,” said Graham.

“It really hasn’t been explored before. That’s really what we wanted to do.

“Salt caverns are used through western Canada and elsewhere in the world for the storage of waste and for produced sand. Often it’s injected into a salt cavern and stored there.

They are very safe and very self healing.

“What we are saying is, rather than take that sand to surface and separate it there, let’s just leave it down hole and let it drain from drainage wells into the salt caverns and let it settle out in the cavern rather than bring it to the surface.”

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PIPELINE NEWS November 2009

Unity plows ahead on farming and rural oil and gas spinoffs

By Geoff Lee

Carey Baker displays a poster of a centennial mural that was painted on a downtown building by artist Pat Welter.

Unity – All eyes in the world of junior hockey will be focused on Unity in coming weeks when the town hosts a preliminary game of the World Junior Hockey Championship that starts Dec. 26 in Saskatoon and Regina.

No doubt some of the players, fans and media will stay over at the new 64-room Prairie Moon Inn & Suites hotel fronting Highway 14 or at the downtown Sunrise Inn that underwent a $ 1 million facelift.

Unity is the only

town without a Saskatchewan Junior Hockey League team chosen to host a game and that could have something to do with its reputation as a friendly place to live and visit.

“Unity is about community. That what it is,” said Carey Baker, economic development officer. “If you talk to people on the street they may give you the stereotypical answer that this is a great place to live and raise a family but that’s really what it’s about.

“That’s why people choose to live here. It’s a very welcoming and family-oriented place to be.”

Unity is no stranger to hosting big events such as the town’s centennial marked July 1-5, 2009 that attracted more than 1,000 past residents and guests.

Many of them woke up in motels, bed and breakfast establishments or the town campground to some unfamiliar landmarks and faces.

Unity has a population of 2,462 that is growing at a rate of nearly four cent a year from increased oil and gas and agricultural activity and a new progressive attitude.

“For several years we were stagnant,” said Baker. “Things were very good here and people didn’t want to change.

The oil and gas industry is responsible for a significant amount of change.

“If we go back five years, there has been a

very visible impact of the energy industry on our community.

“There is a limited amount of oil and gas activity in close proximity to Unity to the east.

The majority of activity is concentrated to the north, south and west of us.”

More local oil activity is pending as O & G Resource Group spent $2,032,000 on a 1,619 hectare block situated adjacent to the Salt Lake Lloydminster Sand Oil Pool as reported in the October sale of Saskatchewan mineral rights.

The pool is located just 11 km southwest of Unity and will bring more workers to town.

“In this area, we have people working in the Reward and Luseland oilfields as well as in Maidstone, Provost and Macklin and Kerrobert,” said Baker.

“We still see a significant amount of management and as well as servicing individuals who choose to make Unity as their home.

“We tend to be more affordable than many other communities. People like the pace of life here and the amenities we have.”

Unity boasts three schools, a full range of health services including the Unity & District Health Care hospital and housing for seniors at Luther Place Unity lease condos and at Parkview Place, a 24-unit assisted living complex.

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PIPELINE NEWS November 2009

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Unity hopes to double its population Recreational facilities including the hockey and curling arena, a community hall, an outdoor swimming pool, a golf course and oodles of baseball diamonds.

Unity has written a new official community plan and a new zoning bylaw with a conceptual plan to double the town’s population with the continual expansion of a north end subdivision.

Five or six new houses are being built there this year and the town has a significant land base for new industrial and commercial development to the south.

Bio-Energy Ltd., a subsidiary of North West Terminal, located just east of town, began production in August of up to 25 million litres of ethanol from wheat purchased from regional farmers.

“Over the past two years of construction, they have had a significant effect on our community,” said Baker. “Now that they are operational, they have specialized management and staffing jobs. We believe there will be significant spinoffs from them.”

Another economic driver is Sifto Canada Inc. that has been mining salt in the area for more than 60 years. Some of their salt products are used by oilsands companies in Alberta with steam injection technology.

Sifto has also partnered with Canadian Crude Separators that uses two local mined salt caverns for oilfield waste disposal at its Unity Cavern Facility.

Baker credits those developments to the good working relationship the town has established with the rural municipality.

“If we have an industrial or commercial developer with needs that exceed our land base, the RM is more than willing to work with those individuals and partner with the town,” he said.

“We saw that with the development of our bio-

fuels facility and several of our oilfield waste sites that we have developed around our community.”

Unity is also a regional retail centre ideally located at the intersection of highways 21 and 14 with traffic counts of 4,200 vehicles a day on each route.

CN and CP railways both run mainline routes through Unity as well.

“A lot of surrounding communities look to us to meet their shopping needs,” said Baker. “We have

Peter Keller is the manager of the new Prairie Moon Inn & Suites.

had some expansion in our downtown in the past few years. We do have some major retail businesses like our furniture and appliance store that has been very successful.

“We are one of the few rural communities with a growing car dealership (Unity Motors) and they have plans to build a new facility as well.”

Moody’s Equipment Ltd. on highway 14 is also moving into a new building in the coming months to keep pace with growth in the agricultural economy.

Unity has invested up to $2 million in the past couple of years to replace its existing infrastructure thanks to funding from the federal and provincial governments.

“Now we are putting the seeds in place for expansion around us,” said Baker. “We are looking at developing sanitary lift facilities to accommodate growth on the periphery of our community.

“We have expanded our water capacity. The next components we will look are our disposal facilities – our lagoon system as well as our water treatment plant. We are looking at providing people with an opportunity for growth in an affordable manner.”

Unity has recently welcomed an influx of new immigrant workers from countries such as Iraq, India and the Philippines and more newcomers are expected once the natural gas sector picks up.

“Around Unity we have significant natural gas pockets,” said Carey. “Several years ago, there was a lot of excitement that was going to be developed.

“With the way that commodity has performed over the last couple of years, a lot of those expansion projects have been shelved.

“Once natural gas does turnaround, we will see that industry develop around us. We will see some expansion in drilling and management around us.”

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PIPELINE NEWS November 2009

K. Kenn’s directional drilling goes full bore in the fall Story and photos

by Geoff Lee Lloydminster – Each fall when the farm crops are in signals the start of the busiest season for the directional drilling division of K. Kenn Industries Ltd. in Lloydminster.

K.Kenn is a full service pipeline construction company specializing in plowing poly, flex

steel and flex pipe for oil and gas companies with a growing customer demand for its directional drilling expertise to install oil, gas and water lines.

“This is our harvest,” said Kent Staden, office and job administrator.

“Once the farmer gets his crops off, we try to get to as many jobs as possible.

There are certain landowners who don’t want

K. Kenn carries a stock of Áex steel pipe for salt water conveyance.

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winter construction so this is the time to do it.”

K.Kenn has a busy schedule of directional drills for up to 16-inch diameter pipe and drilling bores for utility cable crossings, leases and short pipelines for oil and gas companies, utility companies and municipalities.

“We will work for anyone who requires a bore,” said Staden. “We have bored across farm land and we have bored for municipalities. We work for five different gas co-ops and we also work for various oil companies.

The main oil companies we with work with are Canadian Natural Resources Ltd. and Husky Energy.”

K. Kenn has four Ditch Witch directional drills and one each one packs enough 15-foot rod lengths to lay a pipe up to 350-metres in length.

The pipe goes through two bell holes dug at either end of the line with little disturbance to the environment.

“We use the Ditch Witch to get the job in a more efficient manner,” said Staden. “It saves costs and cuts down on maintenance with non distur-

Kent Staden hopped into the operator’s seat of this Ditch Witch directional driller parked in the mechanical shop. Photos by Geoff Lee

bance of the ground.

“The machines are very accurate. The guiding system tells you the depth and you can steer that drill head.

“You just have to keep adding a rod to get the distance required. Once the drill has reached its destination, a pull head is attached to the pipeline then pulled back thought the hole that’s being drilled. We will fuse the plastic pipe together at either end.

“It’s very user friendly machine. We’ve been fortunate to have a number of guys with a lot of years of experience who

can make them sing. We get a lot of difficult job contracts as a result.”

Directional drilling is ideal for the installation of poly pipe at oil lease sites for the installation of fuel gas to heat oil in tanks to replace the existing propane tank.

The standard pipe laying depth for leases is 1.5 metres and 1.8 metres for road or water crossings to stay below frost and allow for road rebuilding without having to lower the line.

“The beauty of a lease bore with directional drilling is that you are not disrupting the compaction on the lease and you don’t get the settling that trenching creates,” explained Staden.

“It’s ideal for envi-

ronmental areas. Where you are into native grasses that are difficult to grow back or the topography creates erosion, we will bore it out. The drilling mud that we use is environmentally safe for this purpose as well.”

K. Kenn also does a lot of work for municipalities and utilities who turn to directional drilling when boring in new services for residential or commercial customers.

“Where the savings are in the municipality is that you don’t disrupt the infrastructure such as pavement or road integrity,” said Staden.

“You can parallel or go underneath a line with very little disturbance to the infrastructure.

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PIPELINE NEWS November 2009

K. Kenn’s is heading in the right direction ɺ Page A14 “More and more, we see that boring is a safer way of completing the project. It has sped up the amount of time needed to complete a job. It makes is more profitable.”

“Directional drilling has come a long way in the past 20 years with better machinery. If you go across an area that is conducive to erosion, you don’t disturb the surface. We’ve been across land where the famer asks ‘when you are going to do it’ and we’re already done.”

K. Kenn operates within a 150-kilometre radius of Lloydminster and can provide customers with a complete directional drilling package from line locating and pipefitting to riser and header fabrication and safety services.

“We are a pipeline company with our own hydrovacs and our own semi trucks, backhoes, trackhoes and directional drills,” said Staden. “We also have graders and gravel trucks.

“We don’t have to sub contract other services to complete the job. Customers like that. We’re good at what we do and we pride ourselves doing an excellent job. Hopefully, good work will create additional work.

“Directional drilling is an important part of our business that has sped up our business from the safety aspect and time saving. It’s been a real good business that leads to our main focus which is the poly pipe that we put in.”

K.Kenn has been building gas systems and completing tie-ins to gas well for more than 32 years and has plowed thousands of kilometers of flex pipe, poly and steel line for a growing list of customers in western Canada.

“The company is owned by Ken Freimark in Mannville, Alberta and has expanded significantly over the last four years to meet market demand.

“We have broadened what we do,” said Staden.

“We have three different plows and a whole alignment of tie-in crews, one tons, fusion machines and testing equipment. Diversifying allows us to become a full service company to the client.”

The Lloydminster operation base is accessed from Range Road 13 off Highway 16 west of the city and features a 10-acre pipe yard, office trailers and a six bay shop and wash facility.

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PIPELINE NEWS November 2009

PIPELINE NEWS November 2009

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PIPELINE NEWS November 2009

Strong oil and gas prices help Unity – Cinema Satellite in Unity is a one-stop retailer of home electronics, furniture and appliances and the place to go for a barometer reading on the local economy.

The business owner and guru is Rus Prescott who has learned to not to limit his customer base to the energy sector for continued success since launching the store in 1993.

Prescott’s analytical specialties are the oil industry where he began his career and agriculture that is the foundation of the Saskatchewan economy.

“When oil and gas was really busy here from 2006 to 2008, it absolutely made a difference,” he said.

“The bear is when you are in business in Saskatchewan – they way things have gone – the oil patch comes and goes – you’d better look after the farm. That’s our base.

“Farming got off to a bad foot which – whether the oil patch is going great guns or not – will make a difference.

“I think as far as the rest of this calendar goes; we should bat right along with 2007 and 2008 depending on what hap- Prescott has just added area rugs to the mix of home furnishings he sells at Cinema pens with the oil patch. You Satellite.

hear from a lot of people that it’s supposed to pick up.

“I know the farmers in this area had a pretty good year or at least average. In the long run, over the next few months it’s going to even out a bit. What’s going to happen after January, I don’t know.”

What is for certain is that Prescott has recently added a new line of area rugs to his product mix and that he would never trade life in Unity for another job in the city.

Prescott was born and raised in Kerrobert and landed his first oilfield job with Corlan Industries in Wabasca on a pilot steam project during the early 1980s.

Later, he worked for Philips Petroleum Ltd. near Coleville and took a leave of absence in 1990 to upgrade his engineer design and drafting skills.

“The company was interested in someone with experience in the design of their waterflood and steam flood plant,” said Prescott.

“I completed that course and went into the Calgary office and I quit after a short time since I didn’t like the office. I was a field guy. ɸ Page A19

PIPELINE NEWS November 2009

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Unity retailer sell his goods ɺ Page A18 “I was in operations most of my life operating wells or mostly in the plant. In Coleville, they have a waterflood facility. It’s changed hands a couple of times since then but I just wasn’t cut out for the office and I didn’t know that at the time.

“I didn’t go back. My brother in-law was into the satellite dish business in Calgary and I kind of jumped over to that.”

Small town guy It didn’t take Prescott long to realize he was indeed “a small town guy” before he and his family moved to Unity to open a new TV and satellite shop.

In 2008, the store reported annual sales of approximately $3 million and currently has eight employees.

Prescott says Unity is a great place to do business but adds “all these small towns are good” compared to the bustling city.

“I am a very social person and that’s why I like running my own business,” he proclaimed. “I like retail because I like dealing with people. The city just isn’t a social life. It’s tougher to make friends.

It’s a different life.

“When you are from a small town and born and raised in a small town it’s just different. I can go out golfing with 50 different guys on a men’s night and feel as comfortable as with one of my best buddies. It’s just not like that in a city.

“The bad side is when I go to the rink people are always asking how to work their cell phones.

That’s the way it is. You have to take the good with the bad. “ Initially Prescott sold only TVs and satellite systems but as he puts it “it’s just a case of growing in a small town.”

The business is now based on 11 items that are in nearly every household from appliances and electronics to furniture and bedding.

“People would ask you to bring something

Prescott stocks the latest washers and dryers in his Unity home goods retail store.

in and more and more people would buy it and we just kept growing and growing,” said Prescott, who notes sales have slowed this year along with oil and gas activity.

“This year the oil patch is pretty much dead again. There is no sense trying to paint a glossy picture when it isn’t. This past summer has been a little slower than the previous two or three.

“I think down in Estevan and Weyburn, things are still going pretty good from what I am being told but this area is pretty quite.

“In this area, the crops didn’t turn out as bad as a lot of guys thought. South of here in the Kindersley area, they were pretty close to devas-

tation.”

As for the likelihood of Prescott returning to his career roots in the oil sector, he says “maybe someday. I could ‘swing operate’ or take somebody’s shift.

“I am a little out of touch but I don’t think the oil wells pump any different than they used to. I do have my steam ticket. It would be something I would look at again maybe someday.

“At the age that I am at and I’ve got 20 years in, you never know. A change is as good as a rest.”

In the short term, Prescott will work on completing some renovations to the interior of his store and “get ready for the Christmas run.”

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PIPELINE NEWS November 2009

Caltech surveys the economic landscape for hopeful signs Unity – Caltech Surveys Ltd. in Unity is warming up to the prospect of higher oil and gas prices to take the chill out of the coming winter.

Higher commodity prices should heat up demand for their well site and pipeline survey services from oil and gas companies in Saskatchewan.

“This past year has been a little slower,” said manager Justin Meyer.

“We’re going to be busier again and back to the level of activity we were at from 2000 to 2008 when we were almost steady all the time.”

“Oil and gas activity has been picking up in our area in the last couple of months.

“Our focus is primarily oil and gas surveys – leases, access roads and pipelines for small and medium sized companies in this part of the province.”

During the economic slowdown, Caltech kept busy managing property surveys and engineering surveys for the Town of Unity and other communities.

Recently, the phone

is ringing more often from their bread and butter customer base of heavy oil producers that are stepping up their field activities.

“We survey the well leases, the access roads and the collection of pipelines that are tied in when they go into production,” said Meyer.

Caltech also provides underground facility location, digital mapping and well licensing services to oil and gas producers with fast turnaround times through one point of contact.

“We are small enough to be fairly nimble,” said Meyer.

“We can meet any client’s needs really quickly with fast turnaround and accurate plans. That fits the needs of small to medium size producers.”

Caltech is a Calgary-based company established in 1990. The company is employeeowned by licensed Alberta and Saskatchewan land surveyors with two main field offices in Regina and Unity. Employees include Canada land surveyors who are

qualified to survey federal lands coast to coast.

Caltech’s extensive experience with well site surveying ranges from Bakken horizontal wells in southeast Saskatchewan to conventional well site surveys areas near Grande Prairie, Alberta.

The company market itself as providing the fastest route to regulatory and landowner approval for oil and natural gas projects in Alberta and Saskatchewan.

No doubt that business niche helped the company to secure two long-term service contracts in Saskatchewan with SaskPower earlier this year when the slowdown hit the energy industry.

One contract calls for Caltech to provide staking and surveying services for overhead and underground power lines installations in the Weyburn, Estevan and Yorkton areas.

The company has another contract with SaskPower to provide geomatics services for power line and stations in the north and south Troy Illingworth Cell: (780) 808-3183 Tim Sharp Cell: (780) 871-1276

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A Caltech Surveys Ltd. worker surveys pipeline right-of-ways in the Coleville area about 20 kilometres north of Kindersley.

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service areas of the province.

Caltech’s location in Unity is ideal to service heavy oil clients in the Lloydminster area to the north and Kindersley in the south as oil producers and explorers increase their activities.

“We can service both of those areas without having to stay overnight with crews,” said Meyer.

“We cut down on mileage costs for clients. We do service both of those areas.

“It’s a central location in that respect. Our work spans from Lloydminster in the north to Kindersley in the south and from the Alberta border, east to Range 19

or 20.”

More surveying work is likely as O & G Resource Group spent $2,032,000 on a 1,619 hectare block situated adjacent to the Salt Lake Lloydminster Sand Oil Pool in the October sale of Saskatchewan mineral rights.

The land package is just 11 kilometres south of Unity in a region where gas rights have also been purchased in recent years.

“There have been gas exploration rights around Unity and the Wilkie area just in the last couple of years,” said Meyer. “It hasn’t taken off but it’s price dependent. If prices are

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The Unity branch was established in 1999 and Meyers says “we’ve grown fairly steadily I guess. We started off with a couple of crews and now we’ve got five.

“We have 12 employees and we use GPS equipment. The field crews have their own laptops to tie-in their field surveys with the office.”

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PIPELINE NEWS November 2009

Chemistry is more than a job for girls’ coach Kim Wright „ By Geo Lee Lloydminster – Hockey is life according to Kim Wright, coach of the Lloydminster PWM Steelers, a competitive travel team in the Alberta Major Midget Female Hockey League.

Having said that, he’s not about to quit his day job as an account manager for Baker Petrolite, a product division of oilďŹ eld chemicals and services from Baker Hughes, to coach the amateur girls’ team.

There is no money

in it – just a sense of satisfaction and an investment in helping kids to shoot, pass and score in hockey and life. “What I really enjoy is when a kid you’ve coached ďŹ ve years ago all of a sudden comes up to you and starts talking about things that you did for him not just as a hockey player but as person. That’s my biggest satisfaction,â€? said Wright.

Wright has been coaching youth hockey for more than 13 years and played junior B

hockey as a teenager. The 41 year-old started last season as the Steelers’ assistant coach and became head coach midway through the season. “My daughter Jazmyne plays on the team but that’s not the only reason I got involved,� Wright said. “When she’s done playing, it wouldn’t surprise me if I stay involved one way or another. I just really enjoy it and I see girls’ hockey growing like crazy. “I have really seen it pick up. I think after

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For your training needs visit

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Battlefords Campus 306-937-5100 Meadow Lake Campus 306-234-5100 Adult Education Centres in Spiritwood, St. Walburg and Unity Kim Wright has his game face on coaching the girls’ PWM Steelers.

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this year, based on how we have seen women’s hockey grow in the last four years, we will see it grow in leaps and bounds with the Olympics in our own country.�

The Steelers play in a competitive 12-team league and sported an early 3-0 season record by the beginning of October when this story was ďŹ led with lots of smiles beamed from players and coaching sta.

This season, Wright is aided by assistant coach Wilf Anderson from Webb’s Ford in Vermillion and former players Mindy Meger and Katie Moat, all of whom value fun and competitive hockey. “Fun is part of it,â€? said Wright of his coaching approach. “I think when you win you have more fun but at the same time winning is not everything. “As long as you are

competitive and as long as you can get the team to be the best they can and work as hard as they can – and you see that from them – you have to have a lot of satisfaction. “It’s a blast. Sometimes it looks intense but when you jump on a bus when you head somewhere with this hockey team, the girls are singing in the back of the bus and having fun. “Win or lose they seem like they are in pretty good spirits. As long as they play their hardest and they play competitively they are a happy bunch.�

Being a self-confessed hockey fanatic means coach Kim, as he was nicknamed eons ago, spends about three hours a day with team practices and home games and many weekends traveling to rinks throughout Alberta. ɸ Page A23

PIPELINE NEWS November 2009

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Female Hockey League coach balances sports, work and personal life ɺ Page A22 “Trying to balance hockey, work and personal life – it’s a big commitment,” he said.

“Baker Petrolite helps me out tremendously. They are very accommodating. I had a very busy summer at work and because there are times in the winter I wouldn’t be able to do what I can do in the summer, the other guys can pick up the slack.”

Wright is one of 10 account managers for the Baker-Petrolite product line that provides chemical solutions for hydrocarbon production, transportation and processing, and also delivers pipeline integrity services.

Emulsifiers and corrosion inhibitors are two of the main products Wright sells to heavy oil producers in the area, but at the rink his focus is on developing chemistry with his players.

“People skills are probably the most important thing by far,” said Wright. “We are never going to understand everyone. Every kid is different.

“That’s one thing I am working on this year to try to understand each individual kid. They are not going to bring their game every single game. There might be an issue.

“It kind of opens your eyes a little bit to maybe what your boss or manager is going through at times. I am more or less the manager of the whole hockey team and I have to look at every kid’s skills and know every kid’s attitudes. They are all different. You have to take that into account.”

When it comes to find new motivational sources, coach Kim knows he can rely on the enthusiasm of his team’s main sponsor Paul Klaassen from PWM Steel to do the

trick.

“As a sponsor he follows us over the place,” said Wright.

“He is probably the best sponsor in the city of Lloydminster for hockey. He supplies a lot of things. He is a real positive thinker and he is constantly handing the girls motivational books and CDs. “About a week ago, Paul brought in a framed motivational letter. He gave one to each of the girls. He’s a phenomenal sponsor.”

Baker-Petrolite is also a sponsor of the team and Wright says the company has been getting more involved in the community in the past few years despite having a small payroll.

The company has about 12 employees led by manager Corey Kreese and is one of six divisions of Baker Hughes, a global oilfield service company that provide products and services to help customers drill, evaluate, complete and produce oil and gas wells.

They also provide reservoir engineering and other consulting services and operate in more than 90 countries.

Coach Kim Wright works his magic during a game in Lloydminster while Mindy Meger opens the gate for a shift change.

Photos by Geoff Lee

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PIPELINE NEWS November 2009

NEW STATION IN WEYBURN

PIPELINE NEWS November 2009

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Need for thrift drives business to Gosselin Pipe and Steel

A yard loader shifts some pipe in the storage and handling yard at Gosselin Pipe and Steel.

Photos submitted

Wainwright, Alta. – Gosselin Pipe and Steel in Wainwright, Alta., has carved out a successful niche as a buyer and seller of new and reconditioned oilfield pipe and production equipment priced for all budgets.

“For small companies starting out drilling two, three or five wells, this is right up their alley,” said Barry Gosselin who runs the company with his wife Connie who handles the bookkeeping and his oldest son Cole as operations manager.

“Reconditioned equipment is almost brand new as it is. The bigger companies purchase it as well because it’s a cost saving.”

The inventory ranges from new and reconditioned casing and tubing and line and drill pipe in all grades to refurbished oilfield equipment such as pump jacks, tanks, drivers and other processing and production equipment.

“Over the years we’ve built up a clientele list of many major and junior oil

companies in western Canada and the U.S.,” said Gosselin.

“The companies send us their surplus equipment listings that they have for sale. We recondition and resell it.

The value of the equipment is relative to the condition it’s in when you buy. If it’s beyond repair, it’s salvage material.

“We sub-contract the reconditioned work to different companies. We don’t have the time for it and they are set up for it. They are certified shops and they supply a warranty with their work as well.”

Gosselin Pipe and Steel has a huge 50-acre handling yard and pipe storage facility in Wainwright with logistics services available for delivery to location if required.

The company also operates a used and reconditioned tank yard in Lloydminster and business is steady at all locations in the current cost-conscious market.

“The used market is good especially

when the economic times are like they are – when everyone is trying to save a dollar,” said Gosselin. “We didn’t slow too much during the downturn. We had a month or two – but we were fairly steady.

“In our business tubulars are always in demand. There are existing wells that need to be maintained. Tubulars are always moving – not quite as much as when they are drilling but the wells still have to be serviced.”

Gosselin Pipe and Steel buys and sells a lot of tubular products with U.S. customers.

Overall product sales in western Canada are strongest in Saskatchewan and in Alberta where lower natural gas prices have slowed the movement of their new specialty J55 stainless steel lined production tubing.

“It’s a new product in the industry,” said Gosselin. “There is no comparison with the longevity between what is on the market now and this material.

“It’s quite a unique product but sales have leveled off. It’s more expensive than your conventional tubing but when companies get back into drilling deeper wells and sour gas they turn to this again.”

It will also take higher oil prices for the Gosselin family company to signifi-

cantly expand again soon after enjoying exceptional growth in lockstep with the oil and gas industry in western Canada.

“We see maintaining the business at the same level,” said Gosselin who started the company in 1991 following in the footstep of his dad who worked in the steel industry.

“The family had always been in the steel business one way or another.

We were into the structural steel market (tubing) and we got into the reusable and downhole end of it and we’ve branched out.

“Business increases and decreases according to the market. We never really expand unless the price of oil goes up.

The company has grown tremendously.

“Over the last five to 10 years it’s probably tripled. Everyone is always looking to save a dollar and get their wells up and running at a reasonable cost.

“It’s popular with the junior companies especially. They are not on the same playing field as the majors. They really look forward to buying reconditioned equipment.

“There is a limited warranty on reconditioned depending on the type of equipment and the application that they might be putting it to.”

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PIPELINE NEWS November 2009

Pink Ninja provides promotional services Lloydminster – Pink Ninja Promotions is in the business of promoting other businesses and has recently moved from the home front to a storefront on 50 Ave. in Lloy-

dminster to do that better.

The company store is owned Paul Hart and is a one-stop shop for embroidered, digitized and silk screen printed logos

and images on casual and oilfield clothing and novelty items – with everything produced in-house.

The doors opened at the beginning September and Hart says “things are

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“Right now, the biggest part of the business is screen printing of shirts.

Embroidery is busy as well.

“We do everything in-house so if someone comes in and wants a couple of hats embroidered they can also get a matching shirt silk screened. We can do it while you are waiting.”

Ninja specializes in custom web design and hosting and is the developer of the current web site for the Pipeline News (www.pipelinenews.ca) that features a real time oil price graphic and an on-line view of the monthly publication.

Ninja has acquired a following for all of its web and promotional services from customers who have done business with Ninja since its startup as a home-based operation in 2004.

It also helps that Hart used to work as a supervisor for a couple well known oil companies in Lloydminster before getting into business and is a familiar personality in the oil patch community.

“I got to know a few people especially the guys at small oilfield supply companies when I worked in the oilfield,” he said.

Hart can also count on drawing some hockey players and fans into his store for team photography and customers who

Paul Hart offers custom web design and hosting services to customers.

Photos by Geoff Lee

remember him as the guy who sang “Oh Canada” at Lloydminster Bobcats’ and Bandits’ games.

“Paul is a phenomenal singer and guitar player – all self taught,” said his wife Leslie with a smile.

In fact, he was picked to open a show for country singer Adam Gregory in Wainwright in 2002.

Hart has also performed at Klondike Days and various community rodeos.

This year, he is the in-ring announcer for the Evolution Fighting Championships in Lloydminster Having a catchy company name like Pink

Ninja is also good for name recognition in business.

“I think our name has been around long enough that people know what we do and who we are.

We have a unique name,” said Hart.

“We had the van running around with the big pink ninja on the side of it. It got to the point where we were doing enough web design where we could open up a store.

“Transitioning hasn’t been a big deal. All of our equipment was in our basement.

Hart says the decision to start a store was helped by the closure of a local competitor and the easing of the recession.

“It seemed like a good opportunity. The timing is everything – opening before Christmas. We’re in a good location with good signage,” he said.

“We have a fairly big building for the type of business that we are in.

No one else has a shop like this. You can come in a see everything out front.

Initially, most of the store customers were friends, family and wellwishers but Hart says “we’ve got a good crowd of oilfield customers starting to come here.”

Ninja has its own supplier of oilfield fireretardant clothing including coveralls, hats, shirts and hoodies that can be labeled with embroidered or digitized name tags or corporate logos whileyou-wait. ɸ Page A27

PIPELINE NEWS November 2009

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Painted Pony drilling in Bakken

Saskpower The groundwork is being prepared for SaskPower’s 140 megawatt gas turbine generating station located on a 40-acre site in the southeast area of Parson’s Industrial Park in North Battleford.

Photo by Geoff Lee

Promotional services ɺ Page A26 “The clothing is all up to code,” said Hart.” It’s what companies are required to wear now. Our clothing is priced very competitively.”

The store is also working on the launch of a line of active women wear called Ninja Gear that will sport the bright pink Ninja logo.

Ninja can add any type of artwork or labels to mechanics’ work wear, medical scrubs, lab coats, chefs clothing and even traffic vests.

The company uses a four-colour silk screener, a

12-head embroidery machine and two single head embroidery machines to handle any job quickly. Their shop is also equipped with a heat press and vinyl cutters for decals and signs.

“We are one of the only people doing promotional products in-house such as golf ball printing inhouse so we control the cost,” said Hart.

The shop is also equipped for printing on hockey pucks and poker chips – and for printing business cards.

“We are the home of the $59 business card,” said Hart. “You get 500 cards for $59.”

Painted Pony Petroleum Ltd. carried out an active third quarter horizontal Bakken development drilling program with the drilling of seven (6.3 net) wells. Six of these oil wells (six net) have been placed on production.

In the first three quarters of 2009, Painted Pony has participated in the drilling of 11 (10.3 net) horizontal Bakken oil wells and one (0.5 net) conventional gas well.

In addition, during the third quarter of 2009, the company closed four acquisitions of undeveloped land and Bakken production at a cost of $14 million (before adjustments), primarily in the company’s core Midale/ Huntoon area.

During the last quarter of this year, Painted Pony said it expects to drill an additional seven (4.3 net) wells targeting the Bakken formation.

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PIPELINE NEWS November 2009

Farmers and motorists drive wheat-based ethanol plant Unity – North West Bio-Energy Ltd. (NWBE), a subsidiary of North West Terminal in Unity aims to fuel the local farm and business economy with the production of 25 million litres of ethanol a year from wheat for blending with gasoline.

Since the plant was commissioned Aug. 19, it is already running at full capacity with the potential to earn a profit.

It has also generated a local market for farmers, high paying jobs for 23 plant workers and spinoffs for related businesses.

The project is well timed for the fuel economy since all unleaded gasoline sold for the last two years in Saskatchewan contains a mini-

mum blend of 7.5 per cent ethanol.

“We shipped out our first ethanol on Sept. 1 and we ramped to 100 per cent on Sept. 13,” said Jason Skinner, CEO of North West Terminal, a farmer-owned inland grain terminal.

“We were able to get to 100 per cent in a matter of three weeks so we were pretty happy with that.

“We are creating another market for farmers in the area which is important. The more markets you have the better price you can get for wheat. We are hoping to see stronger prices in the area.”

NWBE will purchase up to 68,000 metric tonnes of high yield wheat per year from area

farmers for use in ethanol production.

“Our area is a surplus producer of grains,” said Skinner. “As we went out to raise money for the plant we sold shares in an area a lot larger than our immediate area. We have seen that translate into more grain for the grain side of our business.”

The operation of the $52 million ethanol facility fits a long-term goal of the company to diversify from its main business of exporting farm grain and focus on adding market value to its grain products.

“One of the things we wanted was to see more value-added locally and create more opportunities for our farmers,” said Skinner. ɸ Page A29

Grain buyer Bart Brown sifts distillers’ grains, left pile, a by-product from wheat in the right pile, used for ethanol production. Photo by Geoff Lee

PIPELINE NEWS November 2009

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25 million litres of ethanol a year ɺ Page A28 “We were very dependent on exporting grain.

Probably 90 per cent of our revenue comes from that source. The long term goal of our company is to continue down that road.

“Too often in Canada, we ship out the raw product and don’t add any value to it.”

NWBE has two feed inputs and uses wheat primarily for making ethanol and wheat chaff or biomass for generating the thermal energy of the facility.

“We are fortunate that we have the flexibility to use the biomass or natural gas or a combination of the two for a heat source,” said Skinner.

“If we can get up to five per cent chaff in the wheat that we use in our boilers, that’s enough energy to run our plant for the full year.

“We want to start ‘incenting’ our farmers to leave more chaff in their grain. Part of that will be paying them for that chaff which will create another revenue stream off of the farm.”

NWBE also plans to produce 24,000 metric tonnes of distillers’ grains a year as a value-added high protein by-product used to feed cattle and dairy cows. The distillers’ grains are dried using recycled heat from the boiler.

Ethanol is made by disc milling the grain that is mixed with water and enzymes to break down the starch cells into glucose. Yeast is added in fermenting to convert the sugar to ethyl alcohol and distilled to a pure alcohol.

At the Unity plant, ethanol is mixed with one per cent gasoline prior to being shipped by truck to blending stations in Saskatoon and Regina.

“We are a natural backhaul in Unity for trucks that have bought gasoline from Saskatoon and Regina to bring ethanol back to their blending stations,” said Skinner.

“It works well for the fuel suppliers. Instead of

The bio-energy plant has several ethanol storage tanks. The product is shipped by truck to blending stations.

Photo submitted.

going back empty, now they are going back full.”

Skinner says more than 70 jobs were created during the two-year construction phase of the project that has brought more than 10 new families to town to work at the facility.

“I’d like to think we have helped to generate a bit of work for the welding and machine shops and the material supply shops,” he added. “We are in steady demand for belts and bearings.”

Funding for the project included a $5 million repayable contribution for the federal government and up to $2.5 million in repayable funds from the Saskatchewan Biofuels Investment Opportunity.

Another $13.6 million was raised by North West

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Terminal through a share offering and the rest was financed.

“There are two ways our shareholders benefit from the project,” said Skinner. “One is by the delivery grain to us and getting paid for that grain. We are a company with shares, so if we are making money we will issue dividends.

“Looking forward we are thinking a little bit about starting co-generating our own power at some point using biomass. Three to five years down the road, that’s a project that might make sense to us.”

The plant also produces CO2 that Skinner says could be used one day for enhanced oil recovery or for making dry ice or soda drinks.

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A30

PIPELINE NEWS November 2009

Lined tubing from Flint adopted by major heavy oil producers Ed Quinn shows off new EZ Flow lined tubing made by Flint Tubular Management Services Ltd. The tubing is mechanically inserted into various diameter pipe.

Lloydminster – The product booth of Flint Tubular Management Services Ltd. was a familiar one especially to production engineers attending the 16th annual Lloydminster Heavy Oil Technical Symposium held Sept.

16-17.

Companies such as Nexen, Canadian Natural Resources Ltd.,

D E D h TEN 0t

EXTO NOV. 1

Harvest Energy, Enerplus Resources and Encana are among those using Flint’s new EZ Flow lined tubing that protects tubing from corrosion and chemical wear in water injection and disposal wells.

“It’s a product that is run very extensively in the heavy oil areas of western Canada where you have premature tubing failure,” said sales manager Ed Quinn.

“The applications are multi-purpose. In the Lloydminster area and south, a lot of oil companies are running it in their PC pumping applications to prevent rod wear and premature tubing failure.

“It’s also run extensively in water injection and disposal wells to provide an internal corrosion barrier from the high brine salt fluids. It extends the tubing life’s potential.

The tubing liner is an ultra high-density polyethylene resin manufactured in Houston, Texas. It’s shipped in a bead form to Flint’s manufacturing facility in Nisku where it is extruded and mechanically inserted into tubing.

The liner won’t flake, crack or chip and is virtually rig proof meaning it won’t suffer damage while inserting tubing joints or tripping pipe.

Lined string can also be used as a work string and is compatible with stimulation fluids according to the product brochure.

Quinn says the product has been well received as producers operating with high water cuts discover the lined tubing can extend the life of their tubing string “from one to five years depending on the conditions.

“Another big advantage is the capital output cost for a lined tubing string versus a

coated string or alternatives is lower,” said Quinn.

“In times when oil prices get down to where they were at in the year, guys are looking to save every nickel they can.

“We’ve been reasonable steady with sales right through the spring and summer. The liner has performed exceptionally well in the applications that it’s been run.”

The EZ Flow liner can also be used for gas gathering flow lines and for injection wells in SAGD (steam assisted gravity drainage) operations. Flint makes a variety of high temperature liners up to 160 C. In addition to liners, Flint offers a range of services for the energy industry from fullblown tubing inspection and repair and sucker rod reconditioning to sucker rod guide manufacturing. They also do full drill pipe inspections, hard banding on drill pipe and casing inspections.

Quinn says Flint is a big supporter of the Lloydminster Petroleum Society and the annual petroleum symposium that gives his company a chance to get product information to production engineers.

“The show gives us more visibility for some of our products,” he said. “It’s helped us to market some of our products.

“We recently started to import a clone to what’s called a drive rod – a high end sucker rod with a thread extension on the pin that can help in rod pumping and PC pumping to give strength to the sucker rod string and prevent premature failures.

“A lot of our sucker rods are well accepted in all areas of the energy industry in western Canada”

PIPELINE NEWS November 2009

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PIPELINE NEWS November 2009

PIPELINE NEWS Saskatchewan’s Petroleum Monthly

B-Section November 2009

Directional driller tackles utilities work in North Battleford

Mobile mechanic Lyle Day tightens bolts on a mud motor pump underneath a directional boring machine.

By Geoff Lee North Battleford – M.C. Campbell Directional Boring Ltd. demonstrated its ability to provide quick and efficient trenchless solutions for the growing public utility market at two job sites toured by the Pipeline News in North Battleford in mid-October.

At the first stop, crews were working on four bores totaling 600-metres in length to install a 2-inch conduit with a fibre optic cable and 4-inch spare conduit for SaskTel. The work entailed everything required to install duct, cable, pedestals, cabinets and laterals for SaskTel at the new Norsask Farm Equipment shop east of the city on Highway 16.

“To complete the job we have to trench, bore and bury the lines,” said foreman Ryan Power. “We also have to cross Highway 16 and the CN train tracks as well.

Power says boring for utilities can be just as difficult or as easy as pipeline work, depending on the soil conditions.

“It’s all underground conditions. Here, it was actually quite tough,” he said. “There were a lot of rocks and sand. Depending on the soil it can be easy or as hard as rock.”

M.C. Campbell uses True-Bore mud mixed into a slurry to assist with the drilling. It’s a clay mixture that helps to stabilize the hole and keep it from

sloughing. It’s also 100 per cent environmentally friendly.

Crews also park an environmental trailer on site in case of what Power refers to as a frac out.

“What happens is when we are drilling maybe the hole sloughs in on us – pressure builds up, mud comes to the surface and we have to clean it up so we have straw bales and a straw fence and sand bags to contain it,” he said.

Other vehicles used to complete the five-day project were a skid steer, a trackhoe, a 2720 Ditch Witch boring machine and a Vermeer hydrovac.

“The hydrovac is used to expose lines so we know what the depths are in order to cross them,” said Power. “It exposes around pedestals so we don’t contact any existing lines.”

M.C. Campbell has a fleet of 17 trucks, seven directional drills varying from 15,000 lb pullback to 40,000lb, one mini excavator, one rubber tired hoe, 12 trailers and one hydrovac and experienced crews.

“A few of them are quite new,” said Power.

“Dustin Nicholson, the trackhoe operator, is in his first year. He’s learned how to run a drill already and has gotten quite good at it.

“Kent Sayers has just started with us. He’s our foreman and salesman at the same time. He started three months ago.

“We have some long-term employees who have been with us since day one and have over 10 years of

experience. These are good guys who know how to do everything in the directional boring industry.

“Safety is huge. We do a tailgate meeting every morning and every month we have a safety meeting.”

M.C. Campbell operates from Lloydminster and North Battleford and provides boring services to pipeline contractors, oil and gas companies and water and sewer contractors with a growing and list of clients in western Canada.

“It has gotten steadier and steadier and busier and busier,” said Power. “The only thing that has slowed down on us is the pipeline work. It’s a little bit slower than usual. We’ve taken on this utility work to supplement the rest of the business.

“We go wherever the work is. Buffalo Narrrows is our next stop. We are putting in fibre optics for a large portion of the community there. There will be lots of trenching and plowing and tons of directional boring.”

The company was purchased by Ryan’s dad, Des Power, five years ago from the previous owner Martin Campbell. The original name stuck to help grow the established business.

“Utility work has played a big part in our growth here,” said Power. “Des, our boss and manager, has a lot of contacts in the field and has supplied us with quite a bit of work. He’s helped us get quite a bit of pipeline work and utility work.” ɸ Page B2

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PIPELINE NEWS November 2009

Providing trenchless solutions ɺ Page B1 Utility work was the case at the second job site that involved boring a 200-metre section of a 6-inch poly gas pipeline for Dwight’s Trenching.

Dwight’s was plowing a line for SaskEnergy to feed gas to the construction site of SaskPower’s 140 megawatt natural gas turbine plant in the southeast area Parson Industrial Park.

“There are a bunch of existing cables that they don’t want to dig up,” said Power. “They use us because Dwight’s doesn’t have any boring machines and digging it up near all these existing line is too risky. There are two power lines, a water line and a couple of phone lines buried.

“For this job, we use the Vermeers 3650. It’s a one day job.”

Dwight’s foreman Darrick Winterhalt says M.C. Campbell does a lot of directional boring for them including several crossings for the SaskEn-

ergy project.

‘We have a one-year contract with SaskEnergy,” he said. “This (poly pipe) is a two week job and we will be done tomorrow. “Once the gas is turned on our job here is done.

“We will plow the line with a couple of Cats. To complete the job, we have a Cat excavator, our fusion gear and some small equipment.”

The main gas lines to the co-generation will be bored underneath the Battle and North Saskatchewan rivers during the winter and a steel gas transmission line will be installed next summer.

“After this we will do in-house servicing for residential housing” said Winterhalt. “Then we will bounce off and do another job.

“We are swamped.

What’s keeping us busy is not the oilfield. It’s the utilities. The oilfield is starting to pick up now.

“We have guys spread out from Moose Jaw and

Foreman Darrick Winterhalt from Dwight’s Trenching confers with M.C. Campbell foreman Ryan Power at a project site where both companies are working together.

Swift Current up to Prince Albert and Kindersley.

We are working for SaskPower, SaskEnergy and SaskTel. “We haven’t slowed down. We still had five or six crews working most of the time. The work just keeps coming in.”

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Hyrdovac operator Barry Scheske exposes existing cable lines.

PIPELINE NEWS November 2009

B3

SaskEnergy’s gas rate cut could back¿re advises Future Now rival eford.

“We are very excited for this upcoming year and we will start our marketing a lot earlier than we did in the previous years.

“There will be more awareness and we hit more on the media and let people know that they do have an option.

Tim Cimmer, president of Future Now.

By Geoff Lee Battleford – SaskEnergy’s plan to reduce the price of natural gas effective Nov.1, 2009 from $5.96 per Gigajoule to $5.21 /GJ may cost customers more than they will save in the long run.

That’s the opinion of Tim Cimmer, president and CEO of Future Now Energy Inc., an independent natural gas retailer who sees natural gas rising during the winter.

That’s why he won’t follow SaskEnergy’s lead and lower his rate soon for his residential and commercial customers in Saskatchewan.

“Lowering the rates for winter like that – they got a lot of pressure from the government that doesn’t understand how gas works,” said Cimmer.

“Whatever that market rate is, they hedge their gas for six months to a year. They purchase that on behalf of their customers along with whatever overhead costs are and they pass that along. They are not in the gas buying business. They are a gas deliverer.”

The expected rate adjustment will reduce annual average bills for

SaskEnergy’s residential customers by $54 and the former farm customer class by $106.

“It didn’t faze me that they would do that,” said Cimmer. “They may have to come back with a gas cost recovery, because if you look at the futures market, throughout the winter prices are higher even though inventories are up.”

SaskEnergy applied to the Saskatchewan Rate Review Panel for the rate adjustment that represents a 12 per cent decrease and will be the lowest rate for their customers in more than eight years. There could also be a modest delivery rate hike in January 2010.

“I don’t have a crystal ball on gas prices so I am going to see how the winter plays out,” said Cimmer whose company previously boasted the lower gas rates in the province at $5.89/GJ. “If rates rise in the winter, SaskEnergy will have to collect the money they lost in the winter, so they will have to raise the rates next spring.

“I am going to wait.

I am not going to jump into anything. More than

likely, I won’t follow suit but I may follow with a rebate to my customers in the spring if rates stay low throughout the winter.

“I like to play more of the waiting game and have things happen rather than jump to conclusions.”

Future Now remitted large rebate cheques to some of its residential and commercial gas customers this past summer after lowering its spring 2009 rate when SaskEnergy was granted a rate cut from $8.51/GJ to $5.96/GJ and issued rebates to its customers.

Cimmer presented the Town of Battleford with a rebate cheque for $18,035 as part of a summer rebate publicity blitz.

The cheques were a marketing boon for the Calgary-based company that must sign up new customers by Sept. 1 each year in order for SaskEnergy to flow gas to them

by Nov. 1 under Saskatchewan’s commodity competition rules.

“We have about 10 times our customer base now,” said Cimmer who also has an office in his home town of Battl-

We will try to explain that option to them and let them choose.”

As a result of deregulation, gas wholesalers and retailers such as Future Now can purchase or produce natural gas at the wellhead and sell directly to consumers and businesses using the local utility such as

SaskEnergy that bills all customers.

“It’s been a really a good success in Saskatchewan,” said Cimmer. “Customers are glad they have choice. Being from Saskatchewan, I am going to do my best to make my customers happy. ɸ Page B4

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B4

PIPELINE NEWS November 2009

Arm lifts pipe, reduces bending

By Brian Zinchuk Weyburn – Seeing a need to improve on the catwalks used by service rigs, Catwalk Services of Weyburn struck out with a new design in 2006.

The catwalks have an air-tank operated arm that lifts up the joint to waist level, meaning the rig hands don’t have to bend over nearly as far as usual to get a hold of the pipe.

“It was my husband’s innovation. He built the first in 2006,” Cathy Walker, proprietor, says.

The company has since built a total of four catwalks, two in 2008. They built the first two in-house, and contracted out construction of the second two.

Allan Walker, Cathy’s late husband, was a service rig consultant. He passed away in 2007.

“This was kind of his dream,” she says. He started it as a way to ease out of consulting.

Walker delivers the catwalks to the location with her one-tonne Ford. By doing so, it frees up a rig hand from having to move the catwalk for a service rig.

This year has not been as busy as 2008 for the

firm. “I’m optimistic,” she says. All I want is my share of the work.”

The company name – Catwalk, is not just a description of the product, but a derivation of Cathy Walker’s name. “Not too many people see that,” she notes.

She’s been in Weyburn for 12 years, after a year in Moosomin. She grew up near Virden.

When she’s not pulling around a catwalk, you’ll find Walker on her Harley Davidson Sportster. “I rode a bike years ago. With my first child, I gave up the bike,” she says, noting she missed it a lot. Her husband had also given up his, but in 2001, bought a new one. She bought her own in 2007. She took part in the 23rd Annual North Dakota Ladies Run this year, 1,200 km over a three day weekend.

The centre line of this catwalk contains a lift which will boost a joint up to waist level, reducing the amount of bending rig hands have to do.

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ɺ Page B3 SaskEnergy purchases its customers’ natural gas on the open market, with no markup or profit factored into commodity rates.

“SaskEnergy makes their money on delivery and billing whereas we are the gas supplier,” said Cimmer.

“I can watch that market a lot closer and react to it a lot quicker because I am able to.

“We either drill for the gas or buy the gas at certain market times. We can fluctuate daily for our customers.

“We have customers in all four corners of the province. With what we are seeing this year – unless something drastic happens – our rebates will be in the $millions in the upcoming year.”

Future Now also operates in Ohio and is expanding into New Jersey and Pennsylvania – all deregulated American states and British Columbia and Manitoba will be his next Canadian growth targets.

The company also has plans to acquire up to 30 wells in Saskatchewan to provide gas to customers who own the mineral rights on the land.

“We can work with the farmer to put wells on his land and supply gas,” said Cimmer. “We have the infrastructure to take that gas and midstream it and deliver it back to him by SaskEnergy to his residence or commercial place.

“We are working with the people who own the mineral rights and creating certain partnerships to have this done as quickly as possible.

“I think it will be a great niche to have our own customers have their gas supplied to them.”

PIPELINE NEWS November 2009

B5

B6

PIPELINE NEWS November 2009

Seismic pace heats up in SE Sask. „ By Brian Zinchuk Estevan – Southeast Saskatchewan is seeing increased seismic survey activity this fall, according to the man who sells the explosives for it.

Jim Wilson of Wil-Tech Industries Ltd. in Estevan says seismic activity has increase extensively. WilTech is the Explosives Limited agency for the region, putting Wilson in a good position to feel the pulse of the seismic business. “We anticipate and see the largest seismic season in a long time,� he says. Until recently, it was primarily in the quest of potash, now it’s more for oil.

Seismic surveys are performed either by using explosives or giant vibrating trucks to send vibrations down into the ground. Strings of microphones called geophones laid along the ground detect the reections of these vibrations as they bounce o various formations underground. “You will not see seismic without drilling to follow,â€? Wilson says.

Three-dimensional seismic is becoming increasingly prevalent, and Mark Leringer of LXL consulting says they are doing a lot of it in southeast Saskatchewan. “It’s certainly very busy in Saskatchewan,â€? Leringer told Pipeline News. Leringer is one of the partners in the geophysical consulting ďŹ rm. They don’t own any seismic equipment, but rather subcontract the

work out. They have about 20 consultants on sta. “We design the play, we design the seismic depending on how much land they have and how much they want to spend.â€?

Leringer says they typically do $30 to $40 million of seismic annually. That’s down by half this year, but of the remaining half, two-thirds is in Saskatchewan. “Saskatchewan is where everyone wants to go.

Everyone’s mad at Stelmach here,� Leringer says from his Calgary base.

He says the level of activity in Saskatchewan is deďŹ nitely higher than recent years, even higher than 2008, the year that seemed to set records for almost everything else in the patch.

He notes the activity level is so high, getting approval paperwork processed in Regina that used to take a few weeks has gone up to 45 days. “They’re swamped,� he says.

Usually there is a six month lag time between shooting seismic to actual drilling, he notes. “Once people bid on mineral rights, they have a certain amount of time to explore, either seismic or drilling, but they have to do it, or they lose the land.� “We’re doing a fairly large program,� he says, noting they are working for eight clients. They are not a “spec operator,� doing seismic work on a speculative basis and then hopefully selling it to interested parties.

Much of the work is three dimensional. Seismic

lines are laid in a grid, sometimes very large ones. “For us, we’ve got 10 projects over 40 square miles in Saskatchewan,� Leringer says.

Each township is 36 square miles. Leringer speaks of projects with grids up to 60 square miles in size. “Seismic works extremely well for tracing the Bakken,� Leringer says. He notes three-dimensional seismic work is expensive – about $50,000 to $60,000 per square mile, but that pales in comparison to the potential value of minerals found.

The action is primarily in southeast Saskatchewan, pushed by the Bakken play, he says, but there are companies looking at the Viking zone around Kerrobert.

One of the areas being done is right along the U.S. border, where Sarah Alexander and her husband Allan have farm land. She grew up just four miles west of North Portal and within a mile of the border.

Her family farm home quarter is one of the parcels being surveyed. When visited by the landman, she was shown maps of the areas they are surveying. “It’s a large area they’re doing, from North Portal, west.� “They’re doing the whole area, taking an in-depth look at the countryside. He showed me a map that’s a big chunk,� Alexander said.

On her paperwork, it notes the operator is Connaught Energy. Coincidentally, the day Pipeline News spoke to Leringer, Connaught sold to Glamis Resources Ltd. Glamis itself is being renamed Legacy Oil & Gas.

Tierra Alta sets up shop Swift Current - Coiled rod service company Tierra Alta reports things are looking up, and the ďŹ rm has just set up a shop in Swift Current.

Things are picking up substantially, according to Tierra Alta’s Rick Joyes. “We had our best day, best week and best month in September,� Joyes told Pipeline News on Sept.

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Tierra Alta runs, pulls and sell coiled rod, and runs a eet of TMX trucks in that endeavour.

The company is currently constructing a plant in Edmonton, a mirror of its Venezuelan plant. “We deďŹ nitely experienced the dip everyone else did,â€? he says of the ďŹ rst half of the year. From June 1 forward, that’s when their growth took o.

It coincided with the relocation of a TMX unit to Swift Current, from the Lloydminster region.

That unit services not only the Swift Current area, but southeast Saskatchewan as well. “At some point in 2010, we will have equipment located in Estevan or Weyburn full time,� he says.

A large part of the industry is tied to drilling, Joyes notes. On the service side, if they are not drilling, their production is dropping every day due to declines. “If you’re not going to drill, you better be ďŹ xing to maintain a at curve,â€? he says.

Joyes provides an example of a successful well using coiled rod: “A large Canadian oil and gas producer in southeast Saskatchewan has a well that had required nine rod/tubing failure related interventions in a period of 15 months while using conventional coupled rod.

Total expenditures for these nine interventions were in excess of $270,000. “A coiled rod string (Pro-rod) was run by Tierra Alta into this well in May of 2007, and the well has been pumping ever since with no intervention required.�

They have subsequently run coiled rod into an additional ďŹ ve wells, including a well where the pump was successfully lowered further into the horizontal leg to increase production.â€?

PIPELINE NEWS November 2009

B7

Pengrowth piloting SAGD Lloydminster – Pengrowth Corporation’s presentation at the 16th annual Lloydminster Heavy Oil Technical Symposium Sept. 16-17 could have been called a lesson in pilot training.

Officially, the topic was “Lindbergh SAGD from Simulation to Pilot” and outlined Pengrowth’s use of computer modeling to design a steam pilot project on their Lindbergh property before committing an estimated $135 million to make it commercially operational.

The Lindbergh pilot site is located 30 kilometres south of Bonnyville and covers 32 sections of land with reserves in place estimated at 1.7 billion barrels of oil from bitumen.

Pengrowth hopes to recover 260 million barrels of oil beginning with a 2,500 bbls a day commercial pilot as noted in their original application to the Energy Resources Conservation Board last spring.

The proposed startup of the SAGD (Steam Assisted Gravity Drainage) pilot has been pushed back from its previous 2009 target to 2011 at the earliest.

“The purpose of the pilot will be to evaluate how much oil we can get out from a single well pair and use that information to design a successful commercial SAGD project,” said presenter Neil Cameron, a sub surface engineer.

SAGD involves drilling two parallel horizontally spaced wells with steam injected into the shallower well where it heats the bitumen that flows by gravity to the deeper producing well.

The original pilot design consisted of eight modeled well pairs located 2 metres above bottom water and spaced at different depths to test scenarios using a computer model and analysis.

Some of the scenarios involved studying the ability of a steam chamber to operate with a range of oil viscosities and determining the most suitable well pair spacing.

The goal was to obtain confidence in the pilot design that would optimize well placement for maximum oil recovery using SAGD. “The original design was for an eight well pair pilot project but the project may have to be scaled down

in order to make it more affordable to fund it with cash flow,” said Cameron.

“We choose eight well pairs initially because if there was a mistake or a problem, it gives us more versatility around potential options.

“It would also help us with our well pads so we could get all of our drilling out of the way at once and wouldn’t have to come in later and drill into an existing steam chamber.”

Cameron produced a series of charts and graphs showing the results of different testing that helps Pengrowth to understand the reservoir before funding the pilot.

“We figure the most effective way to start the pilot is to do two or three well pairs at 100m with 5m in between the injector and the producer, located 3m above the bottom water,” said Cameron.

“We will use that information to drill additional well pairs when we get more cash flow.”

When the pilot goes ahead, Pengrowth will incorporate a new observation well into the mix to establish how the steam chamber is developing near the horizontal well pairs. Pengrowth currently has three observation wells on site.

“It’s a system of pressure sensors and thermal couple that tells you what the pressure is at the injector, the producer and what the temperatures are between those points so you can figure out how effectively the steam chamber is growing,” said Cameron.

Cameron said Pengrowth could drill without a pilot as some other companies have done but he says “sometimes they find there are other problems with the reservoir they didn’t know about.

“It’s a way for us to get a small feel for what the reservoir and recovery is going to be and use that to develop a commercial project that will be more successful.

“It will give us the opportunity to test some other things like a water treatment facility while we are at the pilot stage.”

Pengrowth purchased the land in 2003 from Murphy Oil Corporation that had some success using cyclic steam stimulation.

Neil Cameron from Pengrowth outlined a simulation steam project at the Lloydminster heavy oil symposium.

“We are trying to blend that in with what we know about the geology and seismic to make an effective pilot,” said Cameron.

“The biggest problem we have encountered is how to get information from other oil producers and trying to figure out where they are starting from and what problems they are having.

“Our current facility was left kind of shut down, so lots of the existing equipment needs to be refurbished.

That’s been an expensive process.’

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B8

PIPELINE NEWS November 2009

Guyed rigs going the you don’t want to put an anchor in a gas line,” explains Matt O’Neill, area manager for Precision Well Serving in Estevan, explaining the anchoring of a guyed rig.

“With a lot of sour [gas] around here, you hit a pipeline, and that’ll drop you.”

“More and more companies are going with zero ground disturbance.”

Typically an anchor company can do its line locates themselves, he notes. “If you call today and say we’ll be rigging up tomorrow, most anchor trucks will be there,” he says. The expense comes out of the oil company’s pocket.

It doesn’t take long to put in anchors, he notes, from as little as half an hour to as long as two, with an hour being a usual duration. But with a free-standing rig, there is no need for the anchor truck to come in for the set up, or to return to the lease when you’re done.

“When you rig out and leave the location, no one else has to do anything.”

Most leases are teardrop shaped, allowing the farmer to make use of the outside of the lease.

However, installing an anchor can mean venturing into the planted area, which can be problematic if it’s wet and soft.

In the winter, there could be a snow drift. “Tak-

ing a dually truck into a field sometimes can hurt relationships,” O’Neill notes.

“When you freestand something, you do lose some of the pulling ability of the rig,” O’Neill explains, saying it lowers the rating on the rig a little bit. However, “We haven’t had an issue,” he adds.

“It’s like fishing line – you got 20-lbs test. The customer is told what the rig is capable of.”

“It’s not really us pushing the free-stands.

It’s coming from the oil companies,” O’Neill explains. They save money on anchors, and it gives the service rigs the ability to do more work.

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Story and photos by Brian Zinchuk Estevan – For stability, the derrick on a service rig can’t be allowed to flop around.

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There’s a trend in service rigs to free-standing units, where anchors are no longer necessary. Precision Well Servicing in Estevan is finishing up conversions on its active fleet, and plans to convert more units as they return to work.

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PIPELINE NEWS November 2009

B9

Busy place of the Dodo bird way ɺ Page B8 “Production work around here is very quick, ‘We need you now,’ type of work.”

Because Precision has absorbed numerous companies over the years, each with different designs for their rigs, they needed a one-size fits all approach, a design that would work with their various rigs without putting a lot of weight on.

The solution is in aircraft grade aluminum, using steel inserts as needed.

Of the 12 rigs Precision has active in Estevan, all but one are converted, and the remaining unit will be done eventually. There are a number of rigs along the fence that will eventually be converted when demand picks up.

Oilfield Design Manufacturing designed a specialized lightweight free-standing conversion kit. It

takes about 10 days to do a conversion. Sometimes repairs or modifications are done on the rig while the conversion is being done. In this case, they moved the driller’s controls and BOPS controls to an elevated platform, raising it from ground level.

The outrigger arm is aluminum, as is the turnbuckle and beam assembly. The beam directly under the rig is steel.

John Barkemeyer, a shop foreman with Precision who is working on the conversions, points out that the aluminum is so much lighter, that one man can lift the aluminum beam and turnbuckle. “That’s how much metallurgy has changed in the last five years,” he says.

Stainless steel inserts at the pins act as wear plates.

“As needed, we keep doing them,” O’Neill says of the conversions. Any new rig in this area is a freestanding telescoping double, he notes, and therefore they need to keep up with the competition.

SURFACE BIT RENTAL QUALITY RERUN & RETIP 24 HR SERVICE Matt O’Neill is the area manager for Precision Well Servicing in Estevan. Behind him are rigs that are candidates for eventual conversion to free-standing units.

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PIPELINE NEWS November 2009

France-Canada CO2 conference in Regina Regina – Saskatchewan will be hosting a bi-lateral carbon capture conference with France Nov. 16-17,

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They are organizing the first France-Canada Carbon Capture and Storage (CCS) Conference in Canada. The Office of Energy and Environment at the University of Regina is assisting with the development of the Saskatchewan component. Meetings will take place in Regina, Edmonton and Calgary.

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conference, covered over two-and-ahalf days, will feature presentations from prominent researchers and industry experts from both countries on current and planned CCS demonstration-scale projects, research findings, and the latest technologies. Attendance is by invitation only.

The France-Canada CCS Conference was initially instigated at the request of the French Embassy in Ottawa, to help strengthen and establish contacts between French and Canadian researchers, as well as French and Canadian companies conducting work in CCS. Sessions on the agenda include migrating enhanced oil recovery to carbon capture and storage, technology gaps, regulatory issues and deep saline storage of CO2.

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B11

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Pipeline News reader Elaine Schrader of Weyburn writes, “New York may be the city that ‘never sleeps,’ but those involved in the Bakken play in the Kisbey area can claim the same distinction!� She took these photos two miles west of Kisbey in September. Have an interesting photo you’d like to see in Pipeline News?

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PIPELINE NEWS November 2009

Keeping the mud motors running „ Story and photos

by Brian Zinchuk Estevan – Technology, it’s often said, it what has unlocked the potential of plays like the Bakken. But that technology

needs regular servicing.

That’s where shops like NOV’s downhole division in Estevan come into play. “We service most of the downhole tools that

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drill those wells,â€? explains Cory Bjorndal, district manager for NOV. That includes mud motors, drilling jars, reamers, ďŹ shing tools, shock tools and agitators. “We have drill bits, too,â€? he adds. “It’s mostly other people’s gear. We service a lot of directional gear here.â€?

Major players in the southeast will often use several dierent directional companies. Many of them use NOV mud motors, or have their equipment serviced there.

Your car might be good for 5000 km between oil changes, but downhole tools like mud motors get serviced every time they come back from the ďŹ eld. “We can turn around a tool in four hours or less,â€? Bjorndal says.

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Bjorndal says.

That involves running an electriďŹ ed coil of wire over the tool to induce magnetism in it.

Varsol, magnetic particle powder and an ultraviolet light reveal any cracks.

The magnetic particle inspection is a key part of the work, according to Bjorndal. â&#x20AC;&#x153;Those tools are under so much stress, itâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s a huge part of the service process. Once they mag it up, the mag particle solution will stick inside the cracks.â&#x20AC;?

Kevin Hill, an inspector, notes the magnetic ďŹ eld can play havoc on adjacent electronics. â&#x20AC;&#x153;If you put a watch or cell phone by it, say goodbye.â&#x20AC;?

All the pieces come back to the service technicians. If there are any pieces that fail, the inspector marks unusable, theyâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;ll change out the part as needed, Bjorndal

explains.

That means they need spare parts on hand. â&#x20AC;&#x153;We carry quite a lot of inventory. We have a safety stock on every item.â&#x20AC;?

They have automatic reordering to ensure they donâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;t run out.

Items like seals are changed out every time.

Starting at the business end, a directional drilling package starts with the bit, then has a bearing section, adjustable section, and power section.

The adjustable section allows the angle of the directional drilling to be set.

Dissassembled, the mud motors look a lot like the progressing cavity pumps broadly used in the Lloydminster region, with a rotor and a stator.

NOV has a boro scope camera used inspect the stator for defects. â&#x20AC;&#x153;Now itâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s assembly time. Theyâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;ll go through the tool and change out any part thatâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s needed.

Once they get it together, they will dyno-test it.â&#x20AC;?

They dyno test is similar to a rig pump â&#x20AC;&#x201C; pressuring it up to operating levels. A computer logs the testing.

Similarly, the Torque Master also logs its operations. Thatâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s the machine that breaks and torques connections on the various tools. ɸ Page B13

PIPELINE NEWS November 2009

B13

Inspector Kevin Hill uses an ultraviolet light to look for defects in parts of a mud motor.

24 hours a day, 7 days a week ɺ Page B12 Finally, service technicians will paint each tool.

Each company has its own paint scheme. The paint doesn’t last long when it goes down the wellbore, but it’s invaluable for keeping track of whose equipment is whose.

The company provides on-call service 24 hours a day and on weekends. “It doesn’t stop. Drilling does not stop. If they need a tool serviced quick in the middle of the night, it’s pretty important. An oil company can’t sit and wait,” Bjorndal says.

If there’s an issue on the lease, and the driller needs a replacement tool, Bjorndal says, “The drilling

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coordinator will phone and say ‘We’ve had a problem with a motor.’ We’ll get one ready and ship it out.”

Sometimes the tool will go out by hotshot, other times it will hitch a ride with a truck taking casing out to the rig.

They have 20 staff, and currently do about a half dozen motors a day. That’s down from their peak.

“Last year, we were probably servicing 10 motors a day. We had two shifts running,” Bjorndal says.

However, they retained their staff despite the lower activity level this year.

“It’s definitely picking up. The rig count keeps rising every week,” he says.

Asked what that means for the staff, he responds there’s more work for the guys, and more possible overtime.

Indeed, the office area has been expanded just recently to accommodate the company’s growth.

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B14

PIPELINE NEWS November 2009

Fibreglass pioneer looks to hang it up

By Brian Zinchuk Bienfait – Vernon “Butch” McLean wants to get some golf and travel in while he still can.

At 71, the fibreglass pioneer looking to sell his business, Estevan Plastic Products, and get some travelling done.

It’s been a tough row to how for McLean over the years, battling a fire, not one, but two plow winds, a bankruptcy, and the ups and downs of the business.

But he’s built up a business he says could be easily taken over, with a skilled workforce who knows what they are doing. With the economy picking up and sales in the black, he figures it’s time to sell.

The company may be called Estevan Plastic Products, but it’s based in Bienfait, and works with fibreglass. Among their product lines are production tanks, belt covers for pumpjacks, and a recent addition – modular sheds.

When Pipeline News last visited McLean in the spring of 2009, he was just launching the modular building line. The molds were purchased several years ago, but he was too busy with other products to get

them up and running. Currently they are working on a 104-ft. long, 12-ft. wide shed racks for Rotex Energy, to be installed south of Alameda. “It’s going over top of their pipe racks,” he says.

Started early Work early for McLean, noting, “I started my working career when I was two. I packed my first beer bottles. I did that for 14 years,” he says.

The family would then haul empty beer bottles to the bottle exchange in Weyburn, he recalls. “There

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was no SARCAN then.”

As soon as he could drive, he was hauling gravel for his father’s construction company. From there they got into sewer and water work, then heavy hauling. McLean found himself hauling 100-tonne engines from Burstall to Barrie, Ont. The units were for TransCanada Pipelines. “We moved 14 one summer.”

He says.

In the late 1960s, he got into the fibreglass business. “I went to the mobile home plant in Estevan, and asked if I could make bathtubs out of fibreglass.

They said no, it looked cheap,” McLean says.

At the time, you could see the individual strands through the resin, he points out.

“I pioneered the fibreglass bathtub industry in Canada in 1969,” he says. “I sat on the CSA board with Crane, American Standard and Kohler.

“For two years in a row, my corner tube was the

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Vernon “Butch” McLean is seeking to sell his business, Estevan Plastic Products, and retire.

feature of the Toronto mobile home show,” he says.

Setbacks Early on, there was a major setback. A fire in late 1969 was set off by a spark in a light switch. An employee had walked out just in time, not getting singed.

Disaster struck again in the 1980s, twice. They say lightning doesn’t strike the same place twice, but a two plow winds hit McLean in two years.

“The wind blew the roof off my plant in ’84, and the warehouse in ’86. They cancelled my insurance,” he says.

Without insurance, his financing was frozen, and everything fell apart. He lost $62,500 in cash, $85,000 in shareholder loans, and a half million otherwise. “I lost everything that the family had built up through no fault of my own.”

He had employed 15 people at the time.

The resulting bankruptcy was very difficult. He says if it wasn’t for then-Premier Grant Devine having brought in a law protecting against seizure of your home, he would have lost it, too.

The phone rings. “When do you need it, Arnold?

Yesterday? I can have it for your tomorrow or later today,” McLean says over his cell. ɸ Page B15

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PIPELINE NEWS November 2009

B15

Finally time to retire for Beinfait entrepreneur

“When do you need it, Arnold? Yesterday? I can have it for your tomorrow or later today,” Vernon “Butch” McLean says to a client calling in.

ɺ Page B14 Rebuilding Getting back to the recollections, McLean says he started up again in 1991, in the building that is now home to Southern Bolt, in Estevan. “My wife and I started repairing tanks

with a five gallon pail of resin and a roll of mat.”

He started making sink liners for hotels, a product which he patented. A patent was also awarded for belt guards for pumpjacks.

He would later buy a building on Main Street in Bienfait, where he started making belt guards and well-head shelters.

In 2004, the company began making production tanks.

The current main shop is on the east side of town, along Highway 18, They bought a building in Alberta, disassembled it, and brought it to Bienfait in 2006.

Asked why he didn’t

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retire at 65, he says, “I didn’t have anything to sell.”

Now, it’s an established business. “We’re working through the business development bank to establish a value,” he explains, noting appraisals are being lined up.

The McLean has four employees and a part time accountant. “My people do all the work.

I do very little now. I sit here and take orders.”

As for a potential buyer, he says, “All they’ve got to do is get out and make the sales.

The people are trained to do the job. They just have to get out and make it happen.”

He’s willing to stay on for a few years to help out and mentor the new owners, McLean adds.

“If someone wants to

buy a going concern for their son, it’s here.”

Some entrepreneurs only leave the business after they’ve been carried out in a box. “That’s not my case,” he says. For a lot of years, I wasn’t ready.

Now, my wife says, ‘He’s ready to retire now.’”

As for future plans, McLean says, “[We’re] probably going to travel and spend the kids inheritance for a little while.”

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B16

PIPELINE NEWS November 2009

Go east, young woman!

Estevan – With work having dried up around her home of Whitecourt, Alta., welder’s apprentice Yvette Eger had a decision to make: She needed to go somewhere to find a job.

Hearing there was work in the Estevan and Weyburn area, she got in her three-quarter tonne Dodge 5.7L Hemi truck

and headed southeast.

“I moved here solo, came here all by myself,” says the 22 year old, when asked if she had any family in the area.

Within a couple days, she found three different jobs, and hired on with Supreme Oilfield Construction. Pipeline News ran into her in late September, just two days

into the job, and week after she left Whitecourt.

“I heard this place was booming,” she said between stringing up a wire fence for Supreme.

She and pipeline foreman Gerry Halladay were installing a fence around one of the properties near the Supreme yard the company is set-

ting up for tenants, soon to move in.

Most of her experience is in pipelining, with some welding in the shop. “I’ve got all my hours, I just have to go to school,” she says. “It’s too slow in Alberta to go to school.”

She’s registered as an apprentice in Alberta.

Asked how she found work, the answer was pretty simple. “I walked in the door, asked for the manager, said, “This is what I am looking for, and this is what I’ve done.’”

With Supreme she hired on as a labourer, and unfortunately, won’t be seeing a lot of welding.

That’s because Supreme does primarily fibreglass pipe. Eger says she hopes to eventually find something welding related.

Finding accommodations to that point hasn’t been as easy, however. Staying in a hotel, Eger was eager to jump on any lead for rental accommodations.

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PIPELINE NEWS November 2009

B17

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Calgary is also home to Ryan’s tech centre, where MWD tools are serviced, and their head office, which hosts sales, engineering and corporate. They have an equipment division in Leduc, and a district office at Claremont, outside of Grande Prairie. The Estevan location is also classified as a district office.

To say Meili is active is to put it mildly. He enjoys squash, cross country skiing, tennis, slow pitch and golf. He’s signed up for the Yak’s Fitness and Power Dodge’s biggest loser contest, and has dropped a substantial amount early on in the bid for a trip for two to Las Vegas. “I’m 21 lbs down in three weeks.

That’s pretty good,” he says.

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Three Star ENVIRONMENTAL

company can succeed,” he says.

Meili likes to look at the rig reports, there he can see smaller companies pop up and drill wells. “It’s my hope Ryan can get out there and drill some of these wells with them,” Meili says.

Asked how the directional company is chose, he explains, “In most corporate structures, you’ll have operations managers who’ll select the services. They’ll have heard of us, or we’ll knock on their door.”

For larger operators, that will happen in Calgary. Local offices for larger outfits in Saskatchewan are usually dedicated primarily to production management from my understanding, Meili explains.

Clip & Save

Freya here hangs out with Ryan Energy district manager Conrad Meili.

of Estevan. It’s no coincidence we’re visiting a Red Dog rig on this day, taking a closer look at directional drilling.

“We’ve had a presence down here for a long time,” he says. Now he’s the full time presence.

Meili is originally from Saskatoon, and had lived in Calgary for 12 of his 33 years. He had worked on drilling rigs in Alberta and Saskatchewan for six years, starting as a lease hand and worked his way up to derrick prior to moving over to the directional side of things. In September, 2006, he joined Ryan Energy Technologies as a Measure While Drilling (MWD) hand.

“I love Saskatchewan for what it is, a place where a ma and pa

Visit our website: www.southeastcollege.org

Clip & Save

Conrad Meili is district manager for Ryan Energy in Estevan.

Estevan – The truck is loaded with pizzas, a warm lunch for the rig crew we’re about to visit.

And sitting beside the stack of pizzas is the most disciplined dog you’re likely to come across.

“Freya” is the shop dog of Conrad Meili, district manager for Ryan Energy Technologies in Estevan. She’s a frequent companion of Meili’s. He acquired her from the human society.

Not once does she touch the pizza before getting dropped off at home. That’s a good dog.

Meili came to Estevan in the spring of 2008. He spent 5 months in a hotel, waiting for the place he bought to be readied. His job is coordinating Ryan’s directional drilling efforts in southern Saskatchewan and Manitoba.

Ryan set up their shop in Estevan in the winter of 2008. It’s right next door to Red Dog Drilling, on the east side

B18

PIPELINE NEWS November 2009

Drilling directional holes remotely Estevan – Work is expected to pick up for Phoenix Technology Services LP, according to

Estevan district coordinator Scott Nichol.

“We expect our job count to increase by ap-

proximately 50% between now and the end of the year,” he told Pipeline News in late Octo-

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However, Phoenix has developed a system that can reduce the number of personnel required for each job.

The company’s RADD division – Remote Access Directional Drilling – allows directional drillers to steer a well from a centralized location and therefore they can operate multiple wells at the same time.

“We’ve drilled over 600 wells in Canada with RADD,” Nichol says. “We drill these wells from our command centre in Calgary, AB, but you could operate any well in the world from a centralized location. I could drill them from this computer, if I wanted to.”

RADD utilizes wireless communication and internet technologies

to allow the directional driller to communicate with the drillers at the rig site and also allows them to monitor the drilling data that is being transmitted from downhole.

RADD has provided cost savings and operating benefits for Phoenix’s clients in the Brooks and Drumheller areas of Alberta, according to Nichol. However, the technology is not yet prevalent in southeast Saskatchewan, where most wells are horizontals. “We haven’t drilled a horizontal well in the area with this application,” he explains. “But we’ve used RADD to remove the night MWD operator from some horizontal wells and believe that it won’t be long before RADD is common on our horizontal projects.”

Key to RADD is that the rig’s driller is experienced and comfortable with sliding, he adds. If Phoenix’s activity level

continues to strengthen in the southeast, Nichol says there is a possibility of a local shop in the future.

The rig count in Saskatchewan is currently running in the mid-60s.

Phoenix controls between 10% to 20% of this market, which is a pretty big chunk considering there are literally dozens of companies. How does Nichol account for this success?

“I think it is our proven track record,” he replies. “We’ve drilled over 1,000 wells in the area, from 2005 to 2008.

He adds they have “industry-leading equipment, highly trained personnel and fair pricing.”

“We also have a great R & D program that provides us with technologically advanced equipment, such as RADD, that we can take to our clients in an effort to drill their wells faster, cheaper and more accurately.”

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The price tag is $108 million, and 88.3 million Glamis shares.

In a release, the company noted, “The producing properties are predominately operated with high working interests, 3D seismic coverage and control of key producing infrastructure and are associated with a light oil prospective undeveloped land base.”

The first is a partnership acquisition agreement with a private company. dated October 19, 2009 to

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Connaught Energy Ltd. is the second prospect. Glamis will pay $60 million in cash and issue a total of approximately 83.3 million Glamis shares to the shareholders of Connaught under the transaction.

Glamis itself is undergoing a name change, and will soon be known as Legacy Oil & Gas.

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B19

B20

PIPELINE NEWS November 2009

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PIPELINE NEWS Saskatchewanâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s Petroleum Monthly

C-Section November 2009

Directional drilling up close Â&#x201E; By Brian Zinchuk Benson â&#x20AC;&#x201C; Red Dog Drilling Rig 2 is chewing away at a new Kin West Energy (2008) well, west of Benson. Just a few weeks before, this lease was being built. Now, the directional driller is at work, ensuring the horizontal well ends up right where itâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s supposed to.

Horizontal wells with directional drilling are the standard these days when it comes to drilling in Saskatchewan. Combined with multi-stage fracing, itâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s allowed reserves that were once thought uneconomical to produce to become big development plays.

Ryan Energy Technology (Ryan) is the directional driller on this well. Gord Page and his counterpart Kevin Wilkins switch oďŹ&#x20AC; on 12 hour shifts, acting as the directional hands.

Bryan Wood is the Measure While Drilling (MWD) hand. â&#x20AC;&#x153;On horizontalâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s, itâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s a 24-hour show. Thereâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s never any rest. So we work 24 hours. Iâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;m the day guy,â&#x20AC;? Page says.

Theyâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;ll stay on days or nights until that hole is completed, and then switch on the next hole. â&#x20AC;&#x153;Bryan sets up the tool,â&#x20AC;? Page says, referring to the MWD hand. â&#x20AC;&#x153;That does the brainwork. I guess youâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;d call him the computer jockey.â&#x20AC;?

Bent straw Directional drilling is accomplished by having a bend in the bottom hole assembly, just behind the drill bit, similar to a bending drink straw. The bend is variable, and has to be set above ground before the tool goes down the hole.

Bends can vary from zero up to three degrees. The more aggressive the bend, the more aggressive the hole will build angle or in Laterals it enables the driller to change the holeâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s angle or direction in less distance.

To go straight, the drilling rigâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s rotary table needs to keep the drill string turning so that the directional head does not track in any particular direction.

When it is time to choose a build direction, you stop turning the rotary table, and adjust the motor to lead the drill string in the desired direction. The bit continues to be driven by the drilling mud being pumped through the drill string.

To achieve your direction, you have to have a very precise, thatâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s where the MWD comes into play. â&#x20AC;&#x153;My job is to make sure theyâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;re sitting where they want to be and monitor the downhole information,â&#x20AC;? explains Wood.

The survey tool reads inclination and azimuths, and sends pulses up through the drilling mud, almost like Morse code. â&#x20AC;&#x153;Everything comes up in binary code,â&#x20AC;? Wood explains.

There is a way of using the electromagnetic spectrum to send signals back and forth underground, but the geology in Saskatchewan tends to interfere with it, according to Wood. â&#x20AC;&#x153;Itâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s very rare youâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;ll see an EM tool in Saskatchewan. A formation of anhydrites tends to block the signals.â&#x20AC;?

The MWD tool uses magnetic ďŹ elds to ďŹ nd its way, in a similar manner to a compass you used while hiking or on a boat. Ryan Energy Technologies uses highly accurate magnetometers to determine which direction the mud motor is facing. Accelerometers are used to determine movement, similar to how your digital camera knows which way is up when you take a picture, and displays it accordingly. â&#x20AC;&#x153;We run three accelerometers and three magnetometers, one for each axis,â&#x20AC;? Wood says. â&#x20AC;&#x153;Youâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;ve got a high-priced compass,â&#x20AC;? Page adds.

In addition to the magnetometers and accelerometers, sometimes a gamma module is used to tell what zone youâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;re in. That is not the case on this well.

The survey toolâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s readings are shown on a screen in the doghouse and in the control centre, where the MWD hand works. His display is called the â&#x20AC;&#x153;rosebud,â&#x20AC;? and it looks like a compass rose. It indicates the exact orientation of the mud motor. At the bottom of the display is a waveform of pulses coming from the survey tool. â&#x20AC;&#x153;From those inclination and azimuths, we follow a pre-determined well path, and we bend it up, for lack of a better term, to get her going in the right direction.â&#x20AC;? Page says.

The well path is a blueprint of how the well is to be drilled.

Build section At a certain depth, the drilling will transition from vertical to horizontal. This is called the â&#x20AC;&#x153;build section,â&#x20AC;? and looks like a 90 degree curve on the diagrams posted in the command centre.

It varies for each individual well, Page says. â&#x20AC;&#x153;We start at, say, 1,200 m, and from their build at a pre-determined rate.â&#x20AC;?

The â&#x20AC;&#x153;build rate,â&#x20AC;? i.e. the severity at which the well changes direction, might be 9 degrees for every 30 meters. Thatâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s considered a typical build rate in southeast Saskatchewan, according to Page. Some wells have less, some have more. At that rate, it takes about 300 m of measured depth (but not vertical depth) to crank it over from vertical to horizontal.

Bakken wells typically have about a mile, 1,600 m, of horizontal well. â&#x20AC;&#x153;This is a short one,â&#x20AC;?

Page says of the well heâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s currently working on. â&#x20AC;&#x153;Typically theyâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;re a mile.â&#x20AC;? â&#x20AC;&#x153;This isnâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;t a Bakken well.â&#x20AC;?

Page has to go to the doghouse on the rig to assist the driller with a slide. Thatâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s when the aim of the directional package is changed. Wilkins, his counterpart who has woken up early, comes into the command centre. He continues the explanation. â&#x20AC;&#x153;Every situation is diďŹ&#x20AC;erent,â&#x20AC;? Wilkins says. â&#x20AC;&#x153;Build rates vary as you go through. We have a well plan. Once we start coming oďŹ&#x20AC; the well plan, we have to slide it back on.â&#x20AC;? ɸ Page C2 Itâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s all tied together. Red Dog Drilling roughneck Aaron Mack takes a sample from the shaker table to the geologist. The geologist analyzes it, and instructs the directional driller to go up or down.

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All sides of directional drilling ɺ Page C1 He says it is adjusting in real time. Directional hands will often go to the doghouse to assist the driller.

There’s a lot of drill pipe between the mud motor and the rotary table, each piece of which has a certain amount of give in relation to torque inputs.

Thus, the driller and directional hand have to account for that when they want to align the directional package in a certain direction, say to the east or west, or up or down.

“If they need help getting a tool face lined up, you’ll help them out,” Wilkins says.

Work with geologist The command centre is set up so that the three people steering the well can work in close collaboration.

The directional driller is in the middle of the shack, with a window facing the rig. To his left is the MWD hand, and in the right hand end of the trailer, the

geologist has his set up.

The three work together as a team to ensure the well is drilled where the operator needs it.

The geologist walks over from his end of the command centre, and tells the directional hand he needs to change the total vertical depth (TVD), in this case, going 2 m down.

He might want to stay in the top or middle or even the bottom of a formation. “The geologist will tell you what they want to do,” Wilkins says. “Usually he gives us a true vertical depth to maintain.”

There’s a lot that can be told from the Rate of Penetration, or ROP. The bit will chew faster through some formations than others, so if you’ve left the pay zone, your rate of penetration may change.

The geologist gathers information from the hole cuttings, with samples from the shale shaker brought to him by the rig hands every five metres in this sce-

nario.

The conundrum for the directional driller is that the survey tool is several meters behind the drill bit. That means they have to interpret where the drill bit is digging. Page likens it to driving down the road looking in the rear view mirror and having the windshield taped over. “I never know what this did until I’ve drilled ahead” he explains.

Multi-laterals PetroBakken has announced that most of their new wells will be multi-lateral horizontal multi-stage fracs. Page says, “The oil companies like it, because they get more pay for every well drilled.

When a multi-lateral is drilled, the first leg is done, then they trip pipe out of the hole until they are at an appropriate point to side track into a new leg.

When this happens, the bit will be turned to go down slightly and away from the origi-

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nal wellbore. By doing that, the pull of gravity assists the directional driller. “There’s a trick to it,” Page says. Three out of four times, it wants to go into the next leg.”

Page notes the pay zone, or “juice,” as he likes to call it, is pretty thin in the southeast.

“The bit wants to stay in it. It’s porous. It’ll want to stay in it. It’s hard above, and hard below it.”

The Bakken zone id generally thicker, but harder, he adds. Wells don’t self-track as well in the Bakken.

Originally from Saskatchewan, Gord Page says he’s got his passport, so to speak, to work here.

Got his passport Benson - There’s a lot of good natured ribbing, and sometimes genuine animosity expressed towards people from Alberta working in the Saskatchewan oilpatch. Thankfully, Ryan Energy Technology directional driller Gord Page has his passport.

“I’m from Medicine Hat,” Page says, adding. “I’m originally from Saskatchewan – Shaunavon. That’s why I work down here. I’ve got my passport,” he says, poking fun at the Alberta-Saskatchewan rivalry. “Why wouldn’t they want Saskatchewan boys working here?

“Saskatchewan is way more pleasant to work in. It really is. It reminds me of Alberta 15, 20 years ago.” says Page In large part, Page says that’s attributed to the rig crews being local and going home at the end of each shift. They work eight hour shifts instead of 12s, which is the norm in Alberta. “I’d rather work with crews that work 8s instead of 12s.

“In Alberta, you gotta get in your truck and drive eight or twelve hours before you go to work, and you’ve got to work 12s. It wears you out,” Page says.

He points to the rig he is working with, Red Dog Drilling Rig 2, based in Estevan. “Look at Red Dog’s – three rigs. You get to meet the owner. He’s in the doghouse.”

“I worked on the rigs for 20 years first,” Page says, explaining how he got into directional drilling.

He was a driller prior to becoming a directional hand. He’s been doing directional drilling for four years, all with Ryan.

Lots of derrick hands move across to Measurement While Drilling (MWD) Hands, according to Page. “Drillers seem to end up here,” he adds, tapping his desk in the command centre. While some MWD hands will cross over to directional, “Typically you come from drilling to this,” he states.

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PIPELINE NEWS November 2009

C3

Lloyd region tops SE in land sales Regina – Saskatchewan’s crown land sales in October came it at their highest level for the year, at $32.4 million, but were still a shadow of last year’s sales. The shine might be off the southeast, however, as the Lloydminster region surpassed the Estevan Weyburn region in sales.

The October sales, the second last of six sales for the year, brings the year to date total at $83.2 million.

At this time last year, the province was crowing about October 2008 being the third best sale on record, bringing in $223.4 million in revenue for the province. The year-to-date revenue figure from land sales at that point stood at a record $1.07 billion, with one sale remaining in the year.

However, the increase in sales over the course of this year had Minister of Energy and Resources Bill Boyd stated, “This shows we continue to be on the right track. Revenue from the October sale is over double that received from the August sale. This is a clear message from industry that Saskatchewan continues to be an attractive place to invest.”

What is telling, however is the low number of exploration licenses. Only three were sold this time around for the entire province, whereas there were 288 leases sold, totalling 66,376 hectares. The licenses totalled 5,601 hectares.

All three of those exploration licenses were in the Lloydminster area.

Lloydminster For the first time in a long time, the Lloydminster region led land sales, bringing in $13.3 million. This was almost five times what the region brought in for the October sale in 2008, when $2.8 million was sold.

The 72 leases that sold brought in $9.6 million, averaging $682 per hectare. There were 73 leases posted.

All three licenses sold, for a total of $3.8 million.

The top price for a single lease was $610,958, paid

by Scott Land and Lease. It was for a 227 hectare parcel within the Tangleflags North G.P. Sand Oil Pool,

30 km northeast of Lloydminster.

O & G Resource Group spend $2,032,000 on a 1,619 hectare block situated adjacent the Salt Lake Lloydminster Sand Oil Pool, 11 km southwest of Unity.

Scott Land & Lease was the top purchaser, spending $2,687,660 on six leases and one license.

Silver Hawk Resources Ltd. paid $9,025 per hectare for a 10 hectare parcel situated withing the Epping Mannville Sands Oil Pool, 18 km south of Lloydminster, making it the highest per-hectare price paid in the region.

Estevan-Weyburn There were 73 leases posted, and 72 sold in the Estevan-Weyburn area, for a total of 11,748 hectares.

The total value was $12.1 million. The average price per hectare was $1,038.

Scott Land & Lease Ltd. spent the most in this area, dropping $3,570,915 on 12 lease parcels.

The highest price for a single lease was $3,037,125 for a 57 hectare parcel situated 2 km south of the Heward South Frobisher Beds Pool, 42 km east of Weyburn. It worked out to a whopping $52,847 per hectare, or $21,385 per acre. Windfall Resources Ltd. was the buyer.

That’s one of the highest, if not the highest prices paid per hectare in Saskatchewan. At the height of the land sales in October, 2008, the Saskatchewan govern-

ment reported a record-setting sale on a per-hectare basis for a 65-hectare lease parcel of deeper rights 9 kilometres north of Forget in southeast Saskatchewan, for more than $3 million. At that time, the price for the Forget parcel was $46,503 per hectare, paid by Pioneer Enviro Group Ltd. Kindersley-Kerrobert Kindersley-Kerrobert saw 81 of 83 posted leases sell, with an average price of $232 per hectare. A total of $19,631 hectares sold, bringing in $4.6 million.

That’s below the $6.6 million sold in this area last year.

Plunkett Resources was the top purchaser in the region, spending $1,136,787 for ten lease parcels.

The highest per-hectare price paid was $603,000 for 258 hectares adjacent to the Kerrobert Viking Sand Oil Pool, 9 km southwest of Kerrobert. It came in at $2,335 per hectare, and was bought by Bancroft Oil and Gas Ltd. Swift Current Unlike the other areas of the province, there was a substantial difference between the number of lease parcels posted and the total that actually sold. Of 59 posted parcels, 48 sold. The 10,918 hectares sold was about half the 20,629 hectares posted.

The total came in at $2.4 million, a fraction of the $22.4 million sold in the southwest at this time last year.

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PIPELINE NEWS November 2009

Directional drilling is every day thing for drillers

By Brian Zinchuk Stoughton – Ask Panther Drilling rig manager Brian Honig when was the last time they drilled a hole without using directional drilling, and the toolpush has to think a while.

“Over two years ago, a few vertical wells for Caprice,” he responds.

Directional drilling has become the standard for drilling companies in southeast Saskatchewan, and recent improvements in drill bit technology have dramatically improved the length of time it takes to drill a well.

Indeed, once you get below the surface cas-

ing, Panther uses survey information to ensure the vertical portion of the well is straight. “You might have to deviate it five, ten times,” he says.

“Anything over one degree, they want straightened out,” according to Honig.

Everything Panther does these days is horizontal, directional wells.

Most end up as multistage fracs.

The company is currently working with just one directional driller while doing the Crescent Point work – Pacesetter Directional and Performance Drilling, with head office in Calgary.

While it’s common

for the directional company the driller works for to vary from hole to hole, having long term contracts can mean working with the same firms. In this case, Panther Rig 2, Honig’s rig, has been working with Crescent Point for going on two years. “We’ve had the same guys since we fired up with Crescent Point,” Honig says.

The other rig in the two-rig company, Rig 1, has been working with NAL since breakup this year.

“Having long term contracts is a good thing,” says Bernie Bjorndalen, sales manager with Panther.

“They’ve kept us

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busy, even through the slow time,” Honig says of Crescent Point.

All the wells Panther Rig 2 has been working on are Bakken single leg horizontals, while Rig 1 has been pursuing a variety of zones and some multi-leg work.

While it would seem there is a definite pattern to Bakken wells – usually a string of wells running along a road, and horizontals going out perpendicular to the road for the length of the section – Bjorndalen says, “I don’t know if

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anything in this Bakken is cookie cutter.”

He notes different companies are still trying different drilling techniques. “No one company has developed a program that’s head and shoulders above anyone else.”

Drilling time shortens One of the biggest improvements in drilling in the Bakken is also very recent, according to Honig, Bjorndalen, and well site supervisor Greg Sawatzky. The switch from older tri-cone style bits to Polycrystalline Diamond Cutter (PDC) bits has had a tremendous impact.

The build section, where the directional drilling transitions the wellbore from vertical to horizontal, used to take two or three bits to complete, including tripping out to change the bit. Each bit would get about 30 drilling hours, according to Sawatzky.

“Now we’re drilling everything in 20-25 hours in the build section with one PDC.”

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Weyburn-based Panther operates two of the deepest-rated rigs in southeast Saskatchewan ɺ Page C4 “We’re one of the first rigs to consistently do it. We’ve never looked back.”

That, and other improvements, have led to a dramatic shortening in how long it takes to drill a Bakken well.

They can now gamma log and drill to the kick off point, logging the last 200 m of true vertical depth. This provides the ability to see formation tops on the way down.

Honig says, “When we first started, they were over two weeks.

Now, they are down to 7, 8 days, from spud to rig release.”

Equipment improvement over the past five years has also made a difference, Bjorndalen says.

Asked if getting the job done in less time is self-defeating, Bjorndalen replies, “For the oil companies, if they have “X” money in their budget, they can drill more holes.”

Locally-owned, Weyburn-based Pan-

ther operates two of the deepest-rated rigs in southeast Saskatchewan.

Rig 2 is capable of 4500 m vertical depth. That’s enough to put you in the neighbourhood of the basement – the bedrock below the sedimentary rock where petroleum is found. “You can do any hole with it,” Honig says.

It’s common to keep an extra mud motor on site, but they are readily available in the area, Honig notes.

Consultant For the well site supervisor, also known as the consultant, there are certain things they have to keep an eye on to accommodated directional drilling, accommodations being one of them.

Sawatzky, the consultant on this well for Crescent Point, is subcontracted through Garden Williamson Inc. He notes that in addition to ensuring there are the facilities – a command centre, sleeping quarters, and the like for the directional

staff, he also makes sure all the right tools are on location for the job. That can include slick monels and adjustable housing mud motors.

The consultant also

ensures the well profile is correct, and that the well location is correct.

There may be two wells on a pad, and it has happened in the past where mix ups have occurred

and a well got drilled the wrong way.

“The biggest thing on my side is the people aspect,” Sawatzky says.

That includes communication between the

geologist and directional driller, the directional driller and the driller on the rig floor. “They have to have good communications in the command centre.”

It’s been over two years since Panther Drilling toolpush Brian Honig has worked on a vertical well.

Nowadays, all they do is horizontal.

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PIPELINE NEWS November 2009

Engineering behind the scenes

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Estevan – While directional drilling is one of those skills that is practiced on the location, there’s a lot going on behind the scenes before the drill bit ever goes down hole.

One of Ryan Drilling Technologies (Ryan) strengths is the technical support team that backs up there directional drillers.

Gabriel Soo is a junior engineer in training with Ryan. He’s in the process of acquiring his professional engineer designation, and was scheduled to write the final exam on Oct. 19th of this year.

In early October, he came out to Estevan to spend some time getting more hands on experience in the field, at the request of his supervisor.

Part of that was spending a day on Red Dog Drilling’s Rig 2, working west of Benson at the time.

“I spent six or seven hours up there,” Soo explains, noting it was his third time on a drill-

ing rig. It’s nice to put a face to the names of the people he interacts with over the phone and with emails, he adds.

Soo studied mechanical engineering at the University of Calgary, and has been out of school for three years.

His last year was spent doing an internship with a consulting firm doing building mechanical systems. Since then, he has worked with Ryan.

“It’s considered a technical support role,” he says as he flips through hard copies of correspondence, sitting in the Estevan field office. “Basically, the key to Ryan’s success is our field guys and our primary focus is always the client.”

Soo characterizes himself as someone working behind the scenes.

Well planning A significant part of his work is well planning – determining the well path for the directional drillers. “We gather information from the op-

erator, they have targets for us to reach. They’ll want to be on a general path. Maybe wanting to be on a certain azimuth for the build then horizontal.”

“Questions we need to ask include, ‘How will the formation drill from a directional stand point?

What kinds of problems can we have? The key is to always draw from our operations experts,” Soo says.

That means working closely with the people on the ground that have experience in the area.

An example might be a Bakken well, where the lCP (Intermediate Casing Point), or heel of the well, needs to be a certain distance from the property line.

“In Saskatchewan we often have hard boundaries to maintain – 100 m from section lines for example.”

Well planning also means looking for potential collision concerns.

“That’s a big responsibility on our end.” ɸ Page C7

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PIPELINE NEWS November 2009

C7

The intricacies of directional drilling ɺ Page C6 There can be several wells on a location, but at different TVD depths. Wells may appear near each other when examined from a plan view, but drilled at different depths, i.e. in Frobisher and Bakken formations. Other scenarios include wells that cross each other in the same formation.

Of course, a nicely planned well could be a duster unless it ends up in the proper producing formation. That’s why our drillers work hand and hand with the geologists on site.

“We take our well plan and send the geologists the key coordinates. They will plug that into their geology program and give us a yay or nay on the purposed path.”

The company’s drilling operations, often gives the final okay.

When planning a well, Soo says they’ll see what the activity is in the area, what experience they have in house, and what the history there is. That includes build rates for particular mud motors or problematic directional tendencies.

“We’ll talk to bit

companies and get records in the area,” he says.

They’ll also look up public information for expected performance factors; such has how many days it has taken to drill similar wells.

“We’ll try to break down the parameters to get the faster well drilled,” Soo says.

However, it all comes down to what the operator wants. Ryan may offer suggestions, but “the operators themselves make the call.”

Conrad Meili, district manager for Ryan in Estevan, notes, “If a client wants to hear our suggestions, we’re not afraid to give them.”

Meili says that the background knowledge and technical support abilities are some of the key things that separate Ryan from other companies. “If a problem arises where they need technical support, they can come to us.”

That technical support means someone is on call, 24/7. Soo notes he’s been in the office at night, working on issues that have arisen.

Tool tracking Another area of Soo’s work is optimizing tool usage. “We track

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That includes looking at incident motors, ones that may have had some sort of issue. “I’m mostly on the mud motor side, evaluating performance,” he explains.

“We look at motor A trainload of Regina-produced Evraz pipe is destined for a southern locaperformance. Conrad tion, passing through Estevan on Oct. 21.

Photo by Brian Zinchuk and myself work closely with our service provider,” Soo says. “Whenever we have a performance problem with a motor, our client wants to know details. We need to determine what was wrong with the motor.”

It could be typical wear, or it could have been a catastrophic failure. “We try to mitigate that going forward.”

Ryan has a fleet of mud motors throughout the company.

“We also have a database I’ve been working on to track mud motors and MWD (Measure While Drilling) tools.”

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C8

PIPELINE NEWS November 2009

Another new hotel opens in Weyburn

By Brian Zinchuk

have waterslides and upscale corporate rooms. The Weyburn Canalta does not have a waterslide, but there is one next Weyburn – Hot on the heels of door in their Ramada property. completing their first Saskatchewan The new Weyburn Canalta has 67 property, the family behind the Rarooms across four floors. The meeting mada Hotel in Weyburn began conroom can accommodate up to 60 peostruction on a second, right next ple. There is continental breakfast in the door. morning, a fitness centre, a steam room On Oct. 15, Canalta Hotel in and an oversized 30-person hot tub. The Weyburn held its grand opening. It business centre has three computers started it operations on Aug. 13. with internet access. Rooms and comAn executive chef from the Remon areas are equipped with wireless gina Ramada was on hand, sautéhigh speed internet. ing shrimp for those in attendance.

Rooms have either two queen or A chocolate waterfall in the Jacuzzi one king size beds. There are Jacuzzi suite accented rose petals on the suites available. king-sized bed. But the most telling There are 15 people on staff, accorditem for the new hotel that night was Gary Hoffert, regional vice president for Canalta hotels, offers greetings at ing to Knauft. She notes the business likely the frac crew semis parked in the Weyburn grand opening. area is used frequently. front.

Family-owned Amber Knauft, general manager Big push The company behind the hotel is of the new hotel, told Pipeline News The company, operating as Canalta Hotels, is family-owned and operated. Cam and Sharleen approximately 60 per cent of their clientele is oil and moving into Saskatchewan in a big way. Another Christianson head it up, with their sons Brooke and gas related, often staying for two or three weeks.

Canalta is under construction at Moosomin, meant Blaire also in management. Brooke’s wife Stephanie The new hotel is the first to be opened under the primarily to service the potash mine construction and Blaire’s wife Kylee are also involved. Head office Canalta name, according to Gary Hoffert, regional vice president of Canalta hotels. The company owns near Rocanville as well as highway traffic. It’s slated is in Drumheller, Alta.

Brooke Christenson was present for the grand and operates 28 hotel properties in Alberta under to open in spring, 2010.

A Ramada is also in the works for Humboldt, opening.

When asked why Weyburn, he replied, the flags of Ramada and Super 8. They also have slated for completion in late summer.

“Weyburn is a market that is suited well to our type two Best Westerns and a Travelodge, according to Tisdale was the most recent announcement, set of operations.” their website. The firm also owns 20 A & W resHe noted that the company operates in smaller taurants, seven Boston Pizzas, three O’Shea’s, three to open in late fall. What name it will operate under has yet to be determined. town, with a variety of needs, such as sports teams, Brick furniture stores and the Drumheller Dragons There’s more to come, Hoffert says, noting they weddings, meetings and crews. “We specialize in AJHL team. They employ about 2,500 employees. smaller markets.”

While it’s their first Canalta brand hotel, it’s not are very aggressive in the market.

Because it is not part of a chain, bookings for “They’ve welcomed us and made it easy for us to going to be their last. do business,” he said of Weyburn “This is our first venture out with our own com- the Canalta are done through the front desk.

The Moosomin and Humboldt properties will pany name,” Hoffert says. ɸ Page C9

PIPELINE NEWS November 2009

C9

Hotel manager Amber Knauft welcomes guests to the Canalta grand opening.

Canalta Hotel in Weyburn holds grand opening ɺ Page C8 Weyburn Mayor Debrah Button and MLA Dustin Duncan were both present, bringing greetings. Button told the gathered crowd that without the Canalta, the community would have trouble accommodating families, athletes and businesspeople.

Button told Pipeline News, “This is a great hotel. We were able to have our mayor’s conference here.”

She notes that local hotels are sold out night after night, with “heads in beds,” and that they could possibly use another hotel on the strip.

“You can drive along and

see no vacancy, night after night.”

“The intent has always been to have two hotels here,” Hoffert says of Weyburn, noting it is a hub of oil and gas activity.

Catering to the patch They’ve taken efforts to cater to that community. Both the Canalta and Ramada have external doors on their main floors, much like motels.

“That’s sort of old school, but we’ve brought it back. Oil and gas really like that,” Hoffert says.

They have coin operated laundry facilities on site, saving longer term guests from having to track down a Laundromat. A mini-mart has

frozen dinners, in case someone comes in late and really doesn’t feel like heading to a restaurant for supper.

They’ve also taken measures to improve soundproofing. To accommodate people working in shifts, the housekeeping has been adjusted so that those people can be left undisturbed while sleeping, yet still have their rooms done.

The Canalta and Ramada next door share a large, oversized parking area behind the hotels.

The new Canalta Hotel in Weyburn held its grand opening Oct. 15.

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C10

PIPELINE NEWS November 2009

Non-associated gas Àat, as in Àatline

Todd Han

Estevan – Speaking at the 2nd Annual Saskatchewan Rising symposium in Estevan, Todd Han, director of Petroleum and Natural Gas for the Petroleum Development branch of Saskatchewan Energy and Resources, provided an overview of Saskatchewan’s oil and gas sector.

He noted 2008 was a watershed year for land sales, with over a billion dollars, most of which came from the Bakken oil play in southeast Saskatchewan.

However, with the economic downturn, there has been a drop in drilling, especially for gas.

Showing a graph of gas wells drilled, he said, “If this was a heartbeat, this is a flatline. There it it is.”

Natural gas drilling has dropped to the level where potash exploratory drilling is threatening to

catch up.

Well licenses issued are also way off. As of Oct. 21, there were 1491 licenses issued in Saskatchewan, down from 4135 at the same time last year.

Han spoke of initiatives to reduce flaring and venting. “Flared gas is a resource wasted,” he said.

When oil was over $100 a barrel, companies wanted to get it out of the ground as fast as they could, and weren’t as concerned with the loss of gas revenue.

There was neither the people nor material to get new associated gas into pipelines, as well as a lack of gas plant capacity. When the oil is hauled by truck, the gas ends up being flared, he noted.

He said Saskatchewan is taking a realistic approach to the issue, noting, “There is no use in coming up with a lofty number you can’t meet.”

In addition to reducing greenhouse gas emissions, he noted, “We do not receive royalties on gas that is vented or flared.”

However, flaring is one of the most efficient ways to destroy hydrogen sulphide, he added.

Han also touched on the province’s orphan well program.

“Taxpayers are not going to get stuck with orphan sites,” he explained.

The official list of orphaned wells is 13, but the estimated number is 635.

Asked about other plays, Han said he colleagues are working on potential incentives regarding the Torquay formation, known in other jurisdictions as the Three-Forks Sanish. “We’re certainly keeping an eye on it,” he said, expecting an announcement this year or early next year.

Regarding the Lower Shaunavon, he said, “We’re quite excited about the Lower Shaunavon.”

Todd Han, director of Petroleum and Natural Gas for the Petroleum Development branch of Saskatchewan Energy and Resources, makes an overview presentation to the 2nd Annual Saskatchewan Rising symposium in Estevan.

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PIPELINE NEWS November 2009

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Oilsands Quest researching best in-situ recovery method

By Geoff Lee Calgary – Oilsands Quest Inc. will take a prescriptive approach to in-situ recovery of oil from bitumen in its oilsands holdings in northern Saskatchewan and Alberta.

Reservoir testing, laboratory and simulation studies are under way to determine the optimum method of oil recovery reported during the company’s annual meeting in Calgary Oct. 14.

The research follows the realization that their Axe Lake and Raven Ridge sites lack an overlaying shale formation associated with certain high-pressure in-situ methods.

The company has ruled out the use of steam assisted gravity drainage (SAGD) as a recovery method.

Research will focus on determining the best configuration of existing thermal, solvent-based and other in-situ recovery methods for its reservoirs at Axe Lake, Raven Ridge and elsewhere.

In a news release about the meeting, the company stated the “quality of the reservoirs and high bitumen saturations present at the Axe Lake and Raven Ridge areas provide the potential for extraction using a number of recovery methods, re-configured for our reservoirs.”

The annual meeting was also an opportunity to release the latest “best case” resources estimates for a portion of its Axe Lake and Raven Ridge properties prepared by McDaniel & Associates Consultants Ltd. Recoverable resources which are not reserves are pegged at 151 million barrels for Axe Lake while Raven Ridge has an estimate discovered resource of 1.01 billion bbls.

The company’s Eagle Nest site has a best case discovered resource of 367 million bbls, an estimated based largely on existing legacy drill data.

The new resource assessment came into effective April 30, 2009 and covers only 11 per cent of Oilsands Quest’s land holdings.

The company has not completed estimates for the remainder of Axe Lake and Raven Ridge, or at Wallace Creek, which they believe are prospective.

The updated resource estimate incorporates the results of the company’s 53 wells drilled at Axe Lake in late 2008, and at Raven Ridge in early 2009.

The new figures update the previous estimates provided in December 2008 which were based on 330 wells drilled up to mid-2008.

The company noted that any evaluation of their contingent resource volumes and economics is limited to the use of recovery methods that are developed and verified by testing in their reservoir.

The McDaniel report included a summary of the estimated volumes of economically recoverable, contingent resources at Axe Lake and Raven Ridge.

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C12

PIPELINE NEWS November 2009

The oilÀeld is an art canvass

Trevor Kuntz’s work can be found at the Art Concepts Custom Framing, in Estevan.

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most of his free time sketching scenes from lease sites.

“I take pictures in the field and do drawings from photographs I’ve taken at work,” he said. “I just go out and drive around with the camera in my spare time. I do the drawings on evenings and weekends.”

At the time of the interview, Kuntz was completing a drawing of Estevan’s Red Dog Drilling Inc.’s Rig 2.

Ironically, it was a rough sketch he started of Red Dog’s number two rig that helped him to land his position as a floorhand on Rig 3 in September after returning to his

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hometown of Regina.

Red Dog Rig 3 is drilling for Western Potash Corporation on a lease site 30 kilometres southeast of Regina.

The move back followed a layoff in November 2008 as a derrickman after working five years on service rigs and drilling rigs in Lloydminster.

He used the time off to create art for a number of clients.

Hancock Petroleum, Astec Safety, Action Towing and Fountain Tire and Garrison Oilwell Servicing are among those that commissioned his art in the Lloydminster area.

“When I moved back to Regina, I was looking for work so I went down to Estevan a couple of times and tried to sell a couple of prints down there,” said Kuntz.

“I saw a rig sitting off the road a couple of kilometres off the highway so I drove in and asked the push if I could take a couple of photos and took some drawings down to their office.

“I talked with them about meeting them on a certain date to show my artwork to them and they asked me if I had any rig experience. I said ‘for sure’ – since I had been sitting around for a few months.

“I was hoping to get on a rig close to Regina and I lucked out. It’s only a 35 minute drive to work. I work eight hour shifts and I am home every night.

“Our next lease site will be even closer to home. Apparently, we have a few months’ worth of work around here.” ɸ Page C13

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C13

for the travelled roughneck drawing full-time one day.

“I will see how things go,” he said. “If there’s lot of artwork to do, I will try to spend as much time as I can on it. If things progress to that point that would be great. If not, I am happy doing what I’m doing.

“I started on the rigs 10 years ago and I wasn’t sure what to think about it at the time but I really like doing it. You get to be outside and you make decent money at it and it keeps you in shape.

“I tried doing all those customer service type jobs when I was younger but I had too much of a mouth problem for that.

Trevor Kuntz works on a drawing of a drilling rig.

His normal gig is working as a roughneck for Red Dog Drilling of Estevan.

Photo submitted

ɺ Page C12 Kuntz has more than 10 years of oilfield experience at places such as Fort St. John, Hinton and Rocky Mountain House, Grande Cache and Lloydminster where he got interested in oilfield art subjects.

“I have been drawing as long as I can remember,” he said. “I have always drawn things like wildlife and portraits and stuff like that. I got in lots of trouble in school for not paying attention and drawing through class.

“I like doing oil field subjects. When I moved to Lloyd I did a couple of drawings of guys at work for something to do. I like doing people and portraits and stuff like that and seeing people’s reaction when they see themselves on paper.

“If a person can do something that means something – I did one for the crew of one of my buddies who passed away. I drew his image in the sky in a scene of his crew members from Chinook (Drilling) number 3 rig where he worked.

“I did one for a guy who had two girls who had grown up. His wife brought in an old picture of his daughters when they were children standing on the rig with hard hats on and I drew that. He was pretty happy when he saw that.”

Kuntz does his art in his old bedroom at his parents’ house. It’s quieter than where he lives with girlfriend and his curious two-year old son, helping him to better focus on his technique.

“I use a ball point pen and I shade much like I would with a pencil but I go really lightly and keep going over and over it until it’s right,” he said. “Sometimes I will use a pencil for the sky.”

Kuntz is working on a website to market his work and would like to have an exhibit but he says every time he thinks about it he is “completely sold. I don’t really have much of an inventory right now.”

The first oilfield piece he sold was for an auction at the annual Lloydminster Heavy Oil Technical Symposium a couple of years ago.

“I figured if I could sell a few of them that gives me more reason to get some stuff done in my spare time – a bit of extra money,” he recalled of that initial experience.

His art is good enough today to fetch up to $1,000 for a 16” by 20” print which gets him thinking about

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“I know the job pretty well inside and out by now.

It’s stress free and I don’t have to worry about it when I’m off.”

Kuntz says drilling for potash is the same process as drilling for oil but instead of going for fluids they drill core samples.

“The only difference is you only drill to a certain point and then you got to pull the pipe out and change the bit to a core barrel then do another 18 metre core and repeat,” he said.

“We drill down to a certain depth. There’s lot of tripping but it makes the time go by fast.”

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PIPELINE NEWS November 2009

Visibility makes a difference Lacey Lischka, left, and Rob Beam are in their new location for Fastenal in Estevan.

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The company, in Estevan for five years, relocated this fall from a building hidden in the back corner of an industrial park onto the city’s main drag – 4th Street.

Beam says there’s been a “major difference, absolutely.”

Their former location was on Mississippian Avenue. They used to have a sign saying “Open to the public,” lest someone think they only dealt with industrial clients. A similar sign will find its way onto the new location.

“We’ve got people coming in all the time for bolts for their table and chairs, or bolts and bits. Being an industrial town, there’s lots of doit-yourselfers,” Beam

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“Out of all the stores in Canada, Saskatchewan’s doing well.”

Fastenal has locations in Regina, Moose Jaw, Swift Current, North Battleford and Saskatoon. Saskatoon recently opened a second location, and North Battleford opened less than a year ago.

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C15

Approximately 150 of the leading researchers in carbon capture and storage attended a conference in Regina, Sept. 29-Oct. 1.

Photo by U of R Photography Dept.

Global leaders in CO2 research gather in Regina

By Brian Zinchuk Regina - Approximately 150 leaders in the research into carbon capture and storage met in Regina Sept.

29 to Oct. 1, discussing their efforts. It was the 12th Meeting of the International Post-Combustion CO2 Capture Network. The conference was hosted by the University of Regina and organized

by Organized by IEA Greenhouse Gas R&D Programme.

The International Energy Association Greenhouse Gas group (IEA-GHG) is a selffunded group made up of about 20 nations and a similar number of major petroleum companies. It’s the group that has endorsed the EnCana WeyburnMidale carbon dioxide monitoring and storage project.

Part of the group’s activity is to hold annual meetings for information exchange,

according to Malcolm Wilson, Ph.D., head of the U of R’s Office of Energy and Environment. This was the first time the group met in Regina, he explained.

One of the highlights was a field trip to the Weyburn project.

There was also a visit to the International Test Centre for CO2 Capture on the U of R campus.

“The important part of the conference was providing people with an up-to-date discussion on where the technology is,” Wilson told Pipeline News. “We were able to talk about the SaskatchewanMontana project, SaskPower was able to talk about Boundary Dam.” Wilson notes they were able to put into context what is happening in the United Kingdom, France and Australia.

“There were a few surprises in who is doing what kind of work,”

he said. One example was work on emissions from amine plants.

Amine is used to capture carbon dioxide from flue gases.

He said two presentations, one from an environmental group, and another from Australian researchers on the topic made for an interesting juxtaposition on the subject, with the environmental group being more subdued. That was not expected.

The University of Regina was there in force, according to Wilson. There were discussions in renewing an agreement between the university and Australia and Norway.

Presentations originated from around the world, including Spain, Saudi Arabia, the United Kingdom, Australia, France, Norway, Korea, Denmark, Germany, Netherlands, Austria, United States and Canada.

Local presenters included R. Idem, P. To n t i w a c h w u t h i k u l , and D. Gelowitz, U of R, speaking on “Latest Research on Fundamental Studies of CO2 Capture Process Technologies at the Process Systems Laboratory.”

Christine Chan et al, of the U of R, presented, “Modelling of Relationships Among Key Parameters in CO2 Capture Process.”

Walid ElMoudir, Univ of Regina and HTC Purenergy Inc, Raphael Idem, U of R, and Ahmed Aboudheir; HTC Purenergy Inc, Canada presented, “Preliminary Screening for Optimum CCS Plant Design.”

C. Luo, Q. Zhou, C.W. Chan, U of R, spoke on “An Architectural Framework for Developing Intelligent Applications for the Carbon Dioxide Capture Process.”

Michael Monea, SaskPower vice presi-

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PIPELINE NEWS November 2009

Agat opens Estevan facility, plans core lab

Jim Slaven, left, and Krystle Colbow are Agat Laboratories’ latest addition to Field Techical Services in Estevan, Saskatchewan. Slaven, a Àeld technician, holds a “bomb” sample cylinder, a vacuum pressured vessel used for compressed gas testing, while Colbow exhibits a Tedler bag, used for Tutweiler tests. Behind them, to the left, is the space were conventional core analysis is planned to be preformed when the laboratory’s Ànal expansion is complete.

Estevan – Tucked in the tail end of the Apex building on Estevan’s east side, Agat Laboratories has opened a laboratory in the Estevan location, continuing to add to their comprehensive branches and

Baker Hughes Incorporated

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The Estevan location commenced operations on Sept. 1, and will provide field testing and conventional core analysis to the area.

“As a field tech, my job is to race around the oilfields, collecting gas, oil and water samples,” says Jim Slaven, field technician. Krystle Colbow handles logistics and administration.

Colbow says the core lab will be set up for routine core analysis, expected by the new year.

One of the more common tests Slaven does is the Tutwieler test. “Often we get called out to do just that test, new wells especially,” he says.

Depending on what the gas levels are, he may have to suit up with the air pack he keeps with him.

Some of the work is regular, while some is on a call out basis. “We have one company in town we do a lot of work for.”

There are racks of sampling materials, from zipper plastic bags, aluminum vacuum cylinders, to coolers to ensure samples stay at a particular temperature.

The pressurized aluminum cylinders, known as “bombs,” draw a sample off the wellhead by vacuuming it into the container. “I’ll take two of these bombs, as we call them, and hook them up to a sampling hose,” Slaven says. “This will connect to the sampling point, be it a treater, separator, or wellhead.”

The bomb is on vacuum, he explains. “I’ll fill the hose up, bleed it off, close it up.”

He has a toolbox full of different-sized connections to ensure he can connect to the sampling system on site.

Oil or water samples go in plastic sealed containers, and gas is collected in the bombs. A Tutwieler test uses a plastic Tedler bag. Environmental and Tribology sample supplies and drop-off are also available at this location. The after-hours drop off box is located behind the shop.

Slaven travels throughout southern Saskatchewan, as far as Swift Current. Anything further west is handled by Alberta locations.

©2009 Baker Hughes Incorporated. All Rights Reserved. 25507.

(780) 875-0203 LloydMall, Lloydminster

PIPELINE NEWS November 2009

Korean ¿rm has harvested Harvest Calgary - Harvest Energy Trust has been swept up in the merger and acquisition combine, swallowed up by state-owned Korea National Oil Company (KNOC).

Harvest Energy has Saskatchewan operations in the Moose Mountain, Kindersley and Lloydminster regions.

The deal will see KNOC dish out $4.1 million for all the issued and outstanding trust units of Harvest Energy for $1.8 billion.

It will also assume $2.3 billion in debt.

“We are extremely pleased to announce this transaction, which provides substantial value to our investors.

Harvest has a considerable portfolio of opportunities including large oil in place assets coupled with production and throughput expansion opportunities in the upstream and downstream segments respectively.

Continued investment

by KNOC will supplement this growth.” said John Zahary, President and Chief Executive Officer of Harvest in a release.

Mr. Young-won Kang, President of KNOC commented, “Korea National Oil Corporation is excited about this acquisition and believes Harvest is a perfect fit for KNOC’s North American growth strategy.

KNOC has ambitious plans for future growth and is committed to a

long term investment strategy in Canada. We are very pleased to be joining forces with a Harvest team that has such a deep and rich experience as well as a proven track record of success.”

The deal represents a 47% premium over the 30-day weighted average trading price of the units on the Toronto Stock Exchange up to and including October 20, 2009.

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PIPELINE NEWS November 2009

Former frac manager opens quick change lube shop Â&#x201E; By Brian Zinchuk

The business card notes both David and Melanie Dzeryk. â&#x20AC;&#x153;My wife does the behind the scenes work â&#x20AC;&#x201C; paEstevan â&#x20AC;&#x201C; He used to work on frac equipment, now David Dzeryk is working under oilpans, in his new venture as a Great Canadian Oil Change franchisee in perwork, payroll, advertising,â&#x20AC;? he says.

The pair also own a real estate investment compaEstevan. â&#x20AC;&#x153;I was the lead electronics fabricator at the Sanjel Calgary fabrication plant,â&#x20AC;? ny in Alberta. Melanie Dzeryk had developed her own nanny placement service, which was sold before they left Calgary. As such, they are not new to the business Dzeryk says. â&#x20AC;&#x153;I was there for ďŹ ve years.â&#x20AC;? â&#x20AC;&#x153;I moved here last October. I was the manager of ďŹ eld electronics for Sas- world. However, they wanted something they would have complete control of.

The biggest obstacle, by far, was getting construction done. katchewan and southern Alberta,â&#x20AC;? he explains. He had bee vying for the position The big rush comes in the afternoon to early evening, from about 2 p.m. to for quite a while. He and his wife have family in the Yorkton and Dauphin, Man., 6 p.m., a little later on some days. â&#x20AC;&#x153;Thatâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s when about 70 per cent of my business areas. takes place,â&#x20AC;? he says. â&#x20AC;&#x153;This opportunity presented itself to me, and I weighed my factors.â&#x20AC;?

Rainy days are good, because thatâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s when he sees a lot of oilďŹ eld customers He looked at Estevan or Weyburn locations, ďŹ nally setting on Estevan.

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However, he says the Regina companies he hired were given a rough go locally.

Dzeryk left Sanjel at the end of August.

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Oil sands to go greener with U of A and German research

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The U of A also works closely with the Alberta Research Council on oil sands project but Babiuik says the Helmholtz centres offer a different set of expertise.

“These are complementary expertise that we don’t have in Canada,” he said. “We look at Germany as a country that is dedicated to enhancing quality of life and sustainability around the world.

“We found an organization that has spent $2.8 billion Euros a year on research. They are a huge international force. They saw what we had in Alberta here and we saw what they had and it was just a fantastic partnership.”

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mately two thirds of the funding will be spent in Canada.

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Edmonton –The Fort McMurray oil sands will undergo an environmental makeover called the Helmholtz Alberta Initiative (HAI) that will develop new green technologies for the oil sands.

The University of Alberta has signed a five year research partnership with the Helmholtz Association of German Research Centres aimed at increasing the sustainability of oil sands resources.

HIA’s goal is to transform oil sands production processes through six projects aimed at capturing and storing carbon dioxide, replacing natural gas with geothermal energy, developing recycling technology for fresh water and improving the reclamation of land disturbed by bitumen mining and tailings ponds.

“We have already told faculties to start recruiting grad students as trainees for the project,” said Lorne Babiuk, U of A’s vice-president of research. “We are on a fast track and we hope to have a lot of activities going by January.”

“We will be tackling six projects. It’s the whole aspect from bitumen extraction to carbon sequestration to water use which is used in extraction. It’s an integrated program.”

The agreement was announced the same week that Greenpeace activists disrupted the oil sands operations of Suncor to protest greenhouse gas emissions generated from bitumen production.

Babiuk, however, says the partnership is not a response to protests over oil sands environmental practices but is part of a strategic goal of the U of A “to become an international leader in oil sands research.

“We feel it’s important to do quality research and improve our

C20

PIPELINE NEWS November 2009

Tantallon natural gas turbine one of a series being built for SaskPower Tantallon – SaskPower announced on Sept. 24 a purchase agreement for peaking power generation, to be installed northwest of Moosomin at the Tantallon Switching station.

The plant will be asimple cycle natural gas turbine station, capable of generating 86 megawatts (MW) of power. It will have two turbines.

SaskPower has chosen Northland Power

Inc., an independent power producer based in Toronto, to provide 86 megawatts (MW) of power to the provincial electrical grid beginning in December 2011. The companies have entered

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into a 25-year power purchase agreement, according to a SaskPower release.

SaskPower awarded the contract following a competitive bidding process that began in the fall of 2008. Northland Power will construct and operate a natural gas power station near the Tantallon Switching Station, located 40 kilometres north of Moosomin.

The plant will be dispatched by SaskPower, and be integrated into the provincial system.

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this year in capital projects.

SaskPower is in the process of building several peaking power stations throughout the province. Each is strategically placed near existing infrastructure so as to minimize the need for more transmission line construction. The Crown corporation also sought to minimize line loss and interconnection costs.

Line loss is the loss of power due to resistance in the transmission lines.

The longer the distance between the generation and the final usage, the more power is lost.

In house He explained that the first three projects were done in house, by

• • • • •

SaskPower, due to extraordinary load growth in 2008 and tight time constraints. The Tantallon station was farmed out.

“We took a look at a multitude of different projects and locations throughout Saskatchewan,” Mohr said.

“We could reduce our [line] losses by situating it at that site,” he responded when asked why Tantallon was chose as a location. It was one of a “multitude of factors.”

In Saskatoon, the Queen Elizabeth Power station will be repowered with an additional 105 MW by three gas turbines, for a price of $145 million, including the necessary infrastructure.

At North Battleford, the Yellowhead project will see three simple cycle gas turbines, built for $250 million. It will have 140 MW of capacity, and is slated to be completed

by December, 2010.

Southwest of Kerrobert, the Ermine switching station is seeing a 94 MW gas turbine plant in stalled, at a cost of $150 million. It will have two turbines.

Mohr explains that simple cycle gas turbines are less efficient than combined cycle or cogeneration natural gas plants.

Their biggest advantage is they are flexible and can be activated quickly, with a 15-minute warmup. “They’re very, very fast acting, one of the most responsive units we have,” Mohr explained.

“We want the flexibility.” ɸ Page C21

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PIPELINE NEWS November 2009

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The Bakken pattern in action A string of wells are under construction just west of Stoughton along Highway 13. From left, a new lease is pushed out, a second is completed by a service rig, and a third is drilled. Stoughton can be seen in the background.

Wind power is growing in popularity but it does have issues

Windpower is being complemented by natural gas ɺ Page C20 Wind backup Wind power generation is all the rage these days, but there issues with it. Specifically, there are times when the wind doesn’t blow. As such, it cannot be relied upon as a baseload power supply.

“Part of our strategy is we want to push the envelope on windpower. We want to build as much as we can within practical operating constraints and economic reason,” Mohr said.

Wind is highly variable in power production and is not dispatchable, meaning you can’t just turn it on and expect to have a set amount of power come out. “As an electricity product, it is very unreliable,” Mohr said.

However, it matches nicely with gas turbines.

The turbines can be ramped up and down very quickly, according to Mohr.

Essentially, for whatever power you expect to generate with wind, you need to have a reliable backup source for when the wind dies off. “The system has to have the capability to respond very quickly,” he explained. “You have to build additional generation to follow the [wind] power around.”

“You can’t have wind by itself.”

In 2006, the Centennial Wind Farm near Swift Current went online, with a theoretical generating capacity of 150 MW. It cost $272 million, including transmission infrastructure.

Its overall long term output is in the 40 per cent range, very good for a wind facility, according to Mohr.

In 2007, SaskPower undertook a comprehensive study into the technical, operating and costs of wind power.

That report is anticipated before the end of this year, and is “within our governance process,” ac-

cording to Mohr.

“We do believe we can add more wind with manageable cost and operational implications.

“We look at the combination of capital, operating, fuel maintenance and salvage value costs over the life of the facility,” Mohr explained.

As examples, wind has a high capital cost, but no fuel costs. Natural gas turbines have a low capital cost, but high fuel costs. Nuclear power has high capital costs, moderate operating costs, and low fuel costs.

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PIPELINE NEWS November 2009

Crescent Point cashed up $500 million raised in bought deal ¿nancing Crescent Point is drilling a series of wells near Stoughton. Here, Panther Drilling Rig 2 is at work. The barbed wire and fencepost appear eerily close to the Crescent Point logo.

Calgary - Crescent Point Energy Corp. is on the move.

On Oct. 14, Crescent Point announced it had raised $500 million in bought deal financing. The last time it made an announcement of this scale, it was in the spring time. Shortly thereafter, the company announced it, with Tristar Oil & Gas, had purchased Talisman Energy’s assets in southeast Saskatchewan.

In a release, the company stated, “The net proceeds of the offering will initially be used

to reduce outstanding indebtedness and will subsequently be used for general corporate purposes including funding development capital programs and prospective acquisitions.”

On. Oct. 22, the company closed the purchase of Wave Energy Ltd. The conclusion of the deal leaves the company with a daily production average of greater than 51,500 boe/d.

Crescent Point stated, “The completion of the arrangement continues Crescent Point’s

consolidation strategy for southwest Saskatchewan, where the company has a dominant position in the Lower Shaunavon resource play. Wave had a first mover advantage, securing ownership of properties in the heart of the play. The properties are adjacent to and contiguous with existing Crescent Point properties, including some of the properties acquired pursuant to the acquisitions of Wild River Resources Ltd. and Gibraltar Exploration Ltd. in July 2009.”

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C24

PIPELINE NEWS November 2009

Saskatchewan-based directional driller: Millennium

By Brian Zinchuk Carlyle – Carlyle-based Millennium Directional Service Ltd. has seen some ups and downs over the past year, and is ready to take on a higher level of activity if the rising price of oil drives up drilling.

“Right now, we’re mid-stride. Last year was a shock to jump from a seven job company to 11 -12.” Wade Robertson, vice president of operations with Millennium says A considerable slowdown came to a screeching halt in December of 2008, he notes. “Since March, things are slowly picking up every day.”

Currently, they are running about six jobs, each with two directional drillers and two Measure While Drilling (MWD) hands.

They have more capacity, he says. “We could handle more. More men are available, and there’s always equipment to rent.”

Almost all of their hands are from Saskatchewan. Most live in the southeast, with a few hailing from the Saskatoon area. It goes with the company being based in Carlyle. As a Saskatchewan-based directional drilling company, Robertson says, “We’re the only ones.”

There are probably 50 companies doing it, he adds.

They maintain a Calgary sales office.

Millenium is owned by a handful of local shareholders and is locally operated.

Most of the management and some of the field hands also have a stake.

The directional drilling firm’s work is all in southeast Saskatchewan and southwest Manitoba. Some of their main clients include Aldon Oils, Pemoco, Villanova, Spectrum, Fairborne, Elswick Energy, High Rock and Antler River.

They also work with a number of smaller companies.

The lead time for a well varies. It can be a spur of the moment job, or be in the planning stages for a long time. “We’ve had some guys work on wells up to 2 years before they drill them,” Robertson says. “From the time you decide [to go with] it, a rough guess would be a month.”

The bread and butter in the southeast is Bakken zone drilling. Robertson says it now takes six to 10 days to drill a horizontal Bakken well, as opposed to up to 30 days a few years ago.

“We’re paid by the day. We get less days out of it, but if it’s working good for the oil company, we get more days.”

Robertson says “I see it steadily looking better in the future,” but notes that is dependent on the price of oil. If it carries on an upward trend, they will be busier, he explains. However, the value of the Canadian dollar vs. the U.S. dollar has an impact.

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C25

Reliable works with Crescent Point Reliable Energy Ltd. has closed a private placement and executed a joint venture agreement with Crescent Point Energy Corp.

The joint venture, centered on Reliable’s core area of southeast Saskatchewan and southwest Manitoba, includes undeveloped lands contributed by both Crescent Point and Reliable, whereby Reliable will operate the joint venture and retain a 75% working interest in the properties subject to certain terms and conditions.

In part consideration for its 25% working interest, Crescent Point will pay Reliable, $1.6 million in cash.

Reliable will maintain its original working interest in its discovery pool.

Upon execution of the agreement, Reliable will hold approximately 63,000 acres (gross),

47,000 acres (net) of undeveloped lands in the core area, plus approximately 15,000 acres (gross), 11,250 acres (net) of unearned farm-in lands.

As previously announced, Reliable commenced completion operations on two Bakken

wells in August. As a result the company has placed the wells on production with initial oil production rates of approximately 69 and 49 bbls a day respectively.

Based on the results of these wells, the company said it has now identified a further 15

development drilling locations on its lands.

Reliable said it has commenced preparations for its exploration and development program and is planning to drill seven to nine exploration wells and four to six development wells before year-end.

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PIPELINE NEWS November 2009

Oilpatch companies make top 100

Carson Energy Services of Lampman placed No. 29 in a list of top 100 Saskatchewan companies. Here, a Carson crew backÀlls a pipeline just south of Stoughton, on the east side of Highway 47.

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Regina – Several companies directly involved in the oilpatch, or with oilpatch ties were included in the annual Leader-Post Top Saskatchewan Companies list, published Sept. 30.

The listings are based on 2008 revenues.

The list is compiled by Benchmark Public Relations.

Federated Co-op, which includes the Regina refinery and upgrader complex, came in at the number 2 spot, with $8.4 billion in revenue. This includes all the co-ops in Saskatchewan affiliated with Federated Co-op.

At No. 14, the Brandt Group of Companies was listed with $797 million in sales. Brandt is the Deere heavy equipment dealer in Saskatchewan.

Another equipment and truck dealer, Redhead Group of Companies, was slotted at No. 23, with $255 million in sales.

Carson Energy Services of Lampman does not have a specific revenue specified, but it’s placement at No. 29 puts it between the Saskatchewan Housing Corporation at $196 million and PIC Investment Group at $190 million. Carson Energy Services is also the first company on the list to have a head office not located in Regina or Saskatoon. It’s the first listing of a small town headquarters.

Villanova Energy Corp of Regina place at No. 70, with $42 million in sales.

Coming in at 84 was

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For details, call one of our 11 Sales & Manufacturing locations: Headingley (Winnipeg), MB Toll free: 1-866-255-0206 Portage la Prairie, MB Toll free: 1-866-466-7980 Brandon, MB Toll free: 1-866-940-4945

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Dauphin, MB Toll free: 1-877-313-9663 Yorkton, SK Toll free: 1-800-667-1580 White City (Regina), SK Toll free: 1-866-788-4471

Prince Albert, SK Toll free: 1-888-273-1001 Saskatoon, SK Toll free: 1-866-384-5706 Swift Current, SK Toll free: 1-800-567-0701

North Battleford, SK Toll free: 1-866-650-7655 St. Paul, AB Toll free: 1-877-645-6876

Dealer opportunities: Request info at: ddt@mcdiarmidhomes.com

“ Safety & Satisfaction”

Eagle Drilling Services Ltd. of Carlyle. Its revenue was not listed, but it was placed between the $31.4 million in revenue for Cornerstone Credit Union and Jay’s Moving and Storage at $30.5 million.

“This is great news” Derrick Big Eagle, president and general manager of Eagle Drilling, said in a release.

“Staff have worked hard to make this happen. I’d like to thank them all for their dedication to making sure each individual project went well. It is the work in the field every day that has led to our record results.”

Crown corporation SaskEnergy has its net revenue posted, at $30 million. That positioned the Crown at No. 86, substantially lower than its Crown brethren SaskPower (No. 6, $1.5 billion), SGI (No. 7, $1.2 billion) and SaskTel ($1.1 billion.). “Rather than providing gross revenue amounts, the Crown corporation started this fiscal year to report only net revenue, which accounts for the significant drop in its rankings,” the Leader-Post explains.

Panther Industries made the list at No. 92, with revenue at $26 million.

Keystone Royalty Corp came in at No. 97, at $20.1 million.

The cut-off was $16.7 million in revenue.

The Leader-Post notes, “Every attempt has been made to make this list as accurate as possible. Please note that some Saskatchewan-based companies declined to participate in the list.”

PIPELINE NEWS November 2009

C27

Career Opportunities PRECISION WELL SERVICING Precision Drilling

A division of Precision Diversified Oilfield Services Corp. is currently recruiting OPERATORS, DERRICKHANDS AND FLOORHANDS We invite you to become a member of Precision’s Family and grow with a service rig company where the field comes first.

Valid H2S Alive ticket and a valid class 5 drivers license is required.

Experience is an asset but not required. Preference is given to applicants with a valid class 1A or 3A license.

Call 1-877-PDJOBS4 Visit our Careers page at www.toughnecks.com 2006/07 Winner of Class A CAODC Safety Leadership award for the best safety performance in our industry Excellent benefit package Various employee incentive programs Hands on training provided Competitive wages

NORTHWEST TANK LINES INC.

Where Safety is Everyones Responsibility Class 1 Drivers Required... to run Southern Saskatchewan & must reside in the Estevan area.

We Provide • Competitive Wages • Full BeneÀts • RRSP Program • Safety Awards Program • Safe Work Environment • Up to Date Equipment

You Provide • Valid Class 1 License • 3 Years Experience • Tanker or Super B Experience • Clean Abstract • Strong Work Ethic • Excellent Safety Record

For more information please call Kent at 1-800-661-5528 ex:226 Or email resume to: kent@nwtl.ca Or fax to: 403-250-7801

Our people, Our passion, Our performance

Oilflow Solutions Inc. Field Sales Manager Oilflow Solutions Inc. is a rapidly growing technology service company introducing its patented ProfluxTM Technology into the heavy oil and oil sand markets. ProfluxTM is a complete flow assurance technology which dramatically reduces the viscosity of thick and slow moving heavy oil, enhancing the production and transport of heavy oil. Oilflow Solutions has successfully completed Proflux evaluations with heavy oil operators in Canada and is ready to commercially launch this unique and “game changing” product. You can learn more about our company at www.oilflowsolutions.com.

Oilflow Solutions Inc. is currently recruiting for an experienced Field Sales Manager professional who is looking for a challenging and highly rewarding career.

The Role: The position will be based in Lloydminster/Bonnyville area with responsibility for the rapid adoption of the unique Proflux technology throughout the heavy oil and bitumen industry in Canada. This highly motivated individual will be involved in both the ongoing development and implementation of the business plan with the objective of creating value for both he customer and the company.

Responsibilities: • Identify opportunities, generate leads to sales cycle and close deals for our products and service • Promote Proflux family of products to E&P companies including site visits with production engineers, field foreman and rig coordinators • Present product value and commercial offer to clients • Territory coverage includes Lloydminster, Bonnyville, Cold Lake, Seal Lake and Peace River areas • Liaison closely with Calgary sales and field technical support to coordinate efforts with customers • Present Proflux at conferences and seminars

Qualifications: • • • • •

5+ years technical sales and/or marketing experience with an oil service company Proven track record of closing deals with experience in new technology introductions considered an asset Established list of leads and customer contacts specific to CHOPS Technical proficiency in artificial lift, EOR, well completions and facilities specifically related to Heavy Oil Technical diploma or equivalent work experience

Routine internal travel within Western Canada will be required.

Remuneration: The salary and benefits package will reflect the seniority of this role. In addition, a lucrative performance based incentive scheme will be offered.

If you are interested in these opportunities, please submit your resume in confidence to:

Oilflow Solutions Inc Email: info@oilflowsolutions.com

SpeciÀc Targeting Contact your local pipeline sale rep. to get

35,000 Circulation on your career ad!

C28

PIPELINE NEWS November 2009

CELEBRATING OUR HISTORY Coming in 2010 Pipeline News features men and women who pioneered the oil and gas industry in Saskatchewan

Career Opportunities Crew Foreman

Experienced FOR LLOYDMINSTER AREA ELECTRICAL 3RD, 4TH YEAR APPRENTICES & JOURNEYMEN REQUIRED IMMEDIATELY Require safety certiĂ&#x20AC;cates & valid drivers licence.

Competitive wages and beneĂ&#x20AC;ts package.

Fax resume to 637-2181 or deliver to: 62 Devonian Street, Estevan, Sk.

MUST: â&#x20AC;˘ Have Valid Drivers License & Be A Team Player â&#x20AC;˘ Safety Tickets â&#x20AC;˘ Picker & Bobcat Experience An Asset Câ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s OFFERS: â&#x20AC;˘ Top Wages â&#x20AC;˘ Benefits Package â&#x20AC;˘ Performance Bonuses â&#x20AC;˘ Scheduled Days Off â&#x20AC;˘ Opportunity For Advancement â&#x20AC;˘ C.O.R. Safety Program â&#x20AC;˘ AB & SK B31.3 Q.C. â&#x20AC;˘ Premium Equipment DUTIES: â&#x20AC;˘ Daily Operation Of A Light Picker Truck â&#x20AC;˘ Pipe-fitting & Construction

OILFIELD SERVICE LTD.

CONSULTING & CONSTRUCTION

Apply in confidence to: Fax (780) 808-2273

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hr@pyramidcorporation.com Toll

free fax: 877-955-4473 www.pyramidcorporation.com

TRICAN WELL SERVICE LTD. is one of Canada's fastest growing well service companies, providing a comprehensive array of specialized products, equipment and services utilized in drilling, completion, stimulation and reworking of oil and gas wells in the Canadian and International marketplace. At Trican, we base our recruitment practices on the belief that a company's greatest asset is its people.

Trican provides services in Fracturing, Cementing, Acidizing, Coiled Tubing, Nitrogen and related services in our field bases ranging from Fort Nelson, BC to Estevan, Saskatchewan.

WE ARE CURRENTLY HIRING FOR ALL LOCATIONS:

â&#x20AC;˘ SUPERVISORS â&#x20AC;˘ OPERATORS â&#x20AC;˘ DRIVERS â&#x20AC;˘ FRAC HANDS A valid Class 1 required as well as prior experience in the above pressure pumping operations.

Trican offers a dynamic work environment and a competitive salary and benefit package. Please apply in person to any of Trican's field bases or forward your resume and references, in confidence to:

Trican Well Service Ltd. Box 849 Estevan, SK S4A 2A7 Fax: (306) 637-2065 â&#x20AC;˘ Email: vscott@trican.ca

INTERNATIONAL DRILLING OPPORTUNITIES CanElson Drilling Inc. is looking for experienced hands to crew our newly built 3600 m drilling rigs, with opportunities in both Canada and Mexico.

In addition to following the standard CAODC rig worker wage schedule, the Company provides a beneĂ&#x20AC;ts program, employee savings program and the potential for stock options.

If you are a hard working individual interested in challenging and rewarding work on brand new equipment, and want to join an organization with an involved management team, complete the application form in the Employment section of our website at www.canelsondrilling.com or fax your resume to (403) 266-3968.

Only those applicants with a valid Rig Tech (1,2 or 3) ticket will be considered. The ability to speak Spanish will be a deĂ&#x20AC;nite asset for those interested in the Mexico project.

We thank all those who apply, but only those chosen for an interview will be contacted.

No phone calls please.

www.suretuf.com

CNC Plasma / Oxyacetylene Operators Applicants must have welding background.

Driverâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s license required. Reliable, team player.

Wages depend on experience. BeneďŹ ts available.

Performance bonuses.

Only those to be interviewed will be contacted.

Apply in conďŹ dence to: Fax (780) 808-2689

PIPELINE NEWS November 2009

C29

Resources Guide

www.pennwest.com 311 Kensington Avenue, Estevan â&#x20AC;˘ 634-1400

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Lloyd Lavigne â&#x20AC;˘ Kirk Clarkson Owners/Managers 6506 - 50th Avenue Lloydminster, AB

Phone: (780) 875-6880

5315 - 37th Street Provost, AB T0B 3S0

Phone: (780) 753-6449

Fax: (780) 875-7076

24 Hour Service Specializing in Industrial & Oilfield Motors

Gordon Harty Box 95 Marwayne, AB T0B 2X0

Bus. Phone

Fax No.

Res. Phone

(780) 875-9802 (780) 847-3633 (780) 847-2178 Fresh Water Hauling Custom Bailing & Hauling

Specializing in well site and pipeline surveys Yorkton 306.783.4100

Swift Current 306.773.7733

Edmonton 800.465.6233

Weyburn 306.842.6060

Lloydminster 780.875.6130

Calgary 866.234.7599

Regina 800.667.3546

Medicine Hat 403.528.4215

Grande Prairie 780.532.6793

JUSTIN WAPPEL - Division Manager 401 Hwy. #4 S. Biggar, Saskatchewan PO Box 879 S0K 0M0 Ph (306) 948-5262 Fax (306) 948-5263 Cell (306) 441-4402 Toll Free 1-800-746-6646 Email: jwappel@envirotank.com www.envirotank.com

SONAR INSPECTION LTD.

Cory Bjorndal District Manager Downhole Tools

93 Panteluk Street Kensington Avenue N Estevan, Saskatchewan S4A 2A6 PHONE: 306-634-8828 CELL: 306-421-2893 FAX: 306-634-7747 cory.bjorndal@nov.com www.nov.com

Head OfĂ&#x20AC;ce 1292 Veterans Crescent Estevan, Sk. S4A 2E1 E: sonarinsp@sasktel.net

P: 306-634-5285 F: 306-634-5649

â&#x20AC;&#x153;Serving All Your Inspection Needsâ&#x20AC;?

UT - LPI - MPI Wayne Naka Taylor Gardiner Cory Rougeau

306-421-3177 306-421-2883 306-421-1076

â&#x20AC;˘ Pressure Vessels â&#x20AC;˘ Well Testers â&#x20AC;˘ Frac Recovery â&#x20AC;˘ Wellbore Bleedoff â&#x20AC;˘ Ball Catchers â&#x20AC;˘ 400 bbl Tanks â&#x20AC;˘ Rig Matting â&#x20AC;˘ Complete Trucking Services

Dale (306) 861-3635 â&#x20AC;˘ Lee (306) 577-7042 Lampman, Sask.

C30

PIPELINE NEWS November 2009

Resources Guide The Leader in Ground Breaking Safety Course offerings for Heavy Equipment Safety: â&#x20AC;˘ Trencher â&#x20AC;˘ Directional Drilling (HDD) â&#x20AC;˘ Excavator â&#x20AC;˘ Skid-Steer â&#x20AC;˘ Backhoe â&#x20AC;˘ Aerial Lift â&#x20AC;˘ Forklift â&#x20AC;˘ Overhead Crane & Rigging â&#x20AC;˘ Hydro-Vac Brooks Paisley, CRSP Principle Consultant (306) 737-8499 info@daxxsafety.com www.daxxsafety.com

DAXX SAFETY ASSOCIATES

Safety Management &Training Services

Bulk Agency

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Cathy Walker 2 Campbell Cres.

Weyburn, SK S4H 3M3

Cell (306) 861-1701 Home (306) 842-1973 EMAIL: acwalker@sasktel.net

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CHANGE BUY SELL TRADE

912 6th Street, Estevan

634-7275

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FUSION INDUSTRIES LTD. â&#x20AC;˘ Quality Control â&#x20AC;˘ Pressure Welding â&#x20AC;˘ OilĂ&#x20AC;eld â&#x20AC;˘ Portable Welding â&#x20AC;˘ Fabrication â&#x20AC;˘ Breaking â&#x20AC;˘ Shearing â&#x20AC;˘ CNC Plasma & Torch Cutting â&#x20AC;˘ P1-P1 Carbon Steel Procedures â&#x20AC;˘ P1-P8/P8-P8 Stainless Steel Procedures 24 hr Service

301A Kensington Ave. Estevan, SK.

Phone: 634-6177 Fax: 634-6178 Cell: 421-5441 421-6179

Email: fusioninc@sasktel.net

WANT CASH? Sell your equipment in the OilĂ&#x20AC;eld Exchange!

SASKATCHEWAN BUSINESSES FOR SALE Oilfield Trucking Business Well established, steady income, long term employees Owner will train, southeast SK.

Auto Body Repair, Oil Field & Industrial Equipment Sandblasting & Coating Diversified business 90% growth over the past four years, southeast SK

40247732â&#x20AC;˘10/23/09

Kevin Anderson/Darwin Krall

For Sale

Floor Covering Store Very profitable, owner retiring Excellent opportunity for a small investment, southeast SK

Restaurant and Pub Sales have doubled in the past five years Excellent cash flow, southwest SK

Hotel/Motel Recently expanded and generating excellent cash flow Very busy hotel/motel business, southwest SK

Oilfield Rental Company Showing excellent returns, minimal staff to supervise, newer & well maintained equipment with a very long useful life, southeast SK.

TERRY DODDS (24 hrs.) (306) 634-7599 Cell. (306) 421-0316

M.E.T. OILFIELD CONST. LTD. â&#x20AC;&#x153;All Your Construction and Maintenance Needsâ&#x20AC;?

SPECIALIZING IN: ENGINES, PUMP UNITS, UNIT INSPECTIONS, PIPE FITTING, TREATERS AND PRESSURE TICKET WELDING Box 1605, Estevan, Sk. S4A 2L7 Cell. (306) 421-3174, (306) 421-6410, (306) 421-2059 Fax: (306) 634-1273

Building Products Supply, Manufacturing, Installation & Service Sales growth of 40% in past two years, building & land included, Regina SK. Visit www.sunbeltsask.com for more information on these & other SK businesses for sale or to sell a business with Sunbelt Business Brokers.

Regina office (306) 530-7899 Saskatoon office (306) 382-5075

Reconditioned 750 BBL Tanks Heated & Insulated c/w Hawkeye guageboard assembly Phone Paul (403)664-0604

The worldâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s largest business brokerage firm.

Oyen, AB.

PIPELINE NEWS November 2009

C31

C32

PIPELINE NEWS November 2009

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