Pipeline News North - July 2011

Northern British Columbia and Alberta's Oil and Gas Industry Vol. 1 Issue 7 • dist: 20,325

july 29 • 2011

h t r No

• Free

in this issue:

• the latest scoop - innovative randy galbreath • shaping alberta - Premier’s council • visit from the sea - Aquavan comes to B.C. The Petroleum Services Association of Canada is sponsoring four new awards for students at Northern Lights College, including those in the welding program at the Dawson Creek campus. Photo by James Waterman.

www.inland-group-fsj.com

2 • PIPELINE NEWS NORTH I July 2011

PETROLEUM ASSOCIATION - HAPPENINGS

July 2011 I pipeline news north •

industry news

3

shaping alberta

- Premier ’s council for economic strategy james waterman Pipeline News North

Members of the Premier’s Council for Economic Strategy rolled out its new Shaping Alberta’s Future report, which was officially released on May 5 of this year.

The council visited Grande Prairie on Wednesday, June 22 as part of a two day, eight city town hall tour.

Grande Prairie was a logical choice for one of those town halls, according to Bob Fessenden, Deputy Minister for the Premier’s Council for Economic Strategy, particularly for its position as an important economic centre for the province in terms of oil and gas development and other natural resource industries such as forestry and agriculture. The town hall was co-hosted by the Grande Prairie and District Chamber of Commerce, which fit well with the Council’s goal of giving this new thirty year economic roadmap for the province a significant level of visibility with the people of Alberta.

“Plus,” said Fessenden, “we needed help to organize eight meetings in two days. And the chambers were the obvious allies. And they were very, very good to us. We had tremendous support from the chambers.”

Dave Cook, Chair of the Board for the Grande Prairie and District Chamber of Commerce, was pleased that the Council chose Grande Prairie for one of its town halls, especially considering the prominence of natural resource industries in the Council’s report and the local economy.

“It certainly recognized the importance of the oil and gas industry to Alberta,” said Cook. “And also the importance of developing new markets and not being so reliant on the U.S., which means that we need to look at developing the transportation systems to move bitumen, both processed and unrefined, to the west coast, to move to Asia and open up those markets in Asia.”

The proposed Northern Gateway pipeline to transport oil from Bruderheim, Alberta to Kitimat, British Columbia for export to Asia would pass just south of Grande Prairie, provide Albertans with $2.6 million in wages and benefits, and bring the Alberta government a total of $15 million in annual tax payments. It would also provide that access point to

markets in Asia.

Along those lines, the Council’s report discussed the value of the province’s new Asia Advisory Council Act that was introduced in February and came into force on May 13, 2011. The purpose of the act is to attempt to ensure Alberta’s long-term prosperity by becoming a bigger player in the Asian marketplace.

“And building strategic relationships with Asia,” said Fessenden, adding that it is the view of the council that Asia should not simply be seen as a marketplace, but also as a “strategic partner ... in terms of technology development.”

Fessenden noted that the Council put considerable emphasis on the idea of developing strategic partnerships with emerging markets with growing middle class populations, not just in Asia, but also in Latin America. It is discussed in the report as a need to avoid the insularity and complacency that can result from Alberta’s present prosperity, a great danger considering that that prosperity has largely come as a result of its relationship with one trading partner with an unstable economy, a diminishing hunger for Canadian natural gas, and a politically motivated reluctance to approve TransCanada’s Keystone XL pipeline that would transport heavy oil from Alberta’s oil sands to refineries in Texas: the United States.

“This is a point [Premier’s Council for Economic Strategy Chair] David Emerson makes every time he speaks,” said Fessenden. “And that is that the world is changing around us tremendously rapidly and the changes that we’re seeing are connected to some degree to a redistribution of wealth. I mean, all you have to do is look at the growing size of the economies of China and India, for starters. But not just them. Also, Brazil and other countries. Some of the other Asian tigers. If you look at the growing economic strength, the growth of the middle class – which, of course, gives you some sense of consumer power and therefore market size, as well as capacity to innovate ... If you look at the way that’s shifting – and if the trends hold up, which most people believe they will – than Canada and North America become smaller in that global pool, not because we’re shrinking, but because the other is growing so fast. So, if you think about the population, for example, of North America today, it’s about 500 million, slightly less, in a global population of 7 billion. So, North Americans ... are one fourteenth of the global population. Now

David Emerson, Chair of the Premier’s Council for Economic Strategy, listens to questions and comments from the citizens who gathered at a town hall meeting co-hosted by the Grande Prairie and District Chamber of Commerce in Grande Prairie, Alberta on Wednesday, June 22.

Photo courtesy of Grande Prairie and District Chamber of Commerce.

that total population isn’t market size, but the middle class is market size.”

“The global trends suggest that, if you look at demographics, North America is becoming relatively smaller in the sense of a lesser proportion of global population,” he continued. “Not just total population, but middle class as well. And so we have to look to them for market. The vulnerability for Alberta and for Canada comes out of seeing only the U.S. as the major marketplace. And so the need to think globally, to diversify markets, as well as the products and services we market into those markets, has got to be one of the driving things that we think about over the next thirty years.”

As Fessenden suggested, the Council’s report clearly illustrates that Asian countries like China and India, which

require the natural resources that Canada has to offer, are becoming the home of the larger proportion of the global middle class, not North America and western Europe. However, Latin America also as a growing middle class, as well a wealth of natural resources similar to those that are abundant in Canada, including oil, natural gas, minerals and metals, and forestry and agricultural products.

“So, we should see them as allies,” Fessenden insisted. “I mean, they’re competitors too. But they’re allies in the sense that the technology that they’ll need to develop their resources and the technology we need is very similar technology.

So, we could see them as strategic allies on the technology side.” continued pg 4 28231

www.pimms.ca

4 • PIPELINE NEWS NORTH I July 2011 special features 12 The latest scoop innovative Randy Galbreath 18 Nature’s bounty - traditional

plant study

opinion 6 Columnist: Don Thompson

community 6

10

28

An Energetic kid’s gym in FSJ Project Webfoot - getting them while they’re young Visit from the sea - Aquavan comes to Northeast B.C.

industry news Albert - Premier’s 3 Shaping

council for economic strategy 7 Bang for the buck - Ziff’s

pipeline cost report 8 Moves at the top - CAODC

executives 14 A new launch - Nabors

Canada is expanding svcs 14 Gas-to-liquid could come

to Peace Region

environment 22 Mixing oil & water - Arctic

Grayling Symposium

careers & training 16 NLC courses for Aug-Sept 29 Heavy duty - new

scholarships for NLC

international 24 Pulling the plug - Encana PetroChina deal falls through 24 Fraser Institute report on O&G

profiles 15 Right on track - Eco-Flex

recycled rubber products 20 Gone west - it’s a long way

from N.B. to FSJ

safety 26 Enform - Winner of the

Getenergy award

industry news – Shaping Alberta - cont’d What Fessenden is describing is what the Council’s report refers to as obtaining a “new sense of geography” to go along with a “more robust global engagement.” According to Cook, that could have significant implications for the Grande Prairie area. Historically, the region has been a natural gas producer, but natural gas prices are now low due to a glut of the commodity in North America. However, that isn’t the district’s only valuable resource.

“I think the principal message [of the Council’s report] is that [for] all products that we produce in northwestern Alberta, or Alberta [as a whole], we need to look at the emerging economies and not be so reliant on our traditional markets,” said Cook.

Cook sees petroleum products as the foot in the door for Asian markets that will open their eyes to other goods such as forestry and agricultural products that are important parts of Grande Prairie’s regional economy. After all, if Asian companies require additional oil and gas to meet their energy demands, they also need lumber for new homes and foodstuffs to feed a growing population. That is also partly the aim of the Asia Advisory Council Act. “Obviously, we are part of the bigger picture,” said Cook, discussing Grande Prairie’s role in the thirty year economic roadmap. “We have a very diverse economy here. And when I look at it, as far as the natural resource sector, we have, obviously, oil and gas, and we also have forestry, and we have a very strong agricultural community as well. So, all three of those basically form our primary industries here. And then all the services and everything else that spins off of that really is what drives our economy. ... If all of a sudden our transportation systems improve to get our main products to market going west rather than south, we can only benefit from it. That’s how I look at it. And that’s how our chamber looks at it. All our businesses would benefit from that. And it also would sort of help shelter us from the ups and downs associated with the commodity sector.”

The Council’s report addresses the ups and downs of the commodity sector particularly in terms of the “hollowing out” of other sectors of the economy when a sudden rise in commodity prices causes an economic boom.

“This was an issue that the council members had a diversity of opinions on kind of how to address it,” said Fessenden. “To a person, they said, ‘Look, boom and bust is bad, particularly the overheating.’ You know, if you look at what happened in the last five years, just before the recession hit, in that 2005 to 2008 period, where there was so much construction going on related to the oil sands, and other things, that labour became short, labour costs went up, materials became short, materials cost went up, the cost of construction just went out of sight. And what happens is that when the cost for labour and the cost for materials goes up, basically your whole cost structure goes up.

“Those companies that are mobile – high tech companies for example

The Grande Prairie and District Chamber of Commerce co-hosted a visit by members of the Premier’s Council for Economic Strategy on June 22, allowing residents of the city to discuss the new Shaping Alberta’s Future report with its authors.

Photo courtesy of Grande Prairie & District Chamber of Commerce.

– they see their costs going up too.

But they can leave. And some do.

And that’s how you get this hollowing out. First of all, the energy sector ... as much as it can, it sucks labour and materials ... and investment ... into that particular sector, and leaves the others kind of high and dry.

Then when the bust comes, there’s nothing to kind of pick up the slack, because you’ve been hollowed out.

“There was a tremendous agreement on the part of the council that said ‘if you’re going to broaden your economic base, somehow you have to mitigate the impact of this boom and bust, particularly the overheating’. The question then becomes how do you do that. And there was a diverse opinion, some thinking that there was a role for government, others saying government should keep the hell out of it and let industry look after it. You know, market forces will prevail. So, there was some diversity of opinion there.”

The Council developed the concept of an “innovation ecosystem” to combat that problem. As Fessenden explained, high tech companies require a source of talented people, a source of investment dollars, and customers.

“And you need public policy that encourages these things to be,” he said.

That is the basis of the innovation ecosystem.

“Clearly,” Fessenden continued, “our post-secondary entities are part of that. The province also has put in place what I would call ‘public infrastructure’. So, the Alberta Research Council, now the Alberta Innovates series of corporations, are all part of that ecosystem, as is the financial services sector. And it all has to be

strong.”

Two of the five flagship initiatives outlined in the Council’s report, creating a Global Centre for Energy and an Alberta Institute for Advanced Technology (AIAT), will be important elements of that innovation ecosystem. Cook believes Grande Prairie can play a vital role.

“They weren’t advocating a separate institution,” he said, “but what they’re saying is more of a focus amongst the existing institutions and communities to develop a collaborative approach to push for innovation and technology that leads immediately to commercialization.”

Cook suggested that Grande Prairie – as a community with a long history in the natural resource industries and the home of the Evergreen Centre for Resource Excellence and Innovation and the Centre for Research and Innovation and Grande Prairie Regional College – can be a centre for innovation and an example to the rest of the province.

“From my perspective,” said Cook, “I think that’s kind of the model that would fit really well. I mean, they’re there now. It’s a question of pulling all the parts together. And working in a collaborative manner to deliver on innovation that you can commercialize.”

Not surprisingly, central to any discussion of economic prosperity – particularly in a resource economy – is the issue of environmental sustainability.

The Council’s report attempted to address those issues as well.

“Clearly, oil and gas are still the energy sources of choice,” said Fessenden.

“It’s quite clear that the efficacy of continued pg 5

July 2011

cont’d from pg 4 oil and gas as energy sources [is] just superior. And the demand is going to continue. But there are some broad trends out there. One of which is a developing global consensus that we need to be, over time, moving to a lower carbon footprint in terms of the energy diet, if I can say it that way. So, whether or not you’re a climate change believer or denier, there’s enough of a sort of a global consensus developing that nations are taking policy positions that are going to drive towards a lower carbon footprint. And all you have to do is look at what the federal government here in Canada has done with regard to coal fired power plants and essentially saying that after the life of a power plant – I think it’s 40 or 45 years – the new power plants have to meet standards based on natural gas, not upon coal.”

However, that raises concerns about “stranding” Alberta’s coal supply and losing the economic benefits of that resource as power generation converts to natural gas.

“And it comes out of the global trend towards lower carbon footprint for the energy diet,” Fessenden reiterated.

“If we don’t find a way to reduce the carbon footprint of coal, and, for that matter, oil sands development, we could very easily see those things get stranded,” he continued. “That is, basically become resources in the ground that aren’t economically developable, either because there’s been regulations put in place or because the technology to deal with the carbon footprint is too expensive. That’s one of the issues with carbon capture and storage, for example.”

“Alberta has incredibly large, high carbon natural resources in the ground,”

Fessenden added. “So, whether you’re talking heavy oil or coal. To the degree that we can derive economic value from that, it’s a benefit to us. [If] they get stranded – that is that the economics of developing them or the regulatory issues connected to developing them preclude their development – than we don’t realize the economic benefit from them.

“And so I think that’s a tremendous concern to Alberta. I mean, one of the points we try to make in the report is that we should be trying to maximize the value we get from our hydrocarbon resources, but that’s going to require dealing with the carbon footprint issue and other environmental issues, and also with operational costs. So, we would say the focus on technology that improves both environmental performance and operating performance is going to be absolutely required for us to realize the full benefit of those resources.”

Also concerning environmental sustainability, Cook noted that one of the hottest topics of conversation at the Grande Prairie town hall was the issue of water management.

“And the context was in some parts of our province there’s water deficit and in some parts of the province there’s water surplus,” said Cook.

“We’re kind of in a situation where we have lots of freshwater, but by the same token, freshwater for industrial expansion around our city is somewhat limited,” he continued. “And ... one of the concerns was that we’ve had some businesses who wanted to locate here. However, their access to potable water or treated water was limited and, therefore, they looked elsewhere.”

“It’s a very broad subject,” Cook concluded. “There are different perspectives.

And it was one that also got a lot of emotional discussion on it, too, in terms of, do you put an economic value to water?”

The Council addressed the water issue by endorsement of giving the Alberta Water Authority a mandate to innovate in water stewardship.

“The overarching objective is to improve the way in which we manage water,” said Fessenden. “And the starting place for that is just to have better information about water. That is sources of water, water flows, how it varies through the year – because, of course, the Alberta system is really river dominated as opposed to lake dominated as you get down east. So, the issue of just understanding our water resources. Now we know a fair amount about our rivers. We don’t know

pipeline news north •

an awful lot about our groundwater. And in fact anyone would acknowledge, too, that we need more information on our groundwater. And we need to understand how our surface water and groundwater connect to each other.”

Another particularly controversial issue that was addressed by the Council and discussed during the town hall is Alberta’s recent reliance on oil and gas royalties to balance the provincial budget as though it is an annual tax revenue.

“We rely much too heavily on the revenue that we get from the oil and gas sector to basically balance our books,” said Cook. “And so the controversy is, okay, what are you going to replace those dollars with to balance the books? Is it through increased taxes?” •

Dawson Co-op Petroleum

CALL ASHLEY TODAY TO SEE HOW WE CAN BEST SERVE YOUR BUSINESS:

250-782-3106 24 HOUR CARDLOCK - CONVENIENCE STORE - DELIVERY - TANK RENTALS EASY ACCESS @ 801 ADAMS RD DAWSON CREEK

5

605574

6 • PIPELINE NEWS NORTH I

July 2011

h t r o N William Julian Regional Manager 250-785-5631 wjulian@ pipelinenewsnorth.ca

Wendy Webb Managing Editor 250-785-5631 editor@ pipelinenewsnorth.ca

James Waterman Reporter 250-785-5631 cell:250-263-1878 jwaterman@ pipelinenewsnorth.ca

Dan Przybylski Sales 250-782-4888 ext 101 cell: 250-784-4319 dcsales@ pipelinenewsnorth.ca

Ryan Wallace Sales 250-785-5631 cell:250-261-1143 rw.fsjsales@ pipelinenewsnorth.ca

opinion Projects coming down the pipe

In the past few months, the pipeline industry has been at the forefront of media headlines as two proposed pipelines look to forge ahead – the TransCanada’s Keystone XL expansion and Enbridge’s Northern Gateway.

These two projects have brought significant attention to the pipeline industry as environmental groups staunchly oppose the development of the new pipelines citing environmental and social impacts. However, it is important to realize how crucial pipelines are to not only Canada’s economic growth, but also in meeting North America’s energy demand.

The energy demand of our planet continues to rise due to our population growth and our lifestyle requirements. Canadians rely on oil to meet their ever-growing energy needs. And, I am not just talking about transportation energy. Canadian petroleum products heat our homes and businesses, keep us cool in the summer months and are used to make hundreds of household products. Pipelines are a critical part of providing energy to those who need it.

So, if we aren’t using pipelines to transport the oil where it is needed, then what would we use? Largescale transportation of natural gas by tanker truck or rail is simply not feasible. Accordingly to the Canadian Energy Pipeline Association (CEPA), Canadian pipelines transport 3 million barrels of oil every day. This is equivalent to 5,000 rail cars or 15,000 tanker trucks.

Both require more energy to operate and have a much higher carbon-footprint.

Unfortunately, when it comes to pipelines, there is a lack of understanding and knowledge. Pipeline failure is often a focus of environmental groups but the fact is, pipelines are the safest and least-polluting way to transport crude oil to markets and refineries. More than 100,000 kilometres of underground pipeline transport virtually all of Canada’s daily crude and natural gas production every day. CEPA’s members spend more than $1.6 billion each year to ensure the safety and efficiency of their pipelines.

It is industry’s goal to have zero incidents, and the pipeline industry is increasingly using more sophisticated tools and technologies to minimize events and maxi-

mize safety. Between 2002 and 2009, significant failures on CEPA member pipelines declined despite a 27 per cent increase in the number of kilometres of pipeline.

It is important to North Americans and the North American energy industry that both the TransCanada Keystone XL pipeline and Enbridge Northern Gateway are approved as they are both important growth projects for our industries. The Canadian economy is heavily dependent on the export of commodities.

Guest Column don thompson President of Oil Sands Development Group (OSDG)

Canadian agricultural and forestry products all trade into the global market as do coal and metals produced in this country. Similarly, Canadian oil must be provided access to the global market if Canadians are to fully benefit from their industry.

It is equally important for all of us to become educated about the pipeline industry. After all, resource development taking place in western Canada is fuelling our economic engine. The reality is that Canada and the U.S. need energy and pipelines are a fundamental piece of the energy puzzle.

For more information about the Canadian pipeline industry, I recommend visiting CEPA’s website at www. cepa.com. If you have any questions for me, please contact info@oilsandsdevelopers.ca or leave a message on my blog at www.settingtherecordstraight.ca.

community An Energetic kid’s gym in FSJ kelly lapointe Staff Writer

Tom Kirschner Alberta Sales cell:780-625-2717 tk.fsjsales@ pipelinenewsnorth.ca

Published Monthly

by Glacier Ventures International Corp.

The Pipeline News North is politically independent and a member of the B.C. Press Council.

The Pipeline News North retains sole copyright of advertising, news stories and photography produced by staff. Reproduction is prohibited without written consent of the editor.

CONTACT US:

Phone: (250) 785-5631 Fax: (250) 785-3522 www.pipelinenewsnorth.ca

billing:

Lisa Smith Accounting Manager 250-562-2441 ext 352 Fax:250-960-2762 accounting@pipelinenewsnorth.ca

The shrieks of delighted students ran through the Child Development Centre in Fort St. John, B.C. as students shook beach balls around a parachute in their new gym space.

Energetic Services has donated $150,000 to the CDC, in conjunction with Project Build-A-Fort. In recognition of the oil & gas service sector company’s generosity, the facility has been formally named the Energetic Gym. CDC Executive Director Penny Gagnon and Energetic Services President Brennan Ross celebrated the grand opening with classes of jubilant children.

Gagnon said the space especially helped with their programming during an extremely wet spring. “[This idea was] one of the first things that came out when we started to survey staff and families about what they wanted to see in our expansion, so it’s been a real welcomed space that is starting to create a sense of full community within the Child Development Centre,” she explained.

The students showcased their skills by running through an obstacle course and playing with a giant parachute and Gagnon commented that the space is very much appreciated. The new gym is an optimal place for children to have fun, build team skills and

Child Development Centre students run underneath their parachute during the grand opening of the Energetic Gym Tuesday afternoon.

kelly lapointe photo

enjoy all the benefits of physical activity. “The Energetic Gym is a really great place for kids to develop their gross motor skills, have some fun, have team activities and it really showcases what they can be as physical beings and really develop themselves.”

Ross said he was impressed with all the things the CDC achieves. “Energetic Services fits in nicely with gymnasium and activity so we though [this project] was a great fit. We’re very happy to be able to support this facility because we know how much value it creates for the town and the people that live around it.”

Gagnon estimates that by the end of 2011, the CDC will have helped 1,000 children.

July 2011 I pipeline news north •

industry news bang for the buck

7

- Ziff’s pipeline cost report

james waterman Pipeline News North

Ziff Energy Group announced the release of a new report on June 29 that offers interesting insights into current trends in pipeline construction costs.

The cost analysis – Pipeline Cost in Shale Gas Regions – was performed by Ziff Energy gas analyst Julia Sagidova and was focused on large pipeline projects in what she has termed the “seven sisters” of North American shale gas: Marcellus, Eagle Ford, Haynesville, Barnett, Woodford, Fayetteville, and Horn River. The study yielded interesting results in terms of average cost per inch-mile of North American pipeline, the reasons for rising average costs, and the most and least expensive plays in which to build new pipelines.

“She analyzed twenty-five pipeline projects in North America,” explained Bill Gwozd, Vice President of Gas Services for Ziff Energy. “Actually, a bit more than that. And when she was doing it, she found too many projects. Even more than twenty-fve. And so she made a [criterion] that the project has to have capacity of greater than 0.1 bcf a day. And it has to cost more than $100 million US. It could be $100 million CDN. It’s about the same number. So, she didn’t want to include small projects in her system, otherwise you get too many [projects].”

Sagidova quickly discovered that the majority of projects that fit that first criterion were in regions of shale gas development. Gwozd even noted that there were very few new gas pipeline projects in western Canada at the time the analysis was conducted apart from extensions into the Horn River and Montney gas plays.

He also explained that the majority of new projects are in shale gas regions because unconventional resources make up one area of the industry that is experiencing an increasing amount of development, whereas the conventional side doesn’t even need all of its existing infrastructure at this point.

“For example, Gulf of Mexico used to be 16.0 bcf and now it’s 6.0 [bcf],” said Gwozd. “How many pipes do you need to transport shrinking Gulf of Mexico production?

“Western Canada used to be 17.0 bcf and now it’s 13.0 [bcf] and change,” he noted, adding that unnecessary western Canadian pipelines had already been constructed in the past and so surplus capacity for transportation of conventional resources already exists in that region.

Consequently, the second criterion for the analysis was that the projects had to fall within shale gas regions.

“And so the new pipes are really designed to take away growing supply from very specific locations,” said Gwozd.

The cost analysis was based on numbers provided by the engineering teams from individual pipeline companies concerning over 120 projects from the past decade. It was determined that the cost of pipeline

The Marcellus play in Pennsylvania is the most expensive shale gas region in North America for pipeline construction. The Horn River Basin in northeast British Columbia is among the least expensive. According to Bill Gwozd, Vice President of Gas Services with Ziff Energy Group, the key difference is issues relative to the size of human population: the Horn River area is much more sparsely populated than the Marcellus region.

Image courtesy of Ziff Energy Group.

construction has tripled since 2004 to an inch-mile cost of nearly $200,000.

Ziff Energy doesn’t like to give away all their secrets, but Gwozd did point to a few factors that have led to this rise in cost, not the least of which is the fact that the price of steel has gone up by thirty per cent since last year, now sitting at $703 per tonne.

“When you drive steel up by thirty per cent,” said Gwozd, “pipe’s going to go up quite a bit as well.”

However, he also noted that the relatively high unemployment rate – approximately ten per cent at present versus just under six per cent in 2008 – may be offsetting the high cost of steel to some degree by keeping wages comparatively low and labour costs down.

Still, the growing cost of pipeline construction is undeniable. The present inch-mile cost is about $188,000, a steep increase from the approximately $66,000 per inchmile cost of 2004 or even the approximately $110,000 per inch-mile cost of 2007. Although the recent jump in steel price definitely plays a role, it is not the only factor.

For example, Gwozd remarked that new industry regula-

Our Service Makes The Difference

®

tions and practices in terms of reducing the width of right-of-ways and minimizing environmental disturbance certainly have an effect on cost.

“Maybe the diameters are thicker now as you get more encroachment on communities,” he added. “You’re building pipes in populated areas. Steel has to be a bit thicker to get the proper protection [and] safety allowances.”

That idea also plays into the disparity between the most expensive and least expensive regions for pipeline construction. The most expensive region is the Marcellus play in Pennsylvania, where construction costs as much as $300,000 per inch-mile. Among the least expensive is the Horn River Basin in northeast British Columbia with an approximate inch-mile cost of just $90,000.

“People cause more costs,” said Gwozd, explaining that a major difference between Marcellus and Horn River is that Marcellus is a fairly densely populated area with numerous communities while Horn River is relatively quite remote and sparsely populated. continued pg 30

• Windshield Replacement • Windshield Repair • Mobile Service • Safety Glass • 24hr emergency call Service • Remote Car Starters • Interlock Representative • Residential and Commercial Glass “Locally owned and operated.” www.appleautoglass.com

www.appleautoglass.com 605573

Windshields Insurance Claims Honoured

HOURS OF OPERATION: Mon to Fri 8 to 5, Sat 9 to 1 11308 - 8th St., Dawson Creek • 250 782-9496 • Fax: 250-782-2830 • 1 800 506-5665

8 • PIPELINE NEWS NORTH I

July 2011

industry news

moves at the top

- CAODC executives james waterman Pipeline News North

The executive of the Canadian Association of Oilwell Drilling Contractors (CAODC) will be undergoing a crew change on August 1, 2011, when longtime President Don Herring will be stepping down after 28 years on the job.

Current Manager of Technical Services Mark Scholz will be taking over the office of president, while Manager of Economic Analysis Nancy Malone will be moving into the newly created Vice President of Operations position, which will incorporate elements of both the Technical Services and Economic Analysis portfolios.

“Conceptively, that’s how we see the new structure,” said Joe Bruce, Chairman of the Board of CAODC. “Mark obviously takes on the role of the president, and it’s going to take some time just to try and delegate some of the work that he’s been doing to the appropriate people that can best handle it.

“So, some of what Mark has done in the past will flow over to Nancy. Some of what Nancy has been doing in the past will flow over to some of the existing staff. And then there is

an intent to bring in probably one or two other people into the organization to sort of pick up some of the other duties.”

The changes are part of an organizational restructuring plan at CAODC designed to help the group better serve and support their membership as the oil and gas industry continues to grow and change.

“The Board of Directors, of course, changes every two years, either re-elected or new ones come into it,” said Bruce, who has been on the board since 2005. “And as the new directors come onto the board, there may be different initiatives based on what’s happening in industry that might direct the CAODC to other opportunities on behalf of the membership.”

Bruce is confident that the board has found the right individual to lead the restructuring after their rigorous selection process pointed them to Scholz.

“Mark came out ahead of everybody on a consensus,” said Bruce. “I think Mark, although relatively young, has definitely and sincerely shown a tremendous amount of initiative and an ambition to supporting what the members are looking for.”

Herring echoed Bruce’s sentiments about his successor. continued pg 9 Current Manager of Technical Services Mark Scholz will be taking over as president.

Photo courtesy of CAODC

www.fortcitychrysler.ca

July 2011 I pipeline news north •

cont’d from pg 8 “He’s a young fellow,” he admitted. “It’s an exciting time. He’s got some real ideas about expanding services in the organization and restructuring it. I think it will be a dynamic association and I think the staff will be quite excited.”

Scholz has already identified labour recruitment and labour retention in the oil and gas industry as the two key issues to be addressed early in his tenure as president.

“And I don’t think that’s news,” he said. “But [it] certainly is going to be a huge challenge and undertaking for our association and for our members. And … we’ll be finding creative ways to assist our members with dealing with those challenges.”

“The other issue that is going to be, certainly, a cornerstone for me,” Scholz continued, “is really promoting the good news story about our industry and the benefits of the oil and gas [sector], particularly the drilling and service rig industry, [not just] for the western Canadian economy, but for the Canadian economy as a whole. And really taking that message and that good news story to government, to other stakeholders, and as well as to the public.”

“It’s a great opportunity for me,” he concluded. “It’s going to be a challenge, but I think it’s going to also be an adventure.

And as we move forward, there will be some challenges, but I think we’ll be able to accomplish a lot of them.”

However, according to Bruce, Herring is going to be a hard act for Scholz to follow.

“Personally, I don’t believe the association would be where it is today if it hadn’t been for [his] dedication and the way that Don has managed the whole association on behalf of the members,” Bruce raved.

“His integrity, his ability to communicate, not only with the members, but with the various government bodies and other associations, is exemplary. There isn’t one person on the board or even within the membership that I imagine could possibly say anything negative about Don.” Bruce feels the initial challenge for Scholz will be tackling some of the everyday duties that have just become second nature for Herring.

“He’s got some big shoes to fill,” he continued, referring to the new president, “and I’m not talking about the size of his feet. But he does have some big shoes to fill. But, again, Mark has the support of the board and will be given guidance both from myself as the chairman and the other directors. So, we don’t feel that he will fail in the position.”

“You know, he’s going to have to sort of take baby steps and get comfortable with the new responsibilities,” Bruce added.

“It’s like anybody stepping into a role like that. They don’t just pick up everything from their predecessor.”

After four years as Manager of Technical Services – not to mention his back-

ground in politics and banking prior to joining CAODC – Scholz is confident that he is ready for the new responsibility.

“In my old position [as] Manager of Technical Services,” he explained, “I dealt with a lot of the operational, health and safety, promotion of regulatory harmonization. So, there’s been a tremendous amount of emphasis on dealing directly with government officials. And so in a role that I’m moving into, with it being focused on building relationships with government officials, building relationships with other stakeholders, certainly it comes in as a tremendous amount of value to me, and I think to our members with me being positioned in that role.”

Scholz has also had the opportunity to learn from Herring’s wealth of experience in the industry and CAODC during the last four years.

“Don’s wisdom and Don’s experience has certainly come into play for me to take advantage of when I was in my old role as Manager of Technical Services,” he said. “And, certainly, I’ll be relying on him as [I] transition into … this new role.

It’s certainly a huge advantage for me to have somebody with that type of experience and knowledge being able to mentor me as I get into this new position.”

Malone, the new Vice President of Operations, offered similar comments about her seven years working under Herring at CAODC. “It’s been an excellent mentoring experience for me,” she remarked. “I’ve learned a lot from Don … and I’m glad I’ve had seven years of learning under his tutelage.”

Herring had kind words for the young executives as well, even commenting that he recognizes attributes that made him successful as president in his replacement.

“You have to be a good listener,” he said of the role. “And you have to try and be extremely optimistic, I think, that there are a set of problems and we can successfully address those problems and find a solution. I don’t think you ever want to look at a list of problems and say, ‘Well, gee, you know, we can’t do anything about these.’ I think you try – I mean, you have to be kind of careful so that it doesn’t become unrealistic. But I think you have to be very open and very positive that we can advance the interests of the industry and the members.”

It is that optimism particularly that Herring sees in Scholz.

“He gets along very well with people,” he added. “And I think he looks for opportunities to make things better.”

As for Malone, Herring describes her as “very talented.”

“And she’s got some good experience with us,” he continued. “And she can look at complicated kinds of problems and work on them with a diverse group of individuals – you know, diverse backgrounds. And be very steady as she moves forward.”

9

Manager of Economic Analysis Nancy Malone will be moving into the newly created Vice President of Operations position.

Photo courtesy of CAODC

“Given the direction that the board wants the CAODC to go,” chimed Bruce, “we believe that Nancy has a tremendous amount to offer and contribute to the membership. And given her tenure with the association, I think she certainly has a lot more to offer in the way of interfacing with the various government bodies. So, we believe her role as a vice president will help the association in a number of ways.”

This duo of executives is young enough that both could conceivably last in their new positions as long as the 28 years that Herring was president, but Malone doesn’t think their age should count against them in any way.

“I guess I don’t consider myself that young,” she laughed. “But, I mean, I think the face of the industry is certainly changing in terms of we’ve got a generation of folks who are retiring and there’s a need for some succession. We need the next group of folks to come up and take on that mantle and move forward with it. The restructuring is certainly going to require a lot of energy and work. So, I think we’re both up to the task. But it’s maybe a slightly different perspective. I know I have learned a lot from Don and from some of our former board members who have retired as well in my tenure, and

there’s still lots more to learn from those who replaced them and those who are currently sitting on the board.”

The pair is also keen to continue working together in this new capacity.

“I think Nancy’s going to be a critical piece of our transition plan as well as some of our initiatives and future goals for the organization,” said Scholz. “Nancy is a tenured person within the organization who understands the association business and understands the industry quite well. So, she’s going to be extremely important as we transition and move into a very interesting climate for our industry.

I mean, we’re in a very booming time and that presents our industry with a number of challenges.”

“He’s got a lot of energy and has some good ideas in terms of the restructuring,” Malone added about the new president.

“So, I’m looking forward to being part of the team that moves forward with it.”

As for Herring, his plans for the future don’t necessarily require that much energy.

“I’m going to go to Europe,” he said.

“And then going to come home, do some work in a workshop, and just kind of retire, do a little traveling, that kind of thing.” • 33551

leong@swmw.net

www.steelproducts.ab.ca

10 • PIPELINE NEWS NORTH I

July 2011

community

project webfoot - getting them while they’re young james waterman Pipeline News North

The children come by the busload.

Grade 4 students eagerly anticipating the rapidly approaching last day of school, all excited for one of the last field trips of the year, they venture onto the hiking trail along Watson Slough just west of Fort St. John, British Columbia. Antlers and animal skulls have been purposefully left along the path to teach the children a bit about the anatomy of the wildlife that frequent the area.

They are taught about those animals, their habitat and the accompanying vegetation, the difference between deciduous and coniferous trees in the uplands, and the life of the marsh below. They happen onto spotting scopes that provide them a glimpse of swimming Canada geese, northern shovelers, ruddy ducks and the often seen mallards – possibly even ducklings or a beaver.

It is all thanks to Ducks Unlimited, a group of committed volunteers, and a handful of sponsors that includes energy sector companies such as Talisman, Suncor, Imperial Oil and Encana who come together every year to deliver Project Webfoot programs to children in northeast B.C. “I’ve been a volunteer with Ducks on their local committee and doing other things for quite a long time,” said Brian Churchill of Chillborne Environmental, a large mammal biologist who helps deliver the program to elementary school students from across Fort St. John. “The program had been running at Charlie Lake for quite a while and it kind of just expired. The south end of Charlie Lake, it’s not very good for presenting the program. There’s too many distractions.

There’s too much going on around there and the kids can’t focus on the marsh.”

So, Churchill decided to get involved with Project Webfoot as well, which is now delivered at either Watson Slough or Boundary Lake every spring. He believes it is important that Ducks Unlimited and the program sponsors are working together to bring the program to northeast B.C. year after year, firstly because it is a way for the oil and gas companies to give back to the communities in which they operate, but also because it gives the students some much needed outdoor education.

“Ducks Unlimited is active in both education and preserving habitat,” said Churchill. “And I get feedback from parents and teachers, and the biggest thing I get in that feedback is kids don’t get outdoors these days. They don’t get the option to see the outdoors. They don’t get to experience it – and here’s the chance. They get out and enjoy the marsh. In the years I’ve been doing it, the weather’s always really cooperated nicely … It’s gone very well. And as a set up, there’s two really good sites in the Peace [Region]. One’s in Dawson Creek, just at McQueen’s Slough, with a bunch of boardwalks and that, but [also] a very, very nice natural site at Watson Slough where you can walk along on the trail, just above the slough, and really look down, and that works really well. So, I’ve been doing it, I think, six years. So, at

about 500 kids [per year], that’s 3000 kids that I have personally seen through it.”

“It’s something that I was fortunate as a kid to do,” he added. “I’ve been a Scout leader, doing it with the Boy Scouts. I’ve done it with Ducks. And I think it’s really important, because kids are increasingly having difficulty getting out. I know my wife, when she taught at Baldonnel [Elementary], asked the Grade 4’s in the class how many had seen a moose, at Baldonnel School, where they wander through the yard. And they live out there.

And the majority of her kids had never seen a moose.”

“Part of that is knowing how to look,” Churchill concluded. “And part of the value of this program is teaching kids how to see what they’re looking at.”

One of those energy companies, natural gas heavyweight Encana, has been supporting the program in Dawson Creek area since 2007, including sessions for students in nearby communities such as Rolla, Pouce Coupe and Farmington.

It is only one part of Encana’s ongoing relationship with Ducks Unlimted that includes participation in the Wetland Mapping Partnership initiative and becoming the first corporate sponsor of the Wetlands for Tomorrow campaign, which raised $1.88 billion for waterfowl and wetland habitat conservation projects in just a seven year period.

“We were talking to Ducks Unlimited back in 2007 about a number of things,” said Patricia Etris, Director of Community Involvement with Encana, discussing the origins of the company’s participation in Project Webfoot. “What transpired with that one was one our [vice presidents] was out in Victoria or Vancouver at a Ducks Unlimited dinner. And there was a silent auction where you could sponsor a class. And he signed up for that. So, the money went to the dinner. But then he came back and he said, ‘I don’t want to sponsor a class. I want to sponsor lots of classes. Talk to [Kathleen Fry, Education Coordinator at Ducks Unlimited] and see what we can do.’

“So, we had a good talk and it turned out they were looking for some funding for around the Dawson Creek area. They had some, they’d been there for a while.

But they could never guarantee if they could do field trips or, you know, from one year to the next, whether the money was there. So, we agreed. We said, ‘Well, what do you need to make sure that this area is blanketed? That every class is going to get an in-class and a field trip?’

And then we signed up for three years.

That was how we got into B.C. – and then at the same time we were talking with Ducks Unlimited, the greater organization, about opportunities to work with them.”

“So, that has continued,” she continued, noting that Encana has now also sponsored a number of classes in Alberta, as well as Nova Scotia. “So, we’ve done that four years now.”

“This program certainly fits into what some of our objectives are, which is to educate and to provide understanding about the environment, and, in particular, wetlands,” added Encana spokesperson Carol Howes. “Water is a very important issue to us, as well as understanding the environments in those areas. So, certainly, this project fits very well into

Hundreds of students took part in trips to McQueen’s Slough for the Ducks Unlimited Project Webfoot program. The students learned about local wildlife and how to preserve it.

submitted photo

Encana’s criteria to be a part of and to be able to support those kinds of programs, those educational programs about conservation, wetlands, water.”

According to Etris, Encana was interested in helping launch the program in Fort Nelson right from the start of their environment, but it has taken some time to get that off the ground.

“They didn’t have anyone in Fort Nelson that was available,” she explained. “And so we actually talked back and forth. One of their ex-staffers had moved up there and we talked to her, but she was sort of busy having a family. And we went back and forth for a while trying to figure out how to get it going up there. And they’ve now kicked it off, which we’re pretty excited about.”

A big reason that Project Webfoot was able to happen in Fort Nelson this year was that a young range agrologist with the Fort Nelson District by the name of Sonja Leverkus chose to volunteer her time and expertise for the first time. She delivered the program to Grade 3 and 4 students from G.W. Carlson Elementary on June 9 and R. L. Angus Elementary on June 22 at the pond in the Fort Nelson Demonstration Forest.

“I do the program for the kids and for Ducks Unlimited because I think it’s really important,” said Leverkus. “For those companies who are developing our natural resources, it is integral to be part of our communities. So, in that respect, I think that it’s a positive step that Encana supports the Webfoot project.”

“It’s really nice to be able to talk about the importance of the boreal from a Ducks perspective as well as everything else,” she continued. “And for the kids – you

know, you ask them questions and get them thinking, they do recognize the fact that where they live is a really important part of the environment and the ecosystem. And it’s not just these little insects.

There’s also the birds. And these greater things that they’re a part of out there.”

One of the highlights of the program at all its locations is when the students get a chance to use dip nets to pull bugs and other small invertebrates out of the water and try to identify the aquatic organisms with the help of field identification keys.

“I didn’t even realize!” Leverkus exclaimed with a laugh when asked if the children were surprised by the number of small organisms living in the water. “Yeah, I think that they were all pretty amazed.

And you know what a really cool thing is?

When everybody’s really excited at the beginning, but then at the very end, the kids are quiet and they’re listening and you don’t have to be yelling and they’re all totally keyed into what the different animals are. And I think that’s a very rewarding day.”

Leverkus and her crew encountered huge dock spiders, dragonfly nymphs, water mites and water boatmen this year.

Churchill also reported dragonfly and damselfly larvae at Watson Slough, as well as mosquito larvae, water fleas, caddisfly nymphs and leeches.

“We get these big predacious diving beetle larvae that eat everything they come in contact with,” he added.

His students also saw plenty of birds, ranging from the abundant red-winged blackbirds to a black coot, a sora rail, and either a kestrel or a sparrow hawk using continued pg 11

11

July 2011 I pipeline news north •

cont’d from pg 10 the nesting box. Last year, his classes had seen trumpeter swans and a snipe. Even elk, mule deer and black bear have been spotted along the edge of the slough during those excursions.

“This year we had a really exceptional [sighting],” said Churchill. “While the kids were there, two Sandhill cranes came wandering out and stood on the edge of the slough and looked at all these kids.

And then they flew away.”

“That was exciting for that batch of kids,” he added.

According to Leverkus, the program can be just as fun and rewarding for the volunteers as it is for the students.

“I remember what it was like when I was in like Grade 4 and Grade 5,” she said. “I still, all these years later, remember going out with the Ducks Unlimited biologist and volunteers and getting to play in the water.

So, to be able to give back to the next generation of kids, that was really exciting.

And then the other exciting thing is just to see how the kids really do end up connecting with what they’re finding. They are getting an appreciation for what’s there.

And what looks like just a pond, when they find all these things in there, they realize it is its own ecosystem.”

It is the sort of moment that can renew passion for nature and wildlife.

“Big time,” said Leverkus. “I would say working with kids – any opportunity to work with kids – reminds a person that they can have a really positive influence on the world around them, even just working with 20 or 40 kids. Those are 20 to 40 people that are going to become adults and hopefully will have a greater appreciation for our wild landscapes.” •

Project Webfoot facilitator Meredith Thornton pointing birds out to elementary students from Ecole Frank Ross School in Dawson Creek during the program at McQueen’s Slough this June. Sponsors of that session included Encana and Pacific Northern Gas.

Photo by Stewart Burnett

SUPERIOR QUALITY. TRUSTED TRADITION

Grande Prairie (780) 532-8402

Fairview La Crete Dawson Creek (780) 835-4440 (780) 928-3337 (250)782-4141

Find us as: PRAIRIECOAST EQUIP

US Exchange Is Great! Buy Now and $AVE! 4640E Skid Loader w/Bucket 0% FINANCING AVAILABLE

Regular $41,550

$34,450

SAVE $7100

•Operating capacity 1800lbs •Fully raised operating height 149” •Joystick control •62HP •Cab w/ heat •Cutting edge for 60” bucket

RT175 Compact Track Loader 0% FINANCING AVAILABLE

Regular $62,743

$53,973

SAVE $8770

•Operating capacity 2500lbs •Rear counterweight bumper • Power-a-tach quick attach system •Joystick control •68HP •Cab w/ heat & AC

www.prairiecoastequipment.com

340 Articulated Loader w/Bucket LOW RATE FINANCING AVAILABLE

Regular $54,913

$44,963

SAVE $9950

•Operating capacity Straight 3794 lbs, full turn 2907 lbs.

•Turning radius with bucket 118.1” •Hydraulic system •12 gpm •Joystick control •35HP •Power attach

1-877-55DEERE

SKID LOADERS • COMPACT TRACK LOADERS • EXCAVATORS • ARTICULATED LOADERS •ALL WHEEL STEER LOADERS

Prices subject to change without notice. These prices are for these products only and not to be combined with any other offer. Products may not be exactly as illustrated. Attachments are not included in price. Subject to US Dollar exchange at time of sale. All products and prices are subject to availability.Taxes, set-up, delivery, freight and preparation charges not included and may increase price. See dealer for complete details and restrictions

33552

12 • PIPELINE NEWS NORTH I

July 2011

special feature

the latest scoop

- Innovative Randy Galbreath

james waterman Pipeline News North

It must have been a humbling experience when Randy Galbreath first broke into the pipeline construction business in 1982 at the age of 27.

The Fort St. John, British Columbia native had been a licensed carpenter and foreman on a number of projects until the economy took a turn for the worse in 1981. He was living in Fairview, Alberta at the time, where the oil patch was king and a fairly large pipeline contractor was hiring.

So, Galbreath changed professions.

It was back to square one.

“The first day on the job,” he recalled, “they handed me a shovel.”

“I worked for that fellow from 1982 to 1997 and [then] he sold out,” Galbreath continued. “Then I actually started another company. And then I got bought out by a public company. And then I just kind of stayed through some transitions. And it got bought a couple of times and it was too big of a company. So, then I quit and started on my again, because I couldn’t work in a big organization. You couldn’t get your ideas across, which is something I always had even when I went to work for the other fellow. He always listened to whatever, sort of thing. But big organizations tend to tell you what to do and try not to think too much, right? So I had enough. Then in 2003 I started Stratus Pipelines.”

Today, he is still the president and general manager of the Grande Prairie-based company, as well as one of the most respected innovators in the region for his collaborative work with oil and gas company Devon Energy and Alberta Environment on ways of minimizing the impact of surface disturbance caused during pipeline construction.

“We always had issues, eh?” said Galbreath, noting that business in the pipeline industry had been good, but they were continually running into conflict with clients and the provincial government over specifications and regulations.

“In all of our contracts,” he continued, “they set out backfill procedures and welding procedures and the whole nine yards and we were essentially following them. Then they would also set out specifications on a pipeline right-of-way of, when you strip [soil], you had to have certain distances between the topsoil and the spoil or the clay from the ditch. They had these fancy diagrams all done.

But you couldn’t physically do that out on a rightof-way.”

“When you do a nice drawing – straight lines with a pencil – you can make anything fit, right?

But dirt, once you strip it, doesn’t pile up as neatly as the drawings indicated in the specifications.

And so, consequently, [it] would take up more room on a right-of-way. So, you could never get the one metre separation [between topsoil and spoil] that they asked for. And so we kind of knew that. That’s what we had to bid to, but we knew we couldn’t do it.”

That was the early nineties. As Galbreath remembers, Doug Kulba of Alberta Environment – who would later play a significant role in developing and promoting new pipelining strategies through Partners in Resource Excellence and the Evergreen Centre for Resource Excellence and Innovation in Grande Prairie – was often on the other side of the table as Galbreath discussed the specifications with his client. There were frequent disagreements. Kulba knew that Galbreath couldn’t maintain the appropriate separation between topsoil and spoil on a fifteen metre or eighteen metre right-of way, but Galbreath really felt that he had no choice but to basically pretend that it was possible and strip the right-of-way that he was given. However, it was also at that time

Randy Galbreath, President and General Manager of Stratus Pipelines, Doug Kulba of Alberta Environment, and Marc LaBerge, Leader of Facilities Construction with Devon Energy, received the Shared Footprints Award from Alberta Sustainable Resource Development in June, 2010 for their work in developing Innovative Pipeline Strategies.

Photo courtesy of Doug Kulba, Alberta Environment.

that he suggested that it could be done if he had the right tools for the job. That was a modest first step toward innovation.

“When I first started pipelining in 1982, there was a lot of pipeline installed at about 42 inches depth-wise,” Galbreath explained. “Then it had moved to like four feet. So, now, all of a sudden you’re starting to dig a little bit deeper. You dig deeper, you got more dirt to deal with, right?”

Four feet soon turned into five feet.

“So, that added another foot of clay you’re digging out of the ditch, which you need to find room for on the rightof-way,” he added.

He even recalls cases where the trench had to be six feet deep because a lot of farmers and other landowners wanted the pipelines running through their property to be deeper in the ground. As a result, the spoil piles were almost twice the size as when he started in the industry. Compounding the issue is that clay also expands to almost twice the volume when taken from its compacted state in the ground.

Right-of-ways were also growing from 15 metres to 18 metres and finally 22 metres.

“Graders and dozers [are] conventional equipment that’s used to pack dirt back in a trench,” said Galbreath.

“Well, if conditions are perfect – like the moisture content in the clay and stuff, and you have a large enough grader – you may very well be able to get all that dirt [back in the trench]. And I say you’re not going to get it all back in then either. You’re going to get a pretty good percentage of that back in the ground, but you’re going to some left that you’ll have to do something with, right? You can’t have a big mound over the ditch. So, we stripped the right-of-

way so that we could feather this dirt across the right-of-way.”

“And, of course, that’s the clay.”

Galbreath noticed that that the nutrient-poor clay was usually trapped between the topsoil and the nutrientrich layer below, which wasn’t the proper order of things. It was a problem for farmers trying to grow crops. Additionally, there would often only be two inches of topsoil instead of six inches at that point.

“And our clay is great stuff,” he said.

“That’s why we have lots of dugouts in this country. You dig a dugout here and that clay will hold water. Like nothing soaks in.”

The other issue was that it was accepted practice not to return a hundred per cent of the soil to the trench, which resulted in slumpage.

“Once you know how to look for this, it’s easy to spot,” said Galbreath. “Not very difficult. And the thing that you have to remember, what is bringing this on more than it did say five or ten or fifteen years ago, is farmers in this country, generally speaking, would do some sort of disking or cultivating in the spring. And disking and cultivating in the fall. That was kind of a standard practice, right? So, if there was any slumping happening in a ditch, it would be filled in every year just through this normal practice, right?”

“But now we’ve gone from 500,000 acres in 1995 of zero or no-till to something in the order of 12 million acres [of no-till],” he continued. “So, when these guys do no-till, once slumping starts, it doesn’t get repaired unless you actually physically go out there and try to repair it.”

“Now,” Galbreath added, “the other thing that was happening that most people don’t really see, but you can,

is when you crown this clay over top of a ditch line over an area of three or four metres wide or five metres wide or whatever, then when you put the topsoil back, that topsoil goes back perfectly level. But there’s a crown underneath it of clay. So, when a landowner gets his disk or cultivator in there, and runs that disk down ... you’re then mixing that clay into the topsoil.

So, you’ve degraded a three or four or five or six metre wide swath of what was once topsoil to now mostly clay.”

According to Galbreath, the combination of no-till practices and the usual effects of the weather – freeze-thaw cycles, rain, snow, spring melt – were turning trenches on farmers fields into speed bumps, a big problem at a time when farmers are now seeding and fertilizing at speeds of fifteen kilometres per hour.

“They preset a lot of stuff,” he explained, “and they have to travel at this constant speed for the whole right-ofway, because the seed and fertilizer goes in at a comparable rate to the speed of the tractor, too. So, if they have to slow down every time they’re going to hit a pipeline trench, they’re either over-seeding or over-fertilizing.”

“We did a count one time,” Galbreath continued. “And for a full quarter section of land, if a pipeline crosses a full quarter, if you consider they probably may harrow in the spring, in a zero till, then they’re going to seed, and then they’re to going to spray, then they’ll swath, and then they’ll combine that field. ... Sometimes, they may even do an extra harrow in there. Going back and forth on a field – and it depends a little bit on the width of your equipment – you can hit that same trench up to continued pg 13

July 2011 I pipeline news north •

cont’d from pg 12 600 times in a year. That’s very annoying, right? ... Landowners say they can feel that. Even when they were in a cultivating sort of a scenario, they could feel that pipeline right-of-way every time they hit it, because that clay is so much heavier than topsoil is, that as soon as you hit it, you can just feel the tractor lug down and kind of work its way through and carry on.”

“We didn’t really run into any super mad farmers or anything like that,” he added. “These are all good people, right?

They’re just trying to make a living. And a lot of them don’t really expect – after the pipeline has gone through – they haven’t really been filled in. They don’t realize what could happen if things don’t go perfectly. So, they get quite upset. And that’s why we have landowner groups everywhere. They’re all over. And they’re fighting pipelines.”

So, it was becoming crucial to try to solve those problems.

At that time, Galbreath was asked to do reclamation work for a pipeline that had settled on the property of an upset landowner, although it wasn’t a pipeline that his company had built. A lucky coincidence was the discovery of a new soil compacting wheel that fit on an excavator during that same period. So, Galbreath arranged a demonstration of the equipment. Unexpectedly, Kulba attended, but there were none of the old disagreements that day.

“He had made the decision that he [was] going to try to work with us, try to figure out how to solve this,” Galbreath said of Kulba. “So, he came to this demonstration and it was really, very enlightening.”

“So, we started talking,” he continued.

“We went and did this clean-up and we started talking. Doug’s an avid reader.

He reads and researches steady. So, he started throwing these ideas out at us. Now, of course, some of them you kind of throw out and some of them you say, ‘Well, you know, that kind of makes sense. Why don’t we try that?’ Because he can go on every pipeline right-of-way in the province and you can’t say no.

“But, me, I just get to go on mine. So, if you’re doing something – I won’t say wrong – incorrectly, if you will. And it’s something you’re doing, you never get to see to correct it. We don’t learn by doing stuff perfectly. We only learn from our mistakes, right? If you can see that somebody is doing something better or something can be done differently, that’s an opportunity to learn. But if you just do the same thing over and over and over again, there’s no learning opportunity there. So, we kind of worked through this.”

“And it was amazing. We, for the first time, actually would have a job where we could phone Doug and say, ‘I think we’re going to run into a little trouble here if we do this. What do you think?’ And he was

29329

right there with his input. If you needed help, you had a direction you could go. There were a couple of jobs we started that involved some landowners a little bit. I loved it. They didn’t want to tell me how to run my job, but they really wanted to understand what it was we were trying to do out there. You start doing that and it’s really kind of amazing.

Rather than each entity being its own island, it kind of became a continent, so to speak. And that works better.”

The compaction wheel was just part of the solution. The other was a narrower bucket to decrease the amount of soil being taken out of the trench.

“Excavators come with buckets for the most part 36 to 52 inches big,” said Galbreath.

“Why are we digging a ditch that big, in good ground condition, to put a four inch piece of pipe in? It didn’t make sense.

It’s something that never made sense to me for a long time. But everywhere we went, people said, ‘Well, if you get smaller bucket, it won’t clean.’ …

There were all kinds of excuses why we weren’t trying something different. … Doug had talked to this inventor fellow. And he had actually built a narrower bucket for the bigger excavators. I said, ‘Okay.’ But, of course, what happened was as soon as we had dug a

narrower ditch, we didn’t have anything to compact it with. Because even the packing wheels at the time ... were 24 inches. ... So, then we were kind of creating ourselves a real problem. If you couldn’t get a packing wheel in there to pack the ditch, than we had the same problem all over again.

Then what we did is, we went back to a

little wider bucket that was 24 inches so that we could get this wheel in the ground. And then we said, ‘Okay, this is working so well, why can’t we go to like a 12 inch ditch?’

And it was the same thing – no packing wheel. So, we started to try to build some narrow packing wheels here. And that was a very, very expensive process … So, we actually went back to this outfit in California that had made these other style of packing wheels and we started talking to them about a narrower packing wheel. He said, ‘Yeah, I don’t know why I can’t build one of them.’ So, we explained a lot of the issues we were having.”

“Nobody in the world had ever asked him for one that was eight inches wide to fit onto a 50,000 pound excavator or larger,” he continued.

“So, he built his very first one for me kind of as a trial.”

These pipelining innovations were really put to the test by Devon.

“We had tons and tons of snow in northern Alberta [that year],” recalled Marc LaBerge, who was Construction Lead at Devon when he met Galbreath, but his now their Leader of Facilities Construction.

The combination of all that melting

13

snow flowing into the water table and conventional methods that meant not all the soil had been returned to the trenches compacted the soil on pipeline right-ofways, resulting in significant depressions in farmers’ fields.

“The oil and gas industry has always had these types of things happening in the past, but they were a lot more sporadic,” said LaBerge. “And because there was basically a ten to fifteen year drought in the northern part of Alberta – really, for compaction to happen, you need moisture and you need weight, and we didn’t have the moisture. So, it was sporadic.

The wet areas would compact, but for the most part things were kind of staying afloat, so to speak, until we had that one season. And then everything started showing up.”

LaBerge called Kulba for advice on the problem, initiating Devon’s entry into the Partners in Resource Excellence.

“What we did at that point is organize a field tour of some of the problem areas that

Devon was having,” he continued.

“And Randy was invited by Doug Kulba to come out with us as well, because he was going to show us the problems, and Randy was already looking and seeing some of these things at that point. And that’s really when I started seeing, working with Randy and working with Doug, about learning, first of all, what we were doing as an industry and how we were installing pipelines, and what the solution was. And the solution wasn’t initially ... narrow buckets. Or at least we weren’t necessarily thinking completely along those lines.

What we were thinking was, ‘Look.

There’s got to be a way to put that soil back in, because this is part of our problem.’ And that was the start of working with Randy.” continued pg 27

14 • PIPELINE NEWS NORTH I

July 2011

industry news

a new launch

- Nabors Canada is expanding services james waterman Pipeline News North

Nabors Canada is expanding its operations with a new pressure pumping division.

In a press release issued on June 15, 2011, Joe Bruce, President and CEO of Nabors Canada, announced plans to set up Superior Canada Well Services to complement the company’s established drilling and well servicing divisions.

“Given that it’s a new structure,” said Bruce, “I don’t see it being fully functional until [the fourth quarter] of 2011.”

Bruce noted that the present market conditions are ideal for this expansion at this time.

“I like to look at whatever opportunities exist that may complement our existing structure,” he said. “And given the market in the industry right now, we believe there’s an opportunity to grow another piece of our business.

And it complements our existing infrastructure. I just want to pursue an opportunity that exists. And we have a very strong team on the U.S. side to support it.”

Superior Canada Well Services will be the sister company of Superior Well Services, which is the pressure pumping division of Nabors Industries in the United States. Bruce feels that arrangement will benefit Nabors Canada’s new endeavor considerably.

“Because of the expertise that exist within the Superior Well Services group in the U.S.,” he explained.

“Dave Wallace, the CEO [of Superior Well Services], will be very much involved in helping me get this division set up, along with his team. He’s got a very strong management, technical and operational team in the US that we will benefit from.”

The development of the new division does face a few challenges, however. Not the least of which is the labour shortage that the oil and gas industry is currently experiencing.

“When you start up a new division, there’s always challenges,” Bruc remarked. “It’s how we effectively manage those challenges to make the business successful is something that’s inherent in our management team.”

“I think the industry as a whole is struggling right now with the labour shortage,” he continued. “I think, fundamentally, it is a challenge, not only for bringing in a new service like the pressure pumping service, but, I think, just putting drilling rigs [and] well servicing rigs to work. … And we’re looking at opportunities to bring people in as required from overseas.”

Dean Hillenga, Vice President of Superior Canada Well Services, Nabors Canada’s new pressure pumping division.

Photo courtesy of Nabors Canada.

Bruce commented on the potential of other labour markets as well.

“One of the things that we’re looking at,” he said, “is there’s still a fairly significant unemployment rate in the Aboriginal community. So, how can we tap into that resource.”

According to Bruce, the new division will likely require an additional three or four staff at the Calgary head office. The operations will likely be based in Sylvan Lake and Clairmont, drawing field staff from those two locations.

The new Vice President of Superior Canada Well Services, Dean Hillenga, is already onboard. Formerly, Hillenga was Vice President of Operations for Century Oilfield Services following fifteen years as an Operations Manager for Schlumberger in both Canada and the U.S. “Dean has a tremendous amount of experience from his time with Schlumberger and subsequently with Century,” said Bruce. “And when I look through his resume, not only is he well qualified to fill the position, he’s also very well respected within the industry for his knowledge and ability to make things happen.” •

Gas-to-liquid plant could come to Peace Region michaela garstin Staff Writer

A multi-billion dollar gas-toliquids (GTL) plant may soon be built in the Peace Region.

Talisman Energy and South African energy leader Sasol have joined forces to study the feasibility of establishing a gas-to-liquids facility in Western Canada.

The location and cost of the plant, which could have a price tag as high as $10 billion, is being determined by energy engineering firm Foster Wheeler.

The study is expected to be completed by the second half of 2012.

The companies want to gain access to the 44 trillion cubic feet of shale gas deposits available to them in northeast B.C., according to Talisman spokeswoman Phoebe Buckland.

Buckland isn’t sure what the chances are the plant will be located close to Dawson Creek.

“The location will be looked at as part of the study,” she said. “The site selection will be based on economic viability, product logistic factors and site accessibility to the provincial and local governments and to key stakeholders in the community.”

Buckland said the number of people to be employed by the plant isn’t known yet either but will be made available once the feasibility study is complete.

“One of the larger sizes we are considering could be in the [$10 billion] ballpark but it’s a rough estimate at this point, while we look at and consider what the scale and scope of the project is,” she said.

Talisman and Sasol are also 50/50 partners in two shale gas assets near

Dawson Creek.

“Bringing in a partner will enable us to unlock the upstream value of the resource by working together to develop the resource,” Buckland said. “The partnership with Sasol, who is a global leader in GTL technology, allows us to examine a downstream solution for the gas.”

Talisman will benefit from Sasol’s experience at converting coal and natural gas into clean fuels and chemicals.

“Several generations of technology, resulting in efficiency improvements, have been developed over 60 years and the technology has been successfully implemented on a commercial basis by Sasol in South Africa and Qatar,” a press release from Talisman said.

Talisman has operations in North and South America, Europe, southeast Asia, Australia, Algeria and Iraq.

Sasol says GTL technology is a good

way to profit from the large gap between natural gas and oil prices that has come about with the advent of shale gas.

GTL fuel can be produced from gas resources, particularly in areas where pipeline transmission is not economically or practically feasible. Sasol estimates that Canada has a natural resource base to support current gas production levels for over a century. Canada is the world’s third largest producer of gas, with an average annual production of 6.4 trillion cubic feet, according to the company.

GTL diesel can be used in modern diesel engines, which significantly lower emissions of local pollution, such as carbon monoxide and nitrogen oxides, Sasol says.

The GTL production process is based on Fischer-Tropsch technology, which has been in commercial use for over 50 years. •

July 2011 I pipeline news north •

profiles

15

right on track

- Eco-Flex recycled rubber products

As a company, Champagne Edition will celebrate twenty years of making products from recycled rubber tires, but it is only about eight years since they began manufacturing a set of unique items largely used by the oil and gas industry.

Two of those innovative products are the Eco-Flex Eco-Walk Industrial and the Eco-Flex Yukon Access Mat, a recycled rubber alternative to the wood mats frequently used to access well sites in terrain that is wet and muddy or beset by muskeg.

As Eco-Flex Sales and Marketing Director Scott Mydan explains, the custom-

ers actually came to the company with the idea and they immediately began to develop the products.

Overall, the company recycles about 500,000 tires per month. It takes about 150 tires to make one EcoWalk and 350 tires to make one Yukon Access Mat. The products consist of crumb rubber, urethane and fibre from the recycled tires, as well an imbed-

versus more of the green factor,” said Mydan.”

A far as durability, recycled rubber mats have a proven life span of six years, which is the same as wooden mats made with oak. However, it is projected that rubber mats can last for fifteen to twenty years, whereas the oak mats are only expected to last four to seven years. The only other option that can match the life span of the recycled rubber mats is synthetic mats that lack the environmentally friendly aspect. The cost is thirty per cent higher than with wood mats, but they will also last

the wooden mats. “There’s a lot of tire damages. So, we don’t get any of that with the way that we’re doing it now with our wood inserts.”

“It’s major application is in the northern areas,” he continued. “It [has an] insulation value of R60. So, on these ice bridges and roads and stuff, when you put it down, it actually prolongs the usage of the road. So, it acts as a thermal barrier, which obviously is beneficial for a lot of those accesses.”

Mydan also recognizes the importance of manufacturing a green product that isn’t made from a material that is foreign to their customers.

“I mean, tires are proven,” he explained. “They’re tough. And we’re not inventing the wheel by any means when it comes to rubber. So, people who experience it, now they just see the value in it.

The people that use it end up buying more because they see the value in what we’ve got. So, we got a lot of recurring customers.” •

The mats are being used in a large variety of applications

Eco-Flex Yukon Access Mat at work in the oil patch. The unique mats are made from recycled rubber tires.

Photo courtesy of Eco-Flex.

ded wooden spine that helps reduce the weight of the mats. The wood accounts for about thirty-eight per cent of the mats, while the remaining sixty-two per cent is the recycled material.

“It’s a good use for that product,” said Mydan. “It’s very durable. It’s recycled rubber tires; so, it’s got the green aspect.”

Mydan remarked that energy sector companies may be inclined to choose this environmentally friendly option for public image reasons, but also noted that they offer numerous advantages over their wooden counterparts.

“They’re more willing to use rubber just because of the simple durability factor

three to five times longer, according to Mydan.

Additionally, as opposed to wooden mats, recycled rubber mats don’t absorb most liquids, which also means they maintain a consistent weight.

“There’s a lot of nails,” added Mydan, discussing

605640

16 • PIPELINE NEWS NORTH I

July 2011

careers & training August

Course offerings s u n D Ay

7

M o n D Ay

t u e s D Ay

W e D n e s D Ay

3

t h u r s D Ay

1

2

B.C. DAY

Airbrakes DC h2s Alive DC oFA 1 DC oFA 1 FN Forklift operator FSJ

8

9

10

oFA 1 DC

h2s Alive DC

oFA 1 CH

LDV DC

Fall Protection FN

h2s Alive FN

Confined Space FN Airbrakes FSJ oFA 1 FN

4

f r i D Ay

5

6

Fall Protection FSJ Fall Protection DC

11

s At u r D Ay

PAL FSJ

12

13

19

20

goDi FSJ LDV TR

14

15

16

17

oFA 1 DC

h2s Alive DC

h2s Alive CH

goDi CH

Core DC goDi DC

oFA te FN

FooDsAFe 2 FSJ

18

FooDsAFe 2 FSJ

h2s Alive FSJ oFA 1 FN

21

22

23

24

FooDsAFe 1 DC oFA 1 DC

h2s Alive DC ohh DC

25

26

27

goDi FSJ

goDi FN FooDsAFe 1 FSJ

h2s Alive FN oFA 1 FN

28

29

30

31

oFA te CH

oFA 1 DC

h2s Alive DC

oFA 1 FN

h2s Alive FN

ONGOING COuRSES Dawson creek Petroleum safety training WhMis transportation of Dangerous goods

tumbler ridge ofA 1 ofA te h2s Alive

ground Disturbance

L e g e n D CH – Chetwynd Campus DC – Dawson Creek Campus FN – Fort Nelson News Campus FSJ – Fort st. John Campus TR – tumbler ridge Campus

CORE – Conservation and outdoor recreation education OFA – occupational First Aid GODI – General Oilfield Driver Improvement OHH – Oilfield Heavy Hauler LDV – Light Duty Vehicle Driver improvement OFA TE – occupational First Aid transportation endorsement PAL – Possession and Acquisition License (Canadian Firearms safety Course)

NortherN Lights CoLLege

Workforce trAining Customized Industry Services.

We can provide your business with customized training in the classroom or on-site.

Find out how we an help improve your employees’ skillset and efficiency with training developed specifically for your company by calling the Workforce training Department located at your nearest Campus.

Dawson creek 250-784-7576 Hugh McNair hmcnair@nlc.bc.ca

chetwynd 250-788-2248 Verna Rowsell vrowsell@nlc.bc.ca

fort nelson 250-774-2741 Ramona Nehring rnehring@nlc.bc.ca

tumbler ridge 250-242-5591 Donna Merry dmerry@nlc.bc.ca

fort st. John 250-785-6981 Rick Newlove rnewlove@nlc.bc.ca

fort nelson 250-774-2741 Kate Ring kring@nlc.bc.ca

July 2011 I pipeline news north •

upComing in

sePteMber

sep 1 Light Duty Vehicle Driver improvement FSJ sep 26-27 Building Your Communication toolbox FSJ sep 27-30 management skills for supervisors 1 FSJ sep 26-oct 30 Advanced First Aid TR

oN-LiNe sAfeTY TRAiNiNg THRoUgH NLC (Morning start times recommended).

• WHMis • Bear Aware • ground Disturbance • psT (petroleum safety Training iRp #16) • CsTs (Construction safety Training system) • Transportation of Dangerous goods (TDg)

Call the Workforce training Department at your nearest Campus.

NLC’s WoRKfoRCe TRAiNiNg DepARTMeNT

Your local provider delivering the right training to suit industries needs our Workforce training Department can organize a wide variety of courses for industry, business and the community

some exAmPLes: • Air Brakes • ATV Rider • Boom Truck operator • snowmobile Rider safety • Confined Space • Construction safety Training • CoR/seCoR • Detection and Control of flammable substances • Driver Training • electrical Code Update • electrical Course for instrumentation personnel • enform Courses • enform Chainsaw safety • fall protection • Firefighting • first Aid • forklift safety • gas processing (all levels online) • gps • General Oilfield Driver improvement (goDi)

• ground Disturbance – global • Hazard Assessment • Hoisting and Rigging • H2s Alive • H2s Awareness • incident and Accident investigations • Management skills • Oilfield Hauler • Oilfield Swamper • petroleum safety Training (psT.iRp #16) • pesticide Applications • Portable Extinguisher Firefighting • power engineering (all levels online) • private security Training • s100 fire suppression • safety program Development • safety Training for Wellsite supervisors • scaffolding • seismic Blaster safety • Track inspection • Traffic Control • Transportation of Dangerous goods (TDg) • Well Blowout prevention…and more!

call the Workforce training Department at your nearest campus.

For more information or to register for any course listed in the monthly calendar:

Are you interested in:

• call the appropriate Workforce Training coordinator • call toll free 1-866-463-6652 and ask for the Workforce Training department at the campus where the course is offered • check the website at nlc.bc.ca, and click on the Workforce Training logo.

• taking a course that currently is not scheduled?

the courses listed in the monthly calendar are accurate as of may 16. however, new courses are being added on a regular basis at each NLC campus. For updated schedules, go to nlc.bc.ca and click on the Workforce training logo.

• having a course designed specifically for your company?

• having a course offered at your workplace?

Contact the Workforce training coordinator at your local campus.

We will work with you to meet your needs.

17

18 • PIPELINE NEWS NORTH I

July 2011

special feature

nature’s bounty

- A traditional plant study james waterman Pipeline News North

Brian Wolf had a chest cold.

It was about a decade ago, when the current Junior Lands Director for the Prophet River First Nation (PRFN) was working for the band as band manager.

He went into work one day with a terrible cough and ran into a group of elders sitting together in front of the band hall.

Telling the elders that he had to see the doctor about his cold, one member of that group spoke up and suggested he try a medicinal plant known as rat root that was traditionally used by the PRFN to treat chest colds, among other ailments.

That one remark was the beginning of a long discussion, the conclusion of which was a decision that it was important to start documenting the elders’ knowledge of traditional use plants to pass that knowledge along to the younger generations. Wolf decided to apply for funding to perform a study of traditional use plants in PRFN territory, receiving $25,000 from the First Nations Forestry Program, which supported a summer of research and the production of a booklet about those plants.

Then Encana arrived on the scene in 2006. The natural gas company was working on a road application in that region, which led to the realization that there was a lack of information available about those same traditional plants of interest to Wolf and the PRFN elders. A literature review was conducted, but many knowledge gaps still remained. Consequently, Angela White, Encana’s Surface Land Representative in Fort Nelson, contacted both the Fort Nelson First Nation and PRFN to try to find a way to fill those gaps. Ultimately, Fort Nelson First Nation chose not to be involved in the ensuing project, but there are hopes to involve them in future studies on traditional plants in the region.

The project that evolved from those first discussions between Wolf and White would grow to include not only those representatives from PRFN and Encana, but also a biologist with environmental services firm Environmental Dynamics (EDI) by the name of Cathy MacKay and an ethnobotanist from the University of Northern British Columbia (UNBC) by the name of Jane Young. The study was sponsored by the Science and Community Environmental Knowledge (SCEK) Fund, which derives its funding from the oil and gas industry and is administered by a steering committee of representatives from the BC Oil and Gas Commission, the Small Explorers and Producers Association of Canada (SEPAC), and the Canadian Association of Petroleum Producers (CAPP).

“It was very unique,” said White, who brought a forestry background and a personal interest in identifying plants to the project. “And it was actually great. ... Everybody kind of gelled really well together and everyone got along really well. And having the university, I think, was key, because they’re just – you know, they’re basically there to collect information. They’re not taking sides with anybody. They just want to preserve information and collect information. So, it adds so much credibility, I think, to the project.”

“The project involved partners from

quite different backgrounds,” added Young. “And I think we proved that partners from diverse backgrounds can work together very well. We made a team that has created really important and useful deliverables.”

The tangible results of the study include a booklet, Communicating Traditional Knowledge, which provides information about the traditional uses of local plants ranging from mint and blueberries to the sap of spruce trees, and a Spatial Data Decision-Making Tool (SDDT). A geographic information system (GIS) application, the SDDT can be used to identify known and potential traditional plant gathering areas in PRFN territory, as well as to predict areas likely to contain specific plant species and determine if those spots are readily accessible. Importantly, the tool also has great applications in terms of the relationship between PRFN and the oil and gas industry.

“Our lead area was to go forward with somehow facilitating spatial data compilation for the First Nation,” said MacKay, discussing EDI’s role in the project and the two year process of developing the SDDT. “So, facilitating them to take ownership of compiling their own spatial data so that it could improve their ability to respond to referrals. And, of course, that’s an objective from [the] industry point of view, to get good and timely response to referrals that go in for different developments.”

“We’ve put into this mapping system where these sites are that are important to them right now, but we can also predict ones that are out there that they could use at another time,” Young added. “And then those are the kinds of things that they’ll be able to tell industry: these areas aren’t the best areas to build roads; so, this area over here is better. That’s the whole idea.”

Wolf is thrilled with the results of that element of the project.

“What we gained,” he said, “is a lot more knowledge in a lot more areas where we basically documented, GPS located, and passed on some of the knowledge to the youth. We also gained a tremendous – a great, wonderful – working relationship with UNBC, Encana and EDI. And the elders can’t wait for them to come back and do some more work.”

It is those less tangible elements of the project – building relationships, learning from the PRFN elders, and passing knowledge along to the young generation – that have clearly made the most lasting impression on the project partners and the PRFN community. As White suggested, Young and UNBC played a vital role in making those outcomes possible.

“I’ve been involved with research and teaching ethnobotany for probably thirteen years now,” said Young, adding that she has been a plant biologist for a long time.

However, it wasn’t just her scientific expertise in that field that were so important to the study, but also her experience working with First Nations communities as part of that line of work, particularly in terms of ethical aspects of conducting research on matters of such cultural significance.

“My first work was with Sophie Thomas, an elder from Saik’uz in Vanderhoof,” said continued pg 19

Prophet River First Nation elder Mary McKanacha shares her knowledge of red willow with members of the research team.

Photo courtesy of Jane Young, UNBC.

James Wolf and Arlene St. Pierre from Prophet River First Nation checking out the root of a medicine plant in August, 2010.

Photo by Jane Young, UNBC.

Mary McKanacha and Brian Wolf from Prophet River First Nation scouting out spots to visit to document traditional use plants in their territory in June, 2010.

Photo by Angela White, Encana.

.

July 2011 I pipeline news north •

cont’d from pg 18 Young. “And she passed away just over a year ago. Quite a renowned elder. I miss her a lot. And that was my first experience with First Nations. And just a lovely group of people to work with. I learned a lot from them.”

“The intellectual property rights of Prophet River or any other First Nations have to be respected,” she continued, “and that’s where the university was huge in making this Memorandum of Understanding ... like a protocol that has to be in place in order to protect these rights.

And all partners were involved in writing that up. So, that was one thing that I could add to the table, is my experience in working out a document such as that, because, as I say, we need to protect the rights of the knowledge holders and the knowledge itself.”

It created the foundation for a mutually beneficial and enjoyable relationship with the PRFN elders.

“For the elders and other knowledge holders to share their information is pretty darn special,” said Young. “It is information that is quite sensitive. And to share it like they did, it’s quite an honour. And I think it’s really going to benefit so many people to get this knowledge out.”

White echoed those sentiments.

“I really enjoyed how the elders were very willing to share their stories and their knowledge,” she said. “That really impressed me. Once we got in the field, it was just amazing the change. They just wanted to talk and tell you and show you different things and find certain plants.

And even having the youth there with them was really cool, just having that knowledge transfer. Like everybody just seemed so engaged when were outside.

It was just such a transformation from talking in the band office and then actually going to the field. It was really neat. And just everyone’s enthusiasm. Once you’d get to a location, if there was a plant that somebody didn’t recognize, everyone was going to Jane: ‘What’s this plant? What’s this plant?’ And then they’d be telling stories about other plants. That was really neat.”

White was even given a very hands-on demonstration of the medicinal use of one of those plants.

“It was actually kind of timely,” she recalled, “because they use wild rose leaves for bee stings. And one of the elders was telling me this story. And then, lo and behold, literally not an hour later, I stepped on a wasps’ nest and got stung.

And did what they had explained to do.

And it worked. That was really neat. I didn’t know that about using rose leaves for bee stings.”

“It still hurt a little bit,” she added. “But it didn’t hurt for very long. So, yeah, I guess it just helps draw out whatever venom they put in you.”

Wolf recognized the value of passing that sort of information along to the PRFN

youth and other interested individuals like White.

“That’s one of the things that we always try to do [and] want to do as much as we can,” he said. “Every time that we have any projects like this, we want to get the younger generation involved. That’s how the knowledge gets passed on. How to use them. How to properly use it. How to respect the areas … And what you’re supposed to leave behind when you take something out.”

“Lots of times,” Wolf continued, “a lot of people would pass a lot of these medicinal plants. They wouldn’t really know what it’s for. They really don’t know what we use it for until we show them how to use them, how to respect them, and stuff like that. And they just go, ‘Wow! I passed through this place a lot of times. I really didn’t know there’s these plants that have medicinal purposes or how to use them.’

We try to share that knowledge with them too. And basically when to harvest them, how to harvest them, and making sure that they harvest them so that they won’t over-harvest. They always make sure that something will be left behind for the following year so that it will grow back again.”

Wolf believes the sharing of this information has created a heightened awareness on both sides of the First Nations-industry equation that has vastly improved their relationship.

“They basically understand why we want all these sites and stuff protected,” he said. “And they really get it. Especially Encana.”

“There’s definitely that comfort level between both of us now,” added White.

“We know the community knows us and we know them. And it feels like a friendship more. And the benefits to us – it helps us feel, like when we’re approaching them about other referrals and that, there’s just that, again, that familiarity with them. So, it’s easy to work with them. And having them have information that they can use for their community and ... more information to use when they are looking at applications from industry, that gives us a comfort level.”

This project ran from January 1, 2009 to January 31, 2011, followed by a number of technical reports and presentations. However, this isn’t the end of the work in this area. For example, MacKay and EDI believe this study can be a good stepping stone towards further meaningful collaborations with First Nations.

“We can learn effective ways to work with First Nations,” said MacKay. “And that has applications to every project, because any proponent who’s current is interested in working well with First Nations. So, it’s something we can offer, hopefully, to facilitate for other clients.

continued pg 21

19

Brian Wolf of Prophet River First Nation demonstrates how to use the leaves of wild roses to treat bee stings. During the field trip, Angela White was actually stung by wasps and used the traditional remedy to ease the pain and swelling.

Photo courtesy of Jane Young, UNBC.

Brian Wolf and elders from the Prophet River First Nation explain traditional uses of trembling aspen.

Photo courtesy of Jane Young, UNBC. 28392

www.trojansafety.com

20 • PIPELINE NEWS NORTH I

July 2011

profiles

gone west

- It’s a long way from N.B. to FSJ

james waterman Pipeline News North

Andrew Carroll is like a pioneer of old – he just keeps heading west.

Originally from Fredericton, New Brunswick, he eventually found himself working in warehouses for pharmaceutical companies in Ontario in the eighties. It wasn’t long until he was given an opportunity to move up into the office and return to school at Sheridan College in Oakville, Ontario to study Production and Inventory Management. It was during that period that he really found his calling: operations.

It seems it was a natural fit for somebody who just enjoys solving problems.

“I am passionate about that,” said Carroll. “Because I think we can help out customers by solving their problems and getting their production up and running. That’s the biggest thing. And I tell a lot of people that I work with that whenever we charge for the customer is a pittance compared to what their lost production costs are.”

Carroll is now the Fort St. John, British Columbia branch manager for Weir Oil & Gas, a company that specializes in repairing heavy equipment such as the gearboxes and pumps that are regularly used in the oil and gas industry.

“We have machining, welding, millwrighting,” Carroll added. “So, for example, we would tear apart a gearbox that was having vibration.

Take it apart. Clean it. Evaluate it.

Repair it. Put it back together. And install.”

Weir is also largely responsible for Carroll’s westward journey.

During his time in Ontario, he began working in the automotive sector in an operations capacity, where he learned what is known as Lean Manufacturing.

“Lean is efficiency,” he explained. “A system for doing it better, faster, quicker … So, costcutting and doing things right the first time.”

When Carroll began working with Weir at their head office in Mississauga, Ontario in 2004, he moved into a logistics position, managing warehouses and distribution centres. He began employing the principles of Lean Manufacturing that he head learned in the automotive sector in his department.

“And saving money and saving money and saving money,” he added.

Consequently, when Weir began working to improve their operations, they decided that they wanted Carroll at their flagship western Canadian office in Edmonton, Alberta to run their new corporate Lean Manufacturing program.

The new position took him to North Carolina for nine months in 2008, but it also allowed him the

opportunity to visit a number of the company’s plants and get his first glimpse of Fort St. John.

“I first started working up here full time in June last year, only on an interim basis,” said Carroll, discussing his shift into his new branch manager position. “And then they moved me up here. I just moved here in January.”

It was an opportunity – and a challenge – that Carroll was eager to accept, as he is clearly the sort of person who enjoys a challenge.

After all, not only is he presently running the Fort St. John branch, but he is also now working on his MBA online through Athabasca University.

“So, I’ve got a lot on my plate and keep busy,” he added. “So, I enjoy it. I like the area. The people are nice. I’m learning lots of new things. Meeting lots of good people.”

Weir has had an interesting history in Fort St. John. The operation began as a company by the name of Curtis Hoover, which ran into hard times during the National Energy Program days that hurt so many companies involved in the oil and gas industry in western Canada in the eighties.

“And then Weir took it over,” said Carroll. “And [business] has been pretty good since then, because of the diversification and backing of a big company.”

“We’re not all just oil and gas,” he added, noting that Weir also works with companies involved in pulp and paper and other forestry products.

Business has been more consistent since natural gas development has increased in the Montney formation and the Horn River Basin.

“As there’s more activity, there’s more activity for everything,” Carroll noted. “So, we’re starting to see more different types of things, like vibration and alignments.

When they’re running a compressor and turbine, and they start to misalign, they call us in, and we get some more opportunities from that. So, there’s been some growth there.”

Growth brings new challenges, however. A particular concern for the oil and gas service sector these days is the lack of skilled labour necessary to satisfy the demand.

“There is a shortage,” he admitted. “We’ve got a core group that has been here a long time, has a lot of knowledge and a lot of expertise, and that’s helped us. At the same time, we could have expanded, and if we’d had additional people we could have increased the business. But the trouble is the service business is very cyclical.

And it’s feast or famine. There are times where there are months where you’ve got people busy and then there’s months where you don’t have that. That’s the challenge in the service business.”

Other companies in the local

Andrew Carroll at the Fort Nelson & District Chamber of Commerce Trade Show on April 30, 2011. Carroll has been branch manager at Weir Oil & Gas in Fort St. John since last June.

Photo by James Waterman.

service sector have attempted to address their workforce needs by participating in apprenticeship programs with Northern Lights College, only to see those people leave town for the higher wages of the oil patch at the earliest opportunity.

“I haven’t experienced that because I haven’t gone through the college to bring people in,” said Carroll. “We’re sort of pretty selective on who we put through apprenticeship. Right now, I’ve got two guys in the shop that are going for dual tickets. So, they already are machinists or some other trade. And we’re sending them back to school. And basically what we do is get them to sign an agreement for two years. And we have a good feel for that.”

“I appreciate education,” he continued. “And I would put somebody through it – the right person through it. But I think we bring them onboard first, make sure that they passed their staying test, if you will, and then put them through the next year or so forth. But I’ve heard of that in the past and I’ve done other jobs where I’ve had that issue. But I think what you need to do is understand that that’s part of the cycle. You bring in a hundred people and you get to keep twenty. Let’s say twenty per cent stay. And some of them are going to go. But, in other words, if you don’t do it, you’re not going to get anybody increased in knowledge and abilities.”

Weir faces another unique challenge of their own owing to their history in Fort St. John, dating back to the day when Weir bought the business from Curtis Hoover.

“Weir bought them,” said Carroll, “but Weir in Canada went under the name Peacock. And so Peacock was made up of a filtration business, a service business, the repair business, and everything. So, Peacock existed and different customers knew us for different things. And some of [them] knew us for filtration and instrumentation.”

However, Peacock decided to sell the filtra-

tion and instrumentation part of the company a few years ago because they felt it didn’t fit their brand any longer.

“But the mistake that they made was they sold the name Peacock with it,” Carroll continued.

“People thought that Peacock was us. And now they don’t see the name Peacock so much.”

Furthermore, Peacock had established its presence in Fort St. John prior to natural gas boom in the Montney formation which brought a host of new names into the local marketplace.

Consequently, the name of Weir Oil and Gas can get lost in the shuffle.

“When they sold the name Peacock,” said Carroll, “it sort of did a little detriment, because [people] thought, ‘Well, we don’t know who Weir is and what they do. And they’re probably not going to stay around anyway.’ It’s that whole adage of if they’re not hearing any positive news, some negative stuff floats up.”

“There’s lots of rumours out there,” he added.

“And everybody’s talking that everybody’s having troubles … One of the ladies here said that she and her husband had heard from two different people in town that we were closing. And we have no intentions of closing … I don’t know where these rumors come from. I think maybe somebody says, ‘Oh, everyone knows they’re going to close.’ And then it becomes reality. So, it’s really good that we’re getting out there. And one of my missions here is to get our name out and put some billboards up and get some advertising and some good publicity out there.

“That is something that’s been lacking …

If people don’t see your name out there, they think they must be pulling out … Well, we’re not.

We’re doing well. We’re making money. We’re successful. We’re looking at expanding …

We’re doing some five year strategic planning.

So, Weir’s here and we want to invest back in the community … We want to contribute to the community. And it’s important that the community knows that we’re here and we are here to stay.” •

July 2011 I pipeline news north •

21

Natural bounty - cont’d cont’d from pg 19 This project involved, so far, four field tours where there was ... a group of six or eight elders and youths and the four partners that went into the field touring different traditional plant sites. And just [that] direct experience is really – professional development-wise or [in terms of] learning cultural awareness – is really valuable to learn practical ways that you can work effectively with First Nations.”

There may also be more work involving traditional use plants and these four project partners on the horizon.

“We are waiting to hear about funding to continue the work with Prophet River First Nation,” said Young. “And the elders and the other participants in Prophet River definitely expressed that desire to continue to work with us and visit sites that were inaccessible. And these were very culturally important and environmentally important.”

Wolf is certainly quite interested in continuing the study in that area.

“This is the second phase,” he said of the recently completed study. “We want to work on a third phase. The third phase would probably be inaccessible sites, where there’s only access by horseback or by helicopter. And most convenient would be helicopter, even though it’s fairly expensive. So,

these are areas where you can’t get to by vehicles or quads.”

“So, we’ll have all those sites documented and stuff on a map,” Wolf continued. “And any sort of industry wanting to go into these certain areas, we can say, ‘No, we’ve got these very important traditional sites that we used to use in the past and still use them.

We want you to avoid them. Either reroute your road access or your wellsite or you borrow pits, anything that may be that deals with development, to avoid these very important sites.’”

As for White and Encana, they are very curious to see the applications of the study in terms of site reclamation after ground disturbance.

“We’d like to expand this with other First Nations,” said White.

“And we’d like to kind of expand this project towards traditional plant use in reclamation work.”

“When we’re reclaiming wellsites,” she continued, “typically they would just be seeded with like a grass seed mixture. But what we’re hoping to use is taking this traditional plant knowledge and working with First Nations and actually transplanting more traditional plants and plants that they would use – possibly medicinal plants.

So, it’s just better for the landscape and it’s better for the community, because rather than just taking away from the landscape, now we

Brian Wolf of Prophet River First Nation collecting puffball in June, 2010.

Photo by Angela White, Encana.

might have an opportunity to put plants back that the community would use and might even be better for wildlife too.”

This possibly dovetails with one of Wolf’s big concerns: the encroachment of invasive plants on traditional lands.

“One way or another,” he said, “these invasive plants will get into pristine lands, and they’ll just take over. That’s something that we want to avoid. We try to get industry involved.”

White wonders if using traditional plants in reclamation can help deter invasive plants. At the very least, the presence of traditional plants will attract members of the First Nation community who can then monitor and remove invasive plants.

“Because there would be more activity out there,” she said. “More people aware of keeping an eye on things. And so, yeah, you can get them under control before it gets out of control.” •

www.cyclenorth.com

22 • PIPELINE NEWS NORTH I

July 2011

environment

mixing oil & water - Arctic Grayling Symposium

A group from the Arctic Grayling Symposium ready to do some grayling angling during the Friday field trip. Left to right: Craig Johnson (Fisheries Biologist, Alberta Sustainable Resource Development), Dr. Dana Infante (Assistant Professor, Michigan State University), Ralph Tingley (Student, Michigan State University), Robert Boyce (Environmental Advisor, Devon Canada Corporation), Jim Epp (Representative, Peace County Flyfishers Association), James Magee (Fisheries Biologist, Montana Fish, Wildlife and Parks).

Photo courtesy of Trout Unlimited Canada.

james waterman Pipeline News North

Trout Unlimited Canada (TUC), Alberta Sustainable Resource Development (SRD) and Golder Associates hosted the 2011 Arctic Grayling Symposium in Grande Prairie, Alberta from June 7 to 9 this year.

It was the third in a series of symposiums devoted to Arctic grayling conservation issues, following events in Prince George, British Columbia in 2000 and Jackson, Montana in 2005.

The symposium included presentations focused on the areas of biology and natural history, monitoring approaches, threats to conservation, and management strategies, as well as a field trip to sites along the nearby Beaverlodge River where Arctic grayling were extirpated during the 1990s.

“I think the field trip was very valuable,” said Brian Meagher, TUC’s provincial biologist for Western Canada, adding that the visit to the actual ecosystem allowed participants to really witness and discuss the problems experienced at that location, as well as how those issues are being addressed by a local stewardship group and the owner of the adjacent

property.

“It’s primarily land use,” Meagher continued, discussing the reasons for the extirpation of the grayling in that area.

“It’s never one thing. But land use is a major component of it. In the Beaverlodge situation, it’s primarily agricultural transition.

“There’s some forestry issues in the headwaters. And there’s oil and gas industrial activity going on quite often through the community.”

Additionally, grey water flows into the river from Beaverlodge’s sewage treatment plant. The town also installed a weir to retain water for the community and other water users in the area.

“And that sort of was a barrier to migration,” said Meagher. “As well as the water quality was altered based on different community users. And so the process now is to go in and do tree plantings and riparian setbacks … and just talking with landowners to try and … stop the bleeding.”

Meagher described riparian areas with an appropriate amount of natural vegetation as having a “sponge effect.”

“The water, basically, is retained in those willows or shrubs or trees or whatnot,” he explained. “As well, they basically form what they call natural rebar in holding the bank stability. So, you avoid slumpage into the river.”

Riparian vegetation also shades the continued pg 23

Land use such as agriculture and forestry have adversely affected the Arctic grayling population in the Beaverlodge River.

Photo courtesy of Trout Unlimited Canada.

July 2011 I pipeline news north •

cont’d from pg 22 river, which is important for coldwater fish species, in addition to providing habitat for birds and the insects that may ultimately fall into the water to be eaten by fish.

“Some people just don’t know that if you remove all the trees from a riparian area, you don’t have the protection the river needs,” Meagher continued, discussing the important role of education in conservation efforts.

“If you’re a landowner,” he said, “and you’re running an operation, every square foot of your property is valuable.

And they all try to use it. And it’s just a matter of having the right tools to understand and, as well, the funding to put in fencing and to put in trees and stuff, because it’s not cheap.”

The symposium was sponsored and attended by members of the oil and gas community operating in the region, as well as government departments, conservation organizations, and other resource industries, including mining and forestry.

“We always would like to have more participation,” Meager admitted, although the event did exceed TUC’s expectations with approximately 140 people in attendance.

“There [were] individuals from Suncor and Devon,” he said. “And the forest industry had representatives there. And so having those types of individuals who are actually working on the ground in those locations is very valuable, as well as the funding that some of the other organizations provided to actually hold the conference was very appreciated and needed.”

Meagher noted that the participation of the resource industries in these events

does a great deal to help TUC move forward with its conservation work.

“I think that the reality of the situation is that a lot of the work getting done on the ground is being stimulated by industry in ways of mitigation and compensation,” he said. “It’s much harder for a grassroots organization to try and drive those projects.”

According to Meagher, the fact that resource industries have to satisfy regulatory requirements is a significant factor in facilitating conservation projects because of “the funding and the deadlines that come along with industrial activity in mitigation and compensation types of projects.”

Ultimately, the goal of an event such as the Arctic Grayling Symposium is to bring people together and encourage discussion about conservation.

“There’s two sort of benefits to it,” said Meagher. “One is the obvious benefit about hearing research and getting people connected and up to date with what’s going on in other parts of the world where they might not have contacts or information.”

The second benefit is the opportunity to focus discussion on Arctic grayling issues among all interested stakeholders from university researchers to the energy sector.

“And there’s a lot of conversations that go on during the coffee breaks and in the evening and stuff like that.” Meagher added. “By holding it at a college where we had a dorm-like situation for a lot of the participants, it made it really easy for people just to sit around the dorms after, on the couches, and have conversations about methods or projects and stuff like that. And a lot of sort of light switches were flicking big time.” •

23

Dr. Dana Infante (Assistant Professor, Michigan State University) checking out Arctic grayling in the Beaverlodge River.

Photo courtesy of Trout Unlimited Canada.

30583

Working with industry to help eliminate work-related incidents and injuries Enform is the safety association for Canada’s upstream oil and gas industry.

Established by industry for industry, Enform helps companies achieve their safety goals by promoting shared safety practices and by providing: » Effective training, including courses on general and operational safety programs and petroleum fundamentals » Expert audit services » Professional advice Our vision is no work-related incidents or injuries in the upstream oil and gas industry. Contact Enform today for more information.

Email bc@enform.ca Fort Toll-free 1.855.436.3676 (855.4ENFORM) Email bc@enform.ca FortSt.St.John John 250.785.6009 Toll-free 1.855.436.3676 (855.4ENFORM) Email bc@enform.ca Fort250.785.6009 St. John 250.785.6009 Toll-free 1.800.667.5557 bhrl99@yahoo.com

30172

www.enformbc.ca www.enformbc.ca www.enformbc.ca

24 • PIPELINE NEWS NORTH I

July 2011

international

pulling the plug

- Encana-PetroChina deal falls through james waterman Pipeline News North

Encana announced on June 21 that they have ceased negotiations with PetroChina on a proposed joint venture operation concerning the Canadian natural gas giant’s Cutbank Ridge assets in northern British Columbia and Alberta.

The announcement brings an end to a plan the Asian energy company to acquire a fifty per cent stake in those holdings for CDN $5.4 billion.

The negations began approximately one year ago with the signing of a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) between the two companies in Ottawa last summer. A cooperation agreement was completed in February, when the specifics in terms of assets and price were determined. That was considered a solid step toward finalizing a deal, but the two sides were ultimately unable to hammer out the details.

“We were unable to reach substantial alignment with respect to key elements of the proposed transaction, including the joint operating agreement,” explained Encana spokesperson Alan Boras.

He added that the deal as defined in the cooperation agreement was “subject to a number of other component parts.”

“The two big ones [included] the joint operating agreement, which is

for

the fundamental agreement under which a joint venture would exist and operate, and that’s what we were working on,” said Boras. “And then we were seeking regulatory

approval from the government.”

Government approval comes through Investment Canada. The investor – PetroChina in this case – files the application.

According to Boras, the disagreement between Encana and PetroChina was “around the business element, not the regulatory approval.” He insisted that the regulatory process did not play a negative role, despite delays that undoubtedly occurred due to the federal election this spring.

“That was an obvious event that occurred in the midst of that application,” said Boras. “So, it’s understandable that there were delays because you had an election and then you had a new cabinet minister.

So, all of those things were understandable given the circumstances that the federal government was under. But that wasn’t a factor in our decision to end negotiations.”

Boras doesn’t think this turn of events will have any negative impact for Encana in terms of future dealings with foreign-owned companies or other investors. Also, Encana is currently seeking new joint venture opportunities on their undeveloped land in the Cutbank Ridge area, and Boras remarked that they shouldn’t have much difficulty finding a suitable partner.

“We believe we’ll have very strong interest,” he said.

Encana is also looking at options regarding midstream operations in the region. The same second party would not necessarily be involved in both transactions.

“It’s not uncommon for us to build facilities or pipelines in order for our natural gas to be processed and make it to market,” Boras explained. “And then, at some point in the future, for us to sell those to a midstream operator that has an interest in that business and that’s a focus of theirs. It’s not really a focus of ours – ours is upstream.”

Any concern that this failure to complete the deal with PetroChina may have negative consequences in terms of the proposed export terminal at Kitimat and accessing an Asian market hungry for natural gas was promptly continued pg 25

Fraser Institute reports on O&G investment Ryan lux Pipeline News North

According to a newly released report by the Fraser Institute, executives and mangers in the oil and gas industry are encountering an increasing number of barriers to investment in the province.

Oil and gas consultants disagree and take exception to the low ranking.

In its fifth annual survey of the oil and gas industry, the Canadian think tank asked executives to answer a series of questions regarding barriers to investment ranging from taxation and royalty regimes to regulatory frameworks.

On multiple counts, according to the report, B.C. is slipping relative to the other 136 oil and gas producing jurisdiction across the globe.

B.C. fell from the 52nd most favourable jurisdiction to invest in 2009, to 69th in 2010. Driving that decline, reported the study’s co-author Gerry Angevine, was the commercial and regulatory climates.

Angevine explained executives responded negatively primarily to questions on taxation in general.

“Because not much has changed in

the province’s royalty regime, but what we did notice was an increase in the responses saying taxation is a mild or strong deterrent to investment,” said Angevine.

He speculated the introduction of the HST and the subsequent uproar it caused among the electorate could be behind the negative perception of B.C. taxation among executives.

The other broad category in which B.C. lost ground is its regulatory environment. That decline, said Angevine, was predominantly a result of uncertainty about the potential changes to environmental regulations and enforcement.

Another area of interest relating to B.C.’s investment climate was a significant increase in negative responses to the province’s political stability, which isn’t something Angevine said one would expect in a developed economy.

“Normally we wouldn’t think of political stability as having an impact on a Canadian province, but more likely in places like the Congo or Libya,” said Angevine, noting that the percentage of responses citing government instability as a barrier to investment rose from 13 to 28 per cent over the course of last year.

He noted the study was conducted at the same time as both provincial parties were in the midst of leadership races and the referendum on the HST loomed.

The last area where B.C. scored poorly was the land claim file, where it ranked amongst countries like Iraq and Bolivia – near the bottom of the heap.

While the year over year increase of responses citing land claim issues as a barrier to investment rose by only 2 per cent, to 81 per cent, Angevine noted uncertainty over land rights has been a perennial black eye for B.C. and contributed to its lower than expected ranking.

Despite mounting concern over B.C.’s investment climate, oil and gas consultant Bill Gwozd said, from the perspective of long-term investment, British Columbia is poised to become a leader in natural gas development and exports.

Gwozd, the Vice President of the consulting firm, Ziff Energy, explained he advises clients that B.C.’s natural gas sector will “grow and grow just like dogs run and run in Saskatchewan” – an apt comparison given the Prairie Province was rated the most favourable Canadian jurisdiction for oil and gas investment.

He expects the province to double or triple its natural gas production within the next 15 to 20 years, something he said indicates a friendly place to do business.

“I take exception to such a low ranking because if you look at the companies from Malaysia, Korea and Japan who are investing in B.C. it speaks volumes about their confidence in B.C.” said Gwozd.

However, he did acknowledge several challenges to investor confidence in the province. Gwozd cited the uncertain future of the tanker moratorium on offshore drilling and tanker traffic off the province’s coast.

“Whenever you have a policy that allows a government to do nothing, that raised red flags,” said Gwozd.

His colleague, Kallio Edward, also expressed surprise at B.C.’s ranking due to the province’s proactive approach to modernizing the electrical grid and ensuring strong road infrastructure in both the Horn and Montney basins.

As far as political instability goes, Edward admitted the province has some work to do.

“The one thing industry hates is inconsistency. When you’re going into a 30year project based on conditions of the day and all of a sudden those change, there can be panic which discourages investment.” Said Edward, “That’s not good for industry or the province.”

This year, Manitoba fell to second place among Canadian provinces and territories. Ontario maintained a thirdplace finish, while Nova Scotia moved up to fourth from seventh. Newfoundland and Labrador remained in fifth place.

B.C. beat out Quebec and the Northwest Territories in terms of its investment climate. •

July 2011 I pipeline news north •

25

Five Industry Leaders Honoured By Canadian Petroleum Hall Of Fame Daily Oil Bulletin - www.dailyoilbulletin.ca

This year’s slate of inductees includes among its members a major figure on Alberta’s political landscape, former premier Ernest C. Manning, who is being honoured with a special recognition induction.

The four other inductees are Charles Fischer, Charles Fairbank, Edward (Ned) Gilbert and Alfred von Hammerstein.

Collectively, the inductees represent decades of significant achievements within one of Canada’s most important resource industries. Individually, their contributions symbolize a unique blend of entrepreneurial, technological and political savvy that reflect a commitment to industry that transcends a great career, noted Hall of Fame chairman Bill Whitelaw.

“As we do each year, we try to ensure our slate of nominees reflect the fact that great industries are built on great contributions that go beyond the day-to-day. As with all of our inductees, this year’s slate continues to reflect that legacy.”

The inductees will be honoured cont’d from pg 25 dismissed by Boras.

“The Kitimat project stands alone,” said Boras, adding that it was not Encana’s goal to partner with an Asianbased company in producing their Cutbank Ridge properties in order to further plans to ship its products to Asia.

“The Asian market is larger and broader than any single country or partner, and the list of potential partners is larger yet,” he continued. “We have a broad joint venture strategy across Encana that pursues partners to invest in our assets in order to accelerate the value recognition of our enormous resource potential, regardless of where they come from.”

Boras emphasized that the primary focus for Encana still has to be the North American market, as that is the market to which they currently have access. Exporting products such as liquefied natural gas (LNG) to Asia is still in the future. Consequently, it is not Encana’s goal to replace the deal with PetroChina with a deal with another Asian-based company. Besides, Encana still enjoys a solid partnership with Asian-based Korea Gas Corporation (KOGAS), just as they have important partnerships with North American companies, including Apache and EOG Resources, who are both involved in the Kitimat project with Encana.

“We have the partners we have now with respect to Kitimat,” said Boras. “So, they are us at thirty per cent, EOG at thirty per cent, and Apache, the operator, at forty [per cent]. So, the three of us are working on what is known as the front end engineering and design study.

And, depending on what the results of that are, we will use that information, plus the marketing of sales of natural

at a special gala dinner Sept. 22 at Calgary’s downtown Westin Hotel.

The annual dinner rotates, by tradition, between Calgary and Edmonton each year.

“It’s a special time each September, when industry leaders gather to honour their own and reflect on how what we’re doing today will shape the industry we’re building for the future,” said Whitelaw. “Each inductee’s contribution has in no small measure laid the foundation for an industry that has a world-class reputation. Their efforts ought to inspire those currently adding to that foundation.”

The following are brief biographical backgrounds on each inductee.

Charles Fischer built a 40-year career in the Canadian oil and gas industry that would take him from the gas fields of central Alberta to the storm-tossed waters of the North Sea; from the frozen tundra of the Canadian Arctic to the searing heat of the north African desert. That career culminated in 2001, when he was named president and chief executive officer of Nexen Inc., and for much of the next eight years, his face -- and his distinctive handlebar mustache -was the face of Nexen as it expanded internationally and consolidated its holdings in Canada.

Charles Fairbank is synonymous with the oil history of Lambton County gas to potential buyers in the Pacific Rim. So, all those activities are carrying on onto themselves, and none of that was dependent upon the upstream transactions per se that we’re doing, because we have a tremendous amount of gas.We expect to build that project and secure healthy prices from Asia and then be able to move forward with our development of gas in northeast B.C,” he added.

Regardless of the exact details of any future partnership, Boras is certain of the local economic value of Cutbank Ridge.

“Cutbank Ridge has been a very, very successful asset,” he said. “And the people who live in and around those communities where we operate – Dawson Creek, Fort St. John – in northeast B.C., they’ve been very successful and have done tremendous work in making this a world class asset. And it’s their work, their technical work, their operational work, their efficiencies that have made this one of our very strong natural gas assets. And it has been really beneficial for Encana, but [also] for those communities and for the people of B.C. … Jobs are created. Investment is created.

“Taxes are created. And all those benefits trickle through society to places like, obviously, health and education.

So, they’re real community building economic endeavors. And they’ve been very successful. And we expect that success to continue.”

Consequently, a joint venture concerning Cutbank Ridge should benefit the region as a whole, according to Boras.

“Because it would bring additional investment and expansion of the economic activity,” he explained. “And additional jobs and wealth creation.” •

and Petrolia in southwestern Ontario and is a member of one of the world’s longest-producing oil families.

In 1862, his great-grandfather John Henry Fairbank (inducted into the Canadian Petroleum Hall of Fame in 1997) discovered oil at Oil Springs, Ontario, and that same year invented the jerker line system for producing oil -- a system Charles still uses at the Oil Springs properties. Charles also operates Van Huyl and Fairbank Hardware in Petrolia, which opened in 1865 and is considered the oldest hardware store in Ontario.

Edward (Ned) Gilbert is a name many outside the industry don’t recognize, but as a geologist and Sun Oil’s first employee in Western Canada, he was witness to the Leduc No. 1 gusher in 1947 and has been instrumental in the development of Western Canada’s oilsands regions ever since.

In 1949, Ned began scouting locations for a Sun Oil oilsands processing plant, and the following year directed a three-year core-hole drilling program before acquiring Lease 86 -- current site of Suncor’s existing oilsands operation.

Alfred von Hammerstein is inducted into the Pioneer category, as much for his colourful involvement in the early days of bitumen exploration as for his achievements in the industry. Calling himself a German count, von Ham-

merstein first arrived in the Athabasca region of Alberta in 1897, having detoured there en route to the Klondike gold fields. He had not come looking for oil but he was eventually drawn to the immense economic potential of the oilsands, and he was among the first, at the turn of the century, to actively explore the oilsands region of northeastern Alberta, drilling dozens of core holes along the Athabasca River between 1903 and 1909.

Ernest C. Manning is being recognized by the Hall this year with a Lifetime Achievement Award, recognizing the tremendous contributions he made to the industry as a seven-term premier between 1944 and 1967. Born in Saskatchewan in 1908, he was first elected to the Alberta legislature in 1935 as a Social Credit MLA from Calgary, and was re-elected again in 1940, this time serving an Edmonton constituency. He was named leader of the Social Credit party and became premier of Alberta following the death in 1943 of William Aberhart and went on to dramatically change the focus of the Social Credit party.

For more information, please contact CPHOF chairman Bill Whitelaw at 403-209-3503 or 403-462-5108.

Other details about the dinner and sponsorship opportunities are available as well by visiting www.canadianpetroleumhalloffame.ca.

31282

As the Canadian Petroleum Hall of Fame celebrates its 15th anniversary in September, it will honour five industry leaders by welcoming them as its latest inductees.

www.arctech-welding.com

26 • PIPELINE NEWS NORTH I

July 2011

finance Are your Retirement Savings at Risk? jl

The last thing you need is to lose all of your retirement savings because of a serious illness or a long-term care health need.

The hard truth is that it can happen quickly.

Consider the following hypothetical situation. A couple retires at age 65 with $300,000 in RRSPs. An additional $1,000 is needed from savings each month to top up pension income (Canada Pension Plan, Old Age Security, etc.). The total monthly withdrawal to cover taxes for the tax bracket they’re in is $1,300.

At this rate, their savings should easily last beyond their average life expectancy, which at 65 is 16 years for men, 20 years for women.1

safety

enform

- Winner of the Getenergy award

Then, as a result of a stroke at age 67, one spouse needs long-term care. With average home care service costs of $2,500 a month, a withdrawal of $4,550 is required from their savings each month (to cover home care, spouse’s normal living expenses, and taxes).2 A stroke at the age of 67 could wipe out $300,000 of savings in less than ten years.

Devastating illness and accidents occur more often than you may think. It probably wouldn’t take you long to create a list of ten people you know who have had a heart attack, a stroke, or cancer. All of the people on that list would agree that they had to absorb a huge financial cost.

One way to cushion the impact of a critical illness or long-term care need is to purchase health insurance.

Critical illness insurance pays a lump sum following the diagnosis of a covered illness. The owner of the policy, when they qualify, can spend that money any way they choose: to pay down a mortgage or debts; to seek treatments not covered by government plans; or to seek treatment outside of Canada.

Another practical health insurance option is a long-term care policy. If you were no longer able to perform two activities of daily living - eating, bathing, dressing, toileting, continence, moving to or from a bed or chair - then the weekly income would be there to help with your care. That income could be used to pay a family member to provide care or to pay for someone to come into your home.

Today, more than ever, it’s important for you to protect your assets from health-related risks. Health insurance gives you more choices if you’re faced with the costs of a critical illness or a long-term care situation.

1 “Deaths.” The Daily, Wednesday Decemeber 20, 2006. 12 Dec 2006. Statistics Canada. 21 Jun 2007. >http://www.statcan.ca/Daily/English/061220/d061220b.htm< 2Registered Practical Nurse/Licensed Practical Nurse of $220 ($22/hour, 10 hours/ week); personal care of $252 ($18/hour, 14 hours/week); homemaking of $150 ($15/hour, 10 hours/week)

james waterman Pipeline News North

Bob Wingfield doesn’t think all the praise should go to just Enform.

The Manager of Business Development for the safety association for Canada’s upstream oil and gas industry is certainly proud of the accomplishments that led to Enform receiving the Getenergy 2011Special Association Award for advancing education in the oil and gas industry, which was presented during Getenery’s seventh annual international event at the Southern Alberta Insitute of Technology (SAIT) in Calgary, Alberta on June 7 and 8 this year.

However, Wingfield also strongly believes that the Calgary Catholic Immigration Society (CCIS), the very organization that nominated Enform for the Getenergy award, deserves their fair share of those accolades for their role in a partnership that has helped new Canadians find their way to lucrative careers in the nation’s energy sector.

“We fit the bill, I thought, beautifully, being the safety association for the upstream petroleum industry,” said Wingfield, referring to the award. “But, really, what I thought was significant is this relationship we’ve had with the Calgary Catholic Immigration Society.”

“We train somewhere in the order of

150,000 people a year,” he continued, discussing the work done by Enform overall. “But this particular partnership with CCIS has been around for ten years. And what they do is work with new immigrants to Canada to [help them] become active members of Canadian society. And part of that is getting them work.”

CCIS offers three training programs for careers in the oil and gas industry: drilling rig-hand training, service rig-hand training, and seismic training. CCIS determines the best candidates for pursuing those careers in the oil and gas industry from a group of applicants from the immigrant community, considering factors such as their ability to do hard work in difficult weather conditions. Successful applicants enter into one of those three programs. The training is funded by the Alberta government.

“They arrange for the training,” said Wingfield. “I call it the soft skill training, like polishing up their English, their language skills, their job hunting skills, and just what’s expected in the Canadian workplace – what the companies want their people to do. So, that’s actually a fairly lengthy part of the program. And we host that. We let them use our facilities here.

And then we step in here at the end to provide the safety and technical training.”

“In the end,” he added, “it’s such a really great story that I really wanted the CCIS folks to get almost more accolades out of continued pg 27 31395

Submitted by: First Choice Insurance & Investment Services Inc. ©Sun Life Assurance Company of Canada, 2007.

Lloyd Harman, Vice President of Operations, Enform, accepting Getenergy Award in Calgary, Alberta this June.

Photo courtesy of Enform.

Group Benefits Made Easy Contact us for a FREE QUOTE: group@canwestgroup.com

www.canwestgroup.com www.canwestgroup.com

1-866-408-4999

28381

YOUR COMPLETE ON-SITE PARAMEDICAL COMPANY Everything from on-site Medical Clinics, staffed with ACP (ALS) providers to occupational first aiders, MTC’s & Industrial Ambulances.

We also provide Drug & Alcohol testing, Advanced skills (Incuding Antibiotic therapy)

Call NOW to reserve a unit!!!

250-788-2039

July 2011 I pipeline news north •

this than Enform, because they do a great job.”

Still, Bob Khan, Director of Operations for CCIS’s Oil and Gas Training Programs, feels that Enform is worthy of all the praise they are receiving with this new recognition. He nominated them for the Getenergy award because he believes they play a vital role in an initiative and a partnership that began in 2001, when Khan joined CCIS to implement the Oil and Gas Training Programs after a 26-year career with TransCanada Pipeline.

“These guys have everything,” said Khan. “They have the understanding for [multicultural communities]. They have the best [training] delivery system. And they have a very good rapport with the immigrant community.”

“Enform has been our training provider since 2001,” he added. “So, they’ve been with us for ten years now. We submitted a proposal to the government of Alberta for the oil and gas training program for immigrants and new Canadians. Enform provides the technical component to our program. They also provide the hands on training.”

The nomination process required Khan to write a nomination letter and obtain three testimonials from other organizations or companies that have regular contact with Enform and the people who go through their safety courses. Energy sector service companies Ensign Energy Services and Weatherford Canada provided testimonials, as both companies hire many of the workers who complete the CCIS training programs. The third testimonial came from the Canadian Association of Geophysical Contractors (CAGC).

“We are closely tied with Enform,” said CAGC President Mike Doyle. “One of the six founding board members. So, when it was brought to our attention by Bob Khan at CCIS, and he requested sort of a testimonial, it certainly fit for us.” “Enform is largely our only trainer, ultimately, so, we work with them and they us in order to develop specific training courses or products for our

membership.”

Doyle has also been impressed with the partnership between CCIS and Enform, particularly in terms of the quality of employee being produced by their joint training programs.

“From an employer’s standpoint,” he said, “it’s fantastic, because you have someone who has gone through some sort of filtering process, number one. Number two, [the individual] has probably the equivalent of a couple thousand dollars in training when they’re hired. So, that’s really a win-win for the employers as well.

“But,” Doyle added, “having said all of this, these programs themselves have really been the work of Bob Khan and the CCIS. They have put it together. They have built the proposals. They have gone to the Alberta government. And then once it’s sort of in place and they’ve worked with industry to do the filtering process, Enform can build the appropriate course mixture. And Bob is extremely passionate about doing this type of thing and, certainly, helping immigrants find work in Canada.”

Wingfield noted that everybody at Enform is proud of the work they do with CCIS and extremely pleased to have earned this award as a result.

“We’re really flattered and honoured to receive it,” he said. “Because people had to vote. This was an open voting procedure. Now, it was Getenergy that came up with the short list of nominees. And then that shortlist was put up on their website. And then kind of the world at large went in and voted for the different institutions.

So, it’s nice to know that we got some votes.”

Getenergy is an international organization based in the United Kingdom that is dedicated to education and training for the oil and gas industry. It holds annual events that feature a trade show component and the presentation of four awards, including the one received by Enform this year. Past events have been held in London and Kuala Lumpur. •

The latest scoop - cont’d

The Evergreen Centre for Resource Excellence and Innovation in Grande Prairie displays and demonstrates the Innovative Pipeline Strategies developed by Randy Galbreath and the other partners. This is one of the buckets now used to dig narrower trenches and reduce ground disturbance on pipeline jobs, where appropriate.

Photo courtesy of Doug Kulba, Alberta Environment.

cont’d from pg 13 Devon put the innovations to the test on their Jackfish development in northern Alberta, where they had to lay a series of pipes on a fairly remote and inaccessible right-of-way. Devon won a stewardship award from the Canadian Association of Petroleum Producers for that project. The work that led to the successful completion of that project also resulted in Galbreath, LaBerge, and Kulba receiving a Shared Footprints Award from Alberta Sustainable Resource Development.

Since LaBerge was first introduced to Galbreath in 2007, Devon made these new practices – now known collectively as Innovative Pipeline Strategies – mandatory on agricultural land in May 2008. They began experimenting with them on forested lands in August 2009, a practice that became mandatory in April

2009. Innovative Pipeline Strategies are now mandatory for all of Devon’s western Canadian operations.

Few people probably know or understand Galbreath’s contribution to the oil and gas industry better than LaBerge and Kulba.

“Randy has gone out of his way to teach other contractors,” said Kulba, extolling the virtues of the veteran pipeliner. “That’s extremely unique.”

“This isn’t just a selfish thing,” he continued. “This is for the betterment of the entire province and the communities that he works in. And the communities that the contractors work within. So, he’s willing to share his knowledge, his experience and his successes.”

“That’s a real big testament to Randy and how he gives of himself.”

“It’s always been a privilege working with Randy,” added LaBerge. “Randy invested a lot of his time, a lot of money, in these processes that he’s developed and perfected. And Devon took chances on their own capital projects to move forward on that and there was risks in that as well. And the government took chances from the standpoint that we didn’t know if we were going to be successful or not on the things we tried.”

“Really, at this point, I’m getting some notoriety,” Galbreath admitted. “Like anything, some of it’s good, some of it’s not so good. I get a lot of personal satisfaction out of some of the things that we’ve accomplished.”

“I’ve been in the office either as the manager or an owner since 1989,” he continued, discussing how the culture of his business has changed through this process. “And I’ve never had my employees come in so often as they do now and say, ‘I’ve got an idea, Randy.’ That just never happened before.”

The difference now is that Galbreath and his Partners in Resource Excellence collaborators have shown the men in the field that their ideas will be heard and valued.

Galbreath deserves a lot of credit for that change.

“What he wouldn’t have told you,” said Kulba, “is that about a year after we started this process, he phoned me up on a Monday, out of the blue, and he said, ‘Doug, for the first time in my life, I’m proud of the work I’ve done.’” •

Sinopec Sees Near-Term Shale Gas Investment In North America Daily Oil Bulletin - www.dailyoilbulletin.ca (Reuters) -- Sinopec, China’s No. 2 energy giant, is confident of investing in North America’s shale gas sector in the near future, and profitability will remain the top criteria for such acquisitions, a top company executive said on Tuesday.

“We are stepping up efforts on unconventional resources both domestically and overseas,” Zhang Yaocang, vice-president of Sinopec Group, parent of Sinopec Corp., told Reuters. “We want to enter the shale gas area in Canada and America. America now welcomes us to get in there. We’ll take the opportunity to make investment there.”

Chinese state oil and gas firms have since two years ago stepped into the shale gas business, aiming to boost their reserve base and gain operational experience in the relatively frontier area.

No. 3 firm CNOOC Ltd. led the foray and landed two deals with U.S. independent shale gas player Chesapeake early this year.

Asked if Sinopec is hopeful of landing a shale gas deal with North American firms in the coming two to three years, Zhang said: “For sure we will.” He did not give further details.

Zhang said profitability will be the top priority for acquisitions regardless of conventional or unconventional. “We don’t favour one asset over another.

Whichever one is most profitable is the best.”

But he added that if the oil price was lower than $80 a bbl, it would probably make investment in unconventional resources difficult.

For information on Membership

contact Art Jarvis, Executive Director South or Laurie Dolan, Executive Director North for contact information see www.energyservicesbc.org www.energyservicesbc.org

31474

cont’d from pg 26

27

(780) 538-1987

Mon-Fri: 9am - 6pm • Sat: 9am - 5pm 9813 116 AVE., GRAND PRAIRIE Across from Value Village

PROFESSIONAL SALES & INSTALLATIONS

• Ardent Energy • RSF Energy • Blaze King • Valley Comfort • Jotul Cast Iron Stoves • Bosch Water Heater

• Wood & Gas Stoves • Fireplaces & Inserts • Chimney Systems • Heartland Cookstoves • Kingman Fireplaces

LENNOX HEARTH STONE TRAGER BBQs HARMAN PELLET STOVES

29807

605650

email: maelco@xplanet.com

28 • PIPELINE NEWS NORTH I

July 2011

community

visit from the sea - AquaVan comes to Northeast BC james waterman Pipeline News North

Although they live in British Columbia, it isn’t often that the boys and girls of the northeast corner of the province can make the trip to the Pacific Ocean.

So, the Vancouver Aquarium just brings the ocean to them.

The BC Hydro AquaVan made stops throughout the region during the months of June, as well as visits to Grande Prairie, Beaverlodge and Hythe, Alberta in late May, all part of its seventeenth annual journey through the communities and classrooms of the two most western provinces. The aquatic guests included sea stars, sea urchins, sea anemones, three species of crab, a few varieties of small fish, and barnacles.

“A whole variety of different small invertebrates,” said Scott Finestone, AquaVan Coordinator for the Vancouver Aquarium.

During the first class at Charlie Lake Elementary on Tuesday, June 21, AquaVan Intern Cassandra Whelan led the Grade 1 students through a short lesson about aquatic ecosystems, turning Education Assistant Brenda Brown into an underwater rock covered in seaweed and surrounded by creatures such as sea cucumbers and anemones.

The students were then divided into three groups so that the AquaVan staff could teach them about the crabs, sea stars and other animals, even giving the children a chance to touch the aquatic organisms with their little fingers. Two of the highlights were learning that sea stars actually spit out their own stomachs to eat their prey and watching the sea anemone cling to the instructor’s finger like a piece of tape with its tiny barbs, which is how it catches its food.

“I think it’s wonderful that children can come and see things that they wouldn’t be able to see if they’ve never been to an ocean before,” said Charlie Lake Elementary Grade 1 teacher Joan Tompkins, adding that the instructors did a great job interacting with the young students.

According to Finestone, that essentially summarizes the purpose of the program.

“The goal is to educate students and expose them to some marine creatures that they wouldn’t have the opportunity to see in a lot of places that we bring them to,” he explained. “Up here in the Peace [Region], a lot of the students don’t get the chance to get to the ocean. And so we like to bring the ocean to them.”

Approximately sixty per cent of the program cost is provided by BC Hydro and a group of other organizations that includes oil and gas sector companies such as Spectra Energy, Encana, Syncrude and Imperial Oil. The school districts subsidize the remaining cost.

Quicksilver Resources also contributed funds and the help of Community and Aboriginal Relations Representative Jaime Lawrence to classes at four elementary schools in Fort Nelson, as well as a community event at Art Fraser Park on Saturday, June 18.

“I look at it like education on wheels,” said Lawrence, noting that Quicksilver views participation in youth education as a key aspect of community involvement.

“When I went and met with the staff and spent the day with them, basically, they thought it was pretty cool that Quicksilver actually sent out someone to be there and participate,” he added.

Trips to communities like Fort Nelson can be particularly special for the AquaVan staff.

“It’s interesting when we get far away from the coast,” said Finestone. “The farther you get away, the more times you’re coming into contact with students who have never been to the ocean. And the one thing that I always

find exciting, and kind of fun and interesting, is that, inevitably, in every group, someone will stick their hand in the water, then stick it in their mouth to see if it is actually salty. In every group that happens. And I find it funny.”

Lawrence appreciates the fact that AquaVan works to make sure that its sponsorship fits the community in which they are delivering the program.

“So, you wouldn’t see the Quicksilver banner in Prince George, for example,” he said. “So, they go to great lengths to recognize that each locality. So, Quicksilver’s highlighted in Fort Nelson, but not in Fort St. John, let’s say.”

Lawrence suggested that that helps bring the communities and the companies working in those areas together.

“Sponsorship’s one thing,” he said, “but participation at the local level is another. That’s why we had the office there early. And that’s why I’m up there doing community stuff. And it’s pretty important to have that recognizable face in the community participating in events and stuff like that.”

“In recent years, we’ve been getting more and more support from some of the companies,” said Finestone.

“The energy companies especially.”

“These are the companies that are out in the community, and they need to do something to give back, and we feel like we give them a great opportunity to … give back to the communities,” he continued. “And really share with the students, and allow us to share with the students, some messages on what needs to be done to ensure their environment is a healthy, successful environment in years to come.”

Finestone described the relationship between the AquaVan program and the energy sector as a “perfect” partnership.

“Because these are the companies that have the relationships with the local areas and they’re the ones who also have the money to be able to bring our program up

Grade 1 students at Charlie Lake Elementary get a glimpse of a sea anemone during a school visit by the BC Hydro AquaVan on Tuesday, June 21.

Photo by James Waterman.

to the area,” he explained.

Jay Morrison, Community Coordinator with Spectra Energy in Fort St. John, noted that sponsoring the AquaVan dovetails perfectly with the company’s commitment to education and training.

“And as a lot of our employees live in the communities where we operate,” he added, “the communities themselves are very important to Spectra Energy as a company.”

Morisson attended an AquaVan class for a group of Grade 7 students at Dr. Kearney Middle School on Monday, June 20 and was impressed with the array of animals on display and the expertise of the instructors.

“Super interesting stuff,” he raved. “And I think it’s great for up here, obviously, because we don’t have the ocean nearby. So, it kind of opens up the kids eyes to the other world that’s out there too.”

Lawrence echoed those sentiments.

“Some of the kids never get to see this stuff in real life,” he said. “So, let’s face it, when you’re learning about [an animal], it’s so much cooler to actually be able to hold a live one when you’re learning about them.

Something you’ll remember forever. And I’m from Newfoundland and some of the stuff they had I’d never seen in my life.”

Logistically, it’s a complicated program to deliver. The van itself is equipped with support systems such as water filters and water chillers that cool the water to an appropriate temperature for the survival of the sea animals.

Also, they must wait until spring every year to make their way up to the North Peace.

“We’re on the road about half the year,” said Finestone, who has been with the program for about two and a half years. “When we can get out of town, we get out of town. When we can’t get out of town, we work in the Lower Mainland around Vancouver and do programs in schools locally in the Lower Mainland.”

“Although we could drive our vehicles and get up here any time of the year,” he continued, “we can’t bring our animals, because we’d have solid blocks of water with frozen animals in them. So, unfortunately, we have to wait until May to get up here.”

Judging by the reaction of the students, however, it is well worth the time and effort.

“Seeing the sea anemone,” remarked Grade 1 student Shaiden Selin from Charlie Lake Elementary when asked about his favourite part of the class. “Because I never saw one before.” •

careers & training

July 2011 I pipeline news north •

29

heavy duty

- New scholarships for NLC students

james waterman Pipeline News North

Northern Lights College (NLC), through its Northern Lights College Foundation, is offering five new scholarships this year thanks to the Petroleum Services Association of Canada (PSAC) and Bonavista Energy.

The PSAC Education Fund has established new awards for full-time NLC students enrolled in studies in heavy duty mechanic programs at Dawson Creek and Fort St. John and the welding program at the Dawson Creek campus.

There will be four awards of $1500 each this year.

“Two awards are going to be presented to students in the September intake,” explained Donna Kane, Executive Director of the Northern Lights College Foundation. “So, those students coming in this fall. And it’s not an entrance award. It’s an award that is given out at the end of their program. Or toward the end. So, the application deadline for the fall students is December 15. And then the other intake is February, 2012. And for that, the deadline will be May 30. So, two awards for the fall intake and then two awards for next February.”

PSAC President Mark Salkeld admitted a personal interest in creating these scholarships. As a former resident of Fort St. John, he has lived in the region where students will be benefiting from the awards and understands the needs of the oil and gas industry in that area.

“Because it’s up in an area that we’re

busy,” he said, explaining the introduction of the new funding for NLC students. “It’s in the north. And there’s lots of activity going on up in that region. And lots of talent.

I used to live in Fort St. John,” he added.

“I mean, it isn’t about me, but I know the area really well. And I think there’s lots of talent up there that could benefit from it.

And the industry can benefit up there in northeastern B.C. without a doubt.”

Salkeld is also a licensed heavy duty mechanic. “That’s how I started off,” he said. “And I know the value of the apprenticeship and I know the value of having that kind of talent in that part of the province.”

The oil and gas service sector is certainly experiencing a labour shortage, which includes the trades the scholarship winners will be studying.

“That’s kind of general across the board,” Salkeld noted.

PSAC chose the programs to which the scholarships will be applied.

“They’re targeting programs that are not oil and gas field operations [or] power generation,” Kane remarked. “I think they wanted to target some areas where perhaps there wasn’t as much support.

“Those trades are still involved in the petroleum industry. So, I think they wanted to identify four different areas where they saw a need. And those are the ones that they eventually chose.”

“It’s great for the students,” she added.

“A lot of these trades programs are very expensive and so any kind of financial assistance they can get is, of course, hugely beneficial. And even though this is given after they’re already registered, it definitely, knowing that there are these awards available, I think it’s incentive to come into the program and to hang in there and do their best, because they

know they could get some funds at the end. And it’s good for the donor as well.

They get to support the students that will eventually become, perhaps, their employees.”

Kane agreed with Salkeld’s assertion that the new scholarships encourage enrollment at NLC and add credibility to the programs the college offers.

“A student that comes to our program,” she said, “if they know that the college has sort of a working relationship with the actual employers, I think that does lend credibility to our program. They say, ‘Well, okay, this company obviously believes in this program and they are out there looking for [employees]. So, the chances of me taking this program and getting a job are better.’”

Kane is also hopeful that these awards can help persuade young people to pursue a trade rather than follow the lure of the almighty dollar into the oil patch right out of high school.

“One of the things that can happen,” she said, “is you can come straight out of high school – maybe not even high school – and get a great job. And do very well up to a certain point. But then maybe you want a promotion. And they’ll see that you don’t actually have accreditation in that program. You don’t have your fourth class power engineering, for example.

“And that can limit you. And maybe by the end you’ve got a family and a mortgage, and the idea of going back to school at that point is far more inhibiting than if they had just done it right away.”

PSAC raises the money for their Education Fund through an annual golf tournament in July in Edmonton.

“This thing sold out in about two days,” Salkeld said of the tournament. “It’s just

really, really well respected in industry.

And it’s just a good indication of how much industry supports this initiative.”

Recipients of these awards will be selected based on their career plans, as well as their knowledge and interest concerning careers in the oil and gas industry.

“We’re looking for people that are seriously interested in the … petroleum services industry,” said Salkeld. “And we’re looking for them that are going for careers that can support it. I mean, I know welders and mechanics can go outside the industry, but they’re coming from an area that has a strong industry presence.”

“We’re looking to just kind of build up that whole skilled labour set in the industry,” he added.

PSAC has also introduced another new scholarship in honour of past PSAC president Roger Soucy this year.

Sponsored by KPMG, the Roger Soucy Legacy Scholarship will provide $2500 per year over the next five years.

Another new scholarship at NLC this year is the $500 Bonavista Energy Corporation Entrance Award, which will be presented to a full-time student in the Oil and Gas Field Operations program who demonstrates financial need.

“It definitely attracts students,” Kane said of this sort of entrance scholarship. “From a recruiting point of view, the entrance awards are very important, because a student might decide to take it here because they know they might get an entrance award.”

“The [Northern Lights College] Foundation exists because of the donations that we receive and our ability to help students that are obviously dependent on this kind of support,” she concluded. •

North Peace Secondary School - Scholarships & Bursaries Spectra Energy Endowment Fund for Northern Opportunities Terissa Folk Lisa Illenseer Presleih L’Heureux Alec McBeth Tiffany Meroniuk Jessica Steiner F.S.J. Petroleum Association Bursary Telia McLeod Kyle Carlstrom CCS Continuing Education Scholarship Chantal Jonsson Northern Lights College Foundation Award of Excellence Julia Roe ryan lux photo

Chevron International REACH Scholarship Phyllis Nwabor Fort St. John Oil Wives Club Scholarship Ashton Thomson BonaVista Petroleum Award Pamela Barr Ty Cusack Suncor Energy Science Award Martin Palibroda Spectra Energy Scholarship Xanth Reier EnCana High School Educational Bursary Kyle Carlstrom

30 • PIPELINE NEWS NORTH I

July 2011

careers & trades FREE DELIVERY

31431

2006 Ford XLT F-550 4X4 Pressure Truck Wabash TC 406 steel tank, 4,2M 3 capacity 6000 PSI pressure pump, KERR model 3250KM 4” T+E product pump, Titan Guages, Diesel, 6 spd trans,

Certified Tank ready for work $69,000 Call Toll Free 1-866-474-7285

Pipeline & Facility Construction Workers If you’re a results-oriented individual looking to work in an organization that promotes controlled growth in all areas of operation and continually search for new innovations and creative solutions, then we are looking for you.

Facility Division • • • • • • • • • •

GAS LINK INDUSTRIES LTD.

Facility & Pipeline Construction Company Requires

PROJECT MANAGER • • • • • •

Minimum of 5 years experience in Oil & Gas Industry Extensive knowledge of Bidding Facility & Pipeline projects Excellent Organization & Time Management skills & the ability to effectively communicate with people both orally and written Solid Background in Project Management, QA/QC, Job Costing etc.

Valid Class 5 Drivers License, H2S, Whmis, and First Aid Familiar with Windows XP, Microsoft Office, Outlook & Projects

If you are interested in being a part of an Aggressive Facility/Pipeline Construction Company, that offers Competitive Wages, Company Transportation, and Full Benefit Package, please fax or email resume to:

GAS LINK INDUSTRIES LTD. 250-785-9586 or sgordon.gaslink@gmail.com

Pipeline Division

Superintendent Foreman Lead Hand Pipefitters (sub, employee, by hand) Pipefitter & Welders Helpers Journeyman Crane Operators Journeyman Scaffold Erectors Rig Welders Welders by hand Welders Helpers

• • • • • • •

Superintendent Foreman Lead Hand Operators Labourers Hoe & Dozer Operators Tool Truck Operators

Missing out on the Pipeline?

Get every issue mailed to your door for only

$

Applicant requirements: • • • • • • • •

31512

NOW HIRING

33558

Evergreen Energy, A Partnership is a progressive pipeline and facility construction company with a strong commitment to providing a safe, high quality, “total service” package to our clients. Evergreen is moving into larger project work and is seeking seasoned professionals to join our “Team”.

Self motivated Willing to work flexible hours Current abstract Safety focused Team oriented First Aid & H2S Certification Industry certification relevant to position Superintendent, Foreman, Lead hand, Operators Level II Ground Disturbance (Global)

Evergreen Energy, A Partnership offers competitive wages.

Submit Resume in confidence to: brenda@evergreen-energy.com Or Fax: (780) 538-9618

We thank all applicants, however, only those considered for the position will be contacted.

No phone calls, please.

Visit our Website at: www.evergreen-energy.com

To book your careers display ad contact a sales rep today!

• Tom Kirschner 250-625-2717 • Ryan Wallace 250-785-5631 • Dan Pryzbylski 250-782-4888 Ad cost based on a line rate of .99 cents/line

60

/year

Bang for the buck - cont’d cont’d from pg 7 “It’s kind of remote country,” he added, speaking of Horn River. “It’s not what you’d call burdened with city life.

And so it’s probably better from that perspective.”

Sagidova also determined that the low cost of construction in Horn River is also largely due to who is doing the construction.

“TransCanada is a very experienced builder of pipelines,” said Gwozd.

“They do that for a living. Their stomping ground is the Horn River area.” “[Sagidova] looked at TransCanada,” said Gwozd. “And they were going to spend around $310 million for a 96 mile, 36 inch diameter pipeline. ...

So, it’s around $90,000 per inch-mile.

And that would come in at the low end of the overall average for North America. In fact, Canada, for the couple projects we looked at, was a little over $100,000 [per inch-mile]. So, Horn River’s probably at the low end overall.”

Another interesting item mentioned

by Gwozd is that natural gas liquids (NGL) projects also had a lower average cost than dry gas projects. They were probably about half of the overall cost of the gas pipelines,” he said.

“Even a third. So, the liquid pipe projects were much lower in cost.”

“Some of them were smaller,” he continued, explaining the difference.

“And they’re moving volume. And it’s usually just pipe with pump stations.

[Gas] pipelines quite often [have] compressor stations, which are large and expensive. So, liquid pipes are a little simpler.”

Gwozd expects that this new report will have about 1000 subscribers ranging from pipeline developers to steel manufacturers. He explained that this average cost estimate of $200,000 per inch-mile allows developers to do “back of the envelope calculations” for the cost of a new pipeline and the toll they will eventually charge its users.

“You can very quickly find an order of magnitude tariff just during your lunch hour, without even having any analyst beside you,” he added. “And you’re probably within twenty-five per cent accuracy, because you start off with a solid cost estimate for the pipeline.”

“If you’re a steel manufacturer and you want to know how many more pipes are going to be built,” Gwozd continued, describing another application. “As costs rise, maybe less pipes are going to be built, because it’s going to cost more and more to transport.

So, that could put downward pressure on the pipeline sector and maybe more focus to drill wells. They may convert their steel to tubular goods versus pipeline goods. So, it gives people the market size.” •

July 2011 I pipeline news north •

publication schedule

Full Page 6 col x 206 ag (9.88” x 14.71”)

Quarter Page vertical only 3 col x 102 ag (4.86” x 7.28”)

Half Page horizontal 6 col x 102 ag (9.88” x 7.28”)

Half Page vertical 3 col x 206 ag (4.86” x 14.71”)

“Pipeliner” 2 col x 32 ag (3.18” x 2.28”)

advertising rates (colour included)

Back Page - $1500 Inside Back - $1500 Inside Front - $1500 Centre Spread - $3000 Full Page - $1200 Half Page - $750 Quarter Page - $450 Front Banner - $500 (limited Banner number) - $400 Half Banner - $275 Pipeliner - $100 Discounts: 1 yr - 25% 6 mths - 15%, 3 mths - 10%

31

32 • PIPELINE NEWS NORTH I

July 2011

#1 PRODUCT #1 SERVICE #1 AFTER SALES SERVICE

Come in and see why we are the fastest growing full line dealership in the Peace Country #11117

#11144

4WD Air cond.

35818$

LEASE $ FOR

+ TAXES & FEES FOR 60 MONTHS 2,500 down

2011 Tacoma

$3500 Cash Discount

31551$

LEASE $ FOR

+ TAXES & FEES FOR 60 MONTHS 2,500 down

2011 Camry

#1115

#11100

2.5 litre 4 Cylinder FWD

LEASE FOR

32649$

$

+ TAXES & FEES FOR 60 MONTHS 2,000 down

2011 RAV 4

44000$

LEASE $ FOR 3.5 litre 6 Cylinder FWD

+ TAXES & FEES FOR 60 MONTHS 500 down

2011 SIENNA #11137

SAVE OVER

7,500

$ Demo Model

2011 Sequoia

Trevor Haney

Call Trevor To Get Pre-approved Today 1.800.663.3895

LEASE FOR Limited Ed. Nav. Pkg. 4.0 litre

57536$

$

+ TAXES & FEES FOR 60 MONTHS 3,000 down

2011 4Runner

FEATURING THE PEACE COUNTRY’S BEST SELECTION OF PRE-OWNED VEHICLES

@ www.peacecountrytoyota.ca

Part workhorse. Part amusement park.

2011 Tacoma www.peacecountrytoyota.ca www.peacecountrytoyota.ca

801 - 118th Ave Dawson Creek, BC

Mon to Fri 8am - 6pm Sat 9am - 5pm

1-800-663-3895 250-782-6614

“Incentives will be deducted from the negotiated price after taxes and for some models all or a specified portion of the incentives cannot be combined with special lease and finance offers (i.e. is “noncombinable”). Quantities of certain vehicles are limited and dealer trade may be required. Dealer trade availability may also be limited and will very by model. Offers subject to change;cancellation without notice. Offers valid on retail delivery of select new 2011 unregistered Toyota vehicles when purchased/financed/leased, registered and delivered by May 31, 2011. For all available incentives and rates on 2010 and 2011 Toyotas, contact your dealer today.

Doug Peters

Trevor Haney

General Sales Manager

Business Manager

Adam Hayward

Product Advisor • Internet Sales • Finance Advisor

Jay Luu

Dion Girard

Product Advisor

Product Advisor