Pipeline News North

h t r No

Northern British Columbia and Alberta's Oil and Gas Industry Vol. 1 Issue 10 • dist: 20,325

october 28 • 2011

• Free

in this issue: looking local - bc based business • getting gas - bc gov’t commits to lng • going underground - co2 fibre optics •

seismic in motion program - Photo by Barbara Goulet.

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2 • PIPELINE NEWS NORTH I October 2011

October 2011 I pipeline news north •

community

3

O&G history

- OGC Resource Centre opens james waterman Pipeline News North

The reopening of the BC Oil and Gas Commission’s newly renovated Dawson Creek office also featured the grand opening of their new resource centre on Thursday, October 13.

The display, located in the lobby of the Commission office and open to the public, includes a wealth of information about the history of oil and gas exploration in the South Peace region, the geology of rock formations where these resources are found, and drilling and hydraulic fracturing operations.

The First Nations of the region are also a prominent part of the display. A collection of traditional-use plants from the Prophet River First Nation and a video discussing the historical relationship between First Nations and the energy sector greet visitors as soon as they enter the door. The star of that video is May Apsassin, an elder from the Blueberry First Nation, who led the grand opening ceremony with a blessing that stressed the need for all the people of Northeast British Columbia to work together throughout the development of its natural gas resources.

“That’s really important, I think,” said Dawson Creek Mayor Mike Bernier, discussing the participation of local First Nations communities in developing the resource

BC Oil and Gas Commission COO Paul Jeakins (left), Peace River South MLA Blair Lekstrom (centre) and Dawson Creek Mayor Mike Bernier discuss the oil and gas industry during the grand opening of the Commission’s new resource centre in Dawson Creek on Thursday, October 13.

James Waterman photo.

centre and the fact that a great deal of oil and gas exploration occurs within Treaty 8 First Nations territory.

“When you look back at the South Peace, really, the explorers that came into the South Peace have not been here for that long in the grand scheme of things. And the First Nations have played such an important role in building this area.”

The resource centre was about a year and a half in the making.

“We were four months or so in the planning stages and then a year to bring it to fruition,” said Paul Jeakins, Chief Operating Officer at the Commission.

He noted that it is the first resource centre of its kind to be built by the Commission, but similar facilities may be in the works depending on the response to this one in Dawson Creek. Fort St. John is certainly a possibility, but Jeakins also suggested that a resource centre could be a good idea for Victoria or Vancouver.

“I think there’s an opportunity to share more with people of the province as to where all this economic activity occurs,” he said. continued pg 11 Blueberry First Nation elder May Apsassin perusing the display at the BC Oil and Gas Commission’s new resource centre in Dawson Creek. Apsassin also delivered a blessing during the grand opening.

James Waterman photo 28231

4 • PIPELINE NEWS NORTH I October 2011 special feature 12 Looking local - BC based

business certificate 18 Section 8 - a new government

directive

community 3

6

20

25

industry news

enbridge

– Cabin gas plant purchased

O&G history - OGC resource centre opens Pullin’ on the ol’ firetruck helping United Way SPCA - Devon lends a helping hand Doggone - Fort Nelson’s fun run

industry news

4 Enbridge - Cabin gas plant

purchased 5 Getting gas - BC gov’t

commits to LNG 14 Comparing notes - shale

gas water conference 15 Guiding principles - new

protocol for fracturing 20 Energy expo - upside,

downside 24 Show & tell - Process &

Automation trade show

environment 19

28

Soil solutions bioengineering that slope Caribou! - problem, plan & implementation

careers & training 16 NLC courses for Nov-Dec 22 In the field - Seismic in

Motion 23 Grads wanted - CCIS

training program

technology 8

9

Going underground C02 fibre optics Freeze! - WatchDOG is on the job

profiles 26 Plug it! - Integrity Plugz’

innovative solution

james waterman Pipeline News North

Enbridge has taken its first step into the Canadian midstream business by acquiring a majority stake in the Cabin natural gas processing plant in the Horn River Basin north of Fort Nelson.

The transaction, which was announced on Friday, October 7, saw Enbridge obtain a 57.6 per cent interest in the first two phases of the development from Encana, who initiated construction of the facility with plans to eventually sell their share. The deal is worth about $220 million. It should be completed in December, 2011.

Enbridge already has a strong presence in the midstream business in the United States, but this is their first foray into that sector in Canada.

“Given the fundamentals are so strong in Western Canada now, in the gas business and in the NGL (natural gas liquids) business, we thought it was an ideal time to enter the business in the way we did,” said Al Monaco, President of Gas Pipelines, Green Energy and International for Enbridge. “And this is a pretty good first step.”

It may also be good timing.

On September 19, British Columbia Premier Christy Clark announced her government’s commitment to building the liquefied natural gas (LNG) industry in the province. Ziff Energy Group released a report in late August stating that natural gas demand for oil sands operations is expected to grow considerably over the next decade.

Cabin could be central to both applications for Horn River gas.

“The plant itself is critical to ensuring that ... the Horn River Basin reserves are monetized,” said Monaco.

The first phase of the plant, which is seventy per cent complete at the time of the transaction, will be processing up to 400 million cubic feet (mmcf) of gas by the third quarter of 2012. Phase two should double that capacity.

At that point, Enbridge’s investment will total approxi-

mately $900 million.

“It’s a very good source of gas for both purposes,” said Monaco, referring to the LNG industry and oil sands demand for natural gas.

“Exporting gas to Asia, ultimately,” he continued, discussing LNG specifically. “We think that’s likely going to be after 2015, but it makes a lot of sense as a source of supply for exporting gas off the West Coast.”

Monaco considers Cabin a good way for Enbridge to get in on the ground floor.

“Certainly, being involved in Northeast B.C. gets us in on what will be ... the growing part of western Canadian production,” he said. “This is where it’s at for many years to come. So, I think it’s a good ground floor opportunity.

Ultimately, the objective would be to participate in the LNG infrastructure. So, that could mean the pipelining and perhaps the LNG facility itself on the coast.”

However, Monaco doesn’t see this deal as Enbridge hedging their bets with LNG – considering all the obstacles still facing their proposed Northern Gateway pipeline, which would transport Alberta oil to the coast for export to Asia if approved.

“I think we are equally keen on both,” he said. “They’re not mutually exclusive at all in our view. We think the Gateway project is very solid. And so we’re really not looking at it as a hedge.”

Enbridge is also enthusiastic about oil sands demand for natural gas if oil prices remain high and oil sands developments continue to grow.

“I would say that, from our perspective, we’re very bullish on the gas story in Western Canada,” said Monaco.

“And if you look at where that growth is going to come from, certainly it’s Northeast B.C.” Additionally, Monaco remarked that shale gas is bringing a new level of stability to the industry simply because of its abundance.

“Historically, users of natural gas in North America have been concerned about the volatility of price,” he explained. “But with the advent of shales and the surplus continued pg 5

October 2011

pipeline news north •

5

cont’d from pg 4 of supply, that provides good stability for gas users going forward.”

Enbridge has been interested in acquiring a share in Cabin for about a year.

“For us, this really fit well because ... we’ve got a lot of experience in the United States in this kind of business,” said Monaco. “We have 25 plants that we operate ... in the Texas area. And so this allows us to take that experience and apply it to something that we’re looking to move into in Canada. So, from that perspective, it’s good.

“The other part of it, which is probably just as important, is that we’ve always focused on trying to make the Western Canadian Sedimentary Basin more competitive with other basins. We’ve done a great job of that on the oil side with the oil sands infrastructure that we bring to bear. But we’re able to do this now, as well, by bringing our low cost of capital to bear on something like this.

“And producers are very focused nowadays on making sure they have the lowest cost. Because the Northeast B.C. area is very remote. So, in order to become competitive with other basins, producers are looking for low cost infrastructure, which is something we think we can bring to the table.”

“The nice thing about this investment is it does come with what I like to call ‘embedded’ growth,” he continued, noting that Enbridge is open to acquiring a larger stake in the facility. “So, if there is the need to expand the facility in the future, phases three to six, then we’ll have an opportunity to do that as well. That’s A construction crew preparing a site north of Fort Nelson for the Cabin gas processing plant. Encana initiated construction of the plant, but what’s quite attractive about this.” • Enbridge will assume control of their majority share this December, coinciding with the completion of the first phase of the facility.

Photo courtesy of Encana.

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6 • PIPELINE NEWS NORTH I

October 2011

community pullin’ on the h t r No ol’ firetruck

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- helping United Way

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The team from Acklands Grainger straining to pull a fire truck fifty feet during the United Way Annual Fire Truck Pull on Saturday, September 24.

James Waterman photo

james waterman Pipeline News North

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The idea of a community pulling together was given a whole new meaning on Saturday morning as Fort St. John residents exercised their muscles and their goodwill for a worthy cause.

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The inaugural United Way Annual Fire Truck Pull, which was held at the Pomeroy Sports Centre on Saturday, September 24, had six teams from local businesses and organizations compete to see who could pull a fire truck a distance of fifty feet in the shortest time and who could raise the most money as part of the United Way’s Days of Caring Campaign.

The event raised $6094.91 for only a few moments of strenuous labour on the part of those participating.

“This was so successful,” said Niki Hedges, Community Development and Campaign Officer with the United Way. “Just thrilled with how many people turned out.

And lots of families were with us today. And lots of fun costumes. And even some of the children joined in the spirit of it. It was great.

“It actually exceeded what I thought we would raise,” she added.

As Hedges explained, the money raised will go back into the community to support not-for-profit organizations that need that funding the most.

“United Way identifies where the service gaps are and where the critical need is,” she said.

The idea originated in Prince George, where they kick-off their Days of Caring Campaign with a fire truck pull.

“And so they asked if I would organize it up here as well,” said Hedges.

The six teams included the Fort St. John Department, who also donated their time and resources to make the event possible, and their rivals from the RCMP. “Seeing the RCMP and the firefighters here, it actually creates that competitive spirit that really pushes us to do what we can,” said Rej Tetrault, the new Operations Manager with Shell Canada in Fort St. John.

Shell also had a team in the contest, along with industrial and safety supply company Acklands Grainger, the BC Oil and Gas Commission, and the Fort St. John and District Chamber of Commerce.

The RCMP won the award for the fastest time while the Commission won the Most Spirited Team Award for dressing up as a band of oil and gas superheroes.

Joey-Lynn “Rigwoman” Anderson and Kris “Incident Girl” Hickman remarked that they and their colleagues at the Commission simply wanted to have some fun, show their community spirit, and help out a good cause.

The award for raising the most money went to Shell, who brought in about $2600.

“As of last week, it was about $1600,” said Tetrault.

“And so we had a tremendous pouring of money that came in the last little bit. Of course, we’ve got the competitive spirit there. But at the end of the day, I think everyone knows the money goes to the community, and that’s really important for all of us.” continued pg 7

October 2011 I pipeline news north •

7

LEFT: The Fort St. John contingent from Shell Canada led the way by bringing in about $2600 of the over $6000 raised through the first United Way Annual Fire Truck Pull at the Pomeroy Sports Centre.

BELOW: The BC Oil and Gas Commission superheroes accepting their Most Spirited Team Award after all the heavy lifting – or pulling – was over.

James Waterman photos

cont’d from pg 6 “This is the way that I’m used to seeing things done in terms of our participation in the United Way,” he continued. “A lot of our folks actually organized this, without even thinking, without even planning. So, for instance, the pancake breakfast, they came up with that idea on their own on Thursday. So, let’s be there, let’s be present, and help people out. And I think we raised about $400 from the pancake breakfast alone.”

Tetrault has only been in Fort St. John for a month since assuming his new position with Shell. So, the event was also a good opportunity for his family to get to know his new coworkers and this community where the oil and gas industry plays such a significant role. However, he would like to see his team improve on their performance next year.

“We’re in it next year,” he said. “We’re in it to win it. We really will be. … I think we’ve got some work to do on the spirit. Maybe seeing what the [Commission] did in terms of getting dressed up, we’re going to take first place next year.”

“Dry land training,” Tetrault joked when asked how his team was going to compete for the fastest time next year.

“For us,” he continued, assuming a serious tone again, “it’s back to the United Way. Improving our performance is, so, if we raised $2600 this year for this event, then we’ll look to double that next year.”

Ultimately, Hedges was just thrilled to see local businesses and organizations team up in this manner to help the United Way. She was as particularly appreciative of the contributions of Shell and the Fort St. John Fire Department.

“It just shows the spirit of the community of Fort St. John,” said Hedges. “And it also brings together the corporations and groups.

And it’s the fun of doing this. Again, the whole symbolism of a community pulling together is just so good.” •

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8 • PIPELINE NEWS NORTH I

October 2011

technology going underground - CO2 fibre optics james waterman Pipeline News North

As interest in carbon capture and storage (CCS) as a solution to the problem of industrial greenhouse gas emissions continues to grow, so do public concerns about what actually happens to the carbon dioxide (CO2) underground.

That is why a group of scientists and engineers from across Canada are joining forces on a three-year project to develop and test a system of monitoring CO2 after injection. Peter Wild, an engineering professor at the University of Victoria whose area of expertise is fibre optic sensors and instrumentation, is leading the project.

“Over the past ten years, my lab has developed sensors for both medical and industrial applications, with recent emphasis on fibre optic sensors,” said Wild, noting that CO2 monitoring is a new application for that technology.

“The particular technology that we plan to use is the in-fibre Bragg grating,” he continued. “This technology was originally developed for use in telecommunications, but has been adapted for many sensing

applications, including structural health monitoring of aircraft and civil structures [and] down-hole temperature sensing.”

The rest of the team consists of Martin Jun from the University of Victoria, David Sinton from the University of Toronto, David Risk from St. Francis Xavier University, and Don Lawton, a geophysicist from the University of Calgary.

“I’m the team lead of what’s called Secure Carbon Storage for Carbon Management Canada (CMC), which is this network of centers of excellence,” said Lawton.

CMC was central to this project getting off the ground, as the study is supported by a $983,576 CMC grant. The funding comes from a competition that provided 18 projects from across Canada – and ranging from carbon capture technology to social policy – with a total of $10 million. “[The] project goal is to develop a system, comprised of a distributed array of fibre optic sensors, to monitor leakage that may occur from geologic sequestration sites,” explained Wild.“If we are successful,” he added, “then this technology could be one of the strategies used to assess the safety of CCS.” Safety appears to be the key issue when it comes to public perception of CCS. “We’re doing a lot on risk assessment,” said Lawton. continued pg 9

This is a demonstration and extreme weather test of instruments developed by Dave Risk’s Flux Lab at St. Francis Xavier University in Nova Scotia. The instruments are used for measuring CO2 emissions from soils even in the dead of the winter. This carbon capture and storage project, known as Aquistore, is being developed by the Petroleum Technology Research Centre. Risk and his lab will be doing similar work as part of a new project to develop and test a fibre optic monitoring system to determine movement of CO2 that has been sequestered underground.

Photo courtesy of Dave Risk

October 2011 I pipeline news north •

9

freeze!

- WatchDOG is on the job james waterman Pipeline News North

It is an age-old problem for shallow gas wells in northern Canada – lost production during the winter due to freezing gas wells.

As explained by Len Johnson, President of Advanced Flow Technologies, the trouble with shallow gas wells is that they don’t produce a lot of gas or generate a lot of revenue, but they do contain a lot of water that freezes at low temperatures. The result is a serious production problem that hasn’t had a cost effective solution.

“Typical instrumentation on a gas well could cost $8000 or $10,000 a well,” said Johnson.

Johnson also noted that although lost production per well due to freezing is fairly small, it does add up to considerable losses over the extent of a com-

cont’d from pg 8 “And a lot of the monitor technologies that we’re developing have to do with risk reduction for CCS projects.”

“And really,” he continued, “people have overblown the concerns about public health related to CCS. The chances of a catastrophic release of CO2 is essentially zero, because the CO2 won’t come out of the rocks into which it is injected that quickly. So, what we’re really trying to mitigate is slow leaks over time. If the CO2 migrates out of where it’s stored and back into the atmosphere, then it’s defeated the purpose of putting it there in the first place.

The concern from the public is: will small amounts come up and acidify groundwater and stuff like that?”

Ultimately, those involved with CCS don’t want to see any CO2 leaks, but Lawton is confident that any leaks will be small. “The flow rates would be small,” he said. “And we choose sites where we do it so that there’s a good seal above it. We look for rocks that have high … porosity and permeability. … Lots of holes in them and those holes are connected. So, you can inject CO2 into them. And we’re talking about millions of tonnes a year. And then, because CO2 is less dense than water, it wants to rise.”

So, the site needs a geological seal that stops it from rising. º“The leakage through the geology is going to be very

pany’s operations.

“We estimate [that] a guy who has 1000 wells will typically lose a million dollars a year in production,” he said. “So, it adds up. It’s not a lot per well, but it adds up. And then they have a lot of variable costs in the winter that they experience.

Because when they start seeing their production drop, they send guys out to the wells with methanol. And methanol’s expensive. So, there are a lot of additional costs just besides the lost production.”

Without instrumentation to inform the producers which wells were freezing, every well would simply be treated with methanol, which would require considerable methanol, time and manpower.

“They don’t really know what’s going on,” said Johnson, referring to companies with wells that lack expensive instrumentation equipment. So, we’ve developed a low cost device that measures the temperature of the gas and will allow us, to some degree at least, to predict which wells are in danger of freezing.” continued pg 22

small,” Lawton reiterated. “The most likely leakage pathways will be old wells that penetrate those units and the cement’s degraded over decades. … So, those sorts of wells have to be both remediated and monitored to ensure that they don’t become leakage pathways up into the surface or atmosphere.”

“We want to detect it early and do mitigation strategies to stop it from being a concern to the public,” he concluded.

Dave Risk, who runs the Flux Lab at St. Francis Xavier University, is poised to play a significant role in that endeavor, but not as much with the development of the monitoring system as with implementing the system and testing its ability.

“We undertake surface monitoring projects for carbon capture and storage, and develop different technologies and approaches for monitoring those sites,” he said of the work done by his Flux Lab. “We sit definitely on the backend of the project a little bit, more as the applications scientists,” he continued. “So, the others who are involved in the project, they have … all of the direct expertise, with the fibre optics, for example. But we have a lot of experience with CO2 measurement and environmental applications. And so [we] can help them along with their testing. And then we’ll help them basically get it outside and get it working in the real world.”

Risk agrees with Lawton’s assessment that monitoring projects are going to be cru-

cial to gaining public acceptance for CCS. “It’s been written even by the federal government, in one of their CCS reports, that development of really good monitoring strategies is one of the best ways to accelerate the acceptance and palatability of CCS,” he said. “And so this is certainly part of that. I know that, having been involved with quite a few CCS sites in Canada now, I’m aware that everyone’s grappling for really good measurement and monitoring technologies that are relatively cost effective. And one of the biggest problems is being able to be applied over a large area or through the subsurface, not just at one point.”

“Really the distributed sensing is the most important thing, where we’re not only taking a measurement at one point with the fiber optic cable, but we can have a cable that’s up to kilometres long and have many sensing nodes along its length,” Risk continued. “And those sensing nodes are basically inactive and don’t require power until we flash the light down the fibre to actually take the measurement.

So, there isn’t the need for little nodes of power at all these sensing nodes. And so I think being able to make those distributed measurements either horizontally across the surface or vertically down through boreholes gives us the sort of resolution and certainty that we didn’t have before.”

The engineers and scientists involved emphasize that the collaborative approach

of the project will be key to its success.

“It’s the only way to gather the range of expertise that this project demands,” said Wild. It certainly is one of the best models of a collaborative approach, in that we have a team that’s spread pretty much equally from Victoria through to here, where we are, in eastern Nova Scotia,” said Risk.

“It’s probably one of Carbon Management Canada’s more distributed projects as well. And it’s the way we’ve got to get things done. It’s a difficult multi-disciplinary problem where some of the fibre optics guys in the project have their expertise coming from different areas – from biomedical or other engineering areas. And then we have to couple that with some outdoor environment expertise. And Don Lawton at the University of Calgary, he has geological and borehole expertise. So, we really need to put all those together.

“This work will involve aspects of fluid mechanics, chemistry, optics and petroleum engineering,” added Wild. “ To deal with the complexity that arises from this mix of disciplines, a team approach is needed. Wild is excited by the challenge of the project too.

“As an engineer,” he said, “this project presents and intriguing design challenge.

It also gives me an opportunity to learn more about carbon sequestration and the role that it may be able to play in dealing with CO2 emissions.” •

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10 • PIPELINE NEWS NORTH I

October 2011

industry news

getting gas

-BC government commits to LNG

Premier Christy Clark, Jobs, Tourism and Innovation Minister Pat Bell and Minister of Aboriginal Relations and Reconciliation Mary Polak met with the Haisla First Nation to discuss Kitimat’s Liquid Natural Gas plant.The BC Government is working with the Haisla First Nation to get Kitimat’s LGN plant operational by 2015.

Photo courtesy of Gov’t of British Columbia

james waterman Pipeline News North

Energy sector plans to export liquefied natural gas (LNG) from British Columbia to markets in Asia were given a boost this September courtesy of the provincial government.

On Monday, September 19, as a prelude to the release of the province’s new “Canada Starts Here: The BC Jobs Plan” that was officially launched on Thursday, September 22, B.C. Premier Christy Clark met with members of the Kitimat community, including representatives of the Haisla First Nation, to announce her government’s commitment to building the LNG industry in B.C. The site of the announcement was significant, as was the audience. Kitimat would be the site of the LNG export terminal that has been proposed by Apache Canada, EOG Resources and Encana. The facility would sit on Haisla First Nation land.

“Creating a new industry with the capacity to export B.C.’s natural gas to overseas markets for the very first time will instantly increase economic prosperity and create jobs,” Clark said during her announcement. “By adopting a more aggressive approach to the development of the natural gas sector, I am confident British Columbia can create a prosperous LNG industry that will bring local jobs to our communities and deliver important dollars into our economy.”

“It’s definitely meaningful,” said Apache spokesperson Paul Wyke, addressing the site of the announcement, as well as its content. “And the B.C. government recognizes that partnerships and consultation and working with First Nations across the province is an integral part of these projects.”

“We’re very pleased with our partnership with the Haisla on the Kitimat project,” he added. “They’ve been a huge supporter from day one. And we’ve got a great relationship with them across the board on the Kitimat LNG project. And [we] are employing a good number of

people from their First Nation.”

Encouraging skills training and development is one of the four steps the government plans to take to build the LNG industry in the province, while the others are attracting investment in B.C.’s natural gas sector, marketing the region’s resources internationally, and accelerating the permitting process for natural gas industry projects.

“We are working on an assessment right now of what skills and training development will be required to help our resource sectors grow, including support for an LNG industry,” said a Ministry of Energy and Mines spokesperson in an email. “The Ministry of Energy and Mines is supporting the Ministry of Jobs, Tourism and Innovation in the development of a Labour Market Partnership that will facilitate new training and development needs in northern British Columbia, beginning with an assessment of the skills and training that will be required to help our resource sectors grow, including LNG industry requirements during both the construction and operations phases.”

The ministry spokesperson also noted that the provincial government participated in creating a single partnership of fifteen First Nations supporting the Pacific Trail Pipeline to connect Kitimat with natural gas plays in the northeast corner of the province. That partnership will receive $32 million from the province when certain construction milestones have been met.

“This money … will enable the First Nations to leverage equity participation in the project,” said the ministry spokesperson.

The “Canada Starts Here” plan also includes the creation of an Aboriginal Business and Investment Council.

“The council will enhance Aboriginal people’s capacity for economic participation, transcend traditional Aboriginal and industry silos in project planning and development, and provide investors with the tools they need to engage and partner with B.C. First Nations,” said the ministry spokesperson.

“The Province’s assistance is timely,” said Haisla Nation Chief Councillor Ellis Ross, in a B.C. government press release issued shortly after the announcement.

“Our own training capacity is limited by resources and capabilities, and these have been exhausted given the projects now underway on our territory and the demands they place on our people for skills and training.

Our economic future has never looked better, and this assistance will help us deliver on this promise to our community.”

Construction of the pipeline and the export terminal – both of which have already received environmental approvals – could mean 1500 person-years of employment, according to the provincial government. The terminal would then employ 120 to 140 workers when operational. Additionally, the LNG industry as a whole could keep producer companies and service providers operating in Northeast B.C. busy for years.

“Both [the Pacific Trail Pipeline] and Kitimat LNG will need skilled labour,” said Wyke. “And it’s a chance for a lot of young people entering those trades and that workforce to get involved.”

Clark emphasized during her announcement that the first step has to be speeding up the permitting process and improving decision-making when it comes to large projects like exporting LNG. “The province will provide almost $24 million to reduce the time it takes for businesses wanting to invest in natural resource development to get decisions on approvals and permits,” explained the Ministry of Energy and Mines spokesperson. “This will be done without compromising environmental values or the requirement to consult with First Nations.”

Obviously, the other two components of the government’s LNG plan – attracting investment and marketing the province’s natural gas resources abroad – are incredibly important considering present low gas prices and the massive natural gas supply in the northeast.

“We need to expand our customer base for our plentiful Canadian natural gas supplies and reserves,” said Wyke. “And Kitimat LNG is leading the way in being able to deliver a long-term, stable and secure supply to markets that are growing and where gas prices are continued pg 11

October I pipeline news north •

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cont’d from pg 10 closely linked to oil prices.”

The disparity between oil and gas prices isn’t as great in Asia as it is in North America.

“China’s overseas imports currently account for about eight per cent of its purchases of natural gas and that’s forecast to rise to around ten per cent in the next few years,” Wyke continued. “Japan and Korea combined to import 47 per cent of the world’s LNG in 2010 and that demand is also expected to grow in the next 10 [to] 20 years. These markets have a tremendous need to secure long-term contracts for a stable and secure source of LNG, and we’re experiencing great interest in the Kitimat LNG project from many potential Asia-Pacific customers.”

The good news continued for the Kitimat LNG partners, as they were able to announce on Thursday, October 13 that they have been granted a 20-year license by the National Energy Board (NEB) to export LNG from the west coast to international markets, the first license of its kind to be granted in Canada.

“Today marks a historic day for Canada’s natural gas industry and this is fantastic news for our project and the communities where we operate. Kitimat LNG will bring revenues and jobs and the associated benefits to Canada,” said Apache Canada President Tim Wall in a press release.

“The Kitimat LNG partners are very pleased with the NEB’s approval of our export license and we’d like to thank them for their support and confidence in the project.” •

Artist rendering of the proposed liquified natural gas (LNG) export terminal at Kitimat. image courtesy of Apache Canada

OGC centre opens - cont’d cont’d from pg 3 Ultimately, Bernier believes the new resource centre is going to play a vital role in helping the community better understand the oil and gas activity happening in their backyard.

“This is a great time for Dawson Creek and for the entire South Peace,” he said. “As we know, as we continue to grow in the natural gas industry in the area, the more fraccing taking place, the more drilling taking place, it’s a great opportunity for citizens of the area to be able to come in to a centre like this where they can have a lot of their concerns addressed and have the professionals that are on staff here be able to assist and answer those questions.”

Bernier singled out the cross-section of a well-casing as being one element of the display that can help address a significant public concern about natural gas extraction – the potential for contaminating drinking water during hydraulic fracturing operations.

“I think it will give some comfort to people,” added Peace River South MLA Blair Lekstrom, noting that the crosssection illustrates that the wellbores are quite well encased with steel pipe and cement, not to mention that the actual natural gas extraction is occurring thousands of metres below groundwater aquifers.

A video illustrating the drilling and fracturing process may also allay public fears.

Lekstrom remarked that he frequently has to field questions and concerns that people bring into his office. So, he is confident that the resource centre will be well utilized.

“I think it’s going to answer a lot of the questions people have,” he said.

“This, complemented by the Farmer’s Advocacy Office, it’s a great opportunity for, not only learning, but for people to get out and just express the concerns they have or get more information,” said Bernier.

“And to have it here in Dawson Creek is just a message that I like to see, that people understand that we are right now in the centre in the province of the oil and gas exploration. And companies and the provincial government and the [Commission] are recognizing that by putting investment into the community.”

“I think this has great potential for our students in our school system,” added Lekstrom.

The aspect of the display that really caught the eye of both Bernier and Lekstrom was how it situates present day industry activity in the history of oil and gas exploration in the province, which dates back to the early part of the nineteenth century in the South Peace.

“A lot of people feel that oil and gas exploration just started in our region,” said Bernier.

“It’s almost 100 years from the start to where we are now. Realistically, the last half a dozen years have been the real boom for the South Peace, but when you look at the North Peace, it’s been the norm up there for quite a few decades.”

“I learned some information today too,” he continued. “I had no idea that the first time somebody discovered gas was back in the first decades of the 1900s. That was quite surprising to hear.”

“It’s really interesting to see how it’s evolved over the last century.” •

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12 • PIPELINE NEWS NORTH I

October 2011

special feature

looking local

- BC Based Business Certificate

Art Jarvis, Executive Director South for Energy Services BC, spent a lot of time talking about the new BC Based Business Program during the Fort St. John Energy Expo held September 21-22. Shell Canada also announced their commitment to the new program during the event.

James Waterman Photo.

james waterman Pipeline News North

Energy Services BC (ESBC) took advantage of the 2011 BC Oil and Gas Conference (Sep. 7-9) in Fort Nelson to inform energy sector representatives, service sector companies, and community members about a new initiative they had launched in June.

The BC Based Certificate Program has been created to encourage oil and gas companies to work with contractors based locally in B.C. by providing those contractors with a means of proving they not only have offices and operations in the province, but even in specific regions of the province, such as Fort St. John or Fort Nelson.

“In the last few years, we’ve seen a lot of companies – producers – make commitments to hiring local companies,” said Brad Caldwell, President of Audit Tree, during the ESBC presentation at the conference.

Caldwell was previously involved with ESBC, but now lives and works in Calgary, which has provided him with a view of both ends of the equation – the petroleum companies and the service

sector companies. His company, an online corporate social responsibility audit platform, has partnered with ESBC on the BC Based Business Certificate project.

“What we need to create is a foundation to determine what a local business is,” he explained. “And there’s been a lot of different definitions from the B.C. government, from producers, and from different groups. One of the issues with the definition is, it still doesn’t give you a list of those contractors that are actually local.

“And one of the things that some of the producers experience is they did have a local list, a list of companies that had local addresses, but unfortunately they were finding that a lot of those companies weren’t actually local. They might have had a local post office box … but they weren’t actually contributing to the community.

“And so, even though producers had great local [procurement] programs in place, they weren’t really seeing the benefits, and neither was the community.

We really hope that the BC Based Business Certificate will help everyone with that process. So, we have more than a definition. We have qualification and a list of contractors.”

“A BC Based Business Certificate acknowledges people who have a location in B.C., employ B.C. residents, pays taxes in B.C., register and insure their ve-

hicles in B.C.. They’re contributing to the province and the community,” explained Art Jarvis, Executive Director South for ESBC. “BC Based doesn’t necessarily mean that that’s your head office. And it doesn’t mean that your family’s grown up here all their life and that’s what makes them BC Based. It means … they have a location here, they’re supporting the province and the community, and that’s what we’re trying to entice, is more companies to come in and build the infrastructure of smaller communities like Fort St. John, Fort Nelson, Chetwynd.”

The producers are already starting to take notice of the young program.

“Quicksilver is aware of the local communities’ interest in employment and recognizes its importance,” said Doreen Rempel, Community and Regulatory Affairs Manager at Quicksilver Resources Canada. “We seek out opportunities to hire locally and create win-win scenarios.

“Regarding the BC Based Certificate Program,” she continued, “we believe it is a very good concept, which seems to have good potential to facilitate hiring of actual local companies and for tracking [that].”

During the Fort St. John Energy Expo (September 21-22) co-sponsored by ESBC and the Canadian Association of Petroleum Producers (CAPP), Jarvis presented a letter given to him by Shell Canada just prior to the event, expressing their recognition of the new program and

their commitment to working with companies on the BC Based Certificate list.

“It basically is a letter that we can use for marketing,” said Jarvis. “And they will give [it] to all their contractors and ISNetworld. And they are stating that they are supporting Energy Services BC and they’re backing this BC Based Business Certificate program.”

“That’s a priority in their mind, is they want to hire local,” he added.

Jarvis also remarked that the letter is an important endorsement for the program and for ESBC generally.

“It will be huge,” he said. “It will enable us to increase our membership easier, because the more we can give our members, the more advantage we have of increasing that membership. Right now, the first question if you want to join any club or committee or anything, you want to know what will it do for me. This is something it’s going to do for them. It’s going to open the door for more employment. And as our membership grows, we’ll be able to lobby the government with real clout. We’ll have a big voice.”

About fifteen service sector companies had signed onto the program between its launch in June and the Fort St. John Energy Expo in September, but Jarvis believes Shell’s endorsement will encourage another wave of companies to get onboard. Caldwell also noted that earning continued pg 13

October 2011 I pipeline news north •

cont’d from pg 12

the certificate is a simple process which only involves answering ten questions in about fifteen minutes.

“The main part is to show evidence that you have a physical address in the region [in which] you applied for the certificate,” he said, remarking that involvement in the community is also important.

“It’s a simple qualification,” he continued, “but, at the same time, it really ensures that the companies that are being recognized as local are actually local and committed to the communities they work in.”

“And if you are an existing member of Energy Services BC, then it’s a free service that we provide,” added Jarvis. “If you’re not a member, the cost of completing the survey goes directly toward your membership fee.

So, you can become a member and it didn’t cost you anything more. And you will get that certificate to either post on your desk or your door.”

Essentially, Caldwell described the initiative as a twoway street where benefits flow both ways. Local service providers are given a greater opportunity to compete for contracts while oil and gas companies are more easily able to gain support for their projects by ensuring they are hiring local contractors and contributing to the local economy.

“The other thing is having a cost effective local service sector,” Caldwell said, citing reduced transportation costs as one of the benefits of local procurement for the energy sector.

“If you have a local company that’s an hour away from the project, it’s got to be a lot more cost effective than bringing in a service company that’s five or six hours away,” Caldwell continued. “And this is even more important with the shale plays. Heard a lot of people talk about the next forty years.

“That’s completely different than what we’ve experienced in the past with some of the conventional oil and gas activity. These are long term. I hear a lot of engineers in Calgary talking about this [being] more like a factory than oil and gas extraction in the past. So, I think it’s going to be even more important to have a strong local contractor base.”

The relationship between the oil and gas companies and the communities in Northeast B.C. hasn’t always been an easy one. Caldwell explained that northern communities like Fort Nelson used to have protectionist tendencies where they suggested they would like to surround the city with a fence to stop the invasion of out-of-province contractors. Additionally, oil company well site supervisors have traditionally been wary of using local contractors instead of contractors from Calgary with whom they have had longstanding relationships.

According to Caldwell, that environment has been changing.

“The contractors are confident,” he said. “They know they’re competitive, they know they have their safety programs in place, and what they really want is a chance to bid on the jobs.”

However, the big problem for communities like Fort Nelson has always been visibility in Calgary.

“The problem that Fort Nelson has is a greater problem than we have,” said Jarvis. “We have a similar problem, but they have a greater problem. They are busy right now. There’s a lot of production happening out there, and a lot of drilling and activity, but the majority of those people don’t actually see Fort Nelson.

They land at the airport. They get bussed out to the job.

When they’re in there for their two weeks, they can bus back to the airport, and they’re gone.

29329

“So, what, hopefully, this will entice will be businesses setting up branches in these local communities so that they have a reason to get certified. And once they have an investment such as a leased building or an owned building, then they’ll grow their employees organically, locally. And that’s our biggest problem in Fort St. John. We can’t grow our infrastructure. We can’t attract more retail stores. We can’t expand if the money is being taken out somewhere else.”

“We have to entice more people to come here and live to work in the industry,” he continued. “I mean, every industry needs people right now. Doesn’t matter what skilled trades you have, you can probably come up here and go to work within a week. What we need to do is entice people to rent, buy, whatever. But live here.”

13

we will be supporting the issues that they bring up.”

Caldwell did note that the smaller B.C. communities are starting to get more attention in Calgary.

“We’re seeing a lot of meetings between Calgary and Fort St. John, Calgary and Fort Nelson, Calgary and Dawson Creek,” he said. “And that’s a big difference from when I first got involved in the oil and gas industry fifteen years ago. And it’s definitely positive on both sides.”

There have also been concerns that contractors operating from a small community like Fort Nelson may not have the qualifications of a company from a larger centre, but Caldwell is confident those issues are being addressed with the help of ESBC. “If there are holes with the B.C. based contractors, either with qualification issues or even developing relation-

Audit Tree President Brad Caldwell speaking about the BC Based Business Certificate Program during an Energy Services BC presentation at the BC Oil and Gas Conference in Fort Nelson September 7-9. Audit Tree developed the program with Energy Services BC. James Waterman Photo.

As far as increasing visibility in Calgary, Jarvis believes that ESBC and BC Based Certificate Program membership are a perfect fit for First Nations owned and operated service sector companies.

“You don’t get any more local than that,” said Jarvis.

“There’s a huge benefit,” he continued, “because they don’t have to send their main man or their marketing man or their salesperson to Calgary and lobby for issues that they have. If they’re a member of Energy Services BC,

ships, that’s where Energy Services BC can come into place and actually help facilitate that,” he explained.

There has been strong political support for the initiative throughout Northeast B.C., including the endorsement of Minister of Transportation and Infrastructure Blair Lekstrom and Peace River North MLA Pat Pimm, but Jarvis remarked that there is still a lot of work to be done to get the word out to the service sector in the region.

“Especially to the non-members,” he said. •

14 • PIPELINE NEWS NORTH I

October 2011

industry news comparing notes - shale gas water conference

Representatives from government, regulators and the oil and gas industry gathered in Calgary on September 21-22 for the Shale Gas Water Management Conference. Topics of discussion ranged from sourcing and disposal of hydraulic fracturing fluids to efforts to reduce freshwater use in energy sector operations.

Photo courtesy of Encana.

james waterman Pipeline News North

Oil and gas industry water use experts representing the energy sector, environmental consultants, professional organizations, regulators and provincial governments met in Calgary on Sep. 21 and 22 to discuss water management issues relevant to shale gas extraction in Western Canada and other jurisdictions.

The Shale Gas Water Management Conference – organized by Canadian Business Conferences – included presentations and discussions on a wide array of topics ranging from the use of non-potable saline water for hydraulic fracturing and recycling fracturing fluids to technical work on items such as determining ideal water chemistries for use in shale gas production.

According to Shad Watts, Director of Community Consultation and Regulatory Affairs with Nexen and one of the speakers at the event, the purpose of the conference was simply to share ideas on how companies can meet their water needs.

“It was a worthwhile conference,” he said. “It was well attended. There was about 270 attendees. So, in terms of these Canadian Business Conferences, it was well attended. And it just shows you the importance that folks are placing on it.”

BC Oil and Gas Commission Hydrologist Allan Chapman attended the conference to discuss water sourcing and disposal from the perspective of the provincial oil and gas industry regulator.

“The conference organizer got in touch with one of the senior staff in the Commission and said they were organizing a conference on shale water and that they would like both the regulators from Alberta and B.C. to be at it,” Chapman explained.

“And so we talked about it. And it was agreed. And they asked if we would speak on the various regulations that effect water operations here. So, specifically, the sourcing of water and the disposal of water. And it was

our understanding that the Alberta regulator would also be speaking on the same topic. My understanding is that they wanted to present the regulatory framework for the participants at the conference.”

“We certainly don’t have the same regulations across Canada and across North America,” he continued, discussing the purpose of his presentations.

“When I looked at the conference participant list, they were definitely people from all over North America. And certainly our regulations, especially with respect to disposal, are quite different from elsewhere in that we don’t allow any disposal of fluids on the surface here.”

Chapman believes that isn’t the case in some other jurisdictions. He noted the majority of the feedback that he received on his presentations was relative to water disposal, not sourcing, as several companies had questions in areas such who they contact to obtain a disposal permit in B.C. “I always think it’s valuable for the regulator to attend and to present,” said Chapman. “I do think that we have a message, which is to be clear on what the regulations are specific to these different pieces of operation. And, I think, for water, there’s value in presenting the environmental protection part of the regulations.”

Chapman also discussed the value of the conference for industry companies.

“Sometimes individuals or companies can become sort of closed in,” he said. “They become inward looking at their own operations and they aren’t maybe as aware as they could be or should be of practices or operations that other companies are doing maybe elsewhere in B.C. or elsewhere in Canada or elsewhere in the world.”

“There were presentations from elsewhere in North America and a fellow from Australia and a guy presented on some stuff in Ireland,” he continued. “And where they’re dealing with the same topics we are here – how to source water, how to move water, how to dispose of it, how to monitor those kinds of things. And they do things differently.

“I think it’s valuable for companies to see that, to learn what others are doing, and maybe to adapt and adapt their practices, and become more – you know, just become better practitioners.”

Chapman also felt that the conference was a valuable

experience for him, although he was disappointed that it didn’t offer a better opportunity to discuss ideas with other regulators.

“There actually wasn’t too much of that,” he said.

“That, I think, is something that would have been more useful from my perspective, if there was a stronger regulatory session on regulations in Quebec or regulations in different parts of the American jurisdiction, so there was actually a more clear comparison.”

Still, the conference had its benefits.

“A lot of technical value to be aware of some practices that companies are doing,” said Chapman. “The talk from Progress Energy, which is up in the Montney, about how they’re handling water. The process where they’re piping the water within the well pads – they’re installing water pipelines in their gas right-of-ways. And how they’re reusing all their water. It’s valuable for me to know the specifics.”

“We deal with probably sixty companies,” he continued. “And some of them I’m more familiar with than others, just because they tend to be more active. And some of the smaller ones, I don’t really have a lot of contact with. So, valuable for me to understand how different companies are handling the pieces of work that I deal with, which is the sourcing of water, how they license it, how they transport that water.

“It was valuable for me, too, to really understand some of the differences between companies that are just starting up or proving a play, where they’re not at the point yet of fully developing it, and other companies that have developed into the full operations, and how they have different operations related to water.”

Stephen Skarstol, Lead, Environmental Stewardship with Encana, took the opportunity to share the details of the company’s new Responsible Products Program, alongside a representative from Intrinsik Environmental Services, the company that co-developed the program with Encana starting in the first quarter of 2010.

“We were wanting to continue to augment our inventory of the drilling and completions fluids systems and products that we use,” Skarstol said of the Responsible Products Program, noting that Encana already had a fairly solid inventory of those products.

“We were wanting to at least take a look at or determine if there was a way of assessing or investigating the potential health and environmental risks that would be related to, let’s say, for instance, hydraulic fracturing products or systems we’re using,” he continued.

“We also wanted it to have an operational focus because, ultimately, those decisions to use a product [are made] in the operations arena – that being drilling and completions directly.

“And so we wanted the system to be an alignment with those folks, those operations. And the last thing is we wanted the system to be tied in and with our product procurement side of it so that we could use the data from this program to help influence and make better decisions in terms of the systems we’re going to utilize, as an example, for hydraulic fracturing.”

The new program is already implemented in Encana’s operations throughout North America, but they also feel it can be used more broadly by the rest of the industry, which is part of the reason Skarstol opted to discuss the initiative at the conference.

“We’re certainly not, as a company, pushing it on industry by any stretch, but saying, if people see value in this, that we will make the tool that we’ve developed in concert with Intrinsik available to industry at large,” said Skarstol.

“We made a conscious decision to share this and we certainly weren’t keeping it to ourselves by any stretch,” he continued. “I think that we recognize that industry as a whole, we need to maintain our company’s social license to operate and industry needs to do the same. The big question that remains after a conference of this type is what the next steps might be, so that the presentations and discussions lead to positive action down the road.

“I presented,” said Watts, sharing Nexen’s approach to the conference, “but we also had some technical folks sitting in the audience. So, now it’s go back, chat with our technical folks, kind of take away some of the key learnings and talk about if we can implement any of them.” •

October 2011 I pipeline news north •

15

guiding principles

- new protocol for hydraulic fracturing “With the increased attention from the public on hydraulic fracturing – and a lot of the attention in the [United States] – there was concern from the public that they didn’t understand what was in [fracturing fluids],” said Dunk.

“So, basically, our practice says, ‘Well, we support making this information public.’

And we’ll work with regulators as

Basin by conducting a baseline groundwater testing program that could be useful to industry, government and other stakeholders in terms of recognizing and evaluating changes to groundwater resources.

It may have only been coincidence, but it The final principle involves collaboration was highly appropriate that the Canadian on technological advances in the natural Association of Petroleum Producers gas industry, much as the industry has done in the oil sands.

(CAPP) released their new guiding “We’ve got a pretty solid track record principles for hydraulic fracturing on the for developing shale gas resources,” same day that Christy Clark made said Dunk. “And there are pretty robust provincial regulations. However, we’ve her announcement. been hearing a lot from the public. So, we thought it would be reasonably British proactive – and I guess one can argue Columbia whether it was proactive enough – by Premier committing to these guiding prinChristy Clark ciples, which, again, are national announced principles. a publicly ac“And the reason I keep re-emcessible online phasizing national is because a lot database of of the attention has been in places information conlike … Quebec and New Brunscerning hydraulic wick where they’re not as familiar fracturing activiwith the regulatory environment.” ties in the province The guiding principles were that will hit the web released nationally in both in January, 2012.

French and English on the “They kind of morning of September 28 and align,” said Steve the release was quickly folDunk, BC Operation lowed by an announcement Manager with CAPP. from the Quebec Oil and Indeed, one of the Gas Association (QOGA) five guiding principles expressing their support released on Thursday, the same day.

September 8 concerned “QOGA showing supdisclosure of chemiport for that, again, shows cals used in hydraulic that these principles fracturing, which is a and C Oil use and make sense, that they B . e o h significant component of Phot ater e at t are the right thing to do,” ter us cturing. W aterman a w y W the B.C. government initiadustr raulic Fra ames in J s said Dunk. “That they’re a d nd g r Hy tive. CAPP is encouraging g oil a inciples fo in a proactive thing to do. So, I s s g Pr energy sector companies discu Dunk their Guidin ess. think it’s very positive that they support e v e t to voluntarily disclose the rS ddr ed anage P introduc rinciples a them.”

M s n p P tio e content of fracturing fluid A Opera day after C sue that th Dunk noted that CAPP’s membership has been very ’s BC is additives used in their operaCAPP erence the f the key supportive of the guiding principles initiative, adding that appropriate to find f o n o ne tions, just as they are supportGas C ement is o those companies are free to adopt them on a voluntary an appropriate way to do that.” g a ing provincial governments who man basis.

Another principle concerns environmental wish to legislate disclosure of “We have a process inside CAPP where we … have risks potentially posed by chemicals used in hydraulic those additives. executive policy groups,” said Dunk. “Certainly, most fracturing. The goal is to increase industry’s knowledge “They’re not adopting our practice,” Dunk said of members are represented at one level of governance or of those chemicals and the possible risks so those risks the B.C. government. “But they’re basically saying, another. So, the members had looked at these before can be mitigated and less hazardous chemicals can be ‘We want disclosure in British Columbia. And here is a we released them as an association.” employed. format that we’re doing it.’ So, really, it’s alignment. It’s a “The regulators may choose to adopt them as well,” However, this set of guiding principles doesn’t entirely good thing.” he continued. “But, basically, they are good practices. revolve around chemical additives in fracturing fluids.

Dunk noted that there has already been a watchful Most companies are already sort of working towards Water use and management, another hot button topic in eye on chemicals used by the oil and gas industry in that with regards to things like recycling of water.

Northeast B.C., is also addressed with a pair of princiB.C. with safety procedures such as WHMIS (Workplace “And we’re expecting very broad company participaples concerning wellbore integrity, groundwater protecHazardous Materials Information System) and MSDS tion, and water sourcing, including reusing and recycling tion from CAPP members.”

(Material Safety Data Sheet), as well as the new Oil and The next step for CAPP is developing a set of water, as well as measuring and reporting water use.

Gas Activities Act (OGAA) that stipulates that producers practices to support the guiding principles, work that is So, CAPP is committing to build on work that industry must keep a record of all components of the fracturing expected to continue into 2012. The practices will be is already doing with Geoscience BC to assess water fluid that they use. published on their website as they become available. • resources in the Montney formation and the Horn River james waterman Pipeline News North

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16 • PIPELINE NEWS NORTH I

October 2011

careers & training NOVEMBER COURSE OFFERINGS

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October 2011 I pipeline news north •

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are being added on a regular basis at each NLC campus. For updated schedules, go to nlc.bc.ca

• taking a course that currently is not scheduled?

18 • PIPELINE NEWS NORTH I

October 2011

special feature

section 8

- a new government directive james waterman Pipeline News North

As of October 20, the oil and gas industry in British Columbia has new requirements for consulting with First Nations on Section 8 short-term water use applications made through the BC Oil and Gas Commission.

However, the new directive has actually heightened concerns within the Fort Nelson First Nation as to how and when they will be consulted on industry water use in their territory in the Horn River Basin.

Previously, consultation with First Nations on Section 8 applications wasn’t required, but this new directive – which was developed internally by the Commission over the course of several months and made public on September 20 – stipulates that First Nations must be given the opportunity to comment if a Section 8 application satisfies any of the following four criteria: • the diversion point is geographically located outside of Northeast B.C.; • the diversion point is identified within areas established by order under the Oil and Gas Activities Act (OGAA) Environmental Protection and Management Regulation; • the withdrawal rate is equal to or greater than 500 cubic metres per day and the source is not a water source dugout or other manmade structure; or • the diversion point is located on an identified sensitive waterbody or area of known significance.

First Nations are given fifteen business days to respond. They are only provided with information about the intended water withdrawal if all four of these criteria are met: • the diversion point is geographically located within Northeast B.C.; • the diversion point is not identified within areas established by order under OGAA Environmental Protection and Management Regulation; • the withdrawal rate is less that 500 cubic metres per day and 100,000 cubic metres total, or the source is a water source dugout or other manmade structure; and • the diversion point is not located on an identified sensitive waterbody or area of known significance.

“Historically, the water use by the oil and gas industry was relatively low to support just conventional drilling and exploration,” said Tom Ouellette, Director of First Nations Relations with the Commission, explaining the reasoning behind the new directive.

“And with the unconventional oil and gas, we’re seeing that there’s larger volumes of water being used by industry. And so that, with the associated activities, there’s an increased potential for adverse impacts to treaty rights.

And so when that occurred, then there’s a duty for the Commission as an agent of the Crown to consult with the potentially affected First Nations.”

“I have had discussions with Fort Nelson First Nation about this,” he added. “And have got some feedback from them.”

Still, Lana Lowe, Director of the Fort Nelson First Nation Lands Department, was surprised by the directive and confused by its content.

“It was a surprise to me,” said Lowe. “A big surprise.

Because I thought we were negotiating this at the [Consultation Process Agreement (CPA)] negotiation that we just started with the province [this summer]. But I received a letter from the province saying that the directive came out of a conversation that we had with them in the winter.”

Lowe believes the conversation in question took place at a meeting between Fort Nelson First Nation and representatives from the Commission, including Ouellette, hydrologist Allan Chapman, Deputy Commissioner and leader of the Project Assessment and Compliance Assurance Division James O’Hanley, and Chief Operating Officer and Deputy Commissioner with the Regulatory Affairs and Stewardship Division Paul Jeakins.

According to Lowe, during that Feb. 7 meeting, O’Hanley assured Fort Nelson First Nation band councillors that the province would consult with them on water permits and that a process for that consultation would be in place within two to three months, according to the

An array of water snakes drawing water from an undisclosed location in the Horn River Basin for use in oil and gas industry operations.

Submitted photo

minutes.

Lowe feels that was the only part of their conversation that event hinted at this new directive.

“We don’t want to just be consulted the way [the Commission] wants to consult with us, because we’re trying to change the ways consultation is done,” she added, remarking that they not only want to be consulted on water permits, but they also want to be consulted on how that consultation actually takes place.

Presently, Fort Nelson First Nation considers all water permits in their territory that have been issued by the Commission invalid. According to Lowe, they will continue to hold that position “until such time as adequate and meaningful consultation has occurred between the [Commission] and the [Fort Nelson First Nation] according to a mutually agreeable consultation process.”

Lowe is also disappointed that not all applications to withdraw water from sources in Northeast B.C. are subject to consultation.

“I read the directive and it doesn’t seem to be in line with what we’ve been talking about at the negotiation table,” said Lowe. “So, that’s why I was surprised that it came out in the first place. And then the whole idea of exempting Northeast B.C. from standard consultation is strange to me.”

However, Lowe admits that the Fort Nelson First Nation Lands Department doesn’t currently have the resources to address every water use application.

“We don’t have the resources,” Lowe said. “We actually got last week – this doesn’t even include water permits, because we’re only getting notifications on those – we got 93 applications in the past week for oil and gas developments. Not just water.”

So, the Fort Nelson First Nation is working on developing a strategy so that most of the work will already be done before the applications land on Lowe’s desk. She wants the right to comment on those applications when that plan is in place, particularly considering her issues with the numbers in the new directive.

“I think the minimum withdrawal of 100,000 cubic metres is pretty large,” she said.

“What we’ve tried to accomplish with that matrix is, basically, the stuff that would fit in the [information only] category are permits that would be taking small amounts of water,” said Ouellette, explaining the criteria for con-

sultation. Applications for small amounts of water such as those used for conventional practices such as seismic operations and hydrotesting pipelines – not the large quantities used for hydraulic fracturing – do not require consultation.

Lowe still takes issue with the numbers.

“If it’s just water to ice the road,” she argued. “Like, back in the day, when they did conventional oil and gas, that’s what they used water for. To keep dust down off the roads and to ice them over. It wasn’t a lot of water being used. … I think 25,000 cubic metres is what they would license for that. But now they’ve upped it to 100,000.”

Ouellette noted that companies frequently use less than the water allotted, particularly for purposes where they would only require 100,000 cubic metres or less.

However, Lowe is also concerned about the cumulative impact of those small water withdrawals, particularly if a significant number of them occur in the same region or even the same waterbody.

“Just to give us a hypothetical here, let’s say one company wanted to withdraw a bunch of water out of one watercourse,” said Ben Parfitt, a policy analyst with the Canadian Centre for Policy Alternatives and a vocal critic of water use by the oil and gas industry.

“According to what I’ve got in front of me here,” he continued, referring to the Commission’s new directive, “they could simply apply for two permits. Or two companies could apply. So, what I’m getting at is, that when you have these thresholds, what do these thresholds mean?

Is anybody looking at the bigger picture and saying, okay, well, watercourse A connects to watercourse B connects to watercourse C?” “Who’s making the decisions about what the cumulative effect is?” he concluded.

The Commission’s main focus appears to be the large volumes of water that are now used with unconventional hydraulic fracturing practices.

“We want to ensure that we engage where there’s larger volumes being utilized,” said Ouellette.

“The volumes and the activity associated with that is where, again, we see that there may be some potential impacts. … In all cases, we’re going to review what comes in to make sure that we are satisfied that they, in fact, are continued pg 19

environment

October 2011 I pipeline news north •

19

soil solutions

- bioengineering that slippery slope james waterman Pipeline News North

A few years ago, a trio of oil and gas companies ran into a bit of trouble where their operations converged in the area of a known bull trout stream southeast of Tumbler Ridge, British Columbia.

The problem was soil erosion. The situation was so critical that the companies were potentially facing federal charges under the Fisheries Act. Gerry Leering, presently a Senior Biologist with Ecofor Consulting in Prince George, was a fisheries biologist with the provincial Ministry of Environment in Fort St. John at the time. He argued against the federal charges, suggesting instead that the three companies participate in a bioengineering workshop to improve their operations where soil erosion and similar problems can be an issue. The companies agreed. That was when Dave Polster arrived on the scene.

A vegetation ecologist by training, Polster has been doing restoration and reclamation work since completing a Master’s degree in alpine ecology in 1977, bioengineering being his special area of expertise.

“Soil bioengineering – the definition of it – is the use of living materials to perform some engineering function,” Polster explained. “I’ve been working in soil bioengineering for about 25 years or more, in terms of using it as a technique to treat difficult and ugly sites,” he added. “So, things cont’d from pg 18

on that lower end.

“So, for instance, if you notice, if it’s in an area that’s specifically been identified as important, then it wouldn’t fit in the [information only category] even if it was a small amount. … The criteria is flexible enough to address those particular areas and what we know at the Commission around uses by the communities.”

Considering that not all applications for water within Northeast B.C. require consultation, it may seem particularly odd at first blush that all applications for water outside of the region do require consultation.

“In Northeast B.C., we’re under treaty,” Ouellette explained. “So, there’s the treaty

like cliffs and landslides and slumping soils and all sorts of other things.”

During those 25 years, Polster has seen numerous applications for bioengineering in the oil and gas industry in both Alberta and B.C. “Certainly, any time you go and disturb a site, you can end up with problems of slope stability, soil stability,” he said. “And you can use soil bioengineering to treat those problems as opposed to traditional hard engineering treatments that tend to cost a lot more and don’t necessarily reestablish natural processes.”

Polster cited a problem facing one major petroleum company working just south of Grande Prairie as a fairly typical situation where bioengineering can be the best solution. He has suggested using a method known as ‘live staking’ in that case.

“The road had been cut across an ancient landslide and had recreated the ancient landslide,” he explained. “So, they were having problems with it. And we’d proposed to put in a bunch of … live balsam poplar poles to actually suck the moisture out of the slope and stabilize it.

Now we haven’t actually done that, but that’s one of the projects that’s ongoing.”

Polster has proposed and used live staking and other similar practices employing live tree cutting in other areas of oil and gas operations.

“So, you use the cuttings to do something to the site to help stabilize it,” he explained. “You stabilize it before the plants grow. And then, as they grow, it gets more and more reinforced.”

Polster employs a variety of other methods as well. “There’s a bunch of things,” he said. “So, for instance, rather than leaving sites smooth and compacted, leave

– Treaty 8 – which defines the rights that the First Nations have. Outside Northeast B.C., there’s no treaties. So, the Aboriginal rights and potential title are more undefined. So, outside Northeast B.C., we have to take a closer look at those particular applications so we’re satisfied that we’re not adversely impacting any other rights.”

The Commission appears confident they have developed a solid process for addressing First Nations concerns when it comes to Section 8 applications, but Lowe’s dissatisfaction with the provincial government’s attitude toward water in Northeast B.C. seems to go beyond that document.

Lowe is concerned that Energy and

them rough and loose, and that helps prevent erosion.”

Basically, if water can’t flow across the surface, it can’t erode the surface. The rough and loose soil promotes infiltration instead of run-off. “You can use that even in ditches,” Polster added.

“Because the water flows down,” he explained, “if you dig holes in the ditches, spaced apart a metre or two, the water will slow down in those holes, sediment will drop out in the holes, because the water’s still, and you’ve got the water soaking in as opposed to roaring down a ditch picking up sediment as it goes.”

The soil in Northeast B.C. can exacerbate soil stability issues faced by oil and gas companies operating in the region simply because of its structure.

“Slope stability is a problem anywhere, basically,” said Polster. “Anywhere you have steep slopes. And, of course, where you have high clay content it’s even more of a problem.”

However, the soil in Northeast B.C. isn’t

actually clay, but a fine-textured silt, which also poses problems.

“It’s a non-cohesive material,” said Polster. “If you have clay,” he continued, “there’s an electrostatic charge on the clay particles that causes them to attract to each other, which is why clay is gummy and you can actually mould a bowl out of it. It’s because the clay particles actually hold together. But fine silt doesn’t have that. It’s non-charged. It doesn’t have that same attraction. And so the soil particles just get washed away, so it can erode very easily. And so you have to take particular caution.”

Polster has a fairly simple, yet clever, solution to raindrop erosion. “You need to cover the surface with something,” he said.

“And typically the natural process of covering the surface is leaf litter. And you can use leaf litter as a treatment for disturbed sites as well.”

“It breaks the impact of the raindrop hitting the soil surface,” Polster continued.

“So, it’s like putting up an umbrella.” •

Mines Minister Rich Coleman may be misrepresenting the situation.

“He’s telling part of the story,” said Lowe.

“He’s making it sound like everybody is using the Debolt formation. And they’re not.

He’s making it sound like everybody’s got these awesome recycling programs that can recycle 100 per cent of the water being used. And you can’t. It’s not possible.”

Possibly the most significant issue for Lowe and her community are the cultural concerns that aren’t well understood by the provincial government from her point of view.

“The cultural connection is tied to our history,” she said. “A lot of water bodies in the area are sites of significance regarding burials, especially along the rivers.

There’s lots of burial sites along the rivers

and around the lakes. There are memorial lakes. Places that people go that are either named after the people they want to remember or places they go to remember those people.

“Some of the lakes are birthplaces.

That’s where people were born and that’s where they had their childhoods. So, they have connections there. There’s also some lakes that are tied to old, old stories about where we’re from as Dene people.”

“I don’t know if it’s our job to help them understand,” Lowe continued. “But it’s our job to identify those water bodies that are important in those ways so we can say, ‘Look, we don’t really think it’s a good idea for you to be putting pumps and snakes into that water body. Because people go there to remember.’” • 28392

20 • PIPELINE NEWS NORTH I

October 2011

community

SPCA

- Devon lends a hand Brianne Zwambag Staff Writer

Devon Canada employees were building good karma as they participated in a United Way Day of Caring at the Fort St John SPCA and found a couple of happy endings of their own.

Now participating in their third Day of Caring at the SPCA, the 12 Devon Canada employees who came out on Sept. 21 spent the day helping with landscaping, removing old doghouses and helping with the animals where they could.

“They just really need the extra help, and we have the manpower to give them the help they need,” said Suzanne Cavalheiro, Field Administrator at Devon Canada’s Fort St John office.

“We do whatever they need. If they need us to clean pens, walk dogs or weed flower beds, we’re happy to fill our day with anything that helps.”

The Fort St John SPCA relies on local volunteers and programs such as the United Way Day of Caring in order to focus their efforts on the animals that they care for.

“If it wasn’t for Devon coming and helping out through the United Way, there are some big projects that the SPCA just wouldn’t have time to do. We’re busy looking after animals and re-homing them, so some of the bigger projects are overlooked because we just don’t have the time or manpower to do them. It’s wonderful that they come,” said Judy Hillman, Fort St John SPCA Supervisor.

“We love to come back to the SPCA

because the first year we came here, they really seemed to have quite a list of things they didn’t have time for and they were just so appreciative of us coming in. And it was the same thing last year, so we were thrilled to come back again this year,” said Cavalheiro.

One of Devon’s volunteers was rewarded for his efforts when he discovered that his cat, which had been missing for a few days, was at the SPCA. The previously unnamed cat is now being called Cooter, and was reunited with her owner to go home. “It was totally unexpected, but kind of exciting too,” said Don McLeod, the Devon employee who was happy to be taking his cat home with him. The other volunteers don’t go home empty-handed either, according to Niki Hedges, the United Way Community Development and Campaign Officer for North East B.C. “Businesses and volunteers who participate really benefit from the team-building.

It’s an opportunity for them to really just work together on a project aside from the work situations they normally experience.

These interactions are always very positive for the employees,” said Hedges.

The Day of Caring program runs in Fort St John and area throughout the year and helps connect businesses with charities to provide the volunteer assistance that local not-for-profit organizations are in need of. In the past year, organizations such as the SPCA, the Women’s Resource Centre and the Salvation Army have been assisted by the volunteer efforts of local businesses.

“A lot of corporations already have community work as part of their corporate responsibility to the communities in which they operate. So, the Day of Caring program is really a win-win program for

Don McLeod, a Devon employee, was reunited with his lost cat through spending his time volunteering at the SPCA. brianne zwambag photo

everybody,” said Hedges.

Hedges also pointed out that the Day of Caring program benefits the local community as well.

“It’s great for community, because people can see that there is that community spirit within a corporation to give back.

It’s an important message.” •

Energy expo - up side, down side james waterman Pipeline News North

A high level of early fall activity in the oil patch was the main reason for a drop in attendance at the second Fort St. John Energy Expo, according to Art Jarvis, Executive Director South for Energy Services BC (ESBC).

The popularity of the event, which was held September 21-22 at the Pomeroy Hotel, is unquestioned, as there was a waitlist of companies from the oil and gas industry and the service sector that couldn’t be included among its 55 participants, but Jarvis believes a number of local contractors and their employees simply couldn’t afford to miss a day of work to attend.

“I think the networking end of it is going really well,” Jarvis said during the second day of the expo.

“I realize we’re down on attendance this year. And I’m attributing that directly to everybody being so busy early in the year this year. Normally, September would be a good time, but everybody is pretty flat out.”

“I’m sure that that’s solely to blame,” he added.

“I think that we marketed it well. And certainly the interest showed that people were excited about it, because we sold out early.”

ESBC co-sponsored the event with the Canadian

Association of Petroleum Producers (CAPP), who has led the way during the first two years of the expo, but they are set to take it over next year. Considering the popularity of the event among the producers and the service providers, they are already contemplating a larger venue for 2012.

“I’d like to see it increase at least half again more,” said Jarvis. “Now, of course, we’re limited as to selection of venues here. The next venue would be the curling rink. And it’s probably three times the size of this room. So, we can do some innovative ideas with curtains and not have to use the whole room. We’ll have to pay for the whole room, but we won’t have to use the whole room. And then we can make the same sized booths or have a choice of some larger ones.”

“We can maybe even bring in some equipment inside too and utilize the whole room,” he continued. “I think there’s all sorts of avenues we could go. And as we grow this, we’ll probably continue to use the curling rink and maybe have some outside displays as well.”

Jarvis is excited for ESBC to be assuming control of the Fort St. John Energy Expo, just as they have done this year with a similar event in Fort Nelson that was initiated by the Horn River Basin Producers Group a few years ago. Considering the focus on building, promoting and informing the local service sector that comprises ESBC’s membership, Jarvis noted that it makes sense for ESBC to be taking over the event.

However, he also admitted that these communities relied on CAPP and the Horn River Basin Producers Group to get these trade shows up and running.

“Because we’re a not-for-profit agency,” said Jarvis.

“So, to initiate something, that takes a lot of capital.

And these [organizations] like CAPP and the Horn River [Basin] Producers Group have got that capital to get things going. But that’s not really their business. I mean, they don’t want to manage and administrate and maintain something like that. So, good on these guys for getting it off the ground, and then we can take the ball and run with it from here.”

CAPP’s Adam Skulsky, who had his first taste of organizing this sort of large event with the Fort St. John Energy Expo this year, was pleased with the event regardless of the attendance.

“We’ve had a lot of people through the doors that are making those contacts and connections,” he said, noting that a primary goal of the show is to help local contractors learn about the bidding and procurement processes, as well as the qualifications necessary to work with the producer companies.

With that in mind, an effort was made to recruit a variety of companies to participate in the expo, which is why it has been such an ideal partnership with ESBC. “Energy Services has been great because they connect with their membership to get them out here,” he said. “And that’s what we’re after as well. So, I work on my end getting CAPP’s members – so, the oil and gas producers – out here. And then we get the local contractors coming through the door as well. You hope you hit all aspects of that.”

“You need all aspects to make it successful,” Skulsky added. •

October 2011 I pipeline news north •

21

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w w w. s t r i ke e n e r g y. c o m

22 • PIPELINE NEWS NORTH I

October 2011

careers & training

in the field - Seismic in Motion

Seismic in Motion participants gather for the common demonstration that concluded the field trip. The common demonstration featured helicopters, mulching and explosives.

Photo by Barbara Goulet

james waterman Pipeline News North

Every year for the past eight years, during the first week of October, the Canadian Association of Geophysical Contractors (CAGC) has offered a vast array of people an opportunity to experience one of the most mysterious aspects of the oil and gas industry – seismic.

The CAGC buses the groups out to a location in the foothills about an hour west of Calgary to demonstrate everything from surveying to the use of explosives as a program they call Seismic in Motion. It evolved out of an old practice of oil companies sending their geophysicists and geologists into the field to get a glimpse of seismic crews at work.

That practice was lost along the way, until Mike Doyle decided to resurrect it as Seismic in Motion when he took over as president of the CAGC a decade ago.

“Quite often you’re dealing with people in Calgary that really have no understanding of what actually occurs in the field,” said Doyle.

So, the CAGC put together these three days of field trips where 15 to 25 contractors donate their time, equipment and expertise to teach 150 to 175 people about their trade.

“Initially, it was all geared towards industry,” Doyle continued. “So, it was oil company people and seismic industry people. Now, that has changed over the years.

Now we get lots of regulators come out, which is good.

We have a partnership set up with the Calgary Board of Education. So, they send out some high school students each day.”

“And we take out university students as well,” he added.

The CAGC also works closely with the Association of Professional Engineers, Geologists and Geophysicists of Alberta (APEGGA), the Canadian Society of Exploration Geophysicists (CSEG) and the Canadian Association of Petroleum Producers (CAPP) to deliver the program.

One of the first-time participants this fall was CAPP’s Alberta is Energy Campaign Coordinator, Colleen Houston.

“I thought it was a lot of fun,” said Houston. “I learned a lot about seismic. I basically came into it not really knowing anything about seismic, to be honest. I learned everything from the paramedics – what they do – to the people that go out and place the dynamite and everything. It was great. It was a great learning experience.”

“It was great,” she continued. “I met a lot of new people and a lot of connections in industry. And it was great to meet new people and learn about seismic and everything together.”

Doyle suggested that part of the value of Seismic in Motion is that it is ordinarily very difficult to see the “six different phases of operation” involved in seismic work.

“Over the course of a seismic program, those operations are separated by time and distance,” he said. “So, even those who went out to the field in one trip, it was unlikely that they’d see it all anyway.”

One aspect that most people might not expect is the mountain climbing and steep terrain work.

“That’s a reflection of working in the foothills, of course,” said Doyle. “Which goes up and down with the commodity prices. So, when natural gas [prices are]

high, we see a lot of that type of work. When they’re lower, you see less.”

The participants are divided into six groups that rotate through six stations where the different contractors demonstrate their work. The day ends with a one-hour common demonstration that was the highlight of the day for Houston.

“At the end of the day, they did this whole hour of demonstration,” she said. “And there was the dynamite.

There was the mulching. And the helicopter. And I’d say that was the best. We do helicopter rescue. We had two helicopters this year. Bigger ones. So, we actually flew some drills.”

“Obviously, the more action there is, the better they like it,” he continued. “So, the mulching, explosives, helicopters are always the big things. But, overall, we get a lot of good comments about [how] lots of contractors talk about the environment and why they do things one way versus another and how we’ve changed things.”

“I think I knew all of it was part of the industry,” Houston said when asked if any part of the demonstration caught her by surprise. “I don’t think I realized how long of a process it is to do everything. You have all these different teams of people.”

Obviously, the program wouldn’t happen without the support of the contractors.

“It’s as simple as saying those companies get it in terms of, not only does it allow them to market to the oil companies or whomever comes out there, but also it’s the energy literacy thing,” said Doyle. “We’re talking to high school or university kids.”

“I had a lot of fun,” Houston concluded. “And I would recommend that people go and check it out and learn more about seismic. I found it really valuable.” •

WatchDOG on the job - cont’d cont’d from pg 9 That new device is called WatchDOG. It is a considerable discount over the previously available technology with a price tag of only about $1000 per well.

“It’s about time that the producers have had a low cost, affordable technology that will help them solve this problem,” said Johnson, noting that the device is just entering into a pilot project phase with a number of oil and gas companies applying the system to 50 to 100 wells each this winter.

“Everyone’s interested in trying it and seeing if it will help them, which, of course, we think it will,” he continued.

“So, this winter we’re going to go into pilot

programs. And then next year we expect to start selling lots of them.”

Johnson remarked that installing the device on a well is very simple.

“We created some electronics that are in a box that straps to the well,” he said.

“And in there is a computer, a satellite modem, and a battery. And a solar panel.”

It also includes a probe that is inserted into the actual pipe to measure temperature in the well as the gas flows by.

“We collect data from the temperature probe,” Johnson continued. “We analyze it every minute. And then every day or so, we bundle it up and send a transmission via the satellite to our website where the data is displayed.”

That allows the producer to see which wells are in danger of freezing and dispatch workers to those specific sites with the methanol.

The project began with a major producer about a year and a half ago.

“They wanted to see if they could tell just by measuring temperature if a well was frozen or not, which we could,” said Johnson. “It turned out we could tell much more than that. But that was the initial objective of the study.”

It was a fairly long process to determine the efficacy of the device.

“We had to install temperature monitoring units on a number of wells,” said Johnson. “And then we monitored the

temperature over a period of almost a year. Probably the biggest challenge was to figure out if we could really tell anything substantive from simple temperature data,” he continued. “So, we didn’t know what the result of the study would be.”

“When we started measuring that temperature, we discovered that it normally flows in this very stable range.”

That range is between five and eight degrees Celsius. So, if there was variation – a significant variation – in that temperature, then something had happened,” he added. “There was an anomaly, basically.”

That knowledge could prove hugely beneficial for companies who now choose to use the WatchDOG device.•

October 2011 I pipeline news north •

23

grads wanted

- CCIS oil & gas training program

Their Drilling Rig-Hand Training Program graduated fifteen students on September 7 and their Service Rig-Hand Training Program graduated another sixteen students on October 4.

By graduation day, the drilling rig class had received 68 job offers, while the service rig class had received 36 job offers.

“It just shows that we have grown,” said Ana Hoepfner, Business Analyst for CCIS’ Oil and Gas Training Programs. “Companies need more resources. And because they’ve been working with us from ten years ago, now that it’s become a boom industry again, now everybody wants in. And unfortunately we don’t have 68 students at one go.”

“We have had 100 per cent employ-

summer.

Photo by CCIS Media Specialist Khalid Hakim.

continued pg 30

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ment success rates for the last ten years,” she continued. “In fact, even the year of the recession, all our guys went out to work.”

The program typically includes two weeks of “job support” after training is complete. Students receive help with resumes and interview coaching. They can also use the office to make phone calls or apply for jobs via fax or the Internet.

“Or if they get called out,” said Hoepfner, “we print the maps together with them, we call the rig managers with them, figure out where they’re going exactly.”

However, the drilling rig students didn’t need that job support this fall.

The day after graduation, they were receiving calls from the oil patch.

The most recent service rig class was in the middle of that job support process in mid-October, but will already being summoned by the patch as well.

“We’re still rounding up which employers they’re most interested in, but we do have more offers of employment than graduates that are available,” said Hoepfner.

“Even for our seismic program, which is running right now, employers are saying that [they] would take all of CCIS Drilling Rig-Hand Training Program students learning their new trade in Nisku, Alberta this them,” she continued.

32525

james waterman Pipeline News North

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24 • PIPELINE NEWS NORTH I

October 2011

industry news

show & tell

- Process and Automation Trade Show james waterman Pipeline News North

All manner of process and automation technology was on display during the Northern British Columbia Process and Automation Show held in Fort St. John on September 29.

It was proof positive that process and automation is a fairly diverse aspect of resource development.

Geoff Scott of Process and Steam Specialties was showing off the new Zwick triple offset butterfly valves that are mostly used in pumping stations and gas pipelines.

“High performance, high pressure, high temperature,” he said of the valve.

Scott was also displaying a Hydroflow descaling unit that treats fluids and prevents scale and paraffin accumulation on pipes.

At the other end of the spectrum, Bob Moser of Industrial Solutions had an array of computer and cellular applications on hand.

“Especially for around this territory,” said Moser, “the cellular applications are great for remote access to very remote areas where, obviously, there is cell coverage. But great for obtaining information from remote well sites, those kinds of things. Gas wells. And being able to bring that information back to a central location, a control room environment.”

“The Ethernet – fairly integrated now in

most control applications,” he continued.

“So, hard to avoid these days. Ethernet is pretty much involved in everything now on the automation side.”

There was also a variety of safety and security equipment including Carbon Controls’ fire and gas detection and remote site gate entry systems and Envent Engineering’s H2S analyzer that measures concentrations of H2S. “It’s based on lead acetate tape,” said Richard Holmen of Envent Engineering.

“So, basically, as the tape turns from white to dark, the faster it turns, the higher the concentration.”

John Kuldanek, Western Canadian Regional Sales Manager for Magnetrol, had a collection of level measuring devices in his booth.

“Today, in the level world, there’s primarily twelve different ways of measuring level on the industrial market,” said Kuldanek. “Magnetrol has nine of the technologies. So, we have a lot of variety and a lot of products that can be utilized in different applications. So, really selecting the right product is the key and not being forced to [use] one technology.”

Kuldanek explained that the hot technology in level measurement today is radar.

“Radar is taking off the most,” he said.

“And specifically the type of radar called guided wave radar.”

However, Kuldanek still promotes the older magnetic level indicators.

“Still probably one of the biggest things that people use today,” he said of the old mechanical technologies. “Old school.

Keep it simple.” •

Clint Shuman, Outside Sales Representative for E.B. Horsman & Son, had a variety of instrumentation equipment on display during the show. james waterman photos

LEFT: A demonstration of BHD Instrumentation’s thermal imager. The latent heat on the table from a hand is visible on the screen.

Ryker Stoehr, Account Representative with Rotork, noted that his company didn’t get involved in the control valve part of automation until about five years ago. So, the was attending the trade show to show potential customers the company’s extended line of products.

right: John Kuldanek, Western Canadian Regional Sales Manager for Magnetrol, standing next to a magnetic level indicator like the one his company donated to Northern Lights College.

James Waterman Photo.

Stewart Doram, Senior Sales Representative with WIKA Instruments, showing off his company’s line of products during the trade show.

October 2011 I pipeline news north •

community

25

doggone

- Fort Nelson’s Fun Run james waterman Pipeline News North

Not every race has a dog in a Superman costume, but that was just the sort of event that organizers had in mind when they put together the first Young and Rest of Us Fun Run that was held in Fort Nelson.

Saturday, Sep. 24 featured two children’s races, a five-kilometre walk, a fivekilometre run, a ten-kilometre walk and a half-marathon. Designed to attract runners of all ages and their canine friends, it drew about ninety human participants, including seventeen kids, and about twenty dogs. Northern Rockies Regional Municipality Mayor Bill Streeper was on hand to present awards to the top racers and prizes for the best-dressed runners and dogs.

“The idea started back in July when I had a few people ask me if there was going to be a run planned for Fort Nelson,” said Angela White, Surface Land Representative for Encana in Fort Nelson.

White explained that the community used to hold an annual event known as

Run For Your Life, but that had eventually left town along with its organizer.

“The triathlon is the other local event that we have at the end of June,” she said. “And there’s really nothing else local for people to kind of train towards, or continue to train towards after the triathlon, if they participate in the triathlon.”

White thought a ‘fun run’ would be a perfect fit for the new community trail that had its grand opening last fall. She brought the idea to Danielle Morine, Recreation Program Manager for the Northern Rockies Recreation Department, who informed her of a new half-marathon training group in town. Together, they set a date for the event and began planning.

“Having the Recreation Department as a partner made this race possible and the great event it turned out to be,” said White. “Without them, it would not have been the event that it was. We had over thirty volunteers, which was also phenomenal. Without these people, we could not have done this race.”

It was also an opportunity to raise the profile of the new community trail.

“There were a lot of people who hadn’t been on the trails at all before,” said Fiona Liebelt, Community Relations Advisor with Encana.

The Young and the Rest of Us Fun Run was also a great day for dogs and kids in strollers.

continued pg 29

Photo courtesy of Encana and Northern Rockies Recreation Department.

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26 • PIPELINE NEWS NORTH I

October 2011

Unexpected illnesses bring unexpected costs jl

When someone asks you to contribute to the Terry Fox Run or support the fight against breast cancer, you may give because you know someone—a relative, a friend, a colleague—who has had to endure the pain and suffering that comes with cancer.

They aren’t alone. Serious illnesses, including cancer, heart disease, and stroke, are the leading health issues facing Canadians today.

The statistics back up what we already know is true: every year many people in this country need help to cope with critical health problems: • • •

profiles

plug it!

- Integrity Plugz’ innovative solution

An estimated 70,000 heart attacks occur in Canada each year.1 An estimated 40,000 to 50,000 strokes occur in Canada each year.1 Our probability of developing some form of cancer in our lifetime is one in three.2

No one expects to become very sick. The good news is that more Canadians than ever are recovering from cancer and living after heart attacks and strokes: •

•

In recent years, the death rate among patients hospitalized for heart attacks has been cut in half to 8 per cent.1 75 per cent of stroke victims will survive the initial event.1

These increased survival rates are adding challenges not only to our health care system, but also to our pocketbooks. The costs of recovering from a serious illness may put your finances in a less than healthy state.

Here’s a possible scenario you may face: like many victims of critical illnesses, you may have to stop working. If you have disability insurance, you may receive only a percentage of your normal salary or wage. Will it be enough to cover mortgage and car payments, monthly bills, and your children’s education expenses if they’re in college or university?

You may also need to spend a considerable portion of your income on things not covered by your health care plan. You could need renovations to your home, vehicle modifications, and devices to help you move around. You may have to pay for homecare, childcare, or therapy. Or your partner may want to take some time off work to help care for you.

What if you decided to seek treatment or surgery outside of Canada? Most plans won’t cover that expense. Alternative medicine is an option that often falls outside health plans.

Like many Canadians, you may have already been saving for your retirement years. It would be frustrating and perhaps even devastating if you had to cut into your retirement savings to help you get through your recovery.

If you’re wondering if disability insurance or extended health care benefits are enough, it’s important to understand exactly what those benefits cover, and for how long. Review your policy if you have one or speak to your advisor about one. Speak with the person who administers your benefits. Depending on which province you live in, some of your costs may be included in the provincial health plan. It’s important to check.

Finally, compare your current plan with what critical illness insurance could provide. Your advisor can show you how this plan will help if an unexpected illness strikes.

Sources: 1 Heart and Stroke Foundation, 2007 2 Canadian Cancer Society, 2007

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

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Graham Brigham, the inventor of Integrity Plugz, displays his products in the shop of his sheet metal business, Brass Apple. Brigham, who has been working in the heat and frost trade for twenty years, had the idea for his plugs after witnessing ultrasonic testing for corrosion on natural gas sales pipes. james waterman photo

james waterman Pipeline News North

Graham Brigham has been in the heat and frost trade for a long time.

After twenty years of experience, he started his own sheet metal company, Brass Apple, about six months ago, the big part of their work being insulated pipes for the local natural gas industry.

His new business was still in its very early days when he noticed how new ultrasonic testing was being conducted on natural gas sales lines where he was working in the Dawson Creek area. That gave him an idea.

“It’s like an ultrasonic test – nondestructive testing – that they do on the pipes for where the sand erodes away the nineties or the tees on the sales lines,” said Brigham.

“The people that do the [ultrasonic] testing, they come there while we’re still there,” he continued. “And they cut the holes in the nineties. And you can imagine what they look like. It’s just horrible. It’s just hacked right out. And they just leave that cut edge. So, the [ultrasonic testing] people would cut their hands when they try and put their tools in there, too.”

Brigham explained the ultrasonic testing is a new process mandated by the provincial government because of recent problems the industry has had with sand eroding the pipes. Not surprisingly, the operation definitely has its kinks.

“So, it’s kind of a new thing,” he said.

“The people that did the testing, they actually cut the sheet metal with just a banana knife. It was just hacked. I have

pictures of what it used to look like. It’s horrible.”

The condition of the hole in the sheet metal wasn’t the only concern. There would also be a hole in the insulation, which would just be plugged with new insulation and capped with sheet metal holes, resulting in a loss of heat due to those small gaps in the insulation.

Brigham saw a solution to both problems.

That was how his Integrity Plugz were born.

First, a plastic rim is affixed to the edge of the hole, eliminating the risk of injury from jagged sheet metal. An elliptical piece of closed cell foam with a groove along the outer edge so that it wraps around the plastic rim is subsequently popped into the hole. It resembles an elbow-pad or a kneepad.

The plug, which allows ultrasonic to be done repeatedly through the same hole in the sheet metal without any risk or hassle, has a good R-value of 4.8. It is also resistant to water, fire, chemicals and ultraviolet radiation, not to mention that it remains pliable at temperatures even lower than those experienced in Northeast British Columbia.

“I started with an ice cube tray and some silicone,” Brigham said with a laugh, recalling the genesis of the new product.

“That didn’t go very far at all, because the silicone didn’t want to come out of the ice cube tray, even though I sprayed it with WD40.”

“I researched so many different types of foam,” he continued. “I was actually going to start building it out of rubber at first. And then I was dealing with a guy in Vancouver. I sent him some drawings of continued pg 27

October 2011 I pipeline news north •

27

cont’d from pg 26

Brigham demonstrating how his closed cell foam plugs fit into the holes cut into the pipes for ultrasonic testing. The groove along the edge of the plug allows it to latch onto the plastic rim around the hole in the pipe.

James Waterman Photo.

what I wanted. And he sent them back and said that’s not going to work.

“Then I sent him some other ones. And he said, okay, that will work. And when he sent me them back, he changed my drawings.”

When Brigham noted that his drawings had been changed, the man simply said, “Listen. I’m tired of you wasting my time.”

Brigham can laugh about those misadventures now.

After all, one major natural gas producer in the region immediately jumped on the product and started using it in their operations. That was in July.

Another major producer remarked that if he installs the plugs on one of their sites, which is presently the plan, they will likely become the standard for all of their sites. So, as other companies are starting to discover the plugs and their value, Brigham is beginning to see the full scope of their potential, especially after the additional exposure that came from the Fort St. John Energy Expo this September.

“The Montney shale,” he said, “that’s more sand, more of a problem.”

Brigham is even starting to consider taking his plugs to Fort McMurray.

“I mean, that’s the second biggest thing in the world right now. So, perfect time, really. I’ve thought about going to like Fort Mac and stuff too, because obviously that could be crazy there. … The one Shell guy, we were talking to him, he said that they have a plant there – because the one out at Farmington, he said they have one in Fort Mac 10,000 times that size. (laughs).”

The closed cell foam is almost as new as the plugs.

So, Brigham is keeping a close eye on them this winter to see how he can improve his product, if necessary.

“I’ll always look for something better,” he said. “And I have. I’ve been looking online for tons of different products. And still have some different samples coming.”

Brigham noted there are sprays that can be used to protect the material, but he is confident that such steps won’t be necessary. “With the qualities it has,” he said of the foam, “it should be good.” •

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Four hundred and thirty-seven Nexen employees dressed up as Superman and gathered for 10 minutes under the watchful eyes of official Guinness Book of World Records adjudicator Amanda Mochan, who officially confirmed a new record for “World’s Largest Gathering of People Dressed As Superman”. The Nexen Superman count shatters the previous record of 288 participants at an event organized by the Cuchulainn Gaels athletic club in Omeath, County Louth, Ireland, in August 2010. photo courtesy of nexen, inc 605650

28 • PIPELINE NEWS NORTH I

October 2011

environment

Caribou!

- problem, plan & implementation james waterman Pipeline News North

caribou numbers that also includes a three year study of calving habitat selection and calf survival being conducted by Craig DeMars from the University of Alberta.

DeMars spent part of this past February and March fitting 25 female caribou in the Fort Nelson area with GPS collars.

“And then in May, June and July, we did helicopters surveys to see where and when they are calving and how many calves are surviving through the neonate period, which is basically six weeks of age,” said DeMars.

Twenty of those cows had calves. The earliest was April 30, but the average date was May 15. Only seven of those twenty calves were still alive on July 15.

“We don’t have evidence as yet as to why they died,” said DeMars. “Generally, the previous research has

them to calve in these predator refuges.”

Ritchie noted that work being done by DeMars and other researchers such as wildlife biologist Conrad The plight of the boreal caribou continues Thiessen will be used to augment the caribou implementation plan in the future. to be a hot topic of conversation among “We need some stability so that people understand the those concerned about the environmental rules and can commit to them and then make investimpacts of natural gas development in ments in inventory methods or what have you,” said Ritchie. “But we also need to be flexible so that new sciNortheast British Columbia. ence – whether it’s Craig’s work or some of the work that Conrad’s doing or is happening in Alberta – we can bring Responding to the increasing concern about caribou into B.C. and use it as soon as possible, just so we can survival and the threat of declining caribou populagain those benefits earlier than later and not be hamtions, the provincial government has developed a set of strung for a five year review period, just as an example.” conservation plans and objectives that were released on Obviously, companies eager to reap the rewards of August 26 as the Implementation Plan for the Ongoing huge shale gas resources in the Management of Boreal Horn River Basin may not be in Caribou in British Cofavour of land being kept free from lumbia. Although natural oil and gas tenures for five years, as gas development in core is the case with the RRA, but Ritchie caribou habitats isn’t the suggests that they are taking it in only issue addressed in stride. the plan, it certainly is “I think industry understand that front and centre. there needs to be some give and “Anything that does take,” he said. “And that, at least land clearing is part of for a certain period, and it’s for five the problem,” said Chris years now, we need to set aside Ritchie, Fish and Wildlife some areas so that we have undeRecovery Manager for veloped areas so that we can deploy the Fish, Wildlife and new techniques or new methods or Habitat Division of the what have you, and see how they Ministry of Environment. work in new areas.

The Ministry of Envi“And also have benchmarks that ronment developed the we can compare how the managed plan, while the Ministry landscape is going compared to of Forests, Lands and areas that are – they’re not going to Natural Resource Operabe necessarily pristine, but they will tions will be responsible not have the oil and gas tenuring for the implementation. activity.”

“So, while forestry The fact that natural gas is under is not currently a big $4 per million cubic feet (mmcf) and economic activity there, that exports of liquefied natural gas it has been in the past, (LNG) from the West Coast are still especially in the more four years away is likely making the southerly portions of the RRA more palatable to industry. caribou range,” Ritchie “I think that, if the price of gas continued. “And there is went up, there would be increased Mike Koloff (left), a helicopter pilot from Qwest Helicopters in Fort Nelson, wildlife biologist Conrad Thiessen optimism that it will be in urgency,” said Ritchie. “I think that’s (middle), and Craig DeMars (right), a researcher from the University of Alberta, collaring a female caribou near Fort the future, so that there Nelson during the winter of 2011. DeMars is conducting a study into caribou calving habitat and calf survival in a common thread.” will be a broader eco“They seem to be quite willing northeast B.C. Photo by Lorraine Brown. nomic machine up there. to comply with the elements of the suggested that about 90 per cent of mortalities would be So, that will have incremental impacts. plan,” he continued. “And they are, as part of the comdue to predation.”

“That leads to early seral conditions, which is good mitment, going to support some of the monitoring, some DeMars was in the midst of analyzing data from the for moose or deer, as the case may be, which is good of the research that’s going on. And so they’re, at least first year of the study in early October, but he was already at one level, making quite a strong commitment, both for wolves. And that’s the other short-term issue, is that recognizing trends in terms of calving site selection. land clearing has likely led to increased wolf numbers financially and then as staying out of certain areas.”

“That’s been sort of the focus of this first year, just – predator numbers – and they’re one of the short-term Some of the most interesting information included in trying to figure out what constitutes caribou calving issues that are a problem for caribou.” the implementation plan concerns the link between oil habitat,” he said. “And so I did a bunch of analyses and, According to statistics presented in the implementaand gas development and the risk of extirpation that basically, what our results suggest so far is that they tion plan, over 75 per cent of boreal caribou range in caribou face in the Northeast. For example, the docuB.C. is tenured and being developed for oil and gas. The seem to make a switch in the spring to nutrient poor ment notes that the herd in the Parker range faces a 65 fens, and also to sort of rich fens too. … Habitats which per cent chance of extirpation in the next 50 years even province has determined that the disturbance threshold have higher productivity of plant-life in the spring. if there is a full moratorium on oil and gas activity. for caribou is 61 percent of the land area, which means “But it seems that all the caribou seem to do that, That herd faces an almost 100 per cent chance of that caribou living in a range exceeding that amount of switch to those habitats in the spring, because I also extirpation with either of the other two scenarios – no disturbance will experience negative population growth looked at those five cows that didn’t have a calf, and management or provincial management.

– their numbers will decline.

The herd in the Snake-Sahtenah range is in a similar Twelve of the fifteen core habitats in Northern B.C. are they also made that switch.

“So, fens seem to be important to females in the predicament. Interestingly, the herd in the Maxhamish currently above that threshold. So, it stands to reason spring. Also, they showed increasing avoidance of range faces a probability of extirpation of less than ten that those herds will continue to decline. human-made features on the landscape. Also, inper cent with or without management, while facing a “That’s what the modeling is suggesting,” said Ritchie. creased avoidance of upland habitats like … aspen and zero per cent chance of extirpation with a full moratorium The big challenge for the province is reversing that on oil and gas development. pine uplands.” trend.

“Partly because it’s the newest area for industrial The predator collaring, which will involve putting GPS “One of the challenges is, even if we stop all work development,” Ritchie said of the Maxhamish. “So, it’s in collars on 20 wolves and 20 black bears this winter, will tomorrow, most of the populations are in trouble and will a relatively pristine state. And it’s relative. It’s not without hopefully tell DeMars why that is the case. continue to decline,” Ritchie continued. “So, cease and its impacts from human activity, oil and gas and other“My interpretation there is, female caribou may be desist is just not a good solution for caribou. So, what wise.” genetically hard-wired to go into larger peatland patches we’re trying to do is to find a way to moderate, limit the “That’s why it has the most opportunity to maintain its in the spring,” DeMars continued. “And they go into amount of further, additional impact, take measures to quality of habitat compared to places farther south with a the centre, position themselves in the centre to calve. restrict it in some places.” longer history of oil and gas activity, where the footprint And these peatlands – like these nutrient poor fens The effort has included the creation of Resource has been established sometimes for many decades,” he and treed bogs – they’re thought to be somewhat of a Review Areas (RRA) in the Horn River Basin, land that continued. “And so you have to fix that, as it were, as predator refuge for caribou. But I think, from sort of an will remain free from oil and gas tenures for five years. evolutionary perspective, they’ve had a pressure put on The RRA are part of a quest for answers about declining continued pg 29

October 2011 I pipeline news north •

29

Fort Nelson’s fun run - cont’d cont’d from pg 25

Kids of all ages came out for the Young and the Rest of Us Fun Run held in Fort Nelson. The run, which was held on their new community trails, was organized by Encana and the Northern Rockies Recreation Department.

“Everybody loved the trails,” she continued. “There was lots of comments on how well groomed they were. And the scenery’s beautiful. It was so pretty going through at this time of year, too, with all the leaves.”

An opportunity to show off the new trail and encourage Fort Nelson residents to be active were among the reasons why local Encana representatives were so eager to put together the fun run. After all, when the trail was first proposed, Encana donated $125,000 to its construction.

“There’s so many people who want to be outside, walking their dogs or running, and we just needed a community trail, because there was nothing,” said White, noting that the Demonstration Forest trails are popular during the winter, but are often too wet for the casual walker or runner the rest of the year.

“There was just nothing else in the community and nowhere for people to walk or run safely when you’re off the road,” she added.

So, Encana decided to step up and contribute to the project, a decision that could prove important to local runners looking for new opportunities to compete at home.

“There’s quite a running population in Fort Nelson,” said Liebelt, remarking that most of the runners actually participated in the half-marathon.

“Killer hills that they had to run twice,” she continued. “So, they deserve some kudos.’

“The fact that we had donated a large amount of money to the trail,” added White, “it was a nice opportunity to kind of highlight the trail and get more people out there running on it. And I know a lot of people use it, but a lot of people may not use it as this point. And this way we just get a little more attention to the trail.”

White was thrilled with the turnout for the event. Her expectations had been 30 to 40 participants, but the final tally was closer to 100. She is already thinking about next year, hoping that more children will join the fun.

“An entire family could participate in the day, which is kind of that perfect event,” said White. “It’s hard to get volunteers when you plan events like that, because you make it so accessible that everybody can do it.

And it’s really hard to find people who aren’t doing it who will help you out.”

Volunteers for the event included bike patrollers and the local conservation officer, who walked along the trail with his dog in an effort to deter bears.

“I didn’t see or hear of any bears that day, which was great,” said White. “That was getting a little concerning initially.

“It was beautiful,” Liebelt added.

“The weather was perfect. No bears.” •

Photo courtesy of Encana and Northern Rockies Recreation Department.

cont’d from pg 28 well as keep on top of the new development.”

Ritchie also remarked that it is thought that wolf numbers increase relative to moose population size to a greater extent farther south in the province than they do up north in the Maxhamish region.

“When you do land clearing in the south – for example, in the Chinchaga [range area] – the forage response in a positive way for moose is stronger,” he explained. “So, you get more moose and more wolves and more predation on caribou. The farther you go north, it’s just less amenable for moose, and so that positive response from land clearing is just a bit weaker.”

The herds in the Parker and Prophet ranges also face a greater risk of extirpation partly just because those ranges are so small compared to other areas in Northeast B.C. Furthermore, even if there was to be a moratorium on oil and gas activity in some of those ranges, they already have a level of disturbance in terms of pipeline right-of-ways and seismic lines – which are thought to increase predation by wolves and black bears – that simply don’t exist in the Maxhamish range.

“And there’s a continuum,” said Ritchie.

“And we would put Maxhamish at one end in the most pristine – again, it’s not pristine – and probably the Chinchaga, just because it’s the most southerly and the oldest, as having the most impact.

Now that relationship erodes a little bit because Chinchaga is a big area. And so the activity can just spread out and disappear to a certain extent.”

There has also been natural recovery and restoration of seismic lines in areas that have seen oil and gas activity for that length of time.

“And so we just need to figure out when they stop positively contributing to moose and are sort of good for caribou again,

and what we can do to accelerate that,” said Ritchie.

The Maxhamish herd may also benefit from the fact that industry practices have changed since activity began in the Northeast, particularly when it comes to seismic work. Low impact seismic is now the industry standard and it has a much smaller impact on the environment.

Promoting technological advances of that nature is part of the implementation plan, although it isn’t an area in which the government plans to be heavily involved.

“We’re leaving it to the industrial practitioners to know the technical opportunities and limitations for that seismic stuff,” said Ritchie, adding that the same is true for any technical aspect of the industry.

“What we want to do is say the values that we’re trying to preserve for caribou habitat are this and that,” he continued.

“And what we think are the negative attributes that we’re trying to get away from are this and that. How can your current operations or the ones that we might be trying to remediate move us to that better overall condition for caribou?”

Interestingly, the caribou management plan may have a positive impact beyond conserving the caribou population.

“The curse and the blessing of caribou is they need a large landscape to persist and survive on, so that as we’re able to manage effectively for caribou at that large landscape, we’re going to get, as some sort of a conservation by-catch, lots of other pieces of those ecosystems that benefit,” said Ritchie.

“Grizzly bears, not maybe the best example, but just because it also has a very broad use of the landscape and it’s pretty forgiving in terms of its habitat needs. If you can manage the roads and road use, it’s pretty good for grizzly bear. But there may be aquatic species, some of the Red and Blue listed bird species that will benefit from the softer touch that we’re able to have for caribou.” •

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30 • PIPELINE NEWS NORTH I

October 2011

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32513

CCIS oil & gas training program - cont’d

CCIS Service Rig-Hand Training Program class that graduated on October 4, 2011 (left).

The graduating class of the 2011 Drilling Rig-Hand Training Program (above) had 68 job offers by the time of their graduation on September 7. CCIS trains new Canadians to work in the oil and gas industry.

Photo by CCIS Media Specialist Khalid Hakim

cont’d from pg 23 “All of them that come as guest speakers, they say, ‘Oh, we’d take all of them,’” said Hoepfner.

The seismic students will graduate in mid-November.

“It’s coming full circle,” said Hoepfner, explaining that former CCIS students are now looking to hire recent graduates to work on their crews.

CCIS appears to be setting a high standard for training programs too.

“Our main concern is working with high-class institutions such as Enform for the safety training,” said Hoepfner.

“And we highly value that. And we think

it’s very important for the guys to have as much training as possible so that once they get out there they’re full prepared and ready to get to work with the best tools in terms of skills and safety awareness” “We have a track record of good employment success,” she continued. “And the reason is because employers recognize that these guys are very safety aware and they have all the integration tools that they need to start working in the oil patch.”

“Employers have been very supportive. And right now we’re even conducting presentations with other employers because we know that oil patch workers are in very high demand.” •

October 2011 I pipeline news north •

31

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32 • PIPELINE NEWS NORTH I October 2011