Black Gold - Oil Show - June 2024

oilpatch sentinel

Daylight is receding after the sun set, silhouetting this

their know-how and efficiency, which will be

Saskatchewan Oil Show a ‘testament to industry resiliency’

By Greg Nikkel

The Saskatchewan Oil and Gas Show is shaping up to be another top-notch event with speakers, vendors from across western Canada, and the awards presentations.

The show runs from Tuesday, June 4 to Thursday, June 6, with a full schedule throughout the three days along

with vendors, both outside on the Weyburn fair grounds and inside Crescent Point Place and the Tom Zandee Sports Arena.

For show chair Dan Cugnet, this is show “No. 2.5” for him, as he was initially chair for the show in 2021 that couldn’t go ahead due to COVID restrictions – but they had put in a

lot of work and planning for that show before the decision was made to postpone it, and then it was held in 2022.

The Oil Show has the green light to go fullbore ahead this year, and starts on Tuesday morning with the golf tournament, and with the inaugural Outlaw Buckers and Oil Kings Match Bronc Riding

event in the evening.

“We have a fabulous lineup of speakers. Ultimately, the heart of the show are always the vendors,” said Cugnet, as they come from across western Canada to showcase the latest in innovative technology and equipment for the oil and gas industry.

“To me the standout of the show is everything

we have on the grounds, and as a board we really make a concerted effort to supplement how great the grounds are with what we have for presence from government, what we have for speakers, and the show has such a highlight with the awards,” he said, adding that as a board the challenge they have each show is to continu-

ally set the bar higher, “and strive to punch above our weight here in southeast Sask.” Cugnet noted that despite the challenges caused by the low oil prices in 2014, and a change in government federally in 2015, the oil industry continues to grow and to thrive in southeast Saskatchewan.

Continued on page 2

Del Mondor of Aldon Oils is this year’s Saskatchewan Oil Person of the Year

Hall of Fame

An

Review Photo – Greg Nikkel

pumpjack located in the Weyburn Field near Goodwater. The oil industry has been resilient and is thriving thanks to

on display at the Saskatchewan Oil and Gas Show at the Weyburn fair grounds from June 4-6.

Success of Sask Oil Show ‘takes a village’, said Cugnet

Continued from front

For example, he said, while drilling is not at the level it used to be, drilling companies are much more efficient now, as a well that took 20 days to finish in 2011 is now done in six or seven days.

“We don’t realize how much better and more efficient we’ve become. While we’re dealing with attrition, low oil prices and difficult federal policies, and the withdrawal of capital in western Canada, that actually made

everybody who works here become way better at what they’re doing, and I think that’s a real testament to our resiliency. Adversity can be a test or a curse, but that’s really how we grow and how we get better at what we do,” said Cugnet, adding that optimization is at the forefront right now for oil producers, and predicted drilling will come back again as worldwide demand for oil continues to grow.

“We need to foster entrepreneurship, and

to foster a tax environment that promotes and attracts investment that creates a return,” he added, noting the Oil Show is a testament to the people who seek to do this, to help the industry to grow.

For the success of the Oil Show, Cugnet notes it takes a village, as many community groups help them out by volunteering for various aspects of the event, such as serving at the lobster-or-steak dinner on Tuesday, or at the luncheon or prime rib

dinner on Wednesday.

The bronc riding event is run separately from the Oil Show, but it’s also a part of it as one of the partners bringing it is Weyburn oilman Jonathan Kmita, along with Robert Schmidt, as they are bringing some of the top bronc horses in the world. These horses also are provided as stock at the Calgary Stampede and National Finals Rodeo in Las Vegas.

The chain-cutting ceremony for the Oil Show will be done on

Wednesday morning, with Premier Scott Moe in attendance along with the provincial cabinet. The premier will also be present to help with the presentation of awards at the noon luncheon.

The Oil Industry Hall of Fame and Southeast Sask Legends will be presented at 12:45 p.m., then in the evening, the Saskatchewan and SE Saskatchewan Oil Person of the Year awards will be presented.

The awards will be followed by a performance by comedian Kelly

Taylor at 8:30 p.m.

Thursday will see a return of the breakfast, as the Safety StandDown breakfast will be held at 7:30 a.m., and a survivor of the Humboldt Broncos bus crash, Tyler Smith, will speak at 8 a.m.

At the industry luncheon at noon, the keynote speaker will be former Prime Minister Stephen Harper.

“His coming here is a huge thing for Weyburn, for the southeast and for Saskatchewan,” noted Cugnet.

In memoriam: Oil Show board will miss speaker Rex Murphy

Welcome to the 2024 Saskatchewan

& Gas Show

Canadian commentator Rex Murphy, who spoke at the two previous editions of the Saskatchewan Oil and Gas Show, “will be missed”, said Oil Show chair Dan Cugnet.

Murphy passed away on May 9 at the age of 77 years, and the native of Newfoundland was known across Canada for his unique views on the issues of the day.

“He loved Saskatchewan and he loved the prairies, and was always thrilled to come here,” said Cugnet. “He had such a voice, and he was really a champion of Canada from coast to coast, and a champion of common sense.”

He noted he had reached out to Murphy last fall to make a third appearance at Weyburn’s Oil Show, but Murphy indicated he was having some health issues.

“We were lucky to

have had him a part of the Oil Show, and he’ll certainly be missed by all of us on the board,” said Cugnet.

“He’s one of those characters, you either love him or you hate him,” he added, noting he considered Murphy as a “modern day Thomas Paine” who spoke for the common person with wit and humour, and his death “is a loss for the whole country.” Cugnet was able to spend time with him as he picked him up and took him to the airport for his appearances, and he had a natural curiosity. As he took Murphy around the Oil Show, he noted that people of all ages were delighted to meet him and talk with him or get selfies with him.

“You could see that plainly on people’s faces, and it wasn’t an act,” he said.

Outlaw Buckers and Oil Kings to feature top-notch rodeo action

The best bronc horses in the world will be featured in Weyburn for the inaugural edition of “Outlaw Buckers and Oil Kings” bronc-riding, to be held on Tuesday, June 4 at the Weyburn fair grounds, as a supplement to the Saskatchewan Oil and Gas Show.

Oil Show chair Dan Cugnet noted the opportunity to host this premiere pro rodeo event came up as rodeo producer Robert Schmidt approached the oil show board about bringing the event here as a way to kick off the show.

One of Schmidt’s partners in the venture is Weyburn oilman Jonathan Kmita, who is also known as a competitor and for providing rodeo stock to such

top events as the Calgary Stampede and the National Finals Rodeo in Las Vegas – and those top bronc horses will be coming here.

As a part of the high calibre of this show, announcer Butch Knowles will be lending his voice to the event. He is famous as the announcer for the Stampede and the National Finals Rodeo, among other events.

The Outlaw Buckers will be put on and organized separately from the Oil Show, but it will featured as a part of the show, with Cugnet taking part in the tailgate party in the afternoon from 2-4 p.m., with the bucking broncos to start at 4.

Tickets are $30 each, and the riders will be go-

ing for $30,000 in cash prizes. Youth 15 and under are free when accompanied by an adult, but they must have a ticket.

To buy tickets, go to the Outlaw Buckers and Oil Kings website and click on the button for tickets.

Cugnet is excited for the potential to be a big thing for Weyburn as the intent is to make it an annual event, to run in the off-years for the Oil Show.

“We’re excited as a board, as this allows us to continue to punch above our weight,” he said. “We just encourage everyone in the community to come and take it in, along with the Oil Show itself.” He noted that tickets for the Oil Show were also going fast.

‘He will be missed’

Review Photo 4707 – Greg Nikkel Dan Cugnet, chair of the Weyburn Oil Show board, posed with guest speaker Rex Murphy after he spoke at the 2022 Oil Show. Murphy passed away on May 9 after a battle with cancer at the age of 77 years. He spoke at the last two editions of the Oil Show, and Cugnet said he and the board will miss his unique perspective and voice.

7:30

Inductees named for Sask. Oil and Gas Hall of Fame

Chairman of the Saskatchewan Oil and Gas Hall of Fame committee, Dean Potter Chairman, Saskatchewan Oil and Gas Hall of Fame announced the nominations for the 2024 Oilman of the Year award and for two inductees to the Saskatchewan Hall of Fame with presentation of the awards scheduled for June 5 at the Oil Show.

The semi-annual Oil Person of the Year award has been awarded for over 30 years now, recognizing many individuals who have contributed significantly to the Saskatchewan oil industry.

The Committee also presents Hall of Fame

Bios/photos

awards semi-annually to individuals who were born and raised in Saskatchewan and have made significant contributions to the oil industry in Saskatchewan or elsewhere in the world.

The 2024 recipient of the Saskatchewan Oilman of the Year Award is Del Mondor.

Del is the owner of Aldon Oils based in Weyburn, and is recognized for his many worthy contributions to the Saskatchewan oil industry, both as an active operator developing oil and gas in southeast Saskatchewan and as an active contributor to the community in both southeast Saskatchewan and

Brian Zinchuck, editor and owner

Calgary. Del was born in Saskatchewan and attended the University of Saskatchewan.

He is also a past chairman of the Saskatchewan Oil and Gas Show. He will be presented with the award at the noon luncheon scheduled for June 5 at the Weyburn Oil Show.

The Committee also announced Myron M. Stadnyk and Brad J. Wall to the Saskatchewan Oil and Gas Hall of Fame.

Since 1989, the Saskatchewan Oil Industry Board of Governors has recognized individuals who have made significant contributions to the petroleum industry in Sask. and beyond.

Providing Experienced Personnel for

for all aspects of the Oil &

Providing Fully Certified Welders for Oil &

Fedyk Construction & Maintenance Division 306-421-1258

Saskatchewan Oil Person of the Year

Photo 0284 – courtesy Brian Zinchuk

Del Mondor will be presented with the Saskatchewan Oil Person of the Year award at the Saskatchewan Oil and Gas Show on June 5. He owns and operates Aldon Oils of Weyburn, and is a past chairman of the Oil Show.

Former premier inducted to Sask Oil and Gas Hall of Fame

Brad Wall was born in 1965 in Swift Current, where he grew up. As a young man he worked for a local FM station. He received an honours degree in Public Administration from the University of Saskatchewan in 1987. In 1988 He became a political staffer in the Grant Devine-led Progressive Conservative government.

After the change in government, Wall started a communications consulting business working in economic development, business communications and tourism. He also started and operated a ranchbased tourism adventure business called the

Last Stand Adventure Company.

In 1991, Wall married Tami Kildaw of Prince Albert. They met at the University of Saskatchewan. He was first elected as the MLA for Swift Current in 1999. Wall became leader of the Saskatchewan Party and Leader of the Opposition in 2004.

In 2007 Wall was elected to government as premier, defeating an NDP government that had been in power for 16 years. Subsequent elections in 2011 and 2016 were won by a larger number of seats. He campaigned on the idea that Saskatchewan needed an attitude adjustment – that this

province could be so much more, if it chose to. His speeches talked of celebrating success, not looking down on it; a province of growth, not just maintaining what we have. He spoke of how young people could find a future here, and how this province need not remain stuck at one million people.

One of his early acts as premier was to bring about the New West Partnership, meant to improve trade and labour mobility between Saskatchewan, Alberta, Manitoba and British Columbia. It made doing business, including in the energy industry, easier between those jurisdictions.

When it came to energy, Wall came to power just as the Bakken Boom took hold. In 2008, the province saw more than a billion dollars in Crown land sales, and an oil boom that lasted until late 2014.

The Saskatchewan Party energy policy under Wall was that of rock-solid stability, built on a royalty structure established by the previous NDP government. It was that stability that saw Saskatchewan attract billions of dollars of investment in oil when those same dollars were being scared away from Alberta due to regulatory uncertainty in that province, particularly with respect to the possibility of Alberta hiking royalties.

Indeed, Wall’s energy minister for the first part of his administration, Bill Boyd, often gave the same speech. That speech was essentially this: “The Premier has instructed me to say, ‘Thank you.’ Thank you for the jobs, thank you for the investment, thank you for the taxes and royalties. And we’re not touching a thing, when it comes to royalties.”

And under that regime of stability, Saskatchewan saw drilling activity surge to over 110 drilling rigs during winter drilling seasons. Oil production grew to a peak of 536,000 barrels per day in December, 2014.

Wall came to power just as critical decisions needed to be made with regards to the power generation future of this province, at that time heavily reliant on coalfired power. In 2011, the ultimate decision on whether to go ahead with the $1.6 billion Boundary Dam Unit 3 Carbon Capture and Storage project fell to Wall. And he chose to pull the trigger, as it were. It led to the build -

ing of a world-leading carbon capture facility that for many years after was toured by politicians, researchers and executives from around the world, tours that continue to this day. It was a bold decision that unfortunately was not replicated by others in the coal-fired power generation business. But in 2024, the United States Environmental Protection Agency brought in new rules for blanket carbon capture and storage on coal-fired power in that nation. One of the foundational examples cited by the EPA was Boundary Dam Unit 3 project. The carbon dioxide from that project has been used in the Weyburn Unit for enhanced oil recovery, extending the life of that oilfield by many years as a result, increasing oil production while reducing greenhouse gas emissions.

Wall was one of the leading advocates for pipeline construction to tidewater at a time when pipelines were coming under harsh criticism. Such export pipelines would broaden markets for Saskatchewan and Canadian oil, increasing prices, and through them, royalties, taxes and employment. He frequently travelled to Washington to meet with Congress and administration officials to promote the Keystone XL pipeline. During the decade he was Premier, the employment sector grew by 60,000 new jobs, and provincial population growth reached its all-time high, growing by 160,000 people. The Wall government’s growth plan reformed labour legislation, income, property and small business tax reductions and regulatory environments to ensure fairness, sustainability, and economic competitiveness. Tax reductions

removed over 100,000 low income people from the Saskatchewan income tax roll. During these years Saskatchewan reduced its operating debt by almost $1 billion and earned its first ever AAA credit rating.

During his tenure as premier, Wall did something most politicians in the rest of Canada wouldn’t. He stood up for and celebrated our energy industry. And during nearly all that time, he was consistently held the highest approval ratings among Canadian premiers. Wall served as premier until 2018, retiring from public life after 18 years.

Since his departure from public life, Wall keeps himself busy by operating his own consulting business and acting as a special advisor to the national law firm Osler, Hoskin and Harcourt LLP. He is a member of various private sector boards, several of which are in the Saskatchewan energy sector. That includes Whitecap Resources, Helium Evolution and uranium explorer NexGen Energy. He is a member of the Advisory Board of the Canada American Business Council, the Fraser Institute and is Co-Chair for the Canada-ASEAN Business Council. He recently chaired the fleet replacement committee for STARS Air Ambulance.

He also has been known to ride a horse or two, now residing in Cypress Hills with his wife, Tami. They have three grown children – Megan, Colter, and Faith. He is a ‘silent’ partner in a yearling ranch operation with his son near Battle Creek, Sask. Wall may or may not own Waylon Jennings’1973 Eldorado, and occasionally cheers for the Saskatchewan Roughriders.

Former premier in Oil Industry Hall of Fame Photo 4335 – courtesy Brian Zinchuk Brad Wall, former premier of Saskatchewan, will be inducted into the Saskatchewan Oil and Gas Hall of Fame, with the award to be presented at the Oil Show on June 5.

Stadnyk inducted into Sask Oil Industry’s Hall of Fame

Myron M. Stadnyk was born in Prince Albert. His parents grew up in the Cudworth and Wakaw area. Stadnyk also lived briefly in Denzil and Lloydminster prior to his parents settling in North Battleford in 1969 where they continue to reside. He attended the University of Saskatchewan, graduating from Mechanical Engineering in 1985.

Stadnyk continues to serve on the Board of the College of Engineering Advancement Trust and is also a current member of the USask Campaign Cabinet which is undertaking a major fundraiser for the University of Saskatchewan. Stadnyk is also a graduate of the Harvard Advanced Management Program.

Stadnyk started his career as inexpensive

labour for his farming relatives and worked on road construction in northwest Saskatchewan. Upon graduation, Stadnyk started his career with Shell Canada working in operations across western Canada, including time at Midale in the 1980s.

He moved into project management, which included construction of the large Caroline gas plant in Alberta and LNG (liquefied natural gas) facilities in Asia. In 1997, Stadnyk became the first operations employee at ARC Resources, which was called ARC Energy Trust at the time. From a handful of dedicated and entrepreneurial employees, ARC grew to employ hundreds of people across western Canada.

ARC drilled the first well in its corporate his-

tory north of the Midale Unit and had ownership positions in the Weyburn Unit, Midale Unit, Oungre Unit, Lougheed Unit, Smiley and many other properties in southeast and southwest Saskatchewan.

During ARC’s time in Saskatchewan the company invested $990 million in capital drilling and infrastructure projects and $700 million in operating costs while paying $850 million of royalties which benefitted the province and freehold royalty owners. ARC has continued to demonstrate success over the years and is now one of Canada’s largest oil and gas production companies.

He currently serves as a member of the Board of Directors for Crescent Point Energy Corp., Vermilion

Weyburn Oil Show board names award recipients

The Weyburn Oil Show board announced the recipients of the 2024 Southeast Saskatchewan Legends Award, the “Laurence M. Woodard” Southeast Oilperson of the Year Award, and the “Ron Jeffery” Friend of the Show Award. These accolades highlight the outstanding contributions to the oil and gas industry, associations and communities in southeast Saskatchewan, and will be presented at the 20th biennial Saskatchewan

Oil and Gas Show on June 5.

Dan Cugnet, chair of the Weyburn Oil Show board, said, “The Southeast Saskatchewan Legends Award is a testament to the dedication and impact of individuals who have significantly shaped the oil and gas industry in our region. These esteemed individuals have devoted at least 25 years to the industry, with the majority of that time spent right here in southeast Saskatchewan.”

The 2024 Legends

inductees are Dean Gilliss, Dean Lemieux, Paul Cheung, Jim Baker and Darcy Cretin.

In addition, the prestigious “Laurence M. Woodard” Southeast Oil Person of the Year Award will be presented to Ryan Birnie, recognizing his substantial contributions to the growth and success of the industry in southeast Saskatchewan in recent years.

The “Ron Jeffery” Friends of the Show Award will be presented to Trevor Pandachuk and Jim Hutt, as they

Energy Inc. and the University of Saskatchewan Engineering Advancement Trust.

Stadnyk is also a member of the Association of Professional Engineers and Geoscientists of Alberta. He served as a member of the Board of Directors for Prairie Sky Royalty Ltd. and was Governor for the Canadian Association of Petroleum Producers for over 10 years.

Myron served on many volunteer organizations including STARS Air Ambulance, CAPP (Canadian Association of Petroleum Producers, United Way, Glenbow Museum Board, University of Saskatchewan and others. Myron is married to Jennifer who was born in Estevan. They have three adult children and six grandchildren.

Myron Stadnyk inducted to Hall of Fame

Myron Stadnyk, a longtime oil industry member, will be inducted into the Saskatchewan Oil Industry’s Hall of Fame at the Sask. Oil and Gas Show on June 5.

Photo – courtesy Brian Zinchuk

At the end of the day

Review Photo 3751 – Greg Nikkel

A pumpjack is silhouetted by the setting sun at a wellsite south of Weyburn. A full slate of vendors and speakers will be at the Saskatchewan Oil and Gas Show on June 4-6 at the Weyburn fair grounds, with the latest in technology, best practices and equipment for the oil industry.

Dean Gilliss to be honoured as a ‘SE Sask Legend’

east Saskatchewan as a roughneck. By 1983 he worked his way up to a drilling position.

In the fall of 1979

Dean enrolled in a preemployment electrical course at STI Moose Jaw. The spring of 1980 saw him working for Simmons Drilling in south-

Dean Gilliss was born and raised at Manor, Sask., in 1959 and graduated there in 1977. Starting that summer and into early 1979, he worked road construction for Ramsey & Bird construction. In the spring 1979 Dean went to work for Bird Drilling in southeast Saskatchewan. He noted, “Coming from Manor, that’s just what you did.”

During the road ban season of 1983 Dean went with Simmons Drilling to Saudi Arabia in search of potash on an island in the Red Sea. That was not his cup of

tea, Dean noted. He married Bonnie Quarrie of Fife Lake, Sask. on Nov. 3, 1984. They had two children, Dylan, in 1988, and Logan, in 1990. Both ended up joining and eventually buying back the family business.

In the summer of 1985 Dean took a coring position with A&A Coring in Estevan, supervising the coring of oil wells as well as potash exploration wells.

In the fall of 1992, Dean was inspired by long-time drilling consultant Carl Shane of Estevan. Bonnie and Dean purchased Coffee Power Tongs of Carlyle, renaming it Gilliss Power Tongs. The company was moved to their acreage west of Lampman.

“We started Dec. 1, 1992,” Dean said. “When I started, there were only 12 rigs running in southeast Saskatchewan. It just kind of grew, and we grew with it.”

He started DAM Oil Field Services in 1995 with Michael Grimes. That company rented radios and closed telephone systems for use on drilling rigs. In 1999 Michael moved to Cal-

gary and Dean’s younger brother Laird became his partner in the company. They sold the company to Global Link of Alberta in 2001.

By 1996, there were 50 to 60 rigs working in the region, and now that number has climbed to about 70 in southeast Saskatchewan and another dozen in southwest Manitoba. Things were busy in the power tong business.

“In 1997 I had eight trucks, but in 1998, it all came to a ‘Whoa!’ It got down to just me, and I sold off some equipment,” Dean said. However, as things picked up, Gilliss Power Tongs rebounded. And by 2008, they built a new shop north of Estevan.

In 2004 Dean and Randy Phillips of Stoughton started RDT Rentals Ltd. This company rented portable offices consultants could move themselves from location to location, providing a huge step up from using their pickup as an office.

In 2006 Dean came up with the idea of mechanical clamp now known as the Bulldog Clamp. It’s a device used to aid

in the transfer of tubing from the catwalk to the rig floor. That led to the creation of Gilliss Oil Tools. The clamp is used primarily on service rigs, but also drilling rigs. In 2008 Bonnie purchased Randy’s shares of RDT and then sold them to Dylan Gilliss in 2009. In September of 2008 they sold Gilliss Power Tongs Ltd. to Wyoming Casing, whose head office was in Dickinson, N.D. Dean stayed on and managed for two years then shared the position with their oldest son, Dylan. Dean said, “Lots of people thought I should have sold the company to the boys in 2008 but there was one problem. They didn’t have any money!” In 2011 Dean and Dylan sold RDT rentals to Lane and Emery Hanson of Estevan. And in 2013, Dylan and Logan bought the company back from Wyoming Casing, renaming it Gilliss Casing Services. They’ve since expanded to add First Line Pressure Works, a well control testing company. Dean and Bonnie still own and operate Gilliss Oil Tools out of Estevan with the aid of Logan.

Dean Gilliss a ‘SE Sask Legend’ Photo 4643 – courtesy Brian Zinchuk

Dean Gilliss will be honoured as a “Legend” of the southeast Sask. oil industry, with the award to be presented at the Oil Show on June 5.

Fire Bridgade received $10,000 donation from Oil and Gas Show board

The Saskatchewan Oil and Gas Show Board presented $10,000 to the Weyburn Fire Brigade on May 22.

and Gas show for many years, as a way to help with the show and give back to the

Weyburn and the surrounding area. Oil and Gas Show

Jim Larter recognized as a Southeast Sask Legend

In describing Jim Larter’s career, it might be easier to list the oil companies he hasn’t worked for, rather than the ones he did.

That’s because he’s worked for 12 companies, three of which changed names, for a total of 15 banners. And in most cases, he was the senior man on the ground in southeast Saskatchewan, as production foreman or production superintendent.

Larter was born and raised in Estevan, and has spent his career there. His father was the local John Deere dealer who eventually became one of the founders of TS&M before eventually selling his stake.

Larter graduated from Estevan Comprehensive School in 1980. He had part time jobs as a kid, pumping gas and running an outdoor rink for the city, as well as helping dad at John Deere.

Larter went into the retail business after high school, working at Frank’s Men’s Wear for six years.

“I almost bought the place, but I was offered a job in the oilpatch, and found out the money was a lot better.”

He married his high school sweetheart, Cheryl Stang, in 1985. They had two boys, Ryan in 1988, and Scott, in 1990.

“I was a battery operator in 1988 when I started with Imperial Oil,” he said. He was 26, and working at Steelman. In 1991, the area was sold to SaskOil, which became Wascana Energy shortly after that.

That was the beginning of a long trend of buyouts and mergers. At Wascana he became an optimization operator. Then in 1996 he was offered a job as a production foreman at Upton Resources, a public company run by the local Dutton family.

“In 2003 the buying and acquisitions and selling took off,” he said. He was at StarPoint Energy in 2003, which became StarPoint Energy Trust. “I became superintendent at that point,” he said.

A production foreman looks after day-to-day operations of a certain area, co-ordinating field work.

Production superintendent manages the whole area for a company, such as southeast Saskatchewan. From that point on, Larter was a production superintendent or production foreman, essentially the same role, at various companies.

This was around the time the Bakken boom started to get going, and Larter rode herd over a good chunk of

• prairierathole.com

it. Around 2005, StarPoint Energy Trust was bought out by Acclaim, but they soon changed their name to Canetic Resources Trust. Brett Herman offered him a job at TriStar Oil & Gas in 2005.

In 2009, Petrobank/ PetroBakken bought TriStar, and two years later Larter was offered a job at Renegade Petroleum. They were taken out by Spartan Energy Corp. He was with Spartan a month before

being offered a job again by Herman, this time with Torc Oil & Gas in 2011.

“I was there for 10 years. It was my longest gig,” he said. Whitecap Resources took over Torc in 2021. “It’s

Jim

of the southeast

on June 5.

kind of ironic that Grant Fagerheim was the president, because I grew up two blocks down the street from him,” Larter said. At that point, Larter was responsible for all of Whitecap’s properties in southeast Saskatchewan, with the exception of the Weyburn Unit. Larter retired from Whitecap in May, 2023. When he retired, his coworkers presented him with a mounted and framed collection of badges from most of those companies over the years. And throughout, he did his best to ensure those companies gave back to the local communities.

All told, over those years Larter was responsible at times for wells from Weyburn to Virden, Man., and even into North Dakota. Three times he was responsible for the same wells in the Steelman area, including starting there and finishing there.

Larter’s children followed him into the oilpatch, with Ryan working at Baker Chemicals, and Scott at Primec.

The Weyburn Fire Brigade has provided First Aid Services to the Oil

community. The donation will go towards their training facility centre, which will benefit

board members, from left, include Pete Anderson, Monica Osborn, Tonya Miller, Mayor Marcel Roy, Don Sealy, Darcy Cretin, Mason Schick, Pat Maloney, Shane Pollock and Dan Cugnet. Fire brigade members, from left, include Fire Chief Trent Lee, Jola Bell-Erb, Michael Hudson, Katelyn Gateman and Rob Jack.

Photo - Sabrina Kraft

Jim Larter a ‘Legend’

Photo 2859 – courtesy Brian Zinchuk

Larter shows a framed collection of logos of all the oil companies he was a part of over his long career in the oilpatch. He will receive an award as a “SE Sask Legend” at the Saskatchewan Oil and Gas Show

Dean Lemieux named as a Southeast Sask Legend

Dean Lemieux was born and raised at Alida, Sask., in 1965. His father worked on the rigs and then had his own Alidabased oilfield construction company when Dean was young. Dean worked for his father part-time as a teenager.

Lemieux graduated in 1984 from Carnduff High School. He started working on a crew truck, doing contract maintenance for Mobil Oil. “From there, one of the contract operators went to work permanently for another company, so I got a battery operating job for Mobil in ’84.

“Then I operated until ’87. They started building a battery down at Alida, again, and they promoted me to junior supervisor, helping out the Mobil construction superintendent.”

That led to his first leadership position, supervising the battery construction for half a year. He went back to relief battery operating. In late 1989, Mobil sold the North Nottingham Unit to NAL Resources, which at the time was North American Life (this was when life insurance companies had oil and gas as part of their investment portfolios). NAL soon bought the Alida Unit. About 10 years later, they bought the Rosebank area, between Storthoaks and Alida.

“The contract operators were not going to be hired for the new company. Brent Dunnigan with Armada Resources at

that time approached me to work for him. I trained a couple of his operators in the area, then started consulting for Brent, mostly on NAL properties,” Lemieux said. NAL started drilling horizontal wells in the area in the early 1990s, shortly after they bought the Nottingham properties.

Dean married AnnaMarie Fornwald of Lampman in 1992. They met while she was working at Kenosee Lake on her summers off from university. She was completing her finance degree at the University of Saskatchewan. After graduation, Anna-Marie spent some time working for the provincial finance department in Regina, before working in admin for several companies in southeast Saskatchewan. They have three children – twins Austin and Lucia in 1994, and Dalton in 1998.

The birth of the twins in particular factors into the story, because they were born two days before Dean started his new foreman job for NAL.

For the previous four years Target Resources had managed NAL’s properties with Armada operating and consulting for them. In 1994 NAL decided to bring it in house. “NAL decided they were going to manage their own properties and wanted a field foreman. So, my good wife got me to apply for the company position. And Feb. 15, 1994, I was hired as production foreman for

NAL Resources. We had no employees other than myself and one admin in the office,” he said.

He worked initially out of Alida. But in 1999, NAL had bought enough of the ownership of the Nottingham gas plant to challenge operatorship of the plant and take it over. Nottingham was and is one of the oldest and largest gas plants in southeast Saskatchewan, dating back to the 1950s. The plant foreman that was running it decided not to accept a position with NAL Resources. “So two days prior to taking over the gas plant, they came to my office in Alida and said, ‘Here you go, Dean. You’re the new plant foreman and you’ve got ten employees under you,’” he said.

“I knew nothing about gas plant processing. And the HR person said, ‘Well, you’ve got experienced people under you. And you’re just overseeing the plant and managing people.’”

That led to Lemieux eventually training for a number of gas processing competencies.

The addition of the gas plant led to a promotion as southeast Saskatchewan superintendent. The field office was moved to the Nottingham gas plant, allowing everyone from oil operations and gas operations to work together as a team.

In 1996, NAL Resources amalgamated with the Manufacturers Life Insurance Company to form Manulife Financial.

The investment division kept the NAL Resources name for the energy division. It was one of the first oil companies to be converted into an oil and gas trust.

In 2000, Lemieux was honoured with a Manulife Stars of Excellence award. Manulife each year recognizes its top achievers from around the world, employees who have demonstrated key star qualities, superior knowledge, skill, trust, and integrity. Lemieux and his team were recognized earlier in the year from Ziff Energy Group for having some of the lowest operating costs in southeast Saskatchewan.

After living in Carnduff for nine years, the Lemieux’s bought 100 acres northeast of the town, just 14 miles from the gas plant. They built a new home and started raising some cattle, eventually expanding their land holdings and herd.

In 2003 NAL bought a portion of Nexen, which led to Lemieux working out of an Estevan office. That meant he now had around 45 employees working under him and more than doubling NAL’s production in southeast Saskatchewan.

NAL purchased assets near Kindersley, which led to that area coming under Lemieux’s responsibility as well in 2011, as he took over as superintendent for all of NAL’s operations in Saskatchewan.

Whitecap Resources bought NAL in 2021, but Lemieux was not brought over beyond the transition. He was with NAL for almost 27 years. NAL Resources was one of a very few oil and gas companies to keep its company name through its entire 31-year existence.

Lemieux dedicated most of his career to NAL and took pride in managing the company as if it were his own. Throughout his career he has had the opportunity to work with an exceptionally good team that were knowledgeable and hard working. He has really enjoyed working with numerous service and supply companies and has made some great friends in the industry.

Lemieux took a year off from the oilfield to work on his farm. Randy Ulrich of Woodley Well Services reached out to Lemieux and asked if he would like to do some oilfield construction consulting. That led to the creation of Coyote Oilfield Supervision. Dean is in the field supervising construction and maintenance projects and Anna-Marie manages the admin.

Along the way, Lemieux found time to

volunteer, helping build the Carnduff golf clubhouse. He served as secretary/treasurer with the Carnduff Oilmen’s golf committee for many years. He spent 25-plus years with the oil spill contingency group, including 15 years on the executive. Dean led the CAPP Energy in Action initiative for five years in several communities in southeast Saskatchewan, including Lampman, Oxbow, Midale and Carnduff. When the Lemieux’s are not working, they are raising nearly 100 head of cattle, hunting, fishing, boating, golfing or spending time at their lake cabin in North Dakota. His two sons followed Dean into the oilpatch. Austin works with Competition Environmental and Dalton works with Day Group of Companies. Their daughter, Lucia, is a pharmacist in Regina.

Dean Lemieux is a ‘SE Sask Legend’ Oilman Dean Lemieux is being recognized as a Southeast Sask Legend, with an award to be presented at the Sask. Oil and Gas Show on June 5.

Photo 2933 – courtesy Brian Zinchuk

Government announces new multi-lateral well drilling program

Saskatchewan has introduced a new multilateral well drilling program to grow incremental oil production in the province.

This program creates a competitive royalty regime to encourage the use of multi-lateral horizontal oil wells, which will increase investment in the province.

“This innovative technique will put more rigs and workers in the field and support the Growth Plan goal of increasing oil production by 25 per cent to 600,000 barrels per day,” Energy and Resources Minister Jim Reiter said. “Our new program will increase the province’s revenue so we can continue to invest in classrooms, care and communities.”

Multi-lateral drilling configurations allow

a single well to access more of the oil reservoir. The Ministry of Energy and Resources estimates between 100 to 200 additional wells will be drilled in the province per year as a result of this program.

“The new incentive program for multi-lateral drilling opens up significant new drilling investment opportunities in Saskatchewan for Cenovus,” Jon McKenzie, CEO of Cenovus Energy, said. “It aligns with our focus to strategically build our integrated position in the Lloydminster region and we anticipate it will have positive impacts for provincial employment as well as new production growth. We are pleased to focus on creative ways to bring more investment to Saskatchewan.”

“The competition for capital investment is fierce and Saskatchewan’s plan to modernize the royalty regime to recognize the use of new drilling technologies provides the right policy environment to attract investment to the province,” Canadian Association of Petroleum Producers President and CEO Lisa Baiton said. “A more competitive royalty framework will help unlock valuable oil resources in Saskatchewan and will, in turn, create more jobs and additional revenues for the government and municipalities.”

The oil sector is one of Saskatchewan’s largest industries. The province is the secondlargest oil producing jurisdiction in Canada and supports over 26,000 jobs.

Shane Pollock of Vermilion Energy presented a cheque for $10,000 to Dawn Gutzke, executive director of the Family Place, as part of the company’s annual support of the new family resource centre in Weyburn. The monies are used for the development and maintenance of the greenspace at their new location, and outdoor play area, and they will be making additions to the space with this support.

Southeast College, PTRC sign partnership agreement

Southeast College and PTRC Sustainable Energy have announced a new partnership to advance renewable energy education and research in southern Saskatchewan. The two organizations signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) at the Weyburn campus, outlining their shared vision and goals for the collaboration.

The MOU established a framework for cooperation and coordination between Southeast College and PTRC Sustainable Energy, a worldrenowned research institute that focuses on enhanced oil recovery, carbon capture and storage, and clean energy technologies. The partnership will enable the development and delivery of an innovative Renewable Energy Training program, as well as joint research projects and initiatives related to energy, innovation, and sustainability.

Southeast College President and CEO Dr. Vicky Roy expressed her enthusiasm for the

partnership and its potential benefits for the region.

“This is a significant milestone for Southeast College and our community. We are proud to partner with PTRC, a world-class research centre that has a proven track record of excellence and innovation in the energy sector. By combining our resources and capabilities, we can offer high-quality education and training programs that meet the current and future needs of the renewable energy industry,” she said.

Ranjith Narayanasamy, CEO of PTRC, said the partnership is a strategic move to leverage the strengths and expertise of both organizations.

“We are excited to work with Southeast College, a leader in post-secondary education and skills development in Saskatchewan. Together, we can create new opportunities for students, researchers, and industry partners to learn from each other and contribute to the transitioning energy landscape,” he said.

Stop in and see us while you are in Weyburn!

The partnership between Southeast College and PTRC will begin developing Renewable Energy Training programming this spring, with first enrollments in the innovative new programming to being in the fall of 2024.

On May 22, the partners announced the launch of a pioneering educational initiative. An Introduction to Carbon Capture and Storage is an eight-hour workshop, delivered over two mornings. The workshop is designed to equip learners with the knowledge to navigate the rapidly evolving field of carbon capture and storage (CCS).

The course curriculum has been developed by experts from PTRC

Sustainable Energy. An Introduction to Carbon Capture and Storage workshop features instruction from PTRC presenters: Dr. Marziyeh Kamali, Norman Sacuta, and Brittney Musleh. The curriculum covers a range of topics including an overview of CO2 capture technologies, CO2 storage site screening, reservoir modeling, and lessons learned from the Aquistore injection well.

This partnership between Southeast College and PTRC represents a step forward in emerging technology education and reflects both institutions’ commitment to fostering innovation and addressing critical energy transition technologies in the region. For those interested in exploring the forefront of sustainable energy solutions and

gaining insights from real-world projects, this workshop can enhance existing energy professionals and those looking for general interest education.

Further information about the course can be found on Southeast College’s official website: Visit https://www. southeastcollege.org/ courses/an-introduction-to-carbon-captureand-storage/

Vermilion Energy donates to Family Place Photo – courtesy the Family Place

Whitecap superintendent Cretin named ‘SE Sask Legend’

Darcy Cretin came to Weyburn expecting a short stay. It ended up being the rest of his life. And along the way, he was instrumental in implementing carbon capture long before it was cool.

Cretin was born in Fort Simpson, Northwest Territories, in 1964. His family bounced from there to Inuvik to Cape Breton, where they remained until he was 16, at which point the Cretins moved to Alberta.

His mother was from Cape Breton, and they farmed there. His father worked at a Gulf Oil refinery at Port Hawkesbury. When Darcy’s grandfather passed away, his father inherited a farm in Alberta, so they moved to Cluny, Alta., east of Strathmore.

Cretin took petroleum engineering technology at SAIT in 1981, graduating in 1983.

“The significance of that was this Prime Minister Trudeau ‘the first’ had just introduced the National Energy Program. So when I graduated high school in ‘81, and enrolled in this program, it came with the promise of 10 jobs for every student. By the time I was done, there was no jobs for any students.”

So he went to work for a pig farmer as a hired hand. “PanCanadian happened to be building a new gas plant, right between my parents’ farm and this pig farm, I was driving

by every day and didn’t know anything about the industry or PanCanadian. My dad happened to be an operator at a gas plant for a company in the area.”

“He said, ‘You should put your name in at PanCanadian. They’ll be hiring new operators.’ I was thinking it’s just down the road from the farm. And it worked, I got a job with PanCanadian, but it was in Strathmore.”

A production manager at the time decided to hire some operators with a bit more technical training, he said. “I was a bit of a guinea pig. I was one of the first SAIT grads they hired and put in the field as an operator.”

That program became more common after that. “After a year and a half, I transferred into Calgary, into the reservoir engineering department,” Cretin said.

He worked as a reservoir engineering tech, covering Grande Prairie, Strathmore and Drumheller. It was the area of Alberta that dated back to the earliest history of PanCanadian, going back to its Canadian Pacific Railway roots.

In 1984 he started dating Lianne Osika of Lipton, Sask., which was not terribly far from Weyburn. It meant long drives east every weekend if he could make it. Lianne came to Calgary to take a teaching degree, and they were married in 1986.

“I bought a house in Calgary when oil hit $10 a barrel. And in hindsight, it was a great deal. I didn’t know why real estate was so cheap. I didn’t think it was cheap at the time, but when you read about it now, it was a pretty depressed industry all through the 80s.”

He spent five years in Calgary. “There was a picture circulating around for my 40th anniversary, a guy sitting at a desk with a bunch of paper. There were no computers. You had secretaries that typed everything up. You wrote a memo longhand, got it typed up with carbon paper and carbon copies.”

After five years in Calgary they decided the big city life wasn’t for them, and Cretin went back to operating at Strathmore. This time he had the opportunity to develop a waterflood in the Strathmore field, working with the company’s geologists. “We developed it, and I went out to the field and operated it.”

He got to put into practice what he had been planning.

The kids showed up from 1990 to 1993. Charlene was born in Calgary in 1990 and Andrew was born in 1992, followed by Colleen in 1993, both in Weyburn.

In 1992 PanCanadian embarked on a “continuous improvement program,” similar to Japanese manufacturing processes. It was all about employee in -

volvement and engagement.

“PanCanadian had hired a consulting firm to introduce it. And after a year, the consultants were replaced with employees. So I applied, and I was a continuous improvement coach in Weyburn, from 1992 to 94. So I came here as an ‘experienced’ 28-yearold coach. And really, the bulk of the job was a leadership coach, as you’re coaching supervisors on how to engage their staff and involve their staff, and how to improve the business and helping the teams the work teams, build business cases for their ideas.”

He added, “While I was here to coach the supervisors on how to improve the business and engage their teams, I probably gained as much supervisory training as they did for me. That whole continuous improvement gig turned into a bit of a leadership development program, because four out of the five coaches all became superintendents within PanCanadian.”

What was essentially management training for two full years led to his promotion to production foreman at Brooks. At the time, PanCanadian was in the midst of moving around their field staff a lot. There was an expectation of another transfer after Brooks.

“After three years in Brooks, the CO2 project got approved, and then I got the call from one of our managers who offered me the superintendent’s position in Weyburn.”

Cretin was specifically recruited for the job.

He didn’t have any

experience with CO2 at the time, but then again, but he noted, “Nobody did. I had reservoir engineering experience, which is a big part of managing an enhanced oil recovery project. So I’d say my knowledge of reservoir engineering and geology is helpful. That doesn’t help us run a compressor, pump jacks, but just in terms of understanding what we’re trying to accomplish, it’s helpful.”

By this point, the Weyburn Unit had been in operation for more than 30 years, with aging equipment. To implement the carbon dioxide flood meant substantial refurbishment of the existing infrastructure as well as expansion. At the time, the expectation was a billion dollars would be spent over the lifetime cost of the project. The initial investment was $150 million from 1997 to 2000 to get the first phase up and running. Another $600 million was slated to buy the CO2, sourced at Dakota Gasification’s Great Plains Synfuels plant at Beulah, North Dakota.

In 1998-99, they had to develop the patterns and convert wells for CO2 injection. The first CO2 arrived in 2000. Additional plant infrastructure, such as a free water knockout and two compressors, were added. The rollout of CO2 started on the western side of the unit and moved to the east. All new CO2 patterns are done with horizontal wells.

“Wellheads had to be upgraded for higher pressure. Any old steel pipelines were replaced with fiberglass. In the rollout we basically put all new pipe in the

ground, upgraded wellheads, both producers and injectors,” he said. CO2 lines had to be added, allowing for an alternating flood between water and gas. At the 2001 Oil Show, Darcy shared the Saskatchewan Oil Person of the Year Award for implementation of the CO2 miscible flood.

A new office facility was built onsite in 2000, and in 2008 a new office was built with something rather unique: a sign outside that said “Visitors” and the capacity to host tours. And boy, were there tours. The world came out to see this new carbon dioxide project.

“We stopped counting at 300. We probably had around 400 tours,” Cretin said. “Stephen Harper toured the field around 2007. I think the prime minister coming was the impetus to build what I call a more professional office setting with conference rooms we have today.”

Along the way, the Petroleum Technology Research Centre provided the scientific monitoring of the project. It got a lot of attention in part because it was accessible, as opposed to the Sahara desert or northern Russia. An hour’s drive from Regina’s international airport, scientists could easily come to visit the Weyburn Unit and its CO2 flood. The PTRC literally wrote the book on geologic storage of CO2 based on the work done at the Weyburn Unit.

There wasn’t an expectation of all that attention, at least at first. “It just evolved. It took on a life of its own,” Cretin said. “The whole topic of green

SE Sask Legends award: Darcy Cretin

Darcy Cretin, retired as the superintendent of the Whitecap Resources plant at Goodwater, will receive the SE Sask Legends Award at the Oil Show on June 5.

Photo 2628 – courtesy Brian Zinchuk

James Baker to be honoured as Southeast Sask Legend

James Baker was born in Swift Current in 1950, and graduated from St. Peter’s College in Muenster in 1969.

“I grew up in Swift Current,” he said. “I hitchhiked to Calgary when I was 19 and got a job on a seismic crew.”

He spent three summers mapping and sampling uranium at Baker Lake, NWT, from 1971-74 as a geological assistant.

Baker completed a petroleum engineering technology program, majoring in geology, at the Southern Alberta Institute of Technology in Calgary in 1974. Upon completion of that program he became a mine foreman for Cassiar Asbestos Corp, managing a crew of 20 at the Cassiar mine in northern B.C.

This led to a stint as project manager for Denison Coal Ltd., mapping, drilling and evaluating a coal prospect at Tumbler Ridge, B.C. from 197576.

He took a year touring New Zealand, Australia and the South Pacific before taking on a job in 1978 as a geological consultant for Peregrine Enterprises, doing geological wellsite supervision throughout Alberta, Saskatchewan and B.C.

In 1981 Baker hired on with North Canadian Oils Limited (NCO), working as an operations geologist out of Calgary until 1988, responsible for all aspects of geological operations. He relocated to Regina in 1988 where he was general manager, Saskatchewan, for NCO. He was responsible for government relations and royalty issues, especially those relating to the deregulation of natural gas in the province. As well, he was senior manager for NCO’s Natural Gas Mar-

keting and Power subsidiaries for Western Canada.

In 1983 he married Jeanne Chabot of Mankota. They had three children, Krista in 1985, Stefan in 1987 and Justin in 1989.

In 1994 he was a founding partner of Urban Forest Recylers, a paper recycling business located in Swift Current. It was sold to the Hill family 10 years later.

From 1994 to ‘97 he was vice president of operations for Lateral Vector Resources, a publicly-traded oil and gas company based in Regina. It was focused on drilling in southeast Saskatchewan. Baker facilitated its sale to NCE Energy Trust.

From there he launched JP Baker Management in 1997, acting as a consultant for regulatory, pipeline, land, cogeneration, as well as exploration and development. His clientele included numerous Crown corporations, oil producers, First Nations and the Government of Saskatchewan. He operated under this banner from 1997 to 2004, and from 2009 to present.

Projects included conceptual work on a proposed polygen plant at Belle Plaine, interprovincial power interconnects and remote monitoring systems for oil and gas. He had direct involvement in the natural gas deregulation process Saskatchewan in 1988-89, acted as spokesperson for regulatory issues on behalf of Small Explorers & Producers of Canada (SEPAC), and co-authored a report on the potential for a large-scale upgrader in Saskatchewan.

In 2004 Baker Started Churchill Energy as a private oil and gas exploration company and then completed an amalgamation with Dynamic Cap-

ital Corp and completed a reverse takeover. Churchill Energy Inc. was an oil and gas exploration company, which traded on the TSX Venture Exchange and was sold to Zargon Energy Trust.

Baker has served on numerous industry boards, former director for Keystone Royalty Corp. a private oil trust based in Regina, currently sits on the Board of Kineticor Resource Corp., a private company based in Calgary. Kineticor is commissioning its Cascade 900MW natural gasfired power generation project at Edson, Alta. He is a former director for Hanson Professional Service (Chicago, Ill.), Nature Conservancy of Canada, Saskatchewan Chapter and SaskEnergy. Baker is a director and founder of Helium Evolution Inc. a helium exportation company.

In addition, he has been active in CAPP (Canadian Association of Petroleum Producers) and SEPAC (Small Explorers and Producers Association of Canada) and was past Chairman of the IPAC (CAPP predecessor) Saskatchewan Committee.

Two of the Baker children followed James into the oilpatch. Stevan is a partner in VP Energy Services of Kindersley, and Justin is a professional engineer with Element Technical Services, working out of Calgary. Krista is a director with the Saskatchewan Ministry of Finance in Regina.

“The oilpatch has been very good to me. I can’t say that enough,” he said.

James and Jeanne moved to Kelowna four years ago, but work with Helium Evolution keeps him busy and coming back to Saskatchewan on a regular basis.

Jim Baker to be awarded as SE Sask Legend

Jim Baker will receive recognition as a SE Sask Legend, with an award to be presented at the Sask Oil and Gas Show on June 5. Photo – courtesy Brian Zinchuk

2024 Southeast Saskatchewan Legends: Paul Cheung

Paul Cheung was born in Hong Kong in 1953. He came to Canada at the age of 17 as a student. He attended the University of Calgary where he obtained a Bachelor of geology and then a masters of geology from Oklahoma State University in 1978. He became a professional geologist, although these days he focuses more on business than rocks, and no longer practices as a P.Geo.

In 1978 Paul went to work for Gulf Oil in Calgary as a geologist. From there he worked with two smaller oil companies before launching his own oil company, Grand Bow Petroleum, in 1984. The company’s wells were in southeast Saskatchewan.

“I started the company in August, 1984, with very little money –enough money to drill one well. I spread that money into a small percentage in many, many wells. The first well I drilled was in Halbrite,” he said, and is still able to recall the location: 1-3-7-12-W2.

This is where Merlin Skjonsby came into the picture, as Grand Bow’s field manager. Skjonsby had substantial influence in Cheung’s future affairs. “My Saskatchewan operations were all handled by Merlin. I didn’t have to go to Saskatchewan much, I just had to stay in Calgary, finding money, organizing partners, and deciding where to drill. And that pretty much went on from 1984 to 2006, when I stopped drilling,” Cheung said.

The second well was at Steelman, leading to many more Frobisher A wells in that area. After 30 years of operation, Grand Bow is in the process of abandoning its last wells.

In 1989 Cheung start-

ed a public oil company called Alliance Energy, which has been drilling wells in southeast Saskatchewan, with an occasional well in southwest Saskatchewan. “I have either operated or participated in over 200 wells,” he said.

Alliance was sold in 2001 to ATF Royalty Trust when it was producing around 2,000 barrels per day. That was right around the time Cheung got involved with the pumpjack business, an involvement that would quite literally change the landscape of southern Saskatchewan.

But before he got there, along the way, Cheung got into drilling rigs and service rigs.

“When I was drilling wells in 1997, I went to China, looking for drilling rigs. At the time, in Canada there were about 300 drilling rigs, and about 13 drilling rig companies. There were no drilling rigs available for little companies like Grand Bow. So, I went to China.”

The drilling rig business was dominated by American companies, he explained, but there were a number of drilling rigs available in China.

“Maybe I could go there and rent one or lease one from them. I never thought of buying one, because I didn’t have the money,” he said. “I went over there with a drilling consultant, because what do I know about drilling rigs? I hired them to drill wells, but I actually didn’t know how drilling rigs (operate). So I went there and got my education.

“Lo and behold, at the time, CNPC, the Chinese National Petroleum Company, wanted to expand their experience around the world. They wanted to send their drill-

ing rigs. That was the time Talisman was drilling wells in Sudan, and Chinese National Petroleum Company was in Sudan. They knew their equipment and people skills were inferior. They couldn’t get work anywhere else in the world except Sudan. Talisman was brave enough to take them on as a partner.

“So they had a great desire to learn how the western world drilled and how our people operated. I went to China for the first time in 1997. We ended up forming a company called Advance Drilling. Over the next six years it grew to a 10rig company, because there was a shortage of drilling rigs.”

CNPC and Cheung were 50/50 partners in Advance.

“I started bringing drilling rigs in from China. And besides the ones that drilled for Advance, we sold these rigs to other drilling rig companies. Some are still around.”

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“By the time 2012 came along, the drilling activity in Saskatchewan was still very robust. And then meanwhile, the CNPC now had learned to operate. The drilling division now had 160 rigs working over the world and they had become a fairly big company. And that division was called Great Wall Drilling.”

By that time, it was clear to Cheung that CNPC wanted 100 per cent ownership, so they decided to split Advance, with CNPC carrying on with five rigs and Cheung and Canadian shareholders forming a new company, Alliance Drilling, with the other five rigs.

Six years after the start of Advance came the formation of a service rig company. Tim Huber, Brian Crossman and Jerry Mehler approached Cheung about partnering in the formation of that service rig company.

Cheung recalled that they had never met before, but the partners were familiar with his involvement in Advance and asked if he could help them set up this new service rig company. “I picked up the phone and called Merlin and said, ‘What should I do?’ ‘These guys are really solid,’ Merlin said.

Cheung said, “Over a piece of paper, we structured Independent Well Servicing.”

It was launched in 2003 and grew to a fleet of 10 rigs. Cheung noted he’s the president of these two companies in Saskatchewan – Alliance and IWS – but “they are so efficient. I don’t have to do anything. I just deal with things like, do we need to buy or build another rig?”

The two companies work side by side and

share a yard and office in Estevan. By the end of 2001, Cheung was very well known in China’s oilpatch as a result of the drilling rig company. Twice a year he would travel to China for board of directors meetings and doing financial reporting to the shareholders.

“They introduced me to a drilling rig manufacturer. So I was bringing in drilling rigs and service rigs to Canada.”

“By 2001 I had a number of wells in southeast Saskatchewan. This one well Merlin said there’s lots of fluids there, but we don’t have a pumpjack that can move oil on it. I asked, ‘Why not?’

Skjonsby explained they only had single phase power available at the site, which could only run a small motor. The Chinese had a new design of pumpjack available. “I was shown this curved beam jack. They claimed you can use less energy. It’s all physics, and very simple physics once you understand it,” Cheung said.

The design of the HG jack uses 25 per cent less energy than a conventional straight walking beam jack. That was enough of a difference to be successful in this application. So two jacks were sent from China for testing. Again, Cheung picked up the phone to Skjonsby, asking who they should deal with. At the time, Mel Grimes of Lampman was dealing in used pumpjacks, and was the only company Grand Bow was dealing with. So Skjonsby recommended Grimes.

“I called Mel Grimes. ‘I know we’ve never met. But you know me. I know you. We’ve done business for years and bought a lot of used pumpjacks and I have this thing. I think it will work, but would you be interested in checking it out for me? I’m sending two of them for two of my wells, this well in Carlyle and we’ll put one there and we’ll put another one (elsewhere).’

“He said, ‘Sure.’

“I said the Chinese want to keep sending us these jacks and they will let us be the agent. So I got the two jacks, and put them on the wells at Carlyle with this little single phase motor. We tripled our volume, our oil production with that same little motor. So that told us it does use less energy.”

facturers. And we were worrying that they will be selling it to other dealers. So, there was a mutual desire to get closer together. It was like, ‘Let’s get married. Let’s become exclusive.’

“So one way to do that is that they said, ‘We will sell you 50 per cent of our manufacturing plant,’ which wasn’t a lot of money at all because basically it is a big welding shop. There’s very little equipment. So me and Mel said, ‘Yes, it makes sense.’ So we bought 50 per cent of the drilling rig manufacturing. We had about 200 workers and three buildings – no fancy buildings.”

In March, 2014, Schlumberger bought the manufacturing plant and Grimes Sales and Service (owned by Grimes). By that point, they had sold 11,000 pumpjacks, dominating the landscape in southern Saskatchewan, but also penetrating into other markets like Alberta, Manitoba and North Dakota.

These days, Merlin’s son, Brian Skjonsby, is looking after Alliance Drilling and winding down Grand Bow, abandoning its last wells. IWS is going steady, with another generation coming into management there, as Tim Huber’s son, Jason, is involved. (Merlin Skjonsby passed away in 2017.)

“I’m 70 years old, and three years ago I decided I will move back to Hong Kong where I was born. And so I’m living in Hong Kong, officially and I spend about little over half a year in Hong Kong. And I spent a little bit less than half a year in Canada.”

“We just hit the window at the right timing. So the Chinese were worrying that me and Mel would start buying it from other manu -

Cheung is very active in the Vancouver real estate market as a developer, from rental house to warehouse and hotels, where his children are both involved. Daughter Alison, born in 1982, has been involved in the office, while her husband, Alex Watson, is involved with the corporate side. Son Phillip, born in 1984, helps with renovation projects and building housing. Phillip’s wife, Jessica, works in real estate sales. When asked if the real estate business is more interesting than looking at rocks, the geologist in him replied, “No, no, no. Rocks are very interesting. But we no longer look at rocks. Right now, it’s all engineering. We know where the oil is. It’s in these rocks that it’s very hard to get the oil out. We squeeze the oil out, like from olives. We squeeze the oil out from the rock.”

SE Sask Legend Paul Cheung

Paul Cheung will be recognized as a “Legend” of southeast Saskatchewan, and will be presented an award as part of the Sask. Oil and Gas Show on June 5.

Photo – courtesy Brian Zinchuk

Duncan says no decision made on SMR location

By John Cairns, SaskToday.ca

Dustin Duncan, the minister for the Crown Investments Corporation and Weyburn-Big Muddy MLA, says there is work to be done before a decision is made on the location of Saskatchewan’s first potential small modular reactor (SMR).

Duncan was asked at a media event on May 7 about a comment during Premier Scott Moe’s speech to the Food Fuel Fertilizer Global Summit. Moe said that SaskPower was to place an SMR “quite likely, in the Estevan area — but I don’t think that’s been announced yet.”

But the indication from Duncan seemed to be not so fast.

“I would just say the premier’s comments, he certainly is right that Estevan is potentially one of the candidates for the home for Saskatchewan first nuclear reactor and SMR, but there are huge steps that I as a minister have to do along the way before we can formally make an announcement on that.”

Duncan acknowledged they were still looking at two regions of the province for a potential SMR - the Estevan and Elbow areas.

“The people of those areas have been very

enthusiastic about the potential of deploying SMR’s in Saskatchewan and they’ve been really great to work with. I know SaskPower has been very complimentary to communities in those recent regions.”

But he noted “there’s a lot of work, and due diligence that SaskPower has to do behind the scenes first and foremost, a very broad consultation with people across the province, as we are putting this question in front of Saskatchewan as to whether or not the generation mix going forward will include nuclear.”

As for when a potential SMR location might be identified, Duncan said that by this summer, “we’ll be able to be in a position to provide more definitive clarity based on what the premier had said yesterday.”

“And based on again, all the work that’s going on behind the scenes — lots of boxes we need to check in terms of process to get us to a point where we formally make a public announcement. But I would just say that lots of benefits to both regions — that’s why we wanted, what SaskPower wanted to do the due diligence we did to go through the

process of establishing the benefits that would be available at both regions,” he said.

“Obviously, Estevan and area has been a very important part of SaskPower’s past and present in terms of generation and transmission and energy for Saskatchewan, and so for both of those reasons there’s lots of benefits for selecting that region. But as I said before, as a minister I still have a few other things on the list of things I have to check off before we can formally make the final decision on which region we would be selecting.”

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Mryglod; Chad Brock, general

Weyburn Golf Club; Travis Mryglod and Brad Mryglod.

Photo – courtesy Weyburn Golf Club