Ph: 1-800-565-8111
Leaders Needed
For more Information or Registration, visit our web site at:
girlguides.ca
41139001•03/25/14
“
If this is a slow time, I don’t know what we’d do if it got busy.
— Danny Meier, the chief of operations at Iron Horse Coil Tubing. Have rig will travel ”
In 2013, Halliburton announced that it would close its local base of operations after 30 years, choosing to relocate equipment to a new Regina shop closer to Bakken fields in the south of the province and North Dakota.
However, of the some 200 employees in Medicine Hat, less that 10 per cent chose to relocate with the company and preferred finding work with drilling and service companies that still base some operations in the Gas City.
About 30 The local directory of service companies reads like a who’s-who.
Savanna, Ensign, Calfrac, Trican, Baker Hughes, Schlumberger all have kept local bases — along with a host of smaller regional oufits.
Meier sees the last four years as the most difficult on local supply companies — there’s only so much that can be bought locally when work is hundreds of kilometres away, he said.
“The dry gas market is coming back,” but there’s so much shut-in. Now that the price is back, I think they’ll just open the taps a bit... but I don’t think we’ll ever see dry gas where it was 10 years ago.”
Meier’s opinion is shared by several CEO’s of billion-dollar companies. New gas landscape
In late 2013, gas-giant Encana moved to separate its historic conventional gas assets into a stand alone royalty generating company seeking farmout contracts.
Pennwest divested almost its entire inventory south of Calgary in late 2013, gaining $485 million in a series of transactions with undisclosed purchasers.
Both companies will focus capital in central and northern Alberta, where oil and liquid gas mixture is better.
Even the City of Medicine Hat’s energy exploration company, Prodco is aiming to diversify. A joint oil venture with Enerplus was the private company’s centre- piece injection project, and work at Manyberries oilfield is aimed at offsetting current losses on traditional gas empire.
Gerry Labas, the chief operating officer of Medicine Hat’s Energy Division, says when considering natural gas market exploration, current and future production need to be viewed differently.
Companies that have already invested will need to see returns. However, land sales for undeveloped leases come with a caveat to drill within five years.
Speculators may buy now and hoping for better prices by then.
“Analysts are saying we’ll have volatile times again,” said Labas.
“We can’t discount it, but it would be very difficult to purchase (new dry gas) production. You just can’t make money on it over time.”
“At this point in time it’s really tough, but it is a cyclical business.”
In the meantime, some tight oil plays in southern Alberta are also garnering attention.
Near Brooks, Crew Energy officials told reporters in that steady, relatively hassle-free drilling on the Pekisko range near Brooks and steady production, provided the base production and income needed to tackle unconventional plays further north.
They plan 16 new horizontal wells in the area in 2014.
our communities ❚ our region ❚ our people
41
Page 1 |
Page 2 |
Page 3 |
Page 4 |
Page 5 |
Page 6 |
Page 7 |
Page 8 |
Page 9 |
Page 10 |
Page 11 |
Page 12 |
Page 13 |
Page 14 |
Page 15 |
Page 16 |
Page 17 |
Page 18 |
Page 19 |
Page 20 |
Page 21 |
Page 22 |
Page 23 |
Page 24 |
Page 25 |
Page 26 |
Page 27 |
Page 28 |
Page 29 |
Page 30 |
Page 31 |
Page 32 |
Page 33 |
Page 34 |
Page 35 |
Page 36 |
Page 37 |
Page 38 |
Page 39 |
Page 40 |
Page 41 |
Page 42 |
Page 43 |
Page 44 |
Page 45 |
Page 46 |
Page 47 |
Page 48 |
Page 49 |
Page 50 |
Page 51 |
Page 52 |
Page 53 |
Page 54 |
Page 55 |
Page 56 |
Page 57 |
Page 58 |
Page 59 |
Page 60 |
Page 61 |
Page 62 |
Page 63 |
Page 64 |
Page 65 |
Page 66 |
Page 67 |
Page 68 |
Page 69 |
Page 70 |
Page 71 |
Page 72 |
Page 73 |
Page 74 |
Page 75 |
Page 76 |
Page 77 |
Page 78 |
Page 79 |
Page 80 |
Page 81 |
Page 82 |
Page 83 |
Page 84 |
Page 85 |
Page 86 |
Page 87 |
Page 88 |
Page 89 |
Page 90 |
Page 91 |
Page 92 |
Page 93 |
Page 94 |
Page 95 |
Page 96 |
Page 97 |
Page 98 |
Page 99 |
Page 100 |
Page 101 |
Page 102 |
Page 103 |
Page 104 |
Page 105 |
Page 106 |
Page 107 |
Page 108 |
Page 109 |
Page 110 |
Page 111 |
Page 112