Treading lightly
Oilweek's 2011 Supplier of the Year is front and centre in the oil and gas industry's efforts to reduce its environmental footprint
This past year hasn’t been kind to the Canadian service and supply sector, as falling oil prices, stagnant gas prices, weak demand and the global financial mess have conspired to cause grief for virtually all sectors of the Canadian economy, service and supply included.
he markets have been particularly rough: only a handful of oilfield service companies listed on the Toronto Stock Exchange—CE Franklin Ltd., Horizon North Logistics Inc., High Arctic Energy Services Inc., HSE Integrated Ltd. and Akita Drilling Ltd., to name a few—enjoyed share price appreciation through the first nine months or so of this year, ranging from a stellar 27 per cent for CE Franklin down to a modest 2.2 per cent for Canadian Energy Services & Technology Corp.
Most others have seen their shares tumble: Flint Energy Services was down 45 per cent, Calfrac Well Services Ltd. was down nearly 35 per cent. Even Oilweek’s 2010 Supplier of the Year, Trican Well Service Ltd., has had to digest a 28 per cent drop in its share price.
So the fact that shares in Newalta Corp., Oilweek’s 2011 Supplier of the Year, were only down 30 cents on Sept. 30, from where they closed on the first day of trading this year, is perhaps testament to the regard with which the market looks upon Newalta’s mission to provide “cost-effective solutions to industrial customers to improve their environmental performance with a focus on recycling and recovery of products from industrial residues.”
And our readers seem to agree: in our online vote to determine Oilweek’s 2011 Supplier of the Year, Newalta led from the opening bell, attracting a compelling 81.5 per cent of the votes cast.
Environmental performance has become a key metric for most companies active in the oil and gas industry, and Newalta has built a continental network of facilities dedicated to recovering, recycling and reusing just about every drop of industrial waste you can imagine. Lead, solvents, acids, anti-freeze, motor oil, drilling fluids, frac fluids, completion fluids and dozens of other products are all grist for Newalta’s mills, and the company is always on the lookout for new waste streams to hoover up, for recycling, reusing or reducing.
The environment also figures critically in the plans of Calfrac Well Services, a runner- up in this year’s Supplier of the Year voting. One of the leading pressure- pumping providers in North America, Calfrac has garnered a global reputation for hydraulic fracture stimulation, a reputation that was only enhanced in 2010 when it completed a major frac in the Horn River of 144 stages over 42 days, for an industry record pace of 3.5 frac stages per day.
A frac that size takes a lot of water, and water—and what is put into it—is gaining stature as a sticking point in the public’s acceptance of the whole concept of fracking. That’s one reason Calfrac has set up a research and development facility in Calgary and is working diligently to solve as many of the fracking industry’s water recycling, water use and frac additive issues that it can.
And the environment figures high in the minds of the management team at CanElson Drilling Inc., another runner- up in the Supplier of the Year voting. Not even four years old yet, this child of four industry veterans—including the late Doc Seaman and his brother Don—has grown quickly, and now counts a fleet of nearly 40 rigs.
People are number one at CanElson, but preserving the environment runs a close second, and the company is intent on creating a fleet of rigs that are as environmentally-benign as possible.
--Dale Lunan
