Oil Well Services in Western Canada

The petrochemical industry is one of the larger heavy industries in Canada, where the extraction of natural gas and oil forms part of the economies of 12 of the 13 provinces and territories that make up Canada. The economic contribution of this industry has led to approximately $6.2 billion in revenue as of 2010, and has employed a significant percentage of the population throughout 16 different establishments. Additionally, the petrochemical industry has contributed $2.4 billion in exports for a trade surplus of $1.5 billion.

Major Locations of Canada’s Oil Well Servicing Industry

The focus of the petrochemical industry in Canada is located in Alberta, Saskatchewan, and British Columbia. Each province has specific areas that are extraction sites for both oil and natural gas.
oil well services

The province of Alberta is ranked first among the Canadian provinces and territories with regards to the amount of oil and natural gas it produces. The Athabasca Tar Sands are located in the northern part of the province, while deposits of natural gas are found throughout the province. There are approximately 168 billion barrels of oil that can be extracted in Alberta, of which 162.5 billion worth of oil is located within the tar sands. From this area, there are 2.95 million barrels of oil produced at a rate of 487,000 barrels per day. There are also 223 trillion cubic feet of natural gas within Alberta, where 10.1 billion cubic feet have been extracted. The natural gas industry in Alberta led to the creation of at least 10,000 jobs that are direct or indirect offshoots of the natural gas industries.

Saskatchewan is ranked as the second largest province in Canada according to the amount of oil and natural gas produced in the country. There are four key areas in the province that produce oil: Lloydminster, Kindersley-Kerrobert, Swift Current and Weyburn-Estevan. From these four areas, Saskatchewan is able to produce 487,000 barrels of oil a day, and 1.3 trillion cubic feet of natural gas.

British Columbia is the second largest natural gas producer in Canada, and is home to the Horn River and Montney Natural Gas Deposits. The oil deposits of British Columbia are located in the northeast of the province. The province can produce approximately 16,000 barrels per day, and has an estimated 532 trillion cubic feet of natural gas, estimated to last for 3 centuries at the current rate of demand.

Careers in Canada’s Oil and Gas Industry

As part of the energy sector, the petrochemical industry employs approximately 71,073 Canadians throughout the provinces and territories that have active oil and natural gas extraction sites as of 2020. From this number, there are 8, 489 employed under the petroleum refinement industry, while others are engaged in various aspects of the oil refinement and natural gas extraction processes. Despite the effects of the pandemic, the global need for oil, and the domestic need for natural gas fuel the continued growth of the petrochemical industry in Canada, and would require the need for additional labour in various tasks throughout the industry.

Careers in the Petrochemical Industry would include occupations that may be classified under each of the following sectors: Business and Operations Support; Engineers; Environmental, Regulatory and Stakeholder Engagement; Geoscience Professionals; Roles in Information Technology; Labourers; Operators, Technicians and Technologists; and Tradesmen. From these categories, the most essential jobs include:

  1. Reservoir Engineers, whose job is to analyze and predict the amount of oil and gas deposits that are potentially present in an oilfield. This determines the profitability of an oilfield before the oil company chooses to begin the extraction process.
  2. Drilling Engineers ensure that the extraction process remains safe, and cost-effective. They specialize in the development of drilling techniques that would safely extract the oil and natural gas, at minimal cost.
  3. Exploration Geologists are those who analyze photographs and satellite images to identify potential sites that may harbour oil and natural gas deposits.
  4. Oil and Gas Attorneys help negotiate property and mineral rights to the potential oilfield and help arrange the necessary permits, leases; demarcate the boundaries of the oilfield, and negotiate split estates.
  5. Mudloggers work in conjunction with the drilling engineers to determine how fast and how deep they can drill to safely extract the oil.
    Aside from these, there are also equipment operators, rig operators – who operate the heavy equipment; floor hands, derrick hand, drivers, pipeline technicians, oilfield service operators, terminal operators and mechanics.

Canadian Oil and Gas Companies

The oil and natural gas industries are big businesses in Canada, and the companies that are engaged in it can either be classified as upstream, midstream, or downstream. Upstream companies are those engaged in the exploration and production of the petrochemical resources. Midstream companies, on the other hand, are those that focus on the storage and transportation of the oil and natural gas that was extracted from the oil field. Downstream companies specialise in the refinement and sale of the extracted petroleum products. As of March 2020, pre-pandemic, these companies are the largest petrochemical industries in Canada:

In Alberta, some of the companies that cater to the extraction of oil and natural gas are:

  • Imperial Oil Resources Limited
  • Suncor Energy Inc
  • Shell Canada Limited
  • Canadian Natural Resources Ltd
  • Cenovus Energy Inc
  • Syncrude Canada Ltd
  • CNOOC Petroleum North America ULC
  • Ovintiv Canada ULC,
  • Repsol Oil & Gas Canada Inc
  • Inter Pipeline Ltd
  • ExxonMobil Canada Ltd
  • TAQA North Ltd
  • ConocoPhillips Canada Resources Corp.
  • Enerplus Corporation

In British Columbia, the largest companies involved in the Petrochemical Industry include:

  • Canbriam Energy Inc.
  • Black Swan Energy Ltd.
  • Saguaro Resources Ltd.
  • Unconventional Gas Resources
  • Todd Energy Ltd.
  • SanLing Energy Ltd.
  • Aduro Resources Ltd.
  • Enercapita Energy Ltd.
  • Glenogle Energy Ltd.

While in Saskatchewan, key companies in the oil and natural gas industries include:

  1. Bayhurst Gas Limited
  2. Petro-Canada
  3. Canadian Plains Energy Services
  4. Aldon Oils Ltd
  5. Athena Resources Ltd
  6. Runcible Oil Corp
  7. Canadian Business Resource Group Inc
  8. Crescent Point Resources Ltd.
  9. Midale Petroleums Ltd
  10. Canada Dominion Resources 2012 Limited Partnership
  11. Husky Oil Marketing Company
  12. Red River Oil Inc
  13. Crescent Point Resources Ltd Partnership
  14. Preferred Sands Of Canada, ULC
  15. Caprice Resources Ltd

Oil Products

Canada is known for the extraction of oil and natural gas deposits, yet it would be important to know what types are extracted as part of the petrochemical industry. Oil itself is an umbrella term that encompasses a variety of products derived from the use of crude oil extraction.
The oil sands in Canada are the single largest deposit of Crude OIl on Earth, and are composed of a mixture of sand, clay and bitumen- a unique type of oil. From bitumen, a type of oil that is too heavy in its composition to flow freely, oil and gas companies extract the global commodity of crude oil.

While Oil Sands are plentiful around the world, what makes the oil sands in Canada the most commercially viable one is that, in the Athabasca Oil Sand Deposits, this is the largest and most developed oil deposit site that uses the most advanced processes in the extraction of crude oil from the sands. While other provinces have their respective oil deposits, the oil sands are located mostly in the prairie provinces of Alberta around the Athabasca, Peace River and Cold Lake Regions.

The Natural Gas extracted in Canada is mostly Methane, but can include other gaseous compounds such as Ethane, Propane, Butane and Pentanes, and aside from their Hydrocarbon Structure, they may contain trace elements of sulphur, nitrogen and carbon dioxide. There are two types of Natural Gas extracted in Canada: Conventional and Unconventional. Gas extracted under the Conventional Method are trapped in sandstone, and are readily accessed through drilling. This type of extraction is extensive in its development. Unconventional Gas Extraction on the other hand, is extracted through a combination of horizontal drilling and hydraulic fracturing, on account that the gas is trapped in between non-porous material.

Aside from the extraction of Crude Oil and Natural Gas from the Oil Sands and Deposits located throughout Canada, other products are derived from these extracted materials. These include Gasoline, Diesel, Heating Oil, Waxes, Asphalt, Jet Fuel, Lubrication OIls and Waxes. A lot of other common household items are derived in turn from these products, which makes the oil and gas industry and important resource for these items, and in turn, drives the growth behind the industry, the effects of the pandemic notwithstanding.
Equipment
The extraction of oil and gas is a complex process that requires the use of multiple equipment. Equipment used in this instance is classified as static and dynamic. Static Equipment in the oil and gas industry is more commonly used, as this comprises valves and boilers; Dynamic Equipment on the other hand, includes turbines and pipes.

Once the engineers have managed to drill into the oil reservoir, and have begun the extraction process through the use of the oil derricks, the crude oil extracted goes through several types of equipment before it can become consumable by the general population.

The production process itself utilises several types of equipment necessary to ensure the quality of the oil and the safety of the workers in the oilfield.

Shale Shakers separate solid particles from the mud once the engineers have determined the best area to drill for the oil. This ensures that the drilling process is efficient, and prevents the drill bit from overheating. Shale Shakers allow for the more efficient extraction of oil from the oilfield, and ultimately reduces the environmental impact of the drill site. These work in conjunction with Mud Cleaners, which separate the mud from the solid particles, and ensures that the drilling process goes smoothly.

Degassers remove combustible gases such as carbon dioxide, methane and hydrogen sulfide and reduce the potential for gas explosions. There are two types of degassers employed by the oilfield, atmospheric and vacuum.

Sand Pumps are used to remove accumulated sand away from the extracted oil, and from the oil field site. Contrary to their name, they also move other materials away from the oilfield site, and are readily carried away just like the accumulated sand from the oil deposits.

Tank Vessels are a familiar site in oil plants, as these can take on two forms, the storage tanks – which resemble large towers; and gas condensers for the storage of natural gas.

Air Coolers are an essential part of the oil and gas industry, as these cool the heated liquid that passes through the network of pipes needed in the extraction process. This ensures that the liquids remain warm enough to move through the pipes, but cool enough that they do not spontaneously combust.

Evaporators form part of a process that converts the liquid form of a product into a gaseous state,

Valves are among the more important parts of the oil and gas industry, as this allows the company to regulate the flow of oil that is extracted from the oil field. They do serve an important part in that they augment the safety of the equipment that transport oil, especially from offshore sites.

Boilers create steam. The generated steam is used for the distillation process that allows companies to refine the crude oil extracted into the byproducts that are traded to other companies for resale. Boilers are essential not in the extraction, but in the oil refinery processes.

Cracking and Reforming Furnaces are both employed by oil and gas companies, because they each have their unique benefits that they afford in the extraction process. These are used to burn away unusable combustible material that is extracted from the petrochemicals to generate heat.

Heat Exchangers facilitate the separation of crude oil from water in the distillation process and aid in the liquefaction of natural gas for ease of distribution. More importantly, heat exchangers maintain safe temperatures in an oil field to ensure that the workers are protected from the volatile substances extracted.

Oil Well Servicing References:

https://esask.uregina.ca/entry/oil_and_gas_industry.jsp#:~:text=Saskatchewan%20produces%20significant%20petroleum%20volumes,Current%2C%20and%20Weyburn%2DEstevan.
https://www.capp.ca/economy/industry-across-canada/
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https://careersinenergy.ca/careers/
https://www.statista.com/statistics/579039/number-of-employees-in-the-energy-industry-canada-by-sector/
https://www.ibisworld.com/canada/industry-statistics/employment/petroleum-refining/
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