Opportunity Magazine — The Bakken

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OPPORTUNITY MAGAZINE • • JUNE 20144

ON THE COVER: Pumpjacks rise andfall against a cloudy backdrop that

includes the Enbridge Cromer Terminalto the north.

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BRIMMING WITH OILINDIVIDUALS, COMMUNITIES, COMPANIES AND GOVERNMENTS HAVE ALL HIT PAYDIRT IN THE BAKKEN OILFIELDS. HOW LONG IT WILL LAST IS ANYONE’S GUESS, BUTFOR NOW, THE WEALTH JUST KEEPS ON FLOWING » PAGE 6

EVERY BIT OF EFFICIENCY HELPSCOMPANIES SERVICING THE OILPATCH KNOW TIME IS MONEY WHEN LEASING A RIGCAN COST $20,000 A DAY » PAGE 12

LEAP OF FAITHTHE VOLATILE NATURE OF THE OIL INDUSTRY MEANS ‘IT’S NEVER EASY’ LAUNCHINGA NEW OIL-RELATED BUSINESS. EVEN WHEN IT BECOMES ESTABLISHED ANDPROFITABLE, YOU’VE GOT TO BE PREPARED TO RIDE THE ROLLER-COASTER FROM‘SLEEPLESS NIGHTS’ TO THE REALLY ‘GOOD RUNS’ » PAGE 16

LIVING THE DREAMCOMMUNITIES SUCH AS WASKADA THAT ARE ROLLING IN OILPATCH DOUGH AREINVESTING IN THE FUTURE, KNOWING FULL WELL THE CURRENT BONANZA ‘COULDEND TOMORROW’ » PAGE 20

THE FRACKING CONUNDRUMIT TAKES A LOT OF WATER. DOOMSDAY THEORIES ABOUND. BUT PROPONENTS OFHYDRAULIC FRACTURING SAY THAT DONE CORRECTLY, THE TECHNIQUE IS SAFE ANDPROFITABLE. AND THE PROVINCIAL PETROLEUM BRANCH IS WORKING HARD TOMAKE SURE IT DOESN’T BECOME A ‘CONTENTIOUS ISSUE’ IN MANITOBA » PAGE 28

TALKING THE TALKIT’S A WHOLE DIFFERENT CULTURE OUT ON THE RIGS — WITH A UNIQUE LANGUAGETO BOOT. FORMER RIG-WORKER-TURNED-JOURNALIST CHARLES TWEED WALKS YOUTHROUGH SOME OF THE BAFFLING TERMS THAT WORKERS MUST LEARN BEFORETHEY CAN WALK THE WALK IN THE PATCH » PAGE 30

‘MY GOLDEN HANDCUFFS’A 50-FOOT TUMBLE DOWN A RIG WASN’T EXACTLY AN AUSPICIOUS START TO ACAREER IN THE OIL INDUSTRY. BUT KILLARNEY’S MIKE ROZANDER SURVIVED ANDTHRIVED, BECOMING ONE OF THE MOST SEASONED DIRECTIONAL DRILLERS IN THEWASKADA OILFIELD. JOINED BY HIS TWO BROTHERS, ROZANDER’S LIFE IN THE PATCHIS A FAMILY AFFAIR » PAGE 36

FEEDING THE FLOCKMICHELE BAHM AND CHRISTINE JENSEN ARE A WELL-OILED MACHINE IN THE KITCHENOF THE TINY CROMER CAFÉ. GOOD THING WHEN YOU’RE WHIPPING UP 2,000 ORDERSA DAY FOR THE HUNGRY HORDES IN THE OILPATCH » PAGE 40

THE FIRST BLACK GOLDLONG BEFORE THEY BEGAN PUMPING OIL OUT OF WESTMAN, THEY WERE PULLINGCOAL OUT OF THE TURTLE MOUNTAINS. THEN, AS NOW, THE WORKING CONDITIONSCOULD BE TOUGH. BUT BACK THEN, NO ONE GOT RICH » PAGE 44

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The Bakken oilfields are located in the Williston Sedimentary Basin, a large area strad-dling the Canada-U.S. border and incorporating portions of southwestern Manitoba,southeastern Saskatchewan, most of North Dakota, the northwest corner of SouthDakota and the northeast corner of Montana. (Manitoba Mineral Resources Petroleum Branch)


As far as the eye can see, iron horses dot wheat fields insouthwestern Manitoba, rocking back and forth as theyslurp oil from hundreds of metres below the Earth’s sur-face.

In 1951, the California Standard Oil Company discov-ered the first commercial, oil-producing well in NorthAmerica’s Williston Basin and by Feb. 1 of that year, awell 15 kilometres west of Virden was pumping crude.

Since that initial discovery in a sedimentary basin thatoccupies portions of southwestern Manitoba, southernSaskatchewan, North and South Dakota and Montana.,the province has had an on-again, off-again relationshipwith the oil industry.

» Continued on Page 8

INDIVIDUALS, COMMUNITIES,COMPANIES AND GOVERNMENTS

HAVE ALL HIT PAY DIRT IN THEBAKKEN OILFIELDS. HOW

LONG IT WILL LAST IS ANY-ONE’S GUESS, BUT FOR

NOW, THE WEALTH JUSTKEEPS ON FLOWING.

A comprehensive look at the number of wells drilled in Manitoba over the last nine years. There hasbeen a dramatic shift to horizontal drilling over the same time period.

In 2013, there were 530wells drilled in Manitoba by26 different companies.Tundra Oil and Gas, whichalso owns Red Beds, led theway with 189 wells drilled.(Manitoba Mineral ResourcesPetroleum Branch)


« Continued from Page 6

After a decade of solid growth in the 1950s, the industrywent cold until a boom during the back half of the 1970sand early ’80s.

The rush was short-lived, however, when global oil pricesdeclined steeply as the world plunged into an economic re-cession.

Today, drilling and service rigs are flourishing on West-man’s prairie landscape, largely due to advances in drillingtechnology and oil recovery processes, combined with ro-bust oil prices.

From 2005 to 2014, the industry has spent nearly $7 bil-lion in the province, according to Keith Lowdon, director

or the Manitoba Mineral Resources Petroleum Branch.Nearly half (4,280) of the approximately 9,100 wells in

the province’s oil history have been drilled over that sametime period.

And of the wells drilled in the latest boom, one in threeis a horizontal.

Horizontal drilling is the practice of laying drill pipe hor-izontally under the ground so that the well can snakethrough the production zone — often referred to as “paydirt” — for several hundred metres to increase the amountof recoverable crude.

Geologists on location use samples, which are cuttingsfrom the rock being drilled below the surface, to instructthe directional drillers to turn and twist the drill bit within

the zone. If the geologist sees too many cuttings from the forma-

tion directly above the “pay dirt”, they will turn the bitdownward and visa versa if samples begin to turn up rockfrom the formation below.

The attraction of horizontal drilling over traditional ver-tical drilling is the level of production.

Initial production for vertical wells is between 15 to 50barrels per day, while horizontal wells can produce 300 bar-rels. And while the initial rates of production tend to be ex-aggerated, horizontal wells still settle into an averageproduction rate approximately double to quadruple that ofa vertical well.


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An older pump-jack churns relentlessly west of Virden.



In 2012, horizontal wells accounted for nearly 80 per centof the province’s total production. With an average price of$84.53 a barrel that year, Manitoba sold approximately$1.51 billion worth of light, sour-blend crude.

There were 614 wells drilled in 2012, of which 566 werehorizontal wells. Of these wells, 506 were cased as potentialoil producers, while 12 were abandoned dry — called

“dusters” in the field.Drilling advances, combined with hydraulic fracturing or

“fracking”, have more than doubled the province’s oil pro-duction, according to Lowdon.

Fracking is a recovery technique wherein water, chemicaland sand are injected into the well at high pressure to createsmall fractures in the surrounding rock formations, thusfreeing up oil and gas to move into the well bore.

The advances in technology are expected to keep the oil-

patch strong for the foreseeable future in Manitoba.“In this industry things can change on a dime, so it’s hard

to do long-term forecasting,” Lowdon said. “But we expectto see the same level of activity for the next number ofyears.”

» [email protected]» Twitter: @CharlesTweed


MELITA — Standing in a new shop sur-rounded by drill bits, Les Pearson is in his ele-ment.

The straight-talking Shear Bits salesmanbeams as he pulls shiny new Polycrystalline Di-amond Compact (PDC) bits from their cases.

“We’ve shaved days off holes around herewith our bits,” he said, running his hands over aPDC cutter.

The efficiencies are no small potatoes for oilcompanies, which pay between $15,000 and$20,000 per day to lease a rig.

On this cold, wet day in May, Pearson hadtime to talk bits due to the oil industry’s springbreakup, a time when road bans restrict rigsfrom moving and grind the sector to a halt.

Later the same day, he talked to two classes atMelita School about the drilling process. Manyof the students he spoke to have mothers andfathers who work in the expanding oilfields nearthe community.


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A Polycrystalline DiamondCompact (PDC) drill bit sitsinside a Shear Bits shop inMelita.

Les Pearson, a salesman withShear Bits, makes sure hiscompany’s PolycrystallineDiamond Compact (PDC)drill bits make it to drillingoperations in southwesternManitoba and southeasternSaskatchewan.



Pearson showed students some of the smaller bits usedon holes near Waskada, as well as core samples from forma-tions hundreds of metres below their feet.

He wasn’t nervous that the kids wouldn’t find the pres-entation interesting. He was more concerned that his lan-guage remained rated-PG.

After working for more than a decade in an industrywhere salty language is an involuntary action no differentfrom breathing, it’s not that easy to turn off.

Seven years ago, Pearson moved to Melita from northernSaskatchewan to drill for Precision Drilling in the Waskadafield.

In 2009, he was Shear Bits’ first new hire, tasked withoverseeing the Calgary company’s interests in southwesternManitoba and into parts of Saskatchewan.

He takes pride in the amount of flexibility and quality ofservice the smaller company can offer oil companies in thearea.

“We are constantly updating,” Pearson said. “Our bits arestill handmade because every hole is different. We get it fig-ured out and then it’s dialed right in.”

Every bit, he claims, is custom engineered by a team inCalgary.

When one oil engineer, charged with overseeing a wellnear Waskada, called BS on his claim, Pearson deliveredthe next bit to the rig with the skeptic’s initials weldedonto it.

The company, which has an office in the United States,remains 100 per cent Canadian owned.

“Every dollar we make stays in Manitoba or WesternCanada,” Pearson said.

Those dollars are also finding their way to Melita, wherethe oil industry and agricultural sector have stretched thelabour market.

Recently, the town and surrounding municipalities havestruggled to find maintenance workers, competing directlywith oil companies who can offer higher wages.

Labour and housing markets in the area have become asvolatile as the oil industry itself.

Melita Mayor Bob Walker said 18 months ago, therewere very few homes on the market and houses were sell-ing at historic highs, but the market has cooled consider-ably since.

The ebb and flow associated with the industry has alsoslowed a subdivision in the northeast portion of the com-munity.

However, a recently constructed 255-man camp built bythe PTI group, has most people in the community of

1,070 optimistic that this winter will be one of the busiestyet.

“The camp has just been completed and obviously theydon’t spend money without knowing that there is going tobe activity back here in the area again,” Walker said.

The camp only highlights another problem — thetown’s lagoon. Damaged in the flood of 2011, it is at ca-pacity.

Even the recently constructed camp won’t be able to tieinto municipal lines; instead, they’ll have to truck waste-water to neighbouring communities where storage isn’t anissue.

Walker said the lagoon is a priority for the council, andhe hopes to see some repairs begin this summer.

It’s just one of a number of “good problems” that comeswith economic activity, but it’s a problem that Walkerknows needs to be solved before that activity moves on.

For just as quickly as workers like Pearson have decidedto call Melita home, they can leave chasing a rig some-where else.

“Melita will be home until the day the oilpatch crashesor I get told to go home,” Pearson said.


A variety of Tricone Bits sits on shelves inside the Shear Drilling shop in Melita.


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THE VOLATILE NATURE OF THEOIL INDUSTRY MEANS IT’S

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Colby Taylor, owner of TaylorOilfield Services just outsideMelita, stands in front ofpart of his fleet of vacuumtrucks.


MELITA — If Joel Vuignier gets one year out of a cell-phone before it’s broken, he considers it a success.

The field supervisor for Taylor Oilfield Services in Melitahas more blisters on his ear from talking on the phone thanhis hands when the oilpatch is firing on all cylinders.

“There are times when I’m talking on the phone and bythe time the call’s finished, I already have two messages toreturn, and by the time I’ve listen to those messages, anothermessage has already come in,” Vuignier said.

It’s all part of the business when you’re helping organize11 vacuum trucks and 10 water trucks in one of the busiestoil-producing centres in the province.

Vuignier works for Colby Taylor, who after five years sling-ing slips and throwing pipe with Precision Drilling out west,decided to return home and work as a vac-truck operator andwater hauler.

What started with one tractor and a wagon has blossomedinto a company that now employs 35 workers.

“It’s never easy starting out,” said Taylor, who grew up inBrandon and still calls it home.

With a new shop in Melita, he admits there are manynights in the winter he crashes on the couch in the officerather than hopping in his truck for the one-hour commute.

The self-made businessman started in 2008, taking a leapof faith and investing in trucks and equipment.

One year later, the patch slowed to its lowest level in theprevious five years, with only 264 holes punched in theprovince.

In the four years that have followed, 2,235 wells have beendrilled — an average of approximately 560 wells per year.

Taylor admits there was some nervous energy when thecompany was getting started.


Sparks fly as Tom Wilson, a mechanic with Taylor Oilfield Services, replaces a float insidea vacuum truck, at the Melita-area business.

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“At times it’s been challenging be-cause (the industry) is up and down,”he said. “It’s been stressful and therehave been some sleepless nights, butwe’ve had some good runs, too.”

Today, on a cool April afternoon,Taylor is doing some maintenancework on a vac truck while waiting forthe provincial road restrictions to belifted. That’s when oil companies willstart moving rigs and digging ditchagain.

He keeps a few employees workingthroughout the shutdown, which isknown as breakup in the industry.Others enjoy the respite provided bythe ban, which is designed to protectprovincial roads and infrastructurefrom the movement of heavy equip-ment during the spring when theyare most vulnerable.

He’s heard rumours the oilfieldwill fire up again in early June, buthas been around long enough toknow that will probably mean thingsstart moving closer to the end of themonth.

The toughest part of his businessis the logistics. Taylor is constantlyjuggling equipment, which engineerswanted yesterday, and workers, whoare spread throughout WesternCanada and Ontario.

Then, there’s the cold.“Nothing runs the way it’s sup-

posed to when it’s –40 C,” Taylorsaid. “That’s why we have to be asprepared as we can be all the time.”


A massive vacuum truck looms over mechanicTom Wilson as he repairs a part.


“At times it’s been

challenging because

(the industry) is up

and down ... It’s been

stressful and there

have been some

sleepless nights, but

we’ve had some

good runs, too.”» Colby Taylor

Working inb o n e c h i l l i n gcold is par forthe course in theBakken oilfields.Here, JasmeenStahl with Sil-verline Oil FieldServices casts ashadow throughthe steam as sheuses high pres-sure steam tothaw a pump-jack south ofCromer, Mani-toba. Tempera-tures in thisJanuary 2014photo werehovering aroundminus 30.


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Waskada Mayor Gary Williams standsin front of a brand new arena beingconstructed in the small community.


WASKADA — Gary Williams has seenthis movie before.

The Waskada mayor had a front-row seatfor the oil boom in the 1980s. The drip ofblack gold spilled outward, touching everyfacet of the community’s economy.

He also understands that just as quickly asthose large rigs moved in to develop the area,the tap can be turned off overnight.


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Today, the community of fewer than 200 is thriving andWilliams is intent on squeezing as much benefit from theindustry — and the hungry mouths and thick wallets itbrings with it — as possible.

“It’s one of those things that could end tomorrow,”Williams said while touring what has become known as the‘Waskada play.’

Stopping in front of a large steel building, the mayorbeams with pride.

“This will be our new rink,” he said.Trudging through mud and around construction equip-

ment, Williams peers into what will be a state-of-the-artarena pegged between $3.5-$4 million to build. While therink is nothing more than a steel shell with a dirt floor rightnow, Williams can already envision a packed ice surface fullof kids, including his grandchildren, skating around.

“The choice was simple, we build a new building or weabandon skating in our community,” he said. “If we don’thave a rink here, then what is next? We’re trying to moveforward, not backward.”

Multinational oil companies and local contractors havestepped up to offset some of the costs of the new facility.

However, it was a generous act in 2002 that laid the foun-dation for the arena.

In 2002, when 93-year-old Mabel Pounder passed away,she gifted the community the mineral rights to a parcel ofland in the RM of Arthur, village CAO Diane Woodworth

said.At the time, the royalties were worth $20,000. This year

the royalties will contribute $650,000 to the village’s bottomline; last year it was $800,000. It’s big money for a commu-nity that generates approximately $155,000 in property-taxrevenue.

“It was incredible what she did,” Williams said.The sale of fresh water, used for drilling and fracking, has

also generated a substantial amount of revenue.The school is full, a newly constructed bank is bustling, a

grocery store that had to be taken over by the communitywhen times were tough is now turning a healthy profit anda new Korean family has moved in to run the bar andrestaurant.

But it’s not without its challenges.High wages have stretched the labour and housing mar-

kets, while municipal roads have taken a beating as largetrucks travel to and from oil leases.

Williams isn’t sure how long the activity will last, orwhether it will be the last time the industry comes to thearea in a substantial way.

Advances in drilling and oil recovery practices — mainlyhorizonal drilling and fracking — have made Waskada rel-evant in the energy sector again.

Last year, according to the Manitoba Mineral ResourcesPetroleum Branch, the Waskada field had 1,039 producingwells, which combined for 5.39 million barrels of oil. It wasthe second most productive field in the province behindDaily-Sinclair.

This year is supposed to be similar to 2013, but Williamsknows it won’t last forever.

“You take it while you can,” he said. “And hopefully, whensomeone drives away with the last piece of oil equipment,there is something left behind.”


A white board in the entranceway to the offices for the Villageof Waskada and the RM of Brenda in Waskada lists availableaccommodations for workers new to the area.


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Drop a stone into a barrel of oil and watch the ripples ex-pand outward and somewhere just before those waves startto dissipate off is Souris.

While the community isn’t at the epicentre of the oil in-dustry in southwestern Manitoba, it’s not beyond its rippleeffect either.

Oil workers, who used to travel to rig locations in BritishColumbia, Alberta and Saskatchewan, now drive less than acouple of hours before zipping up their flame-resistant cov-eralls.

The fact the majority of rigs working in Manitoba andsoutheastern Saskatchewan work eight-hour shifts comparedto 12 hours everywhere else makes the commute manageable.

“We’ve seen families, who have someone in the householdthat works in the oilpatch, choose our community as a homebase,” Souris and Glenwood economic development officerVern May said.

The bump in traffic also helped paved the way for the com-munity of 1,840 residents to host two major concerts thisspring as Doc Walker and Aaron Pritchett sold out well inadvance of their shows.

Companies such as Falcon Enterprises and Souris Pump-ing have zeroed in on the activity, according to May.

There is optimism that more business could be on the hori-

zon as seismic crews continue toprobe the area for the next big‘play’.

“Indirectly we are starting tosee an impact here, but we alsoknow that oil companies havebeen doing some exploratorydrilling within the municipalityand all they need to do is findone reservor and that’s 300 jobs,”May said.

The effects are being felt inthe service industry, too.

Uptown Lounge and Restau-rant owner Darcia Wright said that about every six weeks,she prepares between 40 to 60 meals, three times a day, forcrews inspecting pipelines and working in the patch.

“They come in and pick up their food and take it back tothe field,” Wright said. “It hasn’t been as busy here asSaskatchewan or Melita, but I know it’s heading this way.”


Country artists Doc Walker rock out forthe crowd at the Souris & Glenwood Me-morial Complex during their concertearlier this spring.

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Fracking is a controver-sial issue right now. Themining technique uses aliquid compound at highpressures to causebreaks in formationsbelow the surface somore oil and gas is ableto flow into the well.(Canadian Natural Gas)

IT TAKES A LOT OF WATER. DOOMSDAY THEORIESABOUND. BUT PROPONENTS OF HYDRAULICFRACTURING SAY THAT DONE CORRECTLY, THETECHNIQUE IS SAFE AND PROFITABLE. AND THEPROVINCIAL PETROLEUM BRANCH IS WORKINGHARD TO MAKE SURE IT DOESN’T BECOME A‘CONTENTIOUS ISSUE’ IN MANITOBA.

THE FRACKINGCONUNDRUM

THE FRACKINGCONUNDRUM

It’s a loaded word that tends toelicit strong and often emotionalresponses.

But what exactly is “fracking”?A mining technique designed to

increase production of oil and gaswells, hydraulic fracturing — orfracking — is the procedure ofblasting a compound, which gen-erally consists of water, chemicalsand sand, into geological forma-tions at high pressures to createsmall cracks in the rock surround-ing the well.

The subsequent cracks in the formation free up points foroil and gas to flow into the well and be sucked up by a pumpjack.

And then there is multi-stage fracking, in which areas ofhorizontal wells are isolated and blasted several times beforemoving to another section of the well to repeat.

Critics of the technique say it poses a threat to ground-water, potentially depleting freshwater sources through con-tamination from natural gas released from rock formedhundreds of millions of years ago.

There are also concerns with air emissions related tomethane leaks, and seismic events, such as micro-earth-quakes, in some areas.

However, proponents say fracking done under the rightcircumstances is safe and note its positive impact on theeconomy.

Keith Lowdon, director of the Manitoba Mineral Re-sources Petroleum Branch, said there haven’t been any prob-lems with the technique within the province since it wasintroduced more than two decades ago, adding that thepractice is regulated by The Oil and Gas Act.

“It’s become a contentious issue in some jurisdictions andit hasn’t become an issue in Manitoba,” he said, “but wewant to make sure that is doesn’t and that we’re in line withwhat other jurisdictions are doing.”

The provincial department is currently working on regu-lations that would require companies to publically disclosethe type and quantity of fluids being used in all frack jobs.

“We haven’t had any fracking issues and if we’re openabout what is happening, then it should provide some levelof comfort for people,” Lowdon said.

The average frack job uses 400 to 700 cubic metres ofwater. By comparison, the average family of four uses 500cubic metres of water a year, according to the PetroleumBranch.

Fluids are managed from cradle to grave, according toLowdon.

There are no known cases where fracking has resulted ingroundwater contamination in Manitoba, where oil reser-voirs are located 400 to 1,000 metres below aquifers.

Surface and intermediate casing are cemented into theground well below groundwater aquifers, reducing the riskof contamination.

The majority of problems associated with fracking oc-

curred in shale gas projects in the United States.In Manitoba, there is no shale gas development. However,

the province does hold potential in this area, providing nat-ural gas prices climb to a level where it is economically ad-vantageous to develop.


After drillingsurface with aw a t e r - b a s e ddrilling fluid, thewell is cased andcemented toprotect groundwater. (Trican)

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IT’S A WHOLE DIFFERENT CULTURE OUT ONTHE RIGS — WITH A UNIQUE LANGUAGE

TO BOOT. FORMER RIG-WORKER-TURNED-JOURNALIST CHARLES TWEED WALKS YOUTHROUGH SOME OF THE BAFFLING TERMSWORKERS MUST LEARN BEFORE THEY CAN

WALK THE WALK IN THE PATCH.

THETALKING

TALKTALKING

TALKTHE

If you’ve never worked in the oilpatch, or have ever beencaught between two rig hands talking shop, the lingo can bemore than a touch confusing.

I still remember my first shift working on a PrecisionDrilling rig near Lloydminster, Sask. — I’ll use “the gap” asthe city’s province of origin as that’s the side we were workingon, although Lloydminster straddles the provincial border be-tween Alberta and Saskatchewan.

Standing on the rig floor, the driller — a gnarly looking 50-something-year-old man with a foul mouth and pristine han-dle-bar mustache — yelled at me.

“Hey, idiot,” he hollered from the brake han-dle.

In case anyone is unclear, I was the idiot, aname equally based on the fact he didn’t knowmy real name and my greenhorn status.

He continued, “Unlatch the hook on theblocks because we’re kellying up.”

I remember thinking, “What did he just say?”I’d eventually figure out what “blocks” and

“kelly” were while working my way up to der-rickhand in the patch.

And the driller, who is now a friend, eventu-ally learned my name, deciding on “Charlie.”

After a few years working on a couple of rigsin every province and territory west of Mani-toba, I left Precision Drilling for Phoenix Tech-nologies, where I worked as ameasure-while-drilling hand (MWD) beforetrading in my coveralls for textbooks at Assini-boine Community College.

Most of my rig stories now only come outwhen I get together with former co-workers. Butthis magazine, which focuses on the oil and gasindustry in Manitoba, got me thinking about rigculture and the language that is so foreign tomost who have never worked in the field.

It prompted me to put together a list of someof the terms used in industry that are scatteredthroughout these pages.

First and foremost whenever someone is iden-tifying a rig that they worked on, they name itby the company, say Precision Drilling and anumber. I worked on PD 143, for example.


Me, working derrick on Precision Drilling 231 in 2005. I am standingon the monkey boards in the derrick. The rig was a triple, meaningI'm about 27 metres above the rig floor. The rope attached to myback allows me to lean out into the derrick to throw pipe in or pullthem out while tripping in and out of the hole. The second photo(inset) is my view straight down from the monkey boards. You can also see the drill string in front of me, on which the blocksrun up and down. The ropes to the right are where stands of pipe would be racked and tied off. (Submitted)


1. Mud tank2. Shale Shakers3. Suction line (mud pump)4. Mud pump5. Motor or power source6. Vibrating hose7. Draw-works8. Standpipe9. Kelly hose10. Goose-neck11. Traveling block12. Drill line13. Crown block14. Derrick15. Monkey board16. Stand (of drill pipe)17. Pipe rack (floor)18. Swivel (On newer rigs this may be replaced by a top drive)19. Kelly drive20. Rotary table21. Drill floor22. Bell nipple23. Blowout preventer (BOP) Annular type24. Blowout preventer (BOP) Pipe ram & blind ram25. Drill string26. Drill bit27. Casing head or Wellhead28. Flow line

A simplified look at a rig and the mechanisms employedto drill a well anywhere in the world. (Wikipedia)



That is always followed by what type of rig it is. PD 143 is a “Jackknife-Double,” mean-ing the derrick is in one piece, supported by an A-frame at the bottom, and jackknifes tothe ground to be moved.

“Double” means two joints of pipe still connected can stand in the derrick. By being ableto rack several stands of two joints of pipe in the derrick, the rig can essentially trip in and

out of the hole twice as fast as a single, because it only needs to break the drill string everysecond joint — an important aspect because time is money in the oilfield.

Another example is a “Tele-Double.” Again two joints of pipe can stand in the derrick,but the derrick actually telescopes down to move or up to drill. The top section slides upthrough the bottom section and is held there by large steel pins.



Here are some other terms you might hear in the patchBlocks: The travelling piece of machinery used to hoist pipe and other ma-terials. The blocks move vertically up and down within the derrick througha series of pulleys that the drill line is threaded through.Blooey line: A section of line used to bleed off any pressure on the pumps.Crown: The top of the rig derrick. If a driller “crown’s out,” it means he ranthe blocks up to the point where they hit the crown block.Kelly: A device that hooks to the drill string connecting it to the pump. Thekelly also has a set of bushings, which sit in the rotary table and spin whilethe rig is drilling. It is typically a few metres longer than the average lengthof a drill pipe.F-Stick: A long metal tool that is designed to unlatch the hook on theblocks.Monkey boards: The steel platform the derrickhand stands on while up inthe derrick.Mud motor: A device inserted at the bottom of a drill string. The mud motorhas two sections and is bent at an angle to enable directional drilling. Whensliding, the mud motor provides the rotations so the bit can stay on anangle pointed where the driller wants to go.

Petcock: A small pressure gauge used to measure the pressure of thedrilling fluid in the stand pipe.Shaker: A machine that vibrates a series of screens. As drilling fluid runsover the shaker, the fluid falls through the vibrating screens while cuttingsfrom downhole, such as rock and sand, continue over the top and are sep-arated out.Slide: When the rig is sliding, the kelly isn’t spinning, instead relying on themud motor at the end of the drill string to provide rotation. Slides are usedto point the mud motor in a specific direction.Stack: The blowout preventer (BOP) is a large mechanical device designedto stop a blowout from happening. Blowouts happen when the drilling fluidisn’t heavy enough to hold downhole pressures, such as gas, from makingits way to the surface.Tripping: The act of running pipe in or out of the hole.

These are just some of the many terms used on rig floors throughout thepatch, where if you ask any old-timer, the “rigs used to be made of woodand the men of steel.”

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A family takes a photo in a Trican Well Serv-ice truck during the company's grand open-ing of a new shop in Brandon in June. Trican,which specializes in fracking and cementjobs in southwestern Manitoba, employs 70full-time employees. The company investedapproximately $8.2 million in their new lo-cation, which includes a 23,000 square-footshop, and has another $13.5 million worth ofrolling stock in the form of trucks and tanksin Manitoba. (Bruce Bumstead/Brandon Sun)

Trican trucksready to roll


MY GOLDENHANDCUFFSMY GOLDENHANDCUFFS

A 50-FOOT TUMBLE DOWNA RIG WASN’T EXACTLY AN

AUSPICIOUS START TO ACAREER IN THE OIL INDUSTRY.

BUT KILLARNEY’S MIKEROZANDER SURVIVED ANDTHRIVED, BECOMING ONEOF THE MOST SEASONED

DIRECTIONAL DRILLERS IN THEWASKADA OILFIELD. JOINED

BY HIS TWO BROTHERS,ROZANDER’S LIFE IN THE

PATCH IS A FAMILY AFFAIR.

KILLARNEY — On a quiet spring morning, MikeRozander stands in his kitchen overlooking KillarneyLake, brewing a pot of dark-roast coffee.

Rozander pours two cups, then stops and adds a glugof Bailey’s Irish Cream into one of them.

“Want a shot?” he asks.Rozander is on holidays. The directional driller — or

DD — who has spent two decades working in the oil-patch, has the next six to eight weeks off due to a provin-cial road ban that limits rigs from moving.

I, however, am not on holidays, having been taskedwith interviewing this man who has drilled more hori-zontal wells in the Waskada field than anyone else.

I’ve known Rozander for more than 20 years and went toschool and worked rigs with his younger brother.

“Sure,” I answer.During the course of the next hour over coffees, Rozander

shares stories from a career that has taken him all overWestern Canada, led to him falling more than 50 feet, re-sulted in his launching of his own business and provided astable life for his wife and family.

“(The oilpatch) is my golden handcuffs,” he jokes, sittingdown at the table across from me.

In the oilfield, a sense of humour isn’t an asset, it’s a ne-cessity — and Rozander has a good one.

In 1994, one year after graduating high school in Killar-ney, Rozander and his best friend, Dean Dixon, who hassince passed away following a battle with cancer, loaded uptheir vehicles and headed west in search of riches in Alberta.The idea of working two weeks and getting one week offwas appealing to the young men.

At the time, however, there were no roughneck schoolsor training programs for new employees. The patch was amuch different place, with about 400 rigs working mostlyin Alberta — a number that today has more than doubledto 810, and now includes substantial drilling in British Co-lumbia, Saskatchewan and Manitoba.

“It was much harder to get on the rigs back then,” Rozan-der said. “We drove around to different locations, left ournames with the tool push, had a cup of coffee with him andtried our best to make a good impression.”

The tenacity paid off for the pair, as Rozander and Dixonwould eventually get hired by different companies.

Three years later, the two would finally get a chance towork together on a rig in Fox Creek, Alta.

It was there that Rozander, working as a derrickhand, fell50 feet, landing on the rig floor less than five feet away fromhis friend.

How and why he fell is a complicated story that involvesfreezing rain, a motorhand having trouble up the stick,jammed shaker screens and tight hole due to shale fallingin, forcing the crew to ream each joint of pipe back into thehole.

But Rozander, now older and wiser, admits he was impa-tient at the time.

“I yelled ‘Heads up boys’ on the way down.”The length of fall also gave him chance to think, he said.

Envisioning himself falling backwards, he told himself, ‘Ihave to land like a cat,’ so he pointed his toes down towardthe rapidly approaching rig floor.

While the impact shattered his feet and ankles, his quickdecision helped mitigate the force on the rest of his body— and may have saved his life, doctors told him.

Never one to slow down or “milk the system,” Rozanderfell in November of 1997 and was back working in the com-pany’s Calgary office on light duty less than three monthslater.

Soon after, he was back on a rig floor drilling for PrecisionDrilling in the Northwest Territories.

It was there that he brought his younger brother, Trevor,into the industry after firing a roughneck.

The two got off to an ominous start, however, when dur-ing his first week on the job, Trevor dropped a dog-collarpin down the hole. The incident forced the rig to millthrough the pin for three days and was followed by several

magnet runs to clean up the debris.“I was losing my mind on him at the time, but he

straightened me out and we’ve always got along ever since,”Rozander said with a smile, adding he’s never brought upthe incident since.



Mike Rozander has spent two decades working in the oil-patch. Rozander, who owns a business as a directionaldriller, has brought both his younger brothers into thefold. (Submitted)

“I yelled ‘Heads up boys’ on the way down.”» Mike Rozander


“I haven’t forgotten it though.”The following year, he went direction drilling. After working as a DD with Computalog for several

years, he became a consultant, running his own businesswhere he contracts his services to oil companies.

In 2005, he brought Trevor into the fold and over thenext several years, the brothers worked together in Al-berta, Saskatchewan and Manitoba, steering bits throughformations thousands of metres away from the rig floor.

In 2012, Rozander’s youngest brother, Eddie, joinedtheir crew as a measure-while-drilling — or MWD —hand.

If DDs steer the bit under the ground, then an MWDhand tells them where it is located through a series ofdigital surveys.

For the first time last winter, all three worked togetheras drillers.

“We’re all a team and it’s our ace in the hole whenthings get busy and it’s typically hard to get days off.”

Two decades ago, Rozander could count the numberof guys from Killarney who worked in the oilpatch onone hand. Today, he said there are at least 30 guys fromthe town currently working in the industry, from pressuretesters and roughnecks to MWD hands and DDs.

When the industry took off in Manitoba, Rozanderand his wife, Debbie, decided to move to Killarney.

After years of witnessing an erratic housing market inAlberta, the couple liked the stability and small-town at-mosphere the community of 2,300 provided their grow-ing family.

Rozander said the biggest change in the oil field hasbeen the steady introduction of technology. Advance-ments have made it possible for decisions to be madefrom central locations, such as Calgary, on rigs hundredsof kilometres away.

He suspects one day there won’t be the need for a DDto be physically on the location of the rig.

But not in his time.“If I get 10 more years out of it, I’ll be happy,” Rozan-

der said taking a sip of coffee. “I really have no com-plaints. The patch has been good to me.”


OPPORTUNITY MAGAZINE • • JUNE 201438Eddie and Trevor Rozanderstanding in front of a rignear Stoughton, Sask. Thebrothers are part of a three-man crew of directionaldrillers, which includes theirolder brother Mike, who drillhorizontal holes in south-western Manitoba andsoutheastern Saskatchewan.(Submitted)


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FEEDINGTHE FLOCK

FEEDINGTHE FLOCK

Michelle Bahm, manager of the Cromer Cafe in Cromer, Manitoba brings cutlery and small talk to hungry customersKen Hamel and Dallas Coulter during the lunch rush on April 21. The tiny cafe does big business, attracting oil workerswith daily specials and delivery to the patch.


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CROMER — In a shoe-box kitchenwith a two-foot grill in the middle of theoilfield, Michele Bahm and ChristineJensen are pumping out food orders forhungry workers.

The Cromer Café is just one of severalsuccess stories in Westman, capitalizing onthe oil and gas industry in the surroundingarea.

Bahm said there are times the lineup isout the door and around the corner as crewswait for hearty, homemade meals.

The pair have served workers from coast-to-coast — Newfoundland to British Co-lumbia and everywhere in between — andhave even picked up some of the lingo.

“Some days it can be pretty hairy in here,but we get ’er done,” Bahm said with alaugh.

The tiny restaurant was forced to build adeck in order to accommodate more people.

Bahm said customers are like family,often offering up their table to others whenthey are finished eating, understanding thesmall quarters are part of the café’s charm.

In the kitchen, Bahm and Jensen are notunlike some of the greatest duos in sportshistory. Like Jordan and Pippen, Montanaand Rice, and Kurri and Gretzky, the pairhave an undeniable chemistry in thekitchen.



“For the past two years, we’ve worked together and nowwe’re able to anticipate what the other person is going to dobefore they do it,” Bahm said. “When one person falls be-hind, the other one pitches in, so it’s a pretty good system wehave going.”

Daily orders can range from 150 to 2,000 depending onthe time of year. The numbers are more impressive when youconsider the community has a population of 25 residents.

“The big orders really get us going,” said Bahm, who alsoknows where they make their bacon, literally and figuratively.

“If the oil industry wasn’t here, the business wouldn’t behere.”

Across the street, the Cromer Valley Store is the very def-inition of diversification.

In 1977, Mark Toews ran the small grocery store with hisfather.

Today, two new buildings later and now running the storewith his son-in-law, Mark hasn’t subscribed to the status quo.

The grocery is now just a fraction of the business, whichsells oilfield equipment ranging from coveralls to hoses.

There’s a market for liquor and cigarettes, too, but Toewssaid he wouldn’t want to get into that side of the business for“religious reasons.” But that’s about all they don’t do.

“We do embroidery and custom logos for businesses andwe sell fuel, both gas and diesel,” Toews said. “The latestboom has expanded our line and we rent out rig mats to theoilfield.”

The store does work for Enbridge and Tundra Oil andGas, two of the major players in Manitoba.

“On a scale of one to 10, with 10 being the most important,I would say the oil industry is a nine for us,” Toews said.


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THE FIRSTBLACK GOLD

THE FIRSTBLACK GOLD

LONG BEFORE THEY BEGAN PUMPING OIL OUT OF WESTMAN,THEY WERE PULLING COAL OUT OF THE TURTLE MOUNTAINS.

THEN, AS NOW, THE WORKING CONDITIONS COULD BETOUGH. BUT BACK THEN, NO ONE GOT RICH.

Before there was oil, there was coal.While most Manitobans are familiar with the most recent flurry of oil

activity in the Williston Basin, which stretches into the southwestern cornerof the province, it’s not the first rush on an energy commodity in the area.

The Turtle Mountains are rich with beds of lignite coal that were minedat the turn of the 20th century and again during the Great Depression.

Local historian Bob Caldwell documented “Manitoba’s Coal Rush” forthe Manitoba Historical Society and said the initial discovery of coal wasaccidental when settlers of the Boundary Commission Trail were drillingfor water near Boissevain and turned up a coal core.

(Winnipeg Free Press)

One of the first pioneers ofthe industry was Mr. Voden,who mined a vertical shaft 12metres deep and about 24metres square until it col-lapsed over lunch in 1887.Miraculously no one was in-jured.

Two years later, the Mani-toba Coal Company lookedto set up a commercial mineon 810 hectares of land nearGoodlands. The goal was toextract the coal and ship it byrail through Deloraine toBrandon and Winnipeg.

However, the railway wasnever built and in the end, theCanadian Pacific Railway ex-tended track to southernSaskatchewan, where theywould truck coal from RochePercee. That readily availablecoal doomed the Manitobamine and visions of an en-ergy-based industry nearGoodlands, Deloraine andWaskada were dashed.

The Dirty ’30s provided theperfect storm to revive the in-dustry in the area.

A lack of work coupled witha need for cheap energy brought local prospectors back tothe western edge of the Turtle Mountains in hopes of strik-ing it rich.

“Most of the workers were local guys,” Caldwell said. “In

those times, it’s not that coal was any less money but peoplehad less and mining it out there meant people could get ita bit cheaper.”

Several companies — Deloraine Coal Company, Turtle

Mountain Coal Mines and Deep River Mine — operatedfor a number of years with limited success.

It was ultimately two mines near Goodlands, separatedby a fence line, that had the greatest impact in the industry.



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Workers stop for a photo outside the mine operated by John Nestibo in 1933. Nestibo's crew produced about 25 tonnes of coal per day in a minelocated on the western edge of the Turtle Mountains near Goodlands. (Submitted)


In 1931, John Nestibo was hired torun the Henderson Mine, which wenton to produce about 25 tonnes of coalper day.

However, after the owners asked formore royalties from Nestibo, hehopped a fence line and built the SalterMine just metres away from the Hen-derson shaft.

George Cain, from Melita, was hiredto replace Nestibo and the two wouldmine beside each other for the betterpart of a decade.

The conditions were tough and noone got rich, with Ted Nestibo describ-ing the mine as “kind of like a frozendeath.”

Caldwell said there are stories ofminers being buried up to their chest,but miraculously there weren’t manyinjuries.

“Some of the guys would go downthe mine once and that was enough forthem,” he said. “And as soon as theGreat Depression ended and the Sec-ond World War started, they couldn’tget anyone to work in them.”

Despite the conditions, there was asense of camaraderie in the mine asworkers sang songs while they workedunderground.

The war ended commercial coalmining in Westman as farmers wentback to the fields and young men andwomen went overseas to serve theircountry.

But to this day, there is still a largereserve of coal in the Turtle Mountains,known as “Turtle Mountain mud” be-cause it is mined out of undergroundstreams.


ABOVE: The 49th parallel follows a slash line, cutthrough Turtle Mountain forest between North Dakotaand Manitoba. LEFT: Workers with a pickaxe and shovel stand outsidea mine near Goodlands in 1933.


(Winnipeg Free Press)

(Submitted)

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Documents

Opportunity Magazine — The Bakken