Estevan 鈥� On Sept. 25, Apollo Electric & Controls, an new electrical company, fired up in Estevan.
The outfit is run by partners Trevor Dutka and Jim Schlamp, who have joined up with the partners behind Estevan Meter Services Ltd. to create a sister company. Apollo works out of Estevan Meter鈥檚 building on the east side of Estevan.
Dutka said on Nov. 10, 鈥淭his isn鈥檛 an Estevan Meter electrical company. This is our own electrical company. Apollo Electric is its own entity. It鈥檚 billing is all through us.鈥�
They have six employees, all electricians. 鈥淲e鈥檙e basically 90 per cent oilfield, and a little bit commercial,鈥� Dutka said.
Their current work includes wellsites, single well batteries, a lot of programmable logic controller (PLC) programming, electrical controllers.
鈥淲e鈥檙e doing some smaller projects. There aren鈥檛 really any of batteries for bid right now. We鈥檙e doing a lot of maintenance. Obviously, it鈥檚 that time of year where the change of seasons comes with a bit of work with it. The heaters aren鈥檛 working, or heat trace and piping, stuff like that. Stuff that doesn鈥檛 like the cold is showing its horns right now.鈥�
He gave an example of a big rain storm earlier this year, after a long dry period, that resulted in a few service calls.
They鈥檝e got two trucks right now, and a third on the way.
鈥淥ur goal is to expand. When we expand, I guess, will depend on opportunities we have in the oilfield around the Estevan area. We鈥檙e looking at more clients and talking to more and more people. People are excited about talking to us, because we really wanted to push this as a one-stop shopping kind of place. You can phone, you can get your instrumentation, your electrical, your basic electrical programming or electrical design 鈥� anything like that.鈥�
They are working side-by-side with Estevan Meter, he added. For instance, Estevan Meter might do the tank gauging while Apollo does the electrical work.
The 鈥渃ontrols鈥� in their name refers to instrumentation or electrical, such as controls on variable frequency drives (VFDs) for pumpjacks.
VFDs are becoming much more common on pumpjacks in recent years. 鈥淭here are a lot VFDs going on to control pumpjacks, because with a VFD, it鈥檚 a lot easier to control how much fluid is being moved. You can slow it down, speed it up by turning a dial.鈥�
鈥淎 lot of the stuff we deal with is with downhole pressure. They see how much fluid is being moved and how much fluid they do want to move, because you don鈥檛 want to pump off a well. So if there鈥檚 less pressure, less fluid at the bottom of a well, you slow the pumpjack down,鈥� he said.
鈥淔or starting up a month-and-a-half ago, I think we鈥檝e gained the trust of a few clients right now. Jim and I have been knocking on a few doors. People are excited about the new venture, excited they can call one number and have electrical, instrumentation and programming all under one (call),鈥� he said.
Apollo鈥檚 work area is generally the southeast Saskatchewan oilpatch, within a two-hour radius of Estevan. They have done a little bit of work in Manitoba, as well.
Dukta has his own company before, TSD Electric. Now he said there鈥檚 more support
Asked about the timing of launching a new venture while the downturn has still not yet fully reversed, he said, 鈥淲e鈥檙e looking to the future. Things will turn around in the oilfield.
鈥淚 think some things are turning around.鈥�
He added that companies are spending more now, with oil at US$57 a barrel than they were when oil was US$37.
