Virden, Man. 鈥� In the back corner of Fontana鈥檚 Trucking north Virden yard, three men steadily processed tubing as it was inspected. Most earned a yellow stripe, meaning it can still be used, but occasionally, one would get a red stripe, meaning it was toast. And that is precisely why inspections are done on pipe, to weed out the good from the bad.
Doing the inspection was Diversified Oilfield Services, and their name is an accurate description. They do a lot of different things, according to president Dale Lewis.
Lewis also owns Safety Source and Discovery Safety in Virden (see story Page A???). This is a separate venture. Tom Whittle and Rod Price are Lewis鈥� partners.
The company offers tubing inspection in the yard and field. It also shoots fluid levels of oilwells. Ultrasonic and mag particle inspection are other specialties. They inspect coatings on tanks and vessels. The company even fixes Arrow motors, propane power plants for skid engine packages. Diversified, indeed.
Started in 2010, they began by shooting fluid levels, Price鈥檚 area of expertise. When Whittle joined they expanded into tubing inspection.
鈥淲e鈥檝e expanded, come up with ideas that are new,鈥� Lewis said on July 17.
Since Diversified鈥檚 work focused on the maintenance side, it didn鈥檛 see the same hit many other oilfield services did with the big oil downturn in recent years. But they did feel it on the rates they can charge, just as others had.
One of their services is a portable glycol heater they鈥檝e developed for wellheads and battery load lines. It uses a rubber hose with hot glycol to heat frozen items. Lewis said it provides constant heat, but with no moisture.聽
