Midale 鈥� Pro Canada West Energy鈥檚 shop in Midale is an important part of their integrated business, building the facilities hardware their field crews often install.
Darin Gutzke is their regional manager in Midale. He spoke to Pipeline News on Dec. 12.
The company has about 65 people working out of Midale. About ten are from Midale and nearby Halbrite. In the shop, they have welders from Weyburn and Estevan.
About ten people work in the Midale shop that are supervised by shop foreman Grant Stinson.
Most of their work in the shop is fabrication, according to Gutzke. As most of their pipeline work in the area is fibreglass, the fabrication supports those efforts by making skid packages, risers and headers. They also do some bid work for midstream companies.
Compared to three years ago, they鈥檙e probably down 35 to 40 per cent as far as workload. But they鈥檝e kept moving. He鈥檚 noticed stronger drilling programs planned for the first quarter of 2017. 鈥淭here鈥檚 usually a pipeline for every well drilled,鈥� Gutzke said. Those pipelines lead to more header packages and skids.
鈥淔ortunately, the two companies we do a lot of work for have continued to work during the downturn,鈥� Gutzke said.
To deal with the downturn of the last two years, he said, 鈥淲e haven鈥檛 reduced wages a lot. We took away a few perks. We鈥檙e really trying to maintain our core of workers for when things pick up. There鈥檚 a cost and a learning curve for letting people go and having to replace with new hires.
He added you don鈥檛 want to risk quality or safety.
Pro Canada West does some mainline work, too, and is active in potash mine projects. 鈥淲e can do large diameter fabrication - 24 and 30 inch pipe,鈥� he said.
Gutzke is happy to hear about an announced refinery for nearby Stoughton. 鈥淚鈥檓 hoping that鈥檚 a good thing,鈥� he said.
鈥淲e do have large scale pipeline, facilities and civil work capabilities. We would be interested in bidding on it. We鈥檝e ramped up in potash and pipeline projects up to 200 people.鈥�
Pond work, which would be required for any refinery, falls within their capabilities, as an example.
Asked about 2017, Gutzke said, 鈥淚鈥檓 hoping. There鈥檚 still talk the first half of 2017 will be down. People will be skeptical on spending more.鈥�
With oil prices at US$45 to US50, the industry is no longer 鈥済etting beat up.鈥�
鈥淲e have to get consistently in the US$60 range for oil companies to plan future projects,鈥� he said.
