The oil industry awards for southeast Saskatchewan were presented on Wednesday evening at the Saskatchewan Oil and Gas Show, including the 麻豆视频east Oilman of the Year, and the inaugural presentation of the 麻豆视频east Saskatchewan Legends awards, which is the southeast industry鈥檚 hall of fame.
Dustin Duncan, Minister of Energy and Resources and Weyburn-Big Muddy MLA, emceed the award presentations, reading out a biography of each recipient, and he also gave the keynote address for the evening ceremonies.
The 麻豆视频east Oilman of the Year award was presented to Randall Smith, who incorporated Spectrum Resource Group Inc. in 1995. The company explores, develops and produces oil and gas in southeast Saskatchewan, and has drilled over 350 wells in the area.
Randall grew up in the Oxbow/Carlyle area. When he graduated high school, he went to Calgary to obtain a Business and Petroleum Land Management degree. He has been a leader and a true advocate for private oil and gas growth in Saskatchewan, and strives on making the deals and outcomes viable for both parties. Spectrum started with two employees and now has 12, as well as employing various contractors and sub-trades within southeast Saskatchewan.
鈥淩andall is especially proud of his team that excels on a daily basis for Spectrum,鈥� said Duncan. Some of the employees have been with Spectrum for over 15 years, and the company continues to grow and prosper in an ever-changing industry.
In accepting the award, he paid tribute to his parents and his brother Ryan, and said, 鈥淚 really can only accept this on behalf of the excellent team we鈥檝e built at Spectrum. 鈥� It鈥檚 a great honour to be recognized like this.鈥�
The 麻豆视频east Legends awards were presented to the late Mel Grimes, Ken Spearing and Ron Wanner.
Melvyn Duane Grimes, who everyone called 鈥淢el,鈥� played a large part in literally transforming the Saskatchewan oilpatch landscape. He passed away Nov. 15, 2016, at the age of 69.
In 1984 Mel went into partnership with Paul Grimes, a cousin, with 麻豆视频ern Resources, a junior oil company working in southeast Saskatchewan. Mel bought out Paul eventually, and was in turn bought out by Talisman Energy Inc. in 1995. During this time he was also buying and selling used pumpjacks through Grimes Sales & Service. It was a small operation and very much a family affair. Grimes Sales & Service happened to supply pumpjacks for Paul Cheung鈥檚 company, Grand Bow, and in 1997, Paul ended up partnering with the China National Petroleum Company (CNPC). CNPC showed Cheung the HG pumpjack, and he wanted to bring it to the Canadian market, using it first on his own wells.
Looking for someone local to work with, Merlin Skjonsby suggested to Cheung that he work with Mel Grimes. Grimes and Cheung became 50/50 partners in the venture to bring the pumpjack with the curved walking beam to Canada.
In 2000 they brought in six pump jacks initially for testing. Two went directly to Cheung鈥檚 own wells near Carlyle. Several years were spent in refining the pumpjack with annual orders increasing from 20 in 2001 to 80, then 200, then 400. In total over 14,000 HG jacks have been sold. Grimes and Cheung also bought into the factory, near Beijing, that was manufacturing the pumping units. In the spring of 2014, the business, including interest in the factory in China, was sold to Schlumberger, the largest oilfield services company in the world.
Service was absolutely key to Mel Grimes鈥� way of doing business. If there were any problems, he made sure they were fixed right away. That approach was no more evident than in the sales of the HG jacks. In addition to these jacks being more energy efficient and less expensive, the service was unbeatable. When a customer got a new jack, they would call up Mel Grimes, give him the size of the well, the rods and weights expected, and he would tell them right away how to set it up. It would be working properly right away, without fuss.
Ronald J. Wanner is the patriarch behind Viking Oilfield Surplus Ltd. and its several affiliated companies. Over the years, the group grew to be a nearly completely vertically integrated oilfield operation that included an oil producing company, T. Bird Oil, Venture Well Servicing, with its own service rigs and drilling rig, Viking Trucking, and Viking Oilfield Surplus. There鈥檚 also a holding company for the real estate and some farm land, where he would occasionally drive tractor. His customer base included 600 companies spanning three Canadian provinces and 10 oil-producing states in the U.S.
On May 1, 1972, he struck out fully on his own, operating under Ron鈥檚 Trenching and Hauling. Ron鈥檚 did water and sewer work in the city, as well as subdivision projects. But at the start of a key contract, a few key people went out on their own, which Wanner described as a letdown. He quit Ron鈥檚 Trenching and Hauling, sold off the equipment, and moved the remaining staff to Viking Surplus.
Along the way, Viking Surplus got into machining, rebuilding pump unit parts, drill pipe, tubing, casing, and pump unit parts. Viking also had three or four picker trucks, and used to haul their own equipment until 1997, when Wanner鈥檚 two sons, Kelly and Cory bought it out. Other family members have also been involved in various Wanner businesses. Daughter Debbie Henders and wife Dorothy were highly active in an RV and boat dealership known as Sun City Sales that operated in the 1990s. Wanner Holdings is a private real estate company that holds the various properties for the other business entities, plus 440 acres of farmland.
One of Viking鈥檚 initial big customers was Midale Petroleums. Viking sold them equipment and also went into partnership with them on drilling of new wells. After a time, T. Bird Oil was started in 1982. Soon T. Bird would be drilling its own wells, at first as an offshoot of Viking, sharing staff, and later it became a standalone company in 1999. Midale Petroleums needed access to another service rig, so in the late 80鈥檚, with some employees, Wanner bought a service rig to complement Midale鈥檚 existing rig. The company persevered as Venture Well Servicing and eventually grew to seven rigs, including a purchase of Plains Well Servicing of Oxbow in the late 1990s. In 2010 Venture Well Servicing鈥檚 five rigs were sold to Certified Energy Services.
Ken Spearing started his career working seismograph out of Carlyle in 1953. In 1954 he went to work for Frye Construction building leases for the newly found oil in southeast Sask. On his days off, he worked as a roughneck on the drilling rigs. In 1956 Ken purchased a tank truck from Ernie Bowman and in 1957 he and Ernie formed Bowman & Spearing trucking. This partnership lasted until 1978, when Ken bought out Bowman and the company became Spearing Services Ltd.
In the following years, Ken along with his sons built this company into one of the largest tank trucking companies in southeast Saskatchewan. The Spearing family sold out in 2006 and Ken retired. The company still operates as Spearing Services. The blue and white trucks can be seen on almost every road and highway in southeast Saskatchewan.
