| Drilling industry hot The Canadian Press / Oct 26, 2000 The red-hot Western Canadian oilpatch will get even hotter next year, as the Petroleum Services Association of Canada is predicting record drilling activity next year. PSAC is projecting a total of 16,700 wells drilled, including 4,850 oil wells and 9,830 gas wells. That's up 1,260 from 2000 and a whopping 60-per-cent increase over 1998, when oil prices sank to $11 US a barrel. "The oilfield service sector is responding to the strong demand initiated by increased oil and gas prices,'' said Roger Soucy, president of PSAC. Enormous profits from high oil and gas prices are driving the thirst to find and extract fuel, Soucy said. "The activity we are seeing today is primarily generated from internal cash flow of companies," he said. Even more wells could have been drilled and serviced next year, but due to labour shortages it's impossible to meet a higher quota, Soucy added. Alberta will see the lion's share of the increased activity, with 11,860 wells drilled in 2001, up slightly from the 11,840 wells drilled in 2000, according to the forecast released Tuesday. In Saskatchewan, PSAC is forecasting a nine-per-cent increase in drilling activity, with a projected total of 3,890 wells next year compared with 3,550 forecast for 2000. In natural gas-prone B.C., about 900 wells are forecast in 2001, a 12-per-cent increase over this year. With the oilpatch forecasting a record year for oil and gas wells drilled, industry executives are looking for more than 10,000 labourers and skilled employees to get the raw energy out of the ground and into processing plants. But drilling contractors, manufacturers and servicing companies warn eastern Canadians not to come to Alberta with only shirts on their backs. "People have to do their homework and make sure that they have the resources to sustain themselves when they get here and are not living out of the trunk of their car," said Soucy. "One of the realities, particularly in Alberta right now, is if you show up at the Saskatchewan-Alberta border, you may not have a place to live." Labour demand is so tremendous, drilling operators for the first time ever will place jobs in newspaper ads outside Alberta and have set up an employment website. The drilling industry alone is looking for 4,000 rig workers. "We want to make people aware of the fact the industry is an attractive place to look for employment," said Don Herring, president of the Canadian Association of Oil Well Drilling Contractors. The association is looking for men aged 18 to 25, with a mechanical aptitude, a willingness to work outside, long hours and often in remote areas. An entry level job on a drilling rig pays about $18 an hour, which with overtime can give a worker $1,400 to $1,800 a week. Drillers, those responsible for well drilling, make about $27.50 an hour. Room and board is included. The industry also has a shortage of pipefitters and welders -- skilled workers who have been drawn to other booming industries, including forestry, mining and construction. The labour shortage has caused delays in some services, said Blair Albers, regional manager for BJ Services Co. Canada. "There aren't enough cement trucks in Western Canada to handle all the rigs," Albers said. "We'll eventually get to them all; it just might be tomorrow, not today." The industry is also forced to pick up slack from a shortage of activity last summer due to heavy rain and muddy ground. Inertia in the oilpatch was also caused by several company mergers and acquisitions, which prompted the industry to restructure, instead of drilling and exploring for oil and gas. |