My stomach has been tied up in knots for months as to whether I should write this story. In Saskatchewan, most of the oilfield jobs are in the oilfield services. And I’ve had more conversations than I can count as to “why things are slow.” It’s not just oil prices, which aren’t great. There is a major technological change that is happening that is impacting much of the industry. I finally decided people need to know what is actually going on in as fulsome way as possible.
I’ve always told my kids, “Do you want me to sugar coat things or tell it to you straight?” They’ve always wanted it straight. So that’s what I’m doing here.
The ‘next big thing’ is big multi-lateral wells – but the impact is devastating to many oilfield services
If the cost of retrieving petroleum is reduced, it benefits everybody across the board. If Canada grows a spine and becomes a representative republic, the landowners would now become the owners of the mineral wealth instead of King Charles the Retard. How about those apples!
Not unless you currently hold title to the mineral rights. Most Canadians are unaware that they only own the the top 6 inches of soil on “their” land. Many land titles are written including the phrase “excluding all mines and minerals”.
Canadians do not own any land or hold title to anything tangible. Only the Crown and titled nobility has title to land and mineral rights. Canadians hold transferable rights to real estate only, no title, like a transferable lease. Same goes for cars, snowmobiles, boats etc. This is why a revolution and re-incorporation of Canada is required. American citizens when buying land or vessels or vehicles get Title to that property. No commoner in the British Commonwealth gets this.
Well that is not entirely true….there is common law. In fact, in the U.S., similar expropriation laws apply and if in the public interest, land can be taken.
In Canada the King personally owns and possesses the government, the military, the police, the courts, every square inch of land and everything in it, and on it. He owns every grain of wheat, every tree, every fish in the ocean and every drop of water. He owns every ounce of gold, every barrel of oil, and every carat of diamonds, every dollar in the banks. He is all encompassing. He is omnipotent. He is above the law and has Royal Prerogative. All Canadians are the Subject of the King.
In the USA, the citizen is sovereign and endowed by God with inalienable Rights. Americans are the peers of the King and have as much power and rights as he does. All political power comes from God, to the people, and is temporarily devolved to the government in a voluntary, democratic, and temporary arrangement. Americans possess titles to all their property including land, improvements, boats, cars, airplanes etc.. You may never conflate these inalienable Rights with the revocable privileges that Canadians enjoy.
I am fortunate to own two properties near downtown Calgary that include mineral rights. Of course, a slew of municipal rules forbid me from utilizing them. I am tempted to research geothermal systems, but given that the area is pre-glacial riverbed, excavating even a fencepost requires a three foot diameter hole because of the huge (one foot diameter) “river rocks” hidden underground.
l dont know oil field lingo. what are the ‘services’ taking what ‘brunt’?
It’s laid out in the story.
Oil companies in Canada rarely do their own work. Often, there might only be one oil company representative on a site – and that person is often a subcontractor. The oilfield services are companies and workers like land surveying, dirt moving, drilling, rig moving, water hauling, landspreading, directional drilling, mud supplier, drill bits, casing supplier, casing hauling, service rigs, anchors, wellheads, pipeliners, pumpjack sales and installation, electrical and insutrumentation, lease maintenance – all of which are independently contracted to the oil company to drill a well and do everything else required of it. Very few workers are organic to the oil company itself. Once a well and battery are brought online, those who maintain it are often organicly employed by the oil company, but even then, many are often contract operators and subcontractors.
It is the vast bulk of thsoe services who are now facing a dramatic reduction in activity levels as oil companies can accomplish a lot more with a lot less.
Looks like progress to me. The industry has always had problems finding staff, now they can do more, and so they do not need to be looking for staff as much. I would say that is a win. Fewer well sites to drive around as a farmer is a win as well. The land is more productive that way.
Yes, those are all valid points, most of which I mentioned in the story. But hundreds, perhaps thousands of people about to be downsized still have mortgages to pay and mouths to feed.
If the oil companies can do more with less, that means more profit for them and fewer jobs for everyone else. The job market can adjust only so fast without putting a lot of people out of their homes.
I am no Luddite. I recognize that technology has been replacing human labour for 200 years or more and will continue to do so. But to dismiss this as a win for everyone is naive.
Will these single multi lateral wells make it more practical and cost effective to get oil out of areas/regions with less or no existing oil extraction infrastructure ?
Multi-lateral wells certainly sound sophisticated, don’t they? I’m told that in the Northwest Territories they only have normal wells. I may be misinformed.
The oil industry has had dozens of major game changers over the decades that not only have reduced the cost of exploration and extraction, but have increased the amount of petroleum that can be extracted from a field, and have made “depleted” or uneconomic fields viable.
3D seismic, horizontal drilling, fracking, SAGD, and on and on.
It’s a technological miracle that keeps pushing back on peak oil.
There is a lot of truth to what you just said, which is why I opened with, “Change, specifically technological change, may be the one constant in the universe. If not the universe, at least the oilpatch. And there’s a major change that’s been taking place in drilling in recent years that could easily be considered “the next big thing.”
The petroleum industry regularly chews up and spits out excellent professionals who are in the wrong place at the wrong time. The services industry is particularly vulnerable.
I know. I rode that roller coaster for over four decades,
Efficiencies grow, but the overall industry is in stasis – which means all the little oil service companies are hurting. It would take a huge increase in development to improve their lot, and our regulatory structure in Canada won’t let that happen any time soon. Incremental gains in production are being made primarily through these multilateral developments – which is enough work to keep some of the services industry on life support, but not much else.
But not to worry, I hear the federal government is investing in a “firehose of prosperity” – though I fear that western Canada may experience it as a golden shower of another kind.
Meanwhile Max Carnage is propping up Ontario indistry.
Algoma Steel got $400M in 2021 to convert to elec furnaces, now another $500M because tariffs? For 2500 jobs.
How many jobs at CBC and Canada Post are redundant?
A billion here, a billion there?
Multi-well sites and directional drilling has been operating in Alberta for over 15 years. Maybe they can drill longer bore holes and more horizontal than they had previously been drilling. Isn’t this what has been happening in the oil sands? They drill two long parallel, horizontal, drill bores; in one steam is sent thru which melts the bitumen and the second drill bore captures the oil and brings it to the surface.
Dealing with different energy companies over the years with regards to family mineral rights, I got to learn a lot about directional drilling. It’s a classic case of, “why buy a cow when you can reach through the fence and milk the neighbor’s cow?”