Estevan – In the summer of 2014 Pongo Holdings of Estevan made some improvements to its frac water facility south of Estevan, electrifying the
pumping system and building a new manifold.
Pongo supplies water from two surface ponds on reclaimed coal-mining land south of Estevan, just off Highway 47. The company has been in operation for about six
years. “It goes up and down,” Pongo president Ken Mehler said, about how the business is going in a world where the price of oil has dropped below $50.
Most of their product ends up in frac operations east and west of Estevan. Not much of their water goes north. They don’t offer heated water, as most of their clients prefer to have it heated on location.
The new loading facility can load up to four trucks at a time, but two at a time is quicker. “This fall we had nine trucks in a row, waiting to load. It was crazy,” Mehler said.
As for 2015, he said, “I don’t think we’ll see much for the second or third quarters. Hopefully it will pick up in the fourth quarter.”
He said the maintenance side of the industry will hurt, but there are so many more new wells since the last downturn that still need to be kept running. As for their own
operations, Pongo’s done some dirt work and pumped water from the larger to the smaller pond, which is closer to the highway. In the winter, they only use the small pond.
