Virden, Man. – Virden, Man.-based Premier Oilfield Services Ltd. started in May 2014, just before the big oil downturn was took hold. Despite tough timing, the company has grown since then into a diversified fleet servicing southwest Manitoba.
Premier is a sister-company to Precise Well Servicing, and operates out of a different shop on the same farmyard, just south of Virden. (See related story on Precise, Page A???)
Parry Chapman is one of four partners in Premier. He said, “We ended up with a few more trucks than we planned on, but we grew with demand.
“Most of our business is fracking related on the trucking side, so we trying to get more production work so you’re not quite as seasonal,” he said.
“Last year, with our acid trucks, we were following some frac strings as far as into Alberta. Things were busy there.”
Jim Longney is the general manager and Davide Weir is his Number 2. They all spoke to Pipeline Newson July 17.
“It’s been pretty good, considering the market,” Longney said.
Their staffing fluctuates from four during breakup to 24 people, including swampers, at the height of the season, according to Weir.
Longney said they started off specializing in vac services and two tri-drive vacs. Then the added a semi vac.
“We decided to start slow and keep it somewhat small. After six months, that went out the window. In the past three years, we expanded to 22 power units.”
They moved into fluid hauling with tank trucks. Then they bought a hydrovac and a second semi-vac. Two more tri-drive body-job vacs were next. There’s also a combo unit.
“We specialized in completions, without trying to,” Longney said. Then a year ago they purchased two acid trucks with pups. Two more tanker trailers were added for acid. Along the way they got a couple steamers, too.
In other words, it snowballed.
But all this growth, they were also contending with the downturn that has been brutal on the industry. “It changed our whole outlook on revenue,” Longney said, noting they tried to move more to the production side and expand their customer list.
“It’s affected pricing. We’ve had one big cut, basically, beginning 2016.”
There’s been marginal increase in rates since then. “I think it’s a bargain, doing wells,” he said.
One of the ways Premier has coped has been doing as much of their own maintenance and safety work on their units as possible.
