Carnduff– When the number of active drilling rigs drops by over half since January, those companies that are the closest to drilling feel it the most. You don’t get much closer than being a rig-moving specialist, like Fast Trucking Service of Carnduff.
Dennis, general manager of Fast Trucking, explained on Oct. 13 the impact is not from just the volume of work, but the margins.
“It’s got a lot of impact. Oil companies are asking for discounts, discounts. Everybody’s so hungry and starving for work, I think a lot of people are working on a very thin margin. You take have the work and work on a very thin margin.
Fast Trucking, at the peak of the recent boom, could move seven drilling rigs at the same time.
“We’ve kept a lot of our guys. We can still move five rigs,” Day said. “We’ve got lots of long-term employees, and we’re trying to keep everybody working. And for my guys, there’s not a lot of places they could go to work, because everybody’s in the same boat.”
“There’s more competition for everybody,” he said, including drilling rig companies and service rig companies.
“There’s been so many companies started up in the last three years. With it being slow in Alberta, a lot of Alberta companies are coming here, looking for work,” Day said.
In early September, the active drilling rig count for the entire province hovered around 17-18 rigs for the entire province, including the active Viking play near Kindersley. Crescent Point, which had been running up to 23 rigs in Saskatchewan earlier in the year, was down to one rig, before resuming activity a few weeks later, according to Rig Locator (riglocator.ca).
Day noted. “We’ve got eight weeks to December. The majority of oil companies say they’re shutting down in early December.”
From the beginning of January to Mar 15, the usual start of spring breakup, is just 10 weeks, Day pointed out, adding there’s another 10 weeks or so of sitting during road ban.
“With the rain we’ve been getting, a lot of guys say they’ll be going to work in July,” he said.
Fast Trucking is running leaner now. “We’ve had to cut some staff, and move some around to other companies that are a little bit busier, which has helped a lot. Some have gone over to General Well, some have helped on the farm, some have filled in on our tank trucks,” he said.
It’s very important to the Day family to keep their workers going. “I live in a small community. One guy said, ‘What’s it matter to you?’
“I said, ‘What does it matter to me?’
“I’ve got a whole bunch of people depending on me to keep them working and making payments. That’s part of any boss’ job, to keep the men working so they can stick it out until it does get busier,” Day said.
Management has taken a cut in pay, he added.
Day has been through downturns like this before. “I would say this is kind of like ’86 or ’98.”
Asked what his father, Tony, founder of Fast Trucking, has said about this downturn, Dennis said, “He said it is what it is, and you just have to deal with it.
“I’ve been going out to drilling rigs myself, looking for work for the company.”
Oil will have to hit US$55 to $60 WTI for activity to pick up, Day feels. He pointed out that wells that used to cost C$600,000 now cost C$450,000. With the Canadian dollar down, and service costs down, that all comes into play.
“I think oil’s going to steadily go up from here,” he said. “You’re looking at next June. But I thought, in February, that oil would go up. It did go up, but it went back down.
Bypass will make moving rigs easier
When you’re hauling large loads with dozens of trucks every day, a truck bypass makes a difference. Pipeline News asked Dennis Day, general manager of Fast Trucking, what he thought of the soon-to-open truck bypass around Estevan.
“It’ll save us time going through town, worrying about traffic.”
Sam’s Trucking, a sister company to Fast Trucking, based in Estevan, will benefit, according to Day. “It will be easier for Sam’s to get out of town,” he said. “It’s going to be a lot better for the people working in town, because we don’t have to drive through town with our trucks.”
Typically wide loads from both companies wide loads, especially drilling rigs, would take the gravel roads around Estevan. “Real heavy loads can’t go over the overpass in town,” Day said of the overpass that goes over the Canadian Pacific line on the east side of Estevan.
Day wonders if there should be traffic lights at the major intersections of the bypass, including at Highway 47.
“If you’re loaded with one of those big trucks with a jeep and a booster and two pilot trucks, you need quite a bit of room to get past,” he said.
Day is glad to see the bypass’s completion.
He added their trucks are a lot larger than a typical semi, usually running with a 10-foot wide trailer. A substructure for a drilling rig isn’t small.
