Trican Well Service Profile
Trican Well Service Ltd. provides an array of specialized products, equipment, services and technology for use in the drilling, completion, stimulation, and reworking of oil and gas wells in Canada.
The major portion of the company’s operations consists of pressure pumping services in Canada, which include fracturing, cementing, acidizing, nitrogen and coiled tubing.
The company provides various services within the pressure pumping oilfield services industry, including cementing, fracturing, coalbed methane fracturing, acidizing and production enhancement, coiled tubing, nitrogen, chemical sales, technology licensing and industrial cleaning and pipeline services. The company offers these services to customers in Canada from service operating bases located across the Western Canadian Sedimentary Basin.
As of December 31, 2019, the company had approximately 391,000 hydraulic horsepower (HHP) activated and 192,000 HHP was and remains parked. The company is the major full service pressure pumping company in Canada.
Services
Acidizing and Production Enhancement
Acid is used to stimulate productivity in all types of formations, including injection, gas and/or oil producing, and disposal wells. Acids could be categorized into organic and inorganic, and various combinations of these two types are also used in specialty applications. Acid treatment types could be defined by injection rate and pumping pressure. Acid stimulation treatments carried out below formation fracture pressures are termed ‘Matrix Acidizing Treatments’, while those carried out at pressures greater than formation fracture pressures are categorized as ‘Fracture Acidizing Treatments’.
Cementing
The company, when contracted to do so, cements all the casing strings in the well and would travel to the well two to four times while it is drilled.
Coiled Tubing
Coiled tubing is a continuous (without joints) reel of steel pipe that could be manufactured in any length desired. The pipe, which comes in varying sizes, is spooled onto a large diameter reel and could be run into any oil or gas well. Coiled tubing is used as a conduit to circulate and place fluids and gases into the wellbore at a specific depth for either reservoir stimulation or wellbore cleanout purposes. Coiled tubing is also used to convey tools for a multitude of functions, including zonal isolation, perforation, fracturing, drilling, jetting, etc. Coiled tubing could also be used for specialized applications, such as pipeline cleanouts, temporary flowlines or even as a replacement for conventional production tubulars.
Fracturing
Fracturing is a well stimulation process performed to improve production from geological formations where natural flow is restricted. Fluid is pumped into a well at sufficiently high pressure to fracture the rock formation.
Nitrogen (N2)
N2, an inert (non-reactive) gas that is pumped into a wellbore to improve the safe recovery of introduced and produced fluid, while reducing the potential of formation damage. N2 is also pumped into various surface facilities and pipelines to purge air from the piping prior to welding and cutting. The company’s nitrogen units are used by themselves and in conjunction with its other service lines.
Industrial Services
Industrial Services offers engineered solutions and services to oil sands, heavy oil, refinery, petrochemical, gas process, power generation, mining and pipeline facilities. Specialty services include mechanical and chemical descaling and passivating of process facilities, pipelines and storage tanks. Engineered services also include nitrogen displacement of pipelines and process facilities, nitrogen cooling and warming of process reactors, and pressure testing and leak detection of pipelines and process facilities. The company offers services to industrial plants, oil and gas facilities and pipeline operations.
Pipeline Services
Pipeline services provide engineered solutions for each stage of a pipeline’s life cycle. With various maintenance, inspection, cleaning and support available, the pipeline services division ensures structural integrity for pipeline operations.
Product Sales
The company’s research and development and engineering personnel have developed a line of specialty proprietary products that are used by customers in the oil sands, heavy oil, conventional and unconventional oil and gas sectors. These products are provided to customers through technology license agreements with third party vendors, or directly through the company. The company also purchases certain nonproprietary products in bulk, which are then blended and sold to customers in smaller volumes.
Economic Dependence
The company’s business is solely focused in Canada. The company's Canadian customers consist of various oil and gas companies that vary in size.
Seasonality
During the second quarter (year ended December 2019) when the frost leaves the ground, various secondary roads are temporarily rendered incapable of supporting the weight of heavy equipment, which constrains the company’s ability to move equipment between customer job sites, resulting in restrictions in the level of well servicing activity. The duration of this period, referred to as ‘spring break-up’, has a direct impact on the level of the company’s activities. The spring break-up period between March and May is the slowest period of activity for the company during the year.
Discontinued Operations
In January 2020, the company sold its Fluid Management (Fraction Energy Services Ltd.) business.
Intellectual Property
The company has 38 issued patents in different oil and gas regions. These patents cover inventions, including a specialized fracturing fluid, an unconventional hydraulic fracturing method, and a down hole coiled tubing tool to improve jetting technology. The company also has a total of 21 pending patent applications in key countries, which include fluid systems for fracturing, coiled tubing technology, proppant flow back prevention, unconventional oil and gas production, and cement additives.
New Products
The company has developed approximately 162 new cementing and stimulation products and 46 coiled tubing innovations, as well as maintained 94 worldwide patents and applications.
Competition
The company’s main competitors in the well service market include Canadian companies primarily Calfrac Well Services Ltd., STEP Energy Services Ltd., Ironhorse Oilfield Services Ltd., and Element Technical Services Ltd.; and primary multi-national companies, such as Halliburton Company, Schlumberger Limited, and BJ Services.
History
Trican Well Service Ltd. was founded in 1979. The company was incorporated under the Companies Act (Alberta) in 1979.
