

The Voyage Home
Petcinemetary - Podbean This article is the last of a three part series. Part 1: The Circle of Life (in the Canadian Oil Patch) can be found here. Part 2: You're Going to Need a Bigger Boat can be found here. If you have read this far, you probably either agree that the path towards more employment in the oil patch requires innovative thinking by Startups and Juniors to unlock plays such as the Upper Mannville Heavy Oil play or you find them humourous in some way. If it is


You're Gonna Need A Bigger Boat
YouTube.com This article is part 2 of a series. Part 1: The Circle of Life (in the Canadian Oil Patch) discusses some of the causes of the employment crisis in the Canadian oil patch and may be found here. Like mammals at the end of the Mesozoic, there are a few junior companies finding a way to survive and grow in this new reality. In this post I'll elaborate on three examples and something they have in common, as well as some interesting differences. Deltastream Energy Co

The Circle of Life (in the Canadian Oil Patch)
(Source: https://disney.fandom.com/wiki/Circle_of_Life) This article is the first in a three part series on the roots of the employment crisis in the western Canadian oil patch, a possible path forward and, to wrap up, key workflow steps that might help. Let me begin by stating that I unequivocally support the building of pipelines as the most economically efficient and environmentally conscious way to get oil and gas to market. Even if we have to resort to some innovative w

Intermediate Stress - The Neglected Middle Child of Geomechanics?
(My big brother, a middle child, who no doubt broke his leg because everyone, including our big sister, was too busy tending to little tiny me instead of looking after him. Image used without any permission whatsoever.) Last time I wrote about a common question we get from clients. This time I'm going to expand on a question I ask myself at least twice a week: Why do so many people think they are in a
normal faulting environment?? There are several answers, all of which make

The Plot that Could Save You $Millions?
Here's a question we get all the time: (hands thrown in the air) We drilled all of our wells in the same direction and did everything the same, so why did some have problems and others didn't?! And here's an example map of "all of our wells in the same direction:" (Note, these wells were picked randomly; we have no idea whether any of these wells actually had problems.) There are two main things to consider: 1: Problems are very often in the build sections. 2: The build secti