Don Bertrand

Don Bertrand, 61-year-old business development manager with the artificial life division of Weatherford BMW Ltd., put the industry's gyrations in perspective - a reassuring one that suggests it is, on the whole, becoming a safer, more reliable livelihood.

When he snuck into his first oil job - at age 15, a year under the legal limit for hazardous work in his era - on a drilling rig at Drayton Valley in 1955, "the beer parlor was the local employment office.Guys hung around.The tool push (foreman) came in and called out for whoever wanted to work."The jobs lasted exactly as long as the rigs ran.There were neither benefits nor economic or personal safety nets.

Even when heavy oil prices - always at a discount off premium, refinery ready light crude - fell into the single digit range and field activity virtually halted in 1998-99, Bertrand's international employer kept 40%-50% of its Canadian staff.
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"We're looking to try and keep people longer-term," Bertrand said.This is not just kindness.Industry-wide efforts to lay out career paths in the oilfields reflect requirements created by drilling advances, improving production technology and competition to provide the most sophisticated products or services at the lowest costs."As you develop things, the bar keeps getting raised.Besides, today's business is a lot smarter.We recognize the cost of having to retain people all the time."This effort to hold together a talent pool is driven by the same force that puts pressure on employers to stay lean and mean.
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Bertrand pointed out that Lloydminster stands out as a birthplace of technology that becomes the standard around the world.Most recently, that includes a replacement for the industry trademark, the slowly rocking pumpjack - a new generation of powerful, screw-like rotary progressive-cavity pumps and wellhead units.They raise production volumes of the thick, gummy sand which is heavy oil in its raw form.In Weatherford's global perspective, "Lloydminster has long been recognized as the heavy oil expertise centre.It was basically developed here."

The demand for technical advancement tolerates no exceptions.

Business development manager Don Bertrand said they wanted to show how diversified the operation is while getting employees together to teach about Weatherford's products."A lot of people that you don't see every day come through, and you get a chance to talk to them all at the same time without having to go places," said Bertrand.