Calgary, Carlyle – That new office building at the corner of Highways 13 and 9 in Carlyle will be opening in June as the new field office for Crescent Point Energy. It will replace the company’s current office which has proved inadequate for the ever-growing company’s needs.
Ryan Gritzfeldt, Crescent Point’s vice-president of engineering and business development east (southeast Saskatchewan and southwest Manitoba) spoke to Pipeline News on April 10 by phone from Calgary about the new Carlyle office.
Pipeline News: What is this new facility you’ve built in Carlyle? What is its purpose?
Ryan Gritzfeldt: It’s basically going to be our new Carlyle office. It’s a 20,000 square foot facility that has two floors. It’s going replace our existing, old one, which is long overdue for a makeover. I worked in that office as a student in ’95 and for three years in the early 2000s and let’s just say it was probably due for a makeover at that time.
With our successful growth we’ve outgrown that space and are excited about that new office which I think we’re probably going to move into in June.
The current schedule is to open in June and we’ll be hosting a grand opening and a barbecue and coffee for the community, similar to our Weyburn office in 2010.
P.N.: How many people will work here?
Gritzfeldt: It can seat close to 70 staff. Upon move-in, it’ll probably be close to 40 people working in that office. Definitely ,it was designed for growth.
I go back to our Weyburn office. When it opened in 2010, it was half full at that point. Five years later we’re pretty full in that office as well.
P.N.: How much did it cost?
Gritzfeldt: We were able to obtain a long-term lease with the building’s owner, T.L. Penner Construction, so I won’t speak to costs. That’s probably a question for the owner. We basically took out a long-term lease on that, similar to our office in Weyburn.
P.N.: It’s our understanding your previous Carlyle field office was getting very cramped. What’s the difference with this new building?
Gritzfeldt: It’s bigger, it’s new. It’s going to give our employees a bright, spacious atmosphere.
Our old building was just getting by. It will have all the cool technology that we need.
It’s not a shop, it’s an office to have our staff work out of. It’s not a mechanic’s shop or a yard to store stuff.
P.N.: Can you describe how this new facility interplays with your Weyburn field office? Will this essentially split much of the Viewfield area? Or will Weyburn, with the growth of the Flat Lake play, start focussing more in that direction and offload some of Viewfield region to Carlyle?
Gritzfeldt: As it turns out, both offices will work the Viewfield area. For example, half of the Viewfield foremen have desks in Carlyle, and half of the foremen that work Viewfield have desks in Weyburn.
For us it’s never a strategy to ever isolate a specific area or project to one office. We never think of an area or project as a “Carlyle project” or a “Weyburn project.” It’s a Crescent Point southeast Sask. team initiative. As it turns out, for Viewfield, it will be worked out of both offices.
P.N.: What about Flat Lake?
Gritzfeldt: Same. Right now our Flat Lake foremen are out of Weyburn, but our support staff support all of our areas. Again, there’s going to be a lot of initiatives for Flat Lake that deal out of the Carlyle office and a lot that deal out of the Weyburn office. It’s always a team effort.
P.N.: Why build in Carlyle as opposed to say Stoughton or Estevan? Estevan is a lot closer to the Flat Lake region.
Gritzfeldt: With our current office in Carlyle, this would not change where our staff works a whole lot. When you look at a map, Carlyle is fairly central. We have properties to the north, we have our Manitoba properties to the east. Carlyle was already central, and it was the location of our old office.
P.N.: You don’t want to move 40 staff, either.
Gritzfeldt: No, we don’t want to uproot (them). Based on our operations, there’s lots of staff driving, whether to Carlyle or Weyburn. Carlyle is a good central location pick.
P.N.: Are you transferring any staff to Carlyle as a result of this new facility?
Gritzfeldt: No, not really. With our current, old office being so full now, there were probably some staff sitting at other, temporary spots. Now having this new, big office, there will be room. But no, there’s not going to be anyone moving specifically from Weyburn to Carlyle now that we have a bigger space.
P.N.: Was this facility planned with growth or expansion in mind?
Gritzfeldt: We basically always design for growth in everything we do, especially in southeast Saskatchewan.
P.N.: Is there anything you would like to add?
Gritzfeldt: Stay tuned for an announcement for our grand opening and a chance for the community and our service providers to check it out.
