In times of the crunch in the oil and gas industry, the Canadian Association of Oilwell Drilling Contractors (CAODC) is an organization that works for many of the oil workers and oil producers in southeast Saskatchewan, who are facing challenges and uncertainty.
The CAODC represents 40 drilling contractors and 80 service rig contractors, holding regular meetings in Estevan.
The organization represents companies from small service rig contractors all the way up to international businesses in oil and gas.
“Our members are regular hard-working Canadians who help develop our energy resources in the most environmentally-responsible possible way,” said Scholz. “It’s important when we’re campaigning and talking about what we’re fighting for, we want to advocate and be champions of the energy industry.”
Just before holding one of those meetings, CAODC president Mark Scholz spoke with the Mercury on what the organization does and its plans. One of the main thrusts of the CAODC’s activity this year is Oil Respect, the organization’s newest campaign, which started in February.
Oil Respect’s mandate is a defence of Canada’s oil and gas industry, by providing the public with facts about the often-maligned industry, to equip the public with correct information.
Respect Oil has three main goals. Scholz described them, saying, “First, we want to address the misinformation and half-truths that are spread by the opponents of the oil and gas industry. Second, we want to give regular Canadians support in our industry, through a voice.”
He continued, “Thirdly, we want to remind the public, the media and the government the reason why Canada and Canadians have the highest living standards of anywhere in the world is because we consume affordable energy from oil and gas.”
Scholz emphasized that Canadians should be proud of its oil industry, since it’s both provincially and federally regulated, and that Canada has world-class environmental and equipment standards for the industry.
He added that those standards are important, especially considering that much of the oil imported into Canada is from countries that have lower environmental standards.
Scholz said Canada’s greenhouse gas emissions represent two per cent of the worldwide total and that the Canadian oil sands produce about 0.15 of global GHG emissions.
A major goal of Respect Oil is to make sure Canadians across the country can consume responsibly-sourced Western Canadian oil and gas products.
The CAODC wants the federal government to work on getting market access for Canadian oil and gas products in Canada, Scholz said, “because we don’t have the proper infrastructure in place.”
Scholz referenced the lack of pipelines, such as Energy East, inhibiting the country from getting its oil to the markets of other provinces, in central and eastern Canada, and international markets, adding that provinces like Quebec import about 90 per cent of their oil from other countries, with 37 per cent of that being imported from countries with lower labour and human-rights standards than Canada.
“We take a significant discount off of the prices of the products we produce in Western Canada,” said Scholz. “We don’t get world prices and we don’t even get WTI (West Texas Intermediate) prices, because we don’t have adequate pipeline capacity to actually get it to market.”
Many CAODC members are from the Estevan area. Scholz said that is a reason the organization regularly chooses Estevan as the location for its meetings.
“We talk to them bout the issues or challenges they’re dealing with. We, of course, share with them some of the activities our association is working on,” said Scholz. “We represent their interests and advocate for them in government.”
The organization brings many companies together to work collaboratively on matters like health and safety issues. The majority of CAODC members in Saskatchewan are small privately owned and operated businesses that operate in Estevan, Weyburn and Oxbow.
