On June 7, Estevan’s Ronald J. Wanner was inducted as a Southeast Saskatchewan Legend during the Saskatchewan Oil and Gas Show. Minister of Energy and Resources Dustin Duncan read Wanner’s biography during the induction ceremony, which has been edited here. The full version will appear in an upcoming edition of Pipeline News.
Ronald J. Wanner is the patriarch behind Viking Oilfield Surplus Ltd. and its several affiliated companies. Over the years, the group grew to be a nearly completely vertically integrated oilfield operation that included an oil producing company, T. Bird Oil, Venture Well Servicing, with its own service rigs and drilling rig, Viking Trucking, and Viking Oilfield Surplus. There's even a holding company for the real estate and some farm land.
Ron Wanner grew up on a farm, eight miles south of Macoun, and started working at the OK Economy hauling groceries in 1961, right after graduating high school. He went to school in Regina for a bookkeeping course.
In December 1962, he found work with British American Oil as accountant in Estevan. Over the next ten years, he worked in many departments, including oil accounting, accounts payable, and purchasing.
In 1966, a farm friend and schoolmate, Ron Stregger, and Ron bought a new backhoe together. Eventually the business grew to the point where Gulf (who had bought out British American) told him to choose - work for them, or work on his own.
On May 1, 1972, he struck out fully on his own, operating under Ron's Trenching and Hauling, a short-lived venture doing water and sewer work in the city, as well as subdivision projects. He soon shifted focus.
In 1972, he started Viking Surplus Oilfield Equipment. Gulf, who had ten surplus treaters for sale but didn't get one bid. To get these surplus treaters off their books, they accepted the token amount of $100 each From Viking.
When moving these 10 treaters into the Viking Yard a stroke of good fortune occurred. As they were unloading the treaters, a man drove up in a half ton with Montana plates on it. Due to a strike in the United States pressure vessel manufacturing industry, there was a pronounced shortage south of the border.
The man made him an offer of $3,000 each for them and walked to his truck, and cut a check for $3,000 and $500 to ship it to Cutbank, Montana. On the trip down Ron stopped at National Tank in Williston, N.D. and asked if they were looking for treaters. The response was “We're looking for treaters in any condition.” Wanner responded that he had no money. The man gave him a check, telling him, “You're my man. You will buy them.”
After that they hauled approximately 100 treaters to Gillette, Montana. They cleaned out Estevan, Virden, Kindersley and Swift Current of all the old vessels.
Other shortages followed. Along the way, Viking Surplus got into machining, rebuilding pump unit parts, drill pipe, tubing, casing, and pump unit parts.
Viking also had three or four picker trucks, and used to haul their own equipment until 1997, when Wanner's two sons, Kelly and Cory bought it out. Other family members have also been involved in various Wanner businesses. Daughter Debbie Henders and wife Dorothy were highly active in an RV and boat dealership known as Sun City Sales that operated in the 1990s. Wanner Holdings is a private real estate company that holds the various properties for the other business entities, plus 440 acres of farmland.
T. Bird Oil was started in 1982. T. Bird Oil later sold to Crescent Point Energy Corp.
Since T. Bird was a small company, it was hard to get a service rig in the early years. In late 80s, with some employees, Wanner bought a service rig. After a tough early start, the company persevered as Venture Well Servicing and eventually grew to seven rigs, including a purchase of Plains Well Servicing of Oxbow in the late 1990s. In 2010 Venture Well Servicing's five rigs were sold to Certified Energy Services.
