The 15th edition of the Saskatchewan Oil and Gas Show is shaping up to be one of the best ever, as the biennial show takes over the Weyburn exhibition grounds from June 4 to 6, with a full slate of booths, both indoor and outdoor.
The 15th edition of the Saskatchewan Oil and Gas Show is shaping up to be one of the best ever, as the biennial show takes over the Weyburn exhibition grounds from June 4 to 6, with a full slate of booths, both indoor and outdoor.
The show sold out early, as it has for the last few shows, and the waiting list was so large it was capped.
"The response and the support is quite encouraging; everybody is feeling quite positive and I'm sure it will be a successful show," said Ron Carson, chairman of the Oil and Gas Show.
This will be his third Oil Show, and notes he's seen the show grow and improve even in these six years he's been at the helm.
"The interest in the show is growing, which is occurring from the industry and from the public. We've attracted more industry than we have ever before," said Carson, adding this also means there will be more technology at the show than ever before.
The show will start off on Tuesday, June 4, with an oil industry golf tournament, which will wrap up with a steak and lobster dinner in the evening at the Curling Rink.
The main day of the show is Wednesday, June 5, with the show opening at 10 a.m., and the annual Awards Luncheon will be held at noon with guest speaker Bill Boyd, minister of the Economy, along with the presentation of the 2013 Oil and Gas Recognition Awards, which includes the Saskatchewan Oilman of the Year and inductees to the Saskatchewan Oil Hall of Fame, all presented by the Board of Governors.
There will be a forum hosted by PSAC in the afternoon, and in the evening, Energy and Resources Minister Tim McMillan will be the guest speaker, along with Mayor Debra Button, and presentation of the Southeast Saskatchewan Oil Person of the Year Award.
Carson noted that in the last couple of shows there have been two recipients of this award, one from the Weyburn area and the other from Estevan, and they also have been encouraging women to be nominated for this award.
Having two recipients "gives an opportunity for an extra person to be recognized, whereas before it was one person every two years," said Carson.
"To me, that's the most interesting part of the show," he added.
Carson was named to this award in 1997, and said this was "absolutely" one of the highlights of his career, to be recognized by his peers in the oil industry.
"I think it's one of the highest awards available," he said, adding he then decided to be more involved in the Oil and Gas Show as a result of receiving this honour.
On Thursday, June 6, PSAC will hold their annual barnstorming pancake breakfast in the morning, and an industry luncheon will be held at noon with radio host John Gormley as the keynote speaker.
Through both Wednesday and Thursday, the indoor and outdoor booths are open for visitors to the grounds; all visitors must register at the show office, due to security concerns.
When the gates open the morning of June 5, the grounds will be packed full of the latest, biggest and newest in oilfield technology and equipment.
The show has come a long ways from the very first show which opened in June of 1985, when Weyburn wanted to try putting on a show to help promote the community.
Ron Jeffery, who has worked on every oil show since the beginning, recalled how the show got its start, from discussions of the Weyburn Economic Development Committee.
At a meeting in July of 1984, "we were scratching our heads trying to figure out ways to promote the community. We were kind of in the doldrums at the time," said Jeffery, when a committee member, Dave Bergum, who also was a city councillor and managed TS&M Supply, asked, "Why not have an oil show?"
Jeffery said the committee members didn't really know what an oil show was or what was involved with running one, so that fall a half-dozen committee members went up to Lloydminster to a heavy oil show they put on at that time, and talked to show organizers about how to set one up and run it.
"We thought with the facilities we had, compared to the facilities they were using, that we could make it happen. A lot of people laughed at us, but we worked through the winter, talked to the Department of Energy, and talked the City into helping finance the first show. In June 1985, that's where we started, and it was quite a success," said Jeffery.
He noted one difference from the later shows is that there were non-oil-related businesses who had booths at the show to help make it larger, which was a practice they discontinued with later shows; now, all booths are from oil industry companies, and even with that restriction there are way more companies who want to get in than they have room for.
"I think it's come a long ways from when it started. I think it has had a remarkable growth pattern; each year it just gets bigger and better. We try to make it better for the people who come, and those with displays, we're going to make them as comfortable as much as we can," said Carson.
That first show had 220 exhibitors and saw 7,200 visitors pass through the gates to see it. The oil companies who were involved encouraged the show to continue, and recommended that it run every second year, to alternate with when the big national oil show was held in Calgary.
"For the show in 1987, we had the federal minister come, and we put on a seminar that included industry people from Alberta and Saskatchewan, as well as associations like PSAC. We had quite a seminar round table discussion; it was a pretty good seminar," said Jeffery.
Due to a downturn in the industry, the '87 show was smaller than the first one, with 160 exhibitors and 4,500 visitors going through the gates. The show rebounded in 1989, when 233 exhibitors packed out the grounds and the arenas, and 5,000 people were in attendance. By 2005, the show was sold out with 210 exhibitors filling 287 booth spaces, and the show has been an early sellout ever since.
The 1989 show was also the year of the first-ever Saskatchewan Oil Patch Reunion, which saw Saskatchewan-born industry people return from all over Canada and the U.S. Administrator Sandy Alexander helped put this together, with about 1,000 people coming for the reunion. Along with the reunion, the oilpatch awards and Hall of Fame was established, recognizing those past and present members of the industry who had made their mark in Canada and beyond.
"Doug Emsley, who was known as an entrepreneur, was involved in oil and gas companies, and helped put together the awards and set up a Board of Governors made up of oil and gas people who have been extremely successful," said Jeffery, noting they have continued to run the awards and Hall of Fame to today; the Oil Show now just provides the venue.
The very first Saskatchewan Oilman of the Year was Ken Stan of Sceptre Resources, which was recognized for developing and applying steam-assisted oil recovery to heavy oil reserves through horizontally-drilled producing wells for the first time in Saskatchewan.
Looking to the 2013 Oil and Gas Show, Jeffery said, "It's going to be an excellent show, and some good new displays."
Today, nearly 30 years later, Jeffery is in "an advisory capacity", but he's not worried; in fact, he's excited to see what the new generation of oil industry professionals might be able to bring to the show to make it bigger and better.
"It's time to get some younger people in there who are ready to take over. We have some good younger people who've joined the board and will carry the torch from now on. There's people who've got the energy to carry on," said Jeffery, pointing to current administrator Tanya Hulbert as an example, as she's been able to automate on-line many of the functions that organizers used to have to do manually.
"It was a paper trail, and you had to make sure the cheques came in like they were supposed to. Now, everything is done over the Internet; it's far more efficient," he said.
A benefit of the show has been that the extra proceeds from the show have been reinvested into developing the fair grounds, and Jeffery estimates the outdoor exhibit area has been doubled from what it used to be.
"It's been my life for almost 30 years, and I've enjoyed every minute of it. The people on the board are mostly ones who we hand-picked, who were just as enthused to do the job. That's what has made it a success, it's the members of the board," said Jeffery.
