Weyburn 鈥� The Viking play north of Kindersley has become one of Saskatchewan鈥檚 hottest, and one of the more significant players there is Raging River Exploration Inc. Its president and CEO, Neil Roszell, was honoured as Saskatchewan Oilman of the Year on June 3 during the Saskatchewan Oil and Gas Show in Weyburn.
Minister of the Economy Bill Boyd, who is also the MLA for Kindersley, read the induction biography as follows:聽
Neil Roszell has built a career by focusing on the phrase 鈥渨hat鈥檚 old is new again.鈥� His technical innovation has helped revolutionize the oil industry in Saskatchewan by bringing old, nearly-dead plays back to life.
Neil was born in 1968 in Indian Head, Saskatchewan. His father was in the grain handling business so Neil moved around as a child, spending time in small towns across the province including Shaunavon and Fort Qu鈥橝ppelle. He graduated in 1991 from the University of Regina with a Bachelor of Applied Science in Industrial Systems Engineering.
During his studies in the Engineering Co-op program he found his passion for the oil and gas industry while doing work-study internships with Mobil Oil and SaskOil. After graduation, he joined SaskOil and worked with many other future oil patch business leaders including Scott Saxberg, Trent Yanko and Paul Colborne.
Neil later held senior engineering roles at Remington Energy followed by a period at Suncor. He started on his career as an entrepreneur when he joined Great Northern Exploration as the Vice President of Engineering. After assisting in building and selling Great Northern Exploration, he started down the path of founding, growing and selling a string of companies.
He became president and COO of Prairie Schooner Petroleum, which was later sold to True Energy. He then returned to his Saskatchewan roots as the president and CEO of Wild River Resources, a company focused on horizontal mult-frac drilling in the Shaunavon area of southwestern Saskatchewan, a company he eventually sold to Crescent Point. He then founded Wild Stream Exploration, again in the Shaunavon area and again sold to Crescent Point.
His next venture, Raging River Exploration, included the launch of his oilfield revitalization initiatives.
The Viking oil play in the Kindersley area was discovered in the 1940s but had dwindled to almost nothing. Over the last five years, a number of companies including Raging River Exploration have brought the play back to life, roughly tripling the area鈥檚 production.
With Neil at the helm of Raging River, the company grew from a small 1,000 barrel per day company in 2012 to become one of the dominant forces in the Kindersley area. In 2015, its current production in the Kindersley area exceeds 13,000 barrels-per-day. Raging River is now one of the most active drillers in Saskatchewan with approximately 250 wells drilled in the Kindersley area in 2014.
Raging River continues to be a technology leader in the development of the Viking light oil resource and is currently regarded as one of the premier intermediate oil companies in Canada.
Neil is past director of the Canadian Association of Petroleum Producers. He is dedicated family man who is married with three children. He enjoys fishing, snowmobiling and hunting especially when he can do it right here in Saskatchewan. Returning to his roots most summers you can find him and his extended family enjoying the beautiful Saskatchewan summers on Lake Diefenbaker.
