Arcola– Things are picking up for Eagle Oilfield Services Ltd. of Arcola.
“We’re moving lots of used iron, moving some new iron,” said Micky Grimes, president, on Feb. 8. “Trucks are staying busy. It seems to be picking up. It’s not crazy.”
“After the New Year it seemed to pick up quite a bit, with more of a steady oil price. Guys are getting a lot more hours. We haven’t really upgraded, people-wise, but we hadn’t downgraded a ton, either.”
Whereas a lot of oilfield services companies in southeast Saskatchewan have told Pipeline News their staffing levels had dropped about 50 per cent since 2014, Grimes said they had only dropped around 10 per cent, and remain there. “We’ve got enough work for everyone right now.”
“Rentals are down, but we see a lot more purchasing,” he said. “Everything they used to rent, they buy instead of rent now. Why waste money on rent when they can own it, and they have the cash in place, I presume. I would say it’s 90 per cent buy, now and 10 per cent rent. We used to be the opposite in busy times.”
There are more rentals in test separators, but those are being bought as well.
Eagle is moving lots of used pumpjacks, as well. “I have lots of clients that used to always run new running used now. The big companies to the small companies – everyone’s buying them.”
Asked about the rest of the year, Grimes said they had lots of orders, as long as they all go through. “We’re starting to get new tanks from Kansas again. I think it’ll be pretty well the same. I think it will be better than last year, for sure, but who knows? Time will tell.”
“Everything is kind of going good. It seems a lot better than the slow years. It’s picking up. There’s lots of new small companies coming in, which is nice to see, which means things are starting to level out.”
The big question for many oilfield services is when they can start bringing their rates back up. “The trucking game is really tough. There’s no question there. The rates are basically not there. I presume some guys are going to try right away, because it’s been long enough, and they’ve been hurting. We haven’t addressed it yet, ourselves. But I don’t think you’re going to get it this year. I don’t think you’re going to get much of an increase this year, to be honest with you. The oil companies have had two bad years, and there’ll still be someone who will do it for that rate. It’s not that busy. That’s my gut feeling.”
