Pajak Engineering Ltd. provides engineering services, project management and well-site supervision for oil and gas majors around the world, such as Conoco Philips, Exxon, Shell Oil and Encana.

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Although Pajak Engineering Ltd. was incorporated in 1985, the Calgary, Alberta, Canada-based company’s roots trace back to 1966, when Pajak Land & Offshore Ltd. was founded by partners Lou Pajak, Terry Dexter and Sid Robertson to meet “a need in Canada for a good group of experienced operations personnel to drill and complete oil and gas wells,” President and CEO Mickey Sutherland explains.

Pajak set up a system within the company to train drillers and rig personal in blowout prevention. He developed a curriculum to instruct employees how to “safely approach the drilling of wells and how to successfully control the wells when they kicked and blew out,” Sutherland notes. Tragically, Pajak suffered a brain aneurism and passed away in the late 1970s. Dexter and Robertson continued in his footsteps, but also expanded the company’s services to include engineering in the mid-1980s.

Meanwhile, Sutherland was developing his career “as a roughneck on the drilling rigs in the late 1960s,” while continuing his education, he says. After operating rigs for various oil and gas companies in Calgary, he joined Pajak Engineering in 1996 and moved up to president and CEO in 2005. A year later, after the last of the original partners retired, Sutherland became the sole owner.

He now oversees a 300-person staff that provides engineering services, project management and well-site supervision for oil and gas majors around the world, such as Conoco Philips, Exxon, Shell Oil and Encana. In an interview with Exploration + Processing, Sutherland discusses the company’s current position within the industry and where he intends to take it in the future, as well as observations he’s made in the international marketplace.

Exploration + Processing: How would you describe Pajak’s position in the industry?

Mickey Sutherland: We’re a service company, and we have good expertise in what we do, be it drilling completion operations or providing logistics for helping well operators get their wells drilled, completed and tested in the most cost-effective, safe manner. We’re not a company that does everything; we’re specialized in what we do.

We know how things work domestically, internationally and offshore. We work in all environments and on all types of wells.

We have the level of expertise that matches the needs of the customer for their particular well project.