Calfrac Well Services is a leading oilfield service provider, with more than 1,400 employees and operations in Canada, the United States, Russia and Mexico.

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Established in 1999 as a four-person company, Canadian-based Calfrac Well Services has grown to be a leading oilfield service provider, with more than 1,400 employees and operations in Canada, the United States, Russia and Mexico. Its growth has been largely organic with a handful of strategic acquisitions, it adds. “Calfrac believes that through its presence in the world’s top-[four] fracturing markets – Canada, the United States, Russia [and Mexico] – we are well positioned to serve customers in their major operations areas,” the company says.

“Our established operating bases … will act as a springboard for our future growth by leveraging off the experience, technological advantages and our established customer base.” In 2002, Calfrac entered the U.S. market. Because the United States is the largest fracturing service market in the world, “it’s a market that most fracturing service companies want to participate in,” says John Grisdale, president of U.S. operations. “We were looking for the right opportunity to bring our services to the U.S. market and that occurred when we obtained our first fracturing service contract in the United States.

“It happened in the DJ basin just north of Denver and, from there, our reputation grew for providing high-quality products and services,” he says. “We expanded our operations into western Colorado in 2005 as the tight gas market began significant expansion in this area. In 2007, we continued our U.S. expansion as we entered the shale fracturing market and the oilfield cementing market in Arkansas. Today, our U.S. operations have service fleets throughout Colorado and Arkansas, and we have performed treatments in Colorado, Wyoming, Utah, Nebraska, New Mexico, Arkansas and Oklahoma.”

In 2006, the company opened an operations base in Russia. This was part of Calfrac’s global diversification program. Russia is primarily an oil well service market for Calfrac, and it is subject to different economic factors than the North American gas market, Grisdale notes.

Recent Expansions
Last year, Calfrac announced its entry into the Mexican well service market through a three-year, $75 million contract with PEMEX. It will provide hydraulic fracturing services in northern Mexico’s Burgos field. Calfrac also announced in late 2007 that it was entering the pumping service business in Argentina, where it will begin cementing operations in 2008.

“Entry into these markets is a continuation of [our] strategy of diversifying geographically into new markets that are not dependent on natural gas drilling in the United States and Canadian markets,” the company says. “These international markets add balance to Calfrac’s revenue streams as it is not solely dependent on one area for its financial well-being.”

Around-the-World Demand
Today, Calfrac provides fracturing, cementing, acidizing and coiled tubing well services for customers around the world. “Our services are in demand around the world, and the economies of the world are using more energy,” Grisdale says.

“Our services are primarily utilized on natural gas wells. I think it’s because the number of oil wells to be discovered is getting harder to find. Gas has been seeing a large increase in its use for power generation, as well as for home heating, so it’s a cleaner fuel and it’s easier to move to the source that would be utilizing it.”

Mexico, Canada and the United States have been increasing power generation that comes from the use of natural gas as its main fuel, Grisdale says. “However, there are still a lot of oil wells to be treated,” he asserts. “Certainly, all wells have to be treated, whether they are oil wells or gas wells.”

Regardless of the sector, Calfrac is “well-positioned to take advantage of additional worldwide opportunities as demand for our services continues to grow,” Grisdale says.