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Shipment of oilfield equipment successfully beat deteriorating conditions

A closing “window of opportunity” meant a scramble for workers at E & M Oilfield Services just north of Sylvan Lake in late February.
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A pair of cranes from LPS Crane Service in Red Deer lifted a shrink wrapped 150 ton high pressure horizontal separator onto a 64 wheel Premay truck

A closing “window of opportunity” meant a scramble for workers at E & M Oilfield Services just north of Sylvan Lake in late February.

Then as a blizzard blew through the area Mar. 3, and blowing snow limited visibility at times, they were busy loading huge pieces of equipment on specialized trucks for transportation to the Fox Creek area.

Owner Ernie Jacobson explained that his crews worked 24 hours a day leading up to the move. “The weather affects us so much, if we’d missed the window of opportunity we couldn’t move until July.”

They managed to successfully move two of three loads last week and get the equipment situated on the site so work can continue on tying it into other infrastructure during break-up.

Shipped were a 150 ton high pressure horizontal separator on a 17x32 foot skid and a 60 ton low pressure inlet separator on a 22x42 foot skid. The two separators were supposed to have buildings on them but they ran out of time to do it at the Sylvan Lake shop. That work will be done on site.

“We can’t turn a wheel unless Fortis is here for power line lifts,” said Jacobson while supervising the loading. “Going through towns along the route some of the signal lights have to be swung out of the way.”

The initial move, which got going Mar. 4, involved 11 pilot trucks. The loads were moved by Premay on two 64 wheel trucks which measured 139 feet long.

To load the trailers, LPS Crane Services from Red Deer was utilized with three cranes. Before loading, the equipment was shrink wrapped by Cratex, out of Edmonton, to protect it from the weather.

With the trucks, trailers, cranes and equipment needed to get the equipment moved, Jacobson suggested there was $5 million worth of iron involved.

Besides weather, the possibility of road bans was pressing. Bans went on in some areas last Friday.

“To make a move like this takes a tremendous amount of planning … we just made it.

“Last week we moved so much equipment because of the mud, we had to get it in.

“Once on-site we can work on it right through break-up.”

Jacobson explained, “We work hard to get the equipment on-site then people can keep on working.

“It eliminates the shutdown period. If we’d missed the window all those people would be unemployed until after spring break-up. That’s why I was sweating so much, it’s a lot of responsibility on my shoulders.”

A 2,000 barrel tank was three inches too high for power line moves when loaded on a lowboy and an alternate route had to be planned and permitted before the 19 ton load could move.

It was scheduled to begin its journey yesterday (Wednesday).

Jacobson estimated about 10,000 man hours were involved in constructing the equipment for Exxon Mobil Celtic’s site south of Fox Creek.

It was valued at over $2 million.

Some smaller equipment will now sit in his yard until the end of May “once it dries up a wee bit”.

“A project like this takes a year of planning just to get it off the ground,” added Jacobson.

E & M Oilfield Services has been operating since 1996 and now has over 20 employees, most living in the area, although one commutes from Crossfield.

To complete the separator projects they had to build a new shop in November at their site at the corner of Highway 20 and the Jarvis Bay Park Road.

“We needed 4,000 square feet immediately just to handle the big vessel and overhead cranes,” said Jacobson.

The equipment was built from scratch at the local business, with the exception of the vessels which were rolled and manufactured in a shop in Edmonton and then shipped here.

“We do everything else, skids, all the piping. We’re really, really, really conscientious about the environment,” he said.

“Number one here is safety and the environment. They go hand in hand.”

Jacobson added it’s surprising how much money from the project flows back into the local community.