The reality of the rapid growth the Southeast has seen over the past many years is that people, and businesses, come and go.
Nobel Well Services apparently has no plans of going anytime soon however, and their recent announcement of a new building in Arcola, and their opening of an office in Carlyle just one month ago, shows that this is one company that is committed to the region.
Sitting with area manager Chris Nidesh and safety coordinator Kim D'Amour in the aforementioned office, you can see exactly how committed Nobel is.
"Right now we're running six rigs," Nidesh said. "Four doubles, and two singles, and they're always moving."
"When things got really wet last year, there was some talk about moving our rigs further out," Nidesh said. "But in the end we were able to stay busy pretty much in the area, and that made everyone happy."
Nidesh explained that the shareholders of Nobel are all local people, and there is a deep commitment to working in the region.
"We are always happy to work with local guys, and we're proudly 100 percent Saskatchewan."
At present, no work has started on the planned facility in Arcola, however that will change soon as the weather begins to ease into spring.
"We have a site picked out and ready to go," Nidesh said. "All we need is the weather and we will get started."
Besides functioning as a storage and maintenance area, the new Nobel Well Services building will incorporate office space, and housing as well.
"Like I said, we're all local people, so we know what the local issues are," Nidesh said. "One of the big stumbling blocks is housing."
"We're in a constant search for people, reliable people, to fill positions," Nidesh said. "And the housing issue is one that might keep people from taking a position."
"We have a core of really solid, experienced people, but we always need more."
The proposal is for between five to 10 living quarters to be incorporated into the design, providing some much needed living space for workers from outside the region.
"We have an active workforce of around 40 or so people," Nidesh said. "Having space for them to stay, at a fair price, would go pretty far I think to show our commitment to our workforce too."
Nobel does send its rigs out to Manitoba fairly often, however with the continuing advances in drilling technology, Nidesh sees a continuing demand for Nobel's services into the future.
"It's gotten to the point where the rigs sometimes go out to old well-sites to re-drill," Nidesh said. "With all the new drilling systems, they can frack areas that previous were low- or non-producing wells, and bring them back up to a good production level."
"As long as there are things like that going on, there'll be work for us around here," Nidesh said. "And that's great because we all really like the area, and we are looking forward to being around for some time."
Like many of the local business, Nobel does feel a strain from the labour shortage.
"The turnover on any rig is pretty big," D'Amour said. "A lot of guys come out, hearing about the big money, and they don't know what they're getting into."
"One question I get asked a lot from people applying for a job is, 'what are the hours like?'" Nidesh said. "You have to tell them that there are no set hours, that you work until the work is done."
To prepare new people for the rigors of the rig life, the first three months is offered up as a 'transition' period.
"You work real hard those first three months," D'Amour said. "If you are going to be able to hack it, you'll find out in that time."
But recognizing that the job is hard, Nidesh said Nobel takes its responsibilities seriously when it comes to their crews.
"You got a crew of guys who will be working together closely for long periods of time," Nidesh said. "It used to be it was work, work, work, until things slowed down."
"Now we understand that a happy crew is a productive crew, is a good crew," Nidesh said. "We try to make sure the guys get a least every other weekend off, and we try to make sure they have Sundays too."
With such a commitment to their workers, as well as the communities from which they come, Nobel Well Services is a great example of the best that business has to offer.
