Northern Saskatchewan

 

I had a trip to Northern Saskatchewan that could have been disastrous for me, but someone again was looking after me. Here’s my story.

 

 

 

Northern Saskatchewan

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While working as a Process Engineer in Bartlesville, I received an assignment to fly to Calgary, Canada about a process review of a sour gas plant and sour gas field in Northern Saskatchewan, Canada that Phillips Canada was considering purchasing. The property belonged to Canada Mid Stream.

 

They put us a small plane for a six hour flight from Calgary into the boonies of Northern Saskatchewan, Canada with us wondering about what we were fixing to experience over the next full week..

 

 

When I got to the Calgary office, they had a complete set of paperwork describing the gas plant and sour gas field which was at the northern most part of Saskatchewan. They told me to watch out for Polar bears while visiting the field facility and put me on a small plane for a six hour flight to the northern Canada boonies.

We didn’t see any of these guys, but we heard a lot of scary stories about them while we were there and we sure kept on the alert at all times.

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There was no infrastructure in that area, so everyone that visited stayed in company owned barracks and ate at a company run cafeteria. I wasn’t really ready to rough it quite this much but I made it OK. I was accompanied on the trip by an instrument and electrical engineer from Bartlesville. We spent four days reviewing the gas plant which has sour gas treating facilities as well as a sulphur Plant and NGL removal and fractionation facilities. While I was there, there was nothing to do at night, so I began writing my report on my PC at night after we finished at the plant. I noted many deficiencies in both plant and field facilities in my report. Following three more days in the field and three nights of report writing, our work was done and we headed home.

 

One of the field facilities we inspected while we were there. Kind of baron and desolate looking.

 

 

In two days after I got home, I sent my report electronically to the Canada Calgary Office for their use. The day I sent in the report was the day I had my Aorta Artery Aneurism and was rushed to the St Johns Hospital for emergency surgery. I guess the good Lord delayed the problem until I got out of the boonies six hours from civilization so I would be near emergency facilities.

 

I was off work for five weeks. The day I got back to work, the manager of the Calgary Office called me personally and told me he had heard about my problem, and he appreciated me getting my report to him so quickly as they were able to negotiate a very good price for the facilities because of the deficiencies I had listed in my report and everyone was very pleased. Well that just made my day and cheered me up considerably. They also wrote a very nice letter to my boss thanking me for my service. Sometimes good work is rewarded.

 
Thanks for reading Northern Saskatchewan,
Bill