Acquisition creates new billion-dollar fracking firm

Calgary-based oilfield service provider Trican Well Service Ltd. is acquiring Canyon Services Group Inc., a hydraulic fracturing firm also headquartered in Calgary, for $673 million.

The combined company will be one of the largest publicly traded oilfield service businesses in the Canada, worth $1.4 billion and with the capacity to collectively provide 675,000 high horsepower of available hydraulic fracturing capacity.

Hydraulic fracturing – also called fracking – is the practice of sending superpressurized water down wellbores to fracture deep-bed rock formations and release natural gas from previously uneconomic deposits trapped deep underground in isolated pockets within sedimentary rock known as shale. The fracking boom has the potential to increase natural gas supplies and allow increased domestic production of resins such as polyethylene.

“This combination with Canyon will create a Western Canadian-based leading energy services firm that has the asset base, efficient cost structure and financial capacity to create value for all of our combined stakeholders,” said Dale Dusterhoft, Trican’s president and CEO. “Trican and Canyon have similar businesses and shared values, and we are committed to driving a successful integration. We envision a combined company that will set the standard for service quality, field execution, and operating efficiencies.”