BUSINESS PROFILE - Surerus Pipeline Inc.

With huge natural gas exploration and production projects both north and south, Fort St. John based Surerus Pipeline Inc. is perfectly positioned and well equipped to build the pipelines required to move the gas to market.

Brian Surerus did his first pipeline construction job 33 years ago, two years after starting his own little truck and backhoe business. Since then Surerus Pipeline Inc. has installed more miles of pipeline than Brian can remember.

This year Surerus is celebrating 35 years in business with one of the busiest seasons in their long history.

The big job is the 83.5 km EnCana Ekwan pipeline, connecting EnCana's prolific Greater Sierra natural gas field, east of Fort Nelson, to the Nova main line four km east of the B.C./Alberta border, near Rainbow Lake . Work was started late in 2003, with the line scheduled to be in service by April, 2004.

“We had up to 316 people on that job, including subcontractors,” says Brian. “Bill Porter was our site superintendent. He has 40 years of pipeline experience and the job went very well.”

In addition to the big 24-inch Ekwan line, Surerus was also doing two more jobs for EnCana in the newly developing Cutbank Ridge field, south of Dawson Creek .

“We're doing 1,700 metres of eight-inch line and 6,000 metres of six-inch on one job, and 9,330 metres of six-inch on another,” Brian says.

With EnCana planning to drill up to 200 wells a year in that area, Brian is anticipating a lot more work.

“If we can do good work, keep our local employment high and keep the price right, they should keep us busy. They plan to continue drilling summer and winter.”

Over the past couple of years Surerus has been gearing up to handle several jobs at once, as well as to handle bigger lines like the 24-inch Ekwan project. The biggest thing, Brian says, is having the right people.

“We've been very fortunate in being able to keep good employees,” Brian says. “We've got veterans like Bill Porter and we've added some young people with good skills and a good attitude.”

One of these is Brian's son, Sean, who joined the company full-time three years ago.

“I guess I've been around at times for my whole life,” he says. “I was a field office manager and now I'm trying to transfer that field experience into more of a project management role. It seems to be working well so far.”

In addition to his field experience, Sean has degrees in Commerce and Economics and is well qualified as a project analyst. One of the responsibilities he has assumed is setting up a comprehensive, computerized monitoring program that provides a quick reference daily update on every component of every job.

“We always know exactly what percentage of clearing, grading, stringing, bending, welding, ditching, lowering and backfilling is done,” says Brian. “We get reports in from the field every day and they're entered into the computers so we have it all instantly available. The computer program also provides valuable data for tracking costs and setting a base for future bids.

And Brian is anticipating a lot of bids. Northeastern B.C. is definitely the hot area for natural gas exploration and production right now. With big developments both north and south of Fort St. John , “we couldn't be in a better location,” he says. “EnCana will probably be doing 100 to 150 km of pipeline each year just in the Cutbank Ridge field. We've got a shop in Dawson Creek and we're hiring a lot of local people there so we're hoping to stay busy.”

The company's 11-acre yard and shop in Fort St. John is always busy. Most of the fabrication of the valves, pig traps and meter station in that area for the Ekwan project was done there during the past winter.

“We had about 25 people working here,” Brian notes.

Surerus Pipeline is different than most of the Canadian pipeline contractors in that they are ready and able to take on big projects like the 24-inch Ekwan line, one of the largest oil and gas construction projects ever awarded to a B.C. company, or small jobs like a few hundred metres of six-inch line.