Drilling down for data

This company uses specialized tools and computerized systems to provide a map—or a log—of what lies underground

Brandon Beringer and Joel Sinkwich with their modified truck for geophysical logging. — Joel Sinkwich photo

Century Wireline Services is an open-hole logging company and a provider of geophysical logging services. Century is based in Tulsa, Oklahoma, with the Canadian office located in Red Deer, Alberta.

Brandon Beringer, senior field engineer in the Red Deer office, said that basically what Century does is provide a map—or a log—of what is below the ground.

“We will drill a hole and come in and run a suite of tools on the hole, which will provide an array of data,” said Joel Sinkwich, technical manager in Red Deer.

Both Sinkwich and Beringer have been with the company for seven years. They say their office is in the back of a pickup truck, where they have their suite of tools.

“We can pretty much get any information you need from a hole,” said Beringer.

Transitioning with the trends

Century began in the seismic business but is now focused on geophysical wireline data. The company's computerized logging system revolutionized the shallow-hole market in the late 1970s.

“Current projects are 50 per cent coal based and the other half is oilsands,” said Beringer. "The oilsands is seasonal (during the winter) and coal is year round for us now. With the price of coal being so good, we are drilling all summer and will have projects all winter."

Century's markets including coalbed methane, coal, diamonds, gold, oilsands, oil shale, shallow oil and gas, and uranium.

In Canada, the company has 27 staff with seasonal workers in the winter, where the pace of the oilsands work is fast and goes 24 hours a day.

In the United States, the company has a manufacturing facility and an engineering department.

In-house solutions mean quick response

“We are one of the few companies that build all of our equipment,” said Sinkwich, “We design, engineer, manufacture and service all within our company—and there are not a lot of companies that do that. Everything from the machining to the software is done in-house.”

Sinkwich said that this is very advantageous for Century, as it allows them to respond quickly if necessary.

“If we see something in the market that we should be manufacturing or changing, we can do that in-house,” he said.

Beringer said that the company focuses on the shallow-hole market.

“Logging is just starting to be used for hard rock mining, so that is a new market for us,” he said. “In the hard rock industry, they want to core for a sample of the rock, which is very expensive. Well, logging can, to some extent, replace those logs, especially in a mature mine where they already have their ore body and now they want to define it and mine it appropriately.”

Beringer said that Century can probably drill 10 holes for what it would cost to do five cores.

“In a mature mine, when you are trying to solve problems, well, logs are very useful,” he said.

Sinkwich said that logging becomes an economic tool because it is so much cheaper than having to core and send it away.

“With Century, you can get your answer right away," he said, "so the tool can, in some sense, replace the core." 

Century has enjoyed sales growth of more than 40 per cent in the last few years, and has partners all over the world.