Q. Where is your company located? More than one location?
A. The corporate office is located in Houston, Texas, with field offices in Anchorage, Alaska, Bakersfield, Calif., New Iberia, La., Grand Junction, Colo., Williston, N.D., Rock Springs, Wyo.; Oklahoma City, Hartshorne and Weatherford, Okla.; and Alice and Odessa, Texas.
Q. What year was the company founded, who founded it, and what was its original name?
A. Epoch was founded in 1979 in Bakersfield, Calif., by Steve Appleton and Bill Anderson, who were at the time new undergrad geologists from California State University at Northridge. Appleton remains at the forefront of Epoch’s activities serving as VP of Operations in Houston, Texas. The Epoch brand name has continually existed for over 27 years.
Q. Who heads up your company and who is on its senior management team?
A. Chris Papouras is president of Epoch and also serves as president of Canrig Drilling Technology Ltd. Steve Appleton serves as vice president of operations, Scott Boone serves as vice president of technology and Pradeep Aniyappa serves as vice president of development.
Q. Describe any partnership arrangements and when they became effective.
A. Epoch merged with Nabors Industries in 1996 as a technology-oriented subsidiary and retained the original company name to maintain and enhance an already well-recognized industry brand.
Q. What is the company’s primary business sector? What services does the company offer?
A. Drilling focused services consisting of Digital Mudlogging (DML), RIGWATCH Drilling Instrumentation, myWells.com Web Based Live Data Delivery, Rig Report Morning Report Software.
Q. Who are the company’s main clients?
A. Anadarko Petroleum, Aurora Gas, BP Exploration (Alaska), Chevron, ConocoPhillips Alaska, ExxonMobil, Marathon, Pioneer Natural Resources, Shell and XTO Energy.
Q. How many employees does your company have? How many in each of its locations?
A. Epoch has 281 employees nationwide, with 12 employees based in Alaska.
Q. Describe your essential equipment in general terms. Purchases planned?
A. Epoch provides advanced digital mudlogging, geological evaluation, digital drilling instrumentation equipment, leading edge software applications and live data delivery equipment and services to the drilling market in Alaska. In response to anticipated market growth in Alaska, Epoch has completed the roll-out of fourth generation E-Series ™ FID gas detection equipment and is in negotiation with various suppliers for new arctic grade logging cabins.
Q. Is your company expanding any of its operations and/or locations?
A. Epoch has entered the remote mudlogging market in two key Lower 48 markets, East Texas and the Rockies. This expansion is in response to market demands for lower cost alternatives to conventional mudlogging.
Q. Is the company changing any of its services?
A. Yes — Epoch has upgraded our real-time data portal, myWells.com by converting to Plumtree enterprise portal to more efficiently manage and display real-time drilling data to our customers.
Q. What is your company’s main strength, i.e. its edge over the competition?
A. It has a continuous 18-year presence in Alaska with highly experienced, competent employees. These employees have a significant understanding of Alaska geology, local management well-versed in the logistical challenges and a top-down management dedicated to the growth of the Alaskan market.
Q. Has the company invested in any new technology in the last two years?
A. Indeed we have: Fourth Generation E-Series ™ FID Gas Detection Equipment, MotoSat™ Self Aiming Satellite Systems, @Road™ GPS Tracking, Plumtree™ Web Portal Application for myWells.com.
Q. What is the most challenging job the company has undertaken?
A. Each individual project in Alaska presents its own unique set of challenges, so it is difficult to isolate one single case as being the most challenging. However, the efficient planning, logistics, support and execution of remote winter exploration drilling projects in NPR-A typically present us with our greatest challenges. To date, we have met those challenges with a very high rate of success.
Q. What are the biggest obstacles to completing work the company undertakes?
A. The largest challenge to market growth and expansion is by far headcount and staff growth. Attracting quality professional employees has been a significant challenge in the oil service sector for nearly two years now. Epoch has responded to this challenge by hiring a recruiting and training manager in Houston, Texas, and exploiting numerous internet-based recruiting methods to attract technically oriented applicants.
Q. What do you see as your company’s biggest challenge in the next five years?
A. The big picture challenge is in the realm of technology. In an “on-demand” business world, this year’s technology is next year’s obsolescence. Researching, evaluating and deploying new market-focused technologies will be our largest challenge due to the ever accelerating rate of change in technological advancement. Epoch senior management clearly understands this challenge and constantly recalibrates our business vision to meet future technical realities and market demands.
Q. What do you see as future trends or opportunities for your company from events such as long-term weather fluctuations, resource development, etc.?
A. Clearly, the greatest opportunity for Epoch in Alaska would be the construction of the Alaska Gas Pipeline. Allowing this vast stranded resource on the North Slope an outlet to market would encourage drilling activity and provide additional work opportunities for us. Additional, more immediate opportunities exist for our company with the entrance of new operators into Alaska, and we warmly welcome all the new entrants into this exciting market.
Q. Does your company have an anniversary or other landmark coming up? If so, describe.
A. The 10th anniversary of our merger with Nabors Industries Ltd. will take place in November of this year.
Q. What is the average length of time employee’s work for the company? Are you hiring for any positions?
A. The average length of service for Epoch employees in Alaska is well over five years. Several Alaska-based employees including the division manager have been with the company over 10 years. Epoch is currently recruiting qualified candidates for the position of logging geologist in Alaska and elsewhere in the Lower 48.
Q. What is your company’s safety record?
A. Epoch holds an outstanding safety record in Alaska, with a YTD Total Recordable Incident Rate (TRIR) of 0.0 and a Lost Time Accident rate (LTA) of 0.0. Epoch has worked over 2,000 days since our last Lost Time Accident and over 980 days since our last Recordable Incident.
Q. Does your company maintain its own websites? If so, list.
A. Epoch maintains two key websites, one for general company information and one as a real time data delivery portal and well information repository:
The general information website is www.epochwellservices.com.
The live data delivery website is www.mywells.com. We gladly invite Petroleum News readers to visit our websites at their leisure.
