Drill pipe manufacturer hands out pink slips in Alberta

Gary Park

Petroleum News Calgary correspondent

The scorching pace of activity in Western Canada’s oil fields has not been enough to save 113 Edmonton, Alberta workers at Grant Prideco, a Houston-based drilling pipe manufacturer.

They were laid off Feb. 4 from a staff of 170 as the company “rationalizes” its global operations.

A spokesman for Grant Prideco said Canadian customers will now likely use drilling pipe from the company’s plants in Mexico or Texas, while Edmonton is scaled back to become more of a service center.

He said the cost of transporting drill pipe is now an economic consideration, not where it is manufactured.

However, Grant Prideco will continue to make specialized pipe and production tubing in Edmonton.

Other facilities in Alberta, British Columbia, Newfoundland and Nova Scotia will not be affected at this time, the spokesman said.