Pipeline Online: Aaron Well Servicing acquired by Eagle Sky Ventures
By Brian Zinchuk
WEYBURN – Perhaps the biggest local industry news to come out of the Saskatchewan Oil and Gas Show was the announcement that Eagle Sky Ventures, part of the Day Group of Companies, has acquired Weyburn-based Aaron Well Servicing.
The service rig company will be celebrating its 20th anniversary on June 11, with an event planned at its shop on New Garden Road.
Mike Fowler, president of Eagle Sky Ventures, spoke to Pipeline Online on June 4 at the oil show about the transaction.
“We are in agreement to put it under the Eagle Sky Ventures umbrella, but we’re going to run it as a separate entity for now,” he said. “I’m just going to help out where I can, with either manpower or sales or operations and learn from them. Hopefully, I’ve got some things they can learn from me as well.”
As a private deal, the dollar value was not released.
“It made the most sense, with Eagle Sky for a couple reasons,” he said.
Aaron Well Servicing is a six-service rig company. Aaron Cugnet will be staying on.
Cugnet said, “We are very proud to join the Eagle Sky Ventures team. The more we spoke with this group, the more we realized it was mutually beneficial and just a really good fit for us to join this organization. With the same great people and equipment along with the support and resources of Eagle Sky, I am very excited for the future of AWS and its people.”
Asked what the impact will be for employees, Fowler said there will be more opportunities. “Within the group of companies, and even with the service rigs, we do a lot of trading back and forth with manpower and equipment. It’s been a bit of a retention tool for us. If we have intermittent work for one rig, these guys can go jump on another one and not miss out on a pay cheque. That helps keep guys around until the rig goes back to work.”
The Day Group of Companies has seen a dramatic expansion of its service rig fleet, first starting with General Well Servicing, then Ex-cel Well Servicing, Eagle Sky Ventures, Admiral Well Servicing (in North Dakota) and now Aaron Well Servicing. In Canada the fleet now totals 28 rigs. The addition of Aaron Well Servicing is a geographic expansion to the west, so that now essentially all of southeast Saskatchewan and southwest Manitoba is covered with rigs located nearby.
“One of the key points of the Aaron’s acquisition is to get into the Weyburn market,” Fowler said.