Packers Plus Energy Services was founded in Canada in 2000, focusing on high-tier reliable completion solutions. From the very beginning, the company was led by three core values, Innovation, Customer Intimacy and Operational Excellence.
“The key to Innovation is developing solutions and technologies that solve customer challenges,” explains Stuart Wilson, President and CEO of Packers Plus. “It is essential to achieve that close communication and relationship with our chosen customers. We listen and engage with our clients to develop the fit-for-purpose, bespoke solutions at the heart of all our activities.”
That innovation brought Packers Plus to prominence with the invention of its “StackFRAC” multi-stage completion technology, enabling North American shale growth and unlocking the full potential of tight gas and tight oil reservoirs.
Above all, however, the linchpin of Packers Plus’s success is its manufacturing facility in Edmonton, Canada. The company’s work makes it essential to assemble a high volume of tools at the highest levels of quality control, making this facility an indispensable part of their business.
“The executive team decided that the optimum way to assemble was using automation,” Wilson recalls. “Packers Plus was the first completion technology company to assemble tools this way. The first time our customers visit the facility and witness the robots assembling the completion tools that will be run into their wells, it always astounds them.”
That facility is fed by a vast base of local vendors expertly managed by its supply chain department, who source high-quality raw materials from suppliers such as HOWCO Metals and Vallourec. Meanwhile, local machine shops such as Argus Machine make a real difference to the finished product and ultimately to the reliability of the equipment during field operations.
A Global Perspective
Packers Plus is a company that needs an international perspective, combined with local, on-the-ground knowledge, and it is this perspective that Wilson brings to his position.
“I’m from the UK, however, as tends to happen in the global energy sector, I’ve been working internationally all my career,” Wilson tells us.
Throughout his career, Wilson has worked in every corner of the globe- covering a multitude of field operations.
“One day I was working in desert environments, to swamps, to offshore deep-water work, in various countries, South America, Africa, the Middle East, Far-East,” Wilson says. “I have a truly global family with my first son being born in Norway, my daughter in Sugarland, Texas, and my second son born in Moscow, Russia!”
16 years ago, Wilson’s career took him into the “multi-stage completions” sector in Saudi Arabia, working with Packers Plus.
“I started in the technical and business development side, before becoming the Middle East General Manager, to the Eastern Hemisphere Director, to reaching my current position of CEO and President based in Dubai two years ago,” recalls Wilson.
From this intersection of international perspectives and local knowledge, Packers Plus was able to see that the high-pressure, high-temperature work being carried out in the Middle East and offshore Europe was a perfect fit for its StackFRAC technology. In these locations, the reliability of the equipment in harsh reservoir environments was essential.
Through fine-tuning and development improvements to fit each application, Packers Plus has established itself at the forefront of the sector, especially in the field of installing the technology into even hotter, deeper, more corrosive wells.
“Based on our reliability of the multi-stage product line, we have partnered with key operators in tackling some of their high-end challenges such as developing premium liner hangers and sand and flow control equipment,” Wilson says. “This allowed us to rapidly grow and diversify our product revenue streams and geographies.”
For a medium-sized company like Packers Plus, growing geographically and having continuous locally based support is always a challenge. By using experienced partner companies that understand each country’s market and environment, Packers Plus can take itself to the next level.
“Entering and establishing the company in the offshore UK and Norway markets has been a significant achievement for us and our partners, such as Marwell AS in Stavanger, Norway ,” Wilson says. “The support required to address these challenging areas needs to be consistent, immediate, and accurate. This partnership model has worked well for Packers Plus as we continue to expand into additional targeted regions without increasing our cost base significantly.”
A Middle Eastern Focus
Packers Plus’s high-level operational successes in these markets led to the decision two years ago to relocate the executive positions of the company, including Wilson and the CFO, to Dubai, UAE.
“This decision has given us more impetus to focus the business efforts of the Middle East as well as letting us take immediate decisions and action in these markets without time delays,” Wilson says.
While the Canadian market remains very important to Packers Plus, which invests a great deal of time and focus on those customers, the firm’s strategic financial growth and expansion plans are now focused on the Middle East and international market.
“In Saudi Arabia, in-country added value is something that we have fully embraced, by locally producing and assembling our products, with premium component support coming from locally based companies such as Precision Polymers,” Wilson insists. “We also drive in-country value through our high percentage of locally based Saudi national employees who are trained and developed to become outstanding, high-performing employees. We have a very strong Saudi partner, Midad Limited, who has assisted us every step of the way from new technology introduction 
support to establishing a local facility where we can complete servicing and assemble of our products to the local market and beyond.”
Packers Plus is not only investing in these regions, it is also becoming part of these communities, leading a coalition of local companies in a recent industrial waste clean-up.
“This event was a huge success with over 80 volunteers coming on a Saturday in November to help clean litter and overgrown trees in the neighbourhood around the Packers Plus facility,” Wilson recalls. “This event made a noticeable impact on how the area looks, raised awareness to the city for the maintenance requirements in the area, and started other companies in the area cleaning and maintaining the streets around their buildings.”
Packers Plus also supports local education through collaborations with several universities in the area, including King Fahd University Petroleum & Minerals, the International Technical Female College, and Jubail Technical Institute.
Drilling for the Future
Meanwhile, in Finland, Packers Plus is delving deep into exciting new sectors. The company has always defined itself as an energy company, not an oil and gas company, and in Finland, Packers Plus is bringing its expertise to bear in helping to complete a deep vertical well to generate geothermal energy.
“This pilot project is being developed to provide up to 10% of the district heating needs for the City of Espoo, a city within greater Helsinki,” Wilson says. “The project required drilling two vertical wells to a depth of about 21,325 feet, or 6,500 metres.”
Drilling through granitic bedrock to the target depth was unprecedented in the region. The estimated downhole conditions required a multistage completion system capable of withstanding the expected 15,000 psi (103 MPa) differential pressure while hydraulically stimulating the wellbore.
“A Packers Plus StackFRAC Titanium XV system was designed and successfully deployed. All objectives of the project were successfully met,” Wilson reports.
It is a sector Wilson is excited to see Packers Plus develop further.
