Q’Max Solutions: Riding the Wave of Luck to Become Canada’s Drilling Fluids Giant in the 1990s.
Starting a business and surviving beyond year one takes plenty of expertise and a savvy understanding of the marketplace. Q’Max Solutions Inc. – the largest privately owned international drilling fluids company in Canada – benefitted from a bit of luck back in the early 1990s, as well.
As co-founder and President Reginald Northcott tells it, four partners and he launched Q’Max Solutions in 1993 with a business innovation called “growth partnering” to bring a new level of service to numerous oil and natural gas drilling customers throughout Western Canada. The industry at the time was experiencing a downturn in the cyclical oil and gas sector, so major players in the region began outsourcing various key aspects of their operations, including drilling fluid services.
Northcott and his partners knew the time was right to strike out on their own. Northcott and partners together brought more than 100 years of combined industry experience to the new company. A few oil and gas companies recognized the expertise Q’Max had amassed for its launch, and its focus on reducing lifecycle drilling cost, so they offered the fledgling firm its first contracts.
“A couple of large, independent companies recognized us as individuals, and they provided wells for us within a month of starting our company,” Northcott says. “This helped us develop an early reputation for quality, innovation and applications expertise which was critical going forward.”
Today, Q’Max Solutions operates from headquarters in Calgary, with business unit locations in the United States, South America, Mexico and India. After launching with five oilfield industry specialists in Western Canada in 1993, the company now boasts more than 1,100 employees in seven countries.
“In the beginning of the company, we brought different complementary skill sets to the table, and our goal was to leverage our skills and technical capabilities in order to present the image of a company quickly capable of managing any type of drilling fluid situation in Western Canada,” Northcott explains. “Clients, from the beginning, have been able to recognize operational, logistical and technical advantages.”
Training Grounds
With the vast array of geological targets and conditions, environmental sensitivities and the seasonal climate, Northcott says Western Canada has served the company well as the ideal proving ground for many of its products, although today many are also evolving from Q’max’s other international business unit areas. Thanks to the technical, operational, and innovative applications expertise Q’Max Solutions delivered to oil producers in Canada, several of these clients have invited the company to work for them in other parts of the world, beginning with Ecuador. The company since has penetrated Peru, Colombia, India, Mexico and the United States.
“Our initial work in Western Canada was a good testing ground for the kinds of drilling fluid and environmental challenges we have encountered in the rest of the world,” Northcott says. “Our first long-term opportunity was through invitation in Ecuador.”
Another innovation called the Mud Stripper brought Q’Max by invitation into the U.S. market. This innovation was developed in response to a customer needing to reduce water consumption and increase penetration rates, in order to reduce drilling costs and environmental footprint. Today, this technology is rapidly gaining widespread acceptance in west Texas and New Mexico, under the leadership of partner Tony Davis.
Since beginning in 1993, Western Canada has helped Q’Max develop a variety of products with applicability throughout the world. Today, Q’Max sees all of its business units contributing to new product innovations and applications, which have found applicability throughout the world. The company has developed a complete line of water- and oil-based drilling fluid products, as well as many which are patented and proprietary.
One example is a proprietary system for coal bed methane extraction wells called CBMax. CBMax provides unmatched wellbore stability, and non-damaging characteristics which allow maximum reservoir production. This system has not been duplicated to date.
“The biggest impact to an operator or cost item is the drilling rig itself in most cases, so our focus has always been on applying our expertise and technology in ways which reduce drilling time, environmental footprint and, of course, enhance production,” Northcott says. “By doing this we always have a positive impact on the operator’s bottom line.”
“We have amassed a human capital asset base second to none,” he adds. “Our people are our most valuable asset, and are readily recognized for their expertise everywhere we work.”