Rangeland Engineering has worked a lot for ATCO. With ATCO’s expansion in Mexico, do you think there is potential for your company in the country?

Rangeland is always open to new opportunities and maintains a strong international focus. In recent years, we have had many significant projects in Canada; therefore, international expansion has not been a priority. We have studied the potential of Mexico, but we believe it is for larger organizations, or the opportunities are truly in service niches. That doesn’t mean we won’t enter Mexico, but we haven’t had the opportunity yet. We are attending railway conferences throughout North America, expanding our presence in the Americas. Most engineering companies have had a massive workload over the past ten years, and Alberta has struggled to meet this need. Rich natural gas fields now require more engineering and drilling services, which means that in the short term, the Western Canada market will be quite stable for Rangeland.

Since Mexico is trying to establish links with Alberta and incorporate Canadian experience, what do you think Canada’s specialty niche is from a global perspective?

We can offer more or less the same as Houston, except for maritime operations. Houston is a significant center for maritime technologies, but we are also specialized in the rest, particularly in the recovery of natural gas liquids, in addition to the recovery of heavy oil and railway transportation. The University of Calgary runs a leading research center in the field of heavy gas and oil processing. Heavy oils are quite complex and not easy to characterize. If market dynamics offer Alberta companies the opportunity to expand their presence in other countries, they could certainly do so successfully.

The use of technology has given Rangeland Engineering a significant advantage in the past. What are the most relevant projects from 2013-2014?

For a company of our size, we have had some considerable projects in the past year and a half. We are about to complete one of the largest oil terminals in North America, located in Edmonton. The project loads heavy oil in Alberta and takes it to the United States. We are currently completing phase 1, with a capacity for 150 cars per day; once all phases are completed, the capacity will be 450 cars per day. We are also working on Canada’s largest liquid gas fractionation facility, with a capacity of 70 million barrels per day of separation of ethane, propane, and butane, product treatment, and salt storage tanks. Additionally, we have applied our technology to projects in Colombia. We did laser modeling to replace deteriorated vessels; we scanned the facility and with a 3-D representation, we were able to create an intelligent model for the design of other facilities in the refinery.

Rangeland is also exploring opportunities in Cuba. What is your experience so far? What opportunities do you see in Mexico, South America, and the Caribbean?

The Empresa de Ingeniería y Proyectos Petrolea, a Cuban engineering firm, visited the Petroleum fair in Calgary about six years ago and sought engineering companies to partner with. In the following period, we had conversations with them, but negotiating a contract took us years. They want us to form a joint venture with them to carry out their projects in Latin American countries such as Venezuela, Mexico, and Colombia. Their expertise is primarily in civil and electrical engineering, while we could provide the rest of the disciplines necessary to complete industrial gas and oil projects. The management of Rangeland plans to visit Cuba in the coming weeks to explore several opportunities that could arise from this partnership. For now, we hope that there can be fruitful contracts for Rangeland and Cuba.