"The industry went flat. That affected everybody. Construction was dead. Oil was dead. It was real blow to the community." In 1987, he was back to work as a Suncor well site supervisor and bought a safety company not long after that was built into Canada's largest safety equipment provider at one point. His Suncor years gave him some valuable insight into the industry's potential. He found himself handling a number of specialized research and development projects and was manager of the first underbalanced horizontal well in Canada by 1989. "I thought this is something that is going to catch on."

High Arctic was started with partner Ken Embury and a single rig in 1993. Embury was bought out in 2002. Once seen as a technology with only limited applications, underbalanced drilling can now be used on about 80 per cent of wells, he said. Underbalanced drilling does not use fluids under pressure deep down well holes to hold back hydrocarbons. Instead, the hydrocarbons rise under their own pressure and that is controlled at the surface with specialized equipment. The company has grown quickly and three and a half years ago he moved into a $2.5-million building in Edgar Industrial Park completed with full-sized training rig in its yard.

Wood had 20 pieces of moving equipment before the move and now has more than 90 and a staff of just under 200. His company has offices in Fort St. John, B.C., Grande Prairie, Brooks, Dubai and Barbados. He has branched out into Argentina, United Arab Emirates, Saudi Arabia, Yemen, Pakistan, Oman, Iran, and the Caspian Sea.

The international efforts are part of a drive to derive 50 per cent of revenues from outside Canada within five years. He's on schedule in year three with 30 per cent of his $40 million in revenues coming from international jobs. In Canada, his crews will handle 6,600 jobs this year all over Alberta and northern B.C. An incident around four years ago led to the formation of a comprehensive safety effort that has cost about $1 million to date. A friend lost fingers in an accident on the job led Wood to set up a program that certifies competency. His future holds more international jobs and continuing efforts to give staff an opportunity to move up in the company.

He continues to develop other interests. He recently sold Rockport Developments, which built 45 homes last year, and continues to run a commercial construction company.