Freezing and Hot Tapping

High Arctic strives to provide a consistently high standard of service and job quality, and that applies to freezing and hot tapping. Freezing is a time-honoured procedure which has proven itself an inexpensive and safe alternative in well maintenance. "It is also a reliable method for controlling pressures, such as facilitating the removal of welded pipeline and auxiliary equipment which otherwise would be expensive to remove or repair safely," Wood explains. "There are many variations to this simple procedure which are decided by the knowledge and experience of the person in charge of the freeze operation," he explains.

Hot tapping, meanwhile, is often don in conjunction with freezing particularly when the area tapped can't be depressurized. He says hot tapping may become necassary for several reasons, including these four: (1) An obstruction is encountered in tubulars during tripping which may result in the bottomhole pressure being brought to the surface in the tubing; (2) A production line needs to be bypassed in a plant but it's uneconomical to depressure the line; (3) A leaking casing valve on a producing well makes it uneconomical to kill the well and replace the valve; (4) Re-entry into abandoned wells.

High Arctic, which was created in 1994, has also been cultivating its snubbing services in the international arena, including the North Sea, Holland, Oman and Venezuela. But the company concentrates most of its efforts in Western Canada.

All three principals grew up in Red Deer and know the Canadian oilpatch well. Wood, who has been in the oilpatch for about 20 years, was a wellsite supervisor for 13 years, while Embury has six years' experience in oilfield services, and Thiessen has been involved in the service sector since the early 1980's.

With sales increasing 10-fold in the last three years, High Arctic just finished anew addition to its 12,000 square foot shop in Red Deer. The company will build more stand-alone snubbing units as the market dictates. But as the oilpatch begins to learn about the many benefits and advantages of snubbing, it's only a matter of time before High Arctic goes into full production of the Rigless Snubbing System.