Canyon’s approach to environmental protection centres on two main principles: employ environmentally friendly materials wherever possible, and use the most modern available equipment to minimize the risks of spills or leakage.

The primary responsibility for environmental protection on an oil and natural gas wellsite in Western Canada rests with the operator of the well, i.e., the oil and natural gas producer that is having the well drilled and completed. Service companies such as Canyon have a strong role to play by ensuring that their equipment, materials and procedures minimize the risks of environmental impacts. Canyon follows the environmental and safety policies of each individual customer, unless our standards supersede the customer’s, so that we follow best practices in all cases.

Equipment – Canyon’s philosophy is that ultra-modern, heavy-duty equipment is far less likely to leak or fail outright than older, lower-capacity equipment, especially on today’s high-pressure, high-rate fracturing jobs and the increasing prevalence of 24-hour operations. Quite simply, newer equipment, when combined with expert and committed crews, reduces the likelihood of environmental mishap.

In addition to being new and heavy-duty, Canyon’s equipment has built-in environmental protection features. All trucks carry drip trays to capture even tiny leaks and avoid ground contamination. We are also using double containment in any areas with potential for leakage, even where not required by regulations.

Materials – We are continually updating the products we use with materials that are friendlier to the environment. This includes our fracturing fluid additives and other downhole chemistries, as well as materials we need to operate, from cleaners used in our maintenance shops to the coolant/antifreeze in our truck engines.

Canyon has made a major commitment to greener downhole chemistries. We offer a green alternative for every formulation in our product line-up and we’re fully up-to-date with regulatory requirements potable groundwater protection.

We’re also greening the materials we use to operate. This includes a recently introduced, non-glycol-based potable antifreeze that is both safer to handle and non-environmentally-damaging if accidentally spilled. The new product performed well even at -40° C, so we have introduced it into all our truck and chassis-mounted engines.