What We Heard in Canada: Building Relationships for the Future
By Graham Steele, Engineering Director
What We Heard in Canada: Building Relationships for the Future
Last month, KCI's Engineering Director, Graham Steele, travelled to Calgary to attend both the World Geothermal Congress and the Global Energy Show Canada.
With two major industry events taking place at the same time, the trip provided an excellent opportunity to meet new contacts, strengthen existing relationships and gain a better understanding of the opportunities emerging across the Canadian energy sector.
Learning More About Geothermal
The World Geothermal Congress was an opportunity for KCI to listen, learn and better understand the challenges and opportunities facing the geothermal industry.
While KCI has extensive experience in well integrity and leak remediation, the visit was not about promoting solutions. Instead, it was about understanding where the geothermal sector is today and where it may be heading in the future.
One of the key observations from the event was that Canada's geothermal industry remains at a relatively early stage of development. Much of the focus is understandably on advancing projects and establishing the sector, meaning conversations around future well integrity challenges and intervention
requirements are still in their infancy.
For KCI, that presents an opportunity to start building relationships early and share knowledge gained from more than 24 years of supporting operators around the world.
"We weren't there to sell anything," explained Graham. "We wanted to learn more about the sector, meet people and understand where the industry is heading. The conversations were really positive, and we made a lot of valuable contacts. While many of the integrity challenges we deal with today may not be front of mind for geothermal operators yet, there is value in sharing experience and helping people understand what may lie ahead as projects mature."
Growing Relationships Across North America
Alongside the geothermal conference, Graham also attended the Global Energy Show Canada, one of North America's largest energy events.
The conference brought together operators, service companies and technology providers from across the energy sector and provided a valuable opportunity to continue building KCI's network across Canada and the United States.
A particular area of interest for KCI remains the growing orphan and idle wells market, where the company has already supported operators in the United States through its specialist well integrity solutions.
The trip reinforced the opportunity that exists across North America, not only for KCI's technologies, but also for the company's collaborative approach to problem solving.
"We had some great conversations with companies that share similar values to us," said Graham. "Businesses that are focused on finding the right solution for the client and working collaboratively to solve problems. Those are exactly the kinds of relationships we're looking to build as we continue to grow our presence across North America."
Looking Ahead
While the trip generated a number of promising new connections, its greatest value was in establishing relationships and understanding where future opportunities may emerge.
Whether through the developing geothermal sector or the growing demand for well integrity solutions across North America, KCI remains focused on building long-term partnerships, sharing expertise and supporting operators with practical, engineered solutions when they need them.