By Jill Smith

Southeast Saskatchewan oil patch slows down due to flooding

Jul 16, 2014 | 7:43 AM

A soggy oil patch makes for an empty oil patch, as accessibility has dwindled to almost nothing after recent floods.

“You’ve seen basically a complete shutdown in production. A lot of guys were expecting to get back to work last week. That’s not happening anymore,” said Michel Cyrenne, executive director of the Estevan Chamber of Commerce.

“These are a lot of people that already had not been working through the regular spring break-up,” said Cyrenne. “Every year they know that the spring break-up time occurs and that they can prepare for. This one, you can’t really prepare for.”

The impact is pretty widespread in Estevan, especially in the service industry. Hotels restaurants take the hit whenever there is a slowdown. Cyrenne says even the housing industry is impacted.

“Some businesses that are exclusively focused on production, you might see some layoffs and some people even having to go back home if they’re not getting back to work.”

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It’s not the first time in recent memory there’s been a slowdown in the industry because of flooding.

“Things have already been saturated, really, since 2011 when we had the flooding back then. So, any heavy rains we get now kind of impacts it just that much more quickly than it otherwise would.”

Cyrenne says work at the oil patch should start up again by the fall.

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