In 1986, Earl Mills began buying, refurbishing and selling used pipe from oil wells to support his beer fund. When the oil industry in Alberta began to take off, “it snowballed on me,” he recalls. “I needed to get in or get out, so I decided to get in.”

In 2002, he founded Taber Pipe , a Taber, Alberta, Canada-based company that provides picker truck, heavy hauling and demolition and salvage services to the oilfield industry in western Canada. “After feeling his way through the market, and based on its growing need for equipment, he founded Taber Oilfield Equipment in 2005,” Partner and Earl’s brother Dorne Mills says. “In 2007, we expanded by incorporating Warthog Tubulars to serve the need for new pipe.”

All three companies are members of Oilfield Anything Inc. Warthog Tubulars provides new and reusable production tubing, casing and sucker rods. Taber Oilfield Equipment provides custom fabrication of new oilfield equipment and refurbishing of used equipment including complete gas plants. “Our sister companies work individually in their specific area of expertise, but one call provides all the resources for any [oil] company,” he says.

The company wants to be fully integrated with its clients’ needs, Mills says. “Most customers need to call one company to get a truck and someone else for the equipment [etc.],” he says. “It’s a real headache. With us, one call does it all. It’s a single number that anyone can call to provide all that work.”

Moving Forward
As the company and the industry grew, senior management tried to handle all the duties, Mills recalls, but around 2005, it began hiring managers and administrative staff. Today it has 43 employees. “We have a corporate structure, but we’re still feeling our way through finding best practices,” he says.

Excellent Service
Taber Oilfield Equipment began to export products overseas to meet the demand in areas such as the Middle East, Russia and Albania. In June, Oilfield Anything Inc. participated in the Global Petroleum Show in Calgary. “We met with international buyers to expand our reach into Latin America and Asia,” says Dan DeBona, operating partner of Taber Oilfield Equipment. “The oil industry is very active and we want to adapt to the demand in the industry. It has a very bright future and a secure future.

“But we want to stay small enough so [customers] can deal directly with the owner,” he says.

“What really differentiates us is our relationships with customers,” Dorne Mills adds. The company
is focused on providing excellent customer service and quality products, he stresses. “The goal is no different if they are next door or across the ocean.”

Distinguishing Factors
Shawn Anderson, operating partner of Warthog Tubulars, says the company's levels of expertise distinguish it from competitors; its partners have a combined 50 years of experience in the industry.

“We have all been working for many years and understand what people in the field want,” he explains.
Its safety program is also one of the best in the industry, DeBona adds. “We make sure everyone goes home the way they came in,” he says. Oilfield Anything has a certified safety coordinator that organizes safety training and helps it learn from near misses in the workplace.

Taber Oilfield Equipment focuses on product enhancement. In December 2006, it introduced a separator package skid with a built-in secondary containment. This product will help separate gas, oil and water from each other so that they can be discarded or diverted to separate storage devices.

“It was embraced by customers,” Dorne Mills says.