Barlon Engineering was formed in 1982 with the objective of providing oil and gas companies with safe, competent, reliable and cost-conscious drilling, completions, well servicing and abandonment services management and field supervision. In Barlon’s years of business Barlon has managed on behalf of it’s clients operations on thousands of wells and has been amongst the top ten operators in terms of wells managed in Western Canada.
Barlon was formed by Barry Long, a Colorado School of Mines graduate, building a reputation for Barlon as a reliable engineering service company. Barry was joined by Doug Long (no relation) in 1992 and Doug became president when Barry retired in 2005. Under Doug’s stewardship Barlon grew and many young engineers and wellsite supervisors were trained under his tutelage. Internally this was called the ‘Barlon Finishing School’. One of Barlon’s famous marketing brochures espoused “Remember that engineer who never left the office? Ate lunch at their desk, came in early, stayed late, worked on weekends, got the job done? We are that engineer.” While today we strive for appropriate work-life balance we certainly lived that mantra as hard workers in a 24/7 energy industry that never slept.
Four members from Barlon’s past and present have been President of the Canadian Association of Drilling Engineers (CADE) including Doug Long and Phil Johnson. Phil continues to manage Barlon activities today. Barlon has been an AER Directive 67 agent for a number of companies and is closing out two remaining client sites over the next year. In the past Barlon owned and operated a deep cased well near Rocky Mountain House dubbed the ‘Test Tube’ which industry used to run wireline equipment tests or for equipping concentric coiled tubing systems. As use of the Test Tube decreased due to technological advancements, the Test Tube was abandoned and the site reclaimed.
Over the years Barlon has taken an increased role in inactive site management, including remote inspections, suspensions, and well abandonments along facility and pipeline decommissioning. This led to a merger with environmental services company Vertex Resource Group Ltd. in 2017 to gain operational efficiencies and more tools to provide value to clients. Of the Barlon partners, Gabriel Kobel and Phil Johnson, remain with Vertex today while Doug Long retired in 2018.
In 2020, The Barlon Engineering Group Ltd. changed its name to Barlon Asset Management Ltd. to focus on managing assets towards closure for our clients. The engineering team remains a part of the Vertex family operating as Vertex Professional Services Ltd.
For information on engineering services please visit vertex.ca for descriptions on wellbore modelling, geotechnical, drilling, completions, well servicing and abandonments, site decommissioning and regulatory support.