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Dwayne Davison will go down in the history of the Lloydminster Oil and Gas Bonspiel as the only Oilman of the Year who had to wait two years to be formally recognized.
He was nominated for the 2020 Oilman award, but that event was cancelled due to COVID-19.
“It’s a long time coming, but that’s the world we live in,” said Davison.
The Lloydminster resident told the Source two years ago he was thrilled to get a call from Monte Armstrong, co-chair of the Heavy Crude Open Bonspiel Committee just prior to the bonspiel banquet.
“I know a lot of people in the oil patch,” said Davison a few days before the cancellation notification.
“Not everybody gets to have this honour, so you’ve got to take it in stride and understand that it’s a huge recognition and something to be very proud of, and I certainly am.”
With the 53rd annual event finally taking place, Davison could also be a candidate for a most engaged man of the year award for his community volunteerism.
The 61-year-old is probably better known as being president of the Lloydminster & District Fish & Game Association for the past nine years and for his love of fishing and hunting.
He is also a director with the Saskatchewan Wildlife Federation and is the current chair of the board of the Hannin Creek Education Centre.
Davison is also a member of the Alberta Fish & Game Association and sits on its finance committee.
He grew up in Coleville, Sask. and found his happy hunting grounds in Lloydminster in 1979 when he landed his first job working for Husky Oil pumping wells in Tangleflags.
He married his girlfriend, Rhonda, that year too and adapted to his outdoor lifestyle.
“I’m not a big city person. Just the whole area with the recreation that is here, the hunting and the fishing, it’s all around us. That to me was important,” said Davison.
“I moved away for about four years and we had an opportunity to move back and we jumped at it.”
Davison has worked for numerous companies in the area since 1984 as a Lloyd resident.
He has managed almost all aspects of field operational activities from surveying, lease and road construction, well completions, equipment design, well setups and production operations.
Davison lost his last full-time job with Crew Energy in the 2015 downturn, then enrolled in AutoCAD drafting courses at SAIT in semi-retirement.
“I was the oldest in class. I’ve been drawing scale drawings for years and building stuff off it,” he said.
“I just decided the computer looks like it would be more fun and quicker and the accuracy of all that.”
Davison says his son redid his own basement based on the AutoCAD drawing he made for him. Technology is the biggest change Davison has seen during his years in the oil and gas industry, with Lloydminster leading the way.
“It’s been an amazing ride for the area. We’re unique with our heavy oil production in the world. A lot of other places in the world look to Lloydminster for the technology that is developed locally,” said Davison.
Despite a rapidly-changing world, he is not ready for full retirement yet. He has recently taken on some part-time work in the past year, working for Border Surplus Management Inc. along with management contracts in the oil and gas industry.
“I plan on keeping busy, whether it’s through actual payment-style work or volunteerism,” he said.
While knee surgeries have kept him from curling the past few years, he has served on the Lloydminster Oilman’s Bonspiel Committee for several years.
He logged more than 28 years on the Lloydminster Heavy Oil Show Committee, one term as chairman of the Oil show, and many years serving on the Oilfield Technical Society executive, including president.
Anything to do with fish and game, however, is his favourite topic and pastime he shares with his extended family and his four adult kids.
“I’m a regular hunter and fisherman and my grandkids are up at the lake lots with us and we do lots of fishing,” he said.
His work with groups like the Lloydminster & Area Archers Association is also geared towards youth.
“The youth are the future and we certainly believe in that. Getting them out in the great outdoors is something we strive to do.”
