The Lloydminster Heavy Oil Show will be expanding its popular fireside chats, among other big offerings, when it returns this September.
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Roger Deeks, president of the Lloydminster Oilfield Technical Society, presented to the Rotary Club of Lloydminster on June 8 about all things heavy oil.
“This will be my seventh show coming up,” he said.
The event returns Sept. 16 and 17 with exhibitors, chats and the bi-provincial premiers returning to the Border City.
“We have the premiers showing up again,” Deeks confirmed, explaining they’ll be here Wednesday for a luncheon. “Two years ago, they had a joint cabinet meeting, looks like they’re going to have another joint cabinet meeting.”
Deeks said they have 166 unique exhibitors and the event is about 75 per cent sold out.
“We’re over where we were two years ago, (we have) more exhibitors already,” he said.
He teased some updates coming from local producers, including the expansion of the fireside chats from Tuesday to also include Thursday.
“We’re going to do another set of fireside chats on Thursday,” said Deeks. “They want to go on and lay out several plans for the Lloydminster area in the short- and medium-term future.
“If you’re invested in the oilfield or your family is, there’s going to be lots of good updates in the short-term medium-term future for the Lloydminster heavy oil industry.”
He spoke to the popularity of their fireside chats.
“Nobody can touch our content,” he said. “We started a fireside chat for our opening ceremonies and it’s been tremendously popular the last couple of years.”
The opening ceremonies will take place Tuesday night, with the show officially kicking off Wednesday.
“Usually, the first day is always really popular. Everyone’s got to look forward to seeing it,” said Deeks. “Now, we’ve got activity lined up on both days, so you can pretty much pick whatever works best for your schedule.”
He also pointed to strong backing from industry producers for the event, held every two years.
When it comes to what people can expect, Deeks said there’s always something new at the oil show.
“There’s always new things. The big theme two years ago was carbon capture,” he said. “There’s always cutting-edge technologies. It’s a good place to see and meet and set up future relationships.”
Deeks said the Lloydminster Oilfield Technical Society has 80 to 90 members, with 50 to 60 of them considered active.
“We talk shop a little bit and we’ll have the odd guest speaker. It’s just a good way to network,” he said.
The heavy oil show runs Sept. 16-17 at the Lloydminster Exhibition, with the full event schedule online at lhos.ca.
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