麻豆传媒

Many hundreds of people stopped by to see the booth displaying information about the City of Weyburn and the Saskatchewan Oil and Gas Show at the recent Global Petroleum Show in Calgary, one of the largest of its kind in the world with around 2,000 exhibitors.

Mayor Debra Button represented the city, while Ron Jeffery, Tanya Hulbert and Sandy Alexander represented the Weyburn Oil Show board, and the four were kept busy throughout the show.

Overall I would say there was a large show of interest, as our booth was visited a lot. Typically there were always at least three of us always in the booth, and they were inquiring about the show and about the city, said Mayor Button.

Fielding inquiries from oil companies about the city, she noted many of them were asking about office space, and some about the availability of industrial land.

The mayor is hopeful the city will gain some business out of this show, but added, Even if nothing comes of it but weve put the city and the show forward, it was well worth it.

She said she spent most of her time at the booth as there was so much traffic coming by and many people asking inquiries, so she didnt get to see much of the petroleum show itself. I was jazzed; its hard not to be, said the mayor.

Asked if she thought the attendance at the huge Calgary show was worth the effort, she said absolutely it was worth it. Our show has got its own following, and just by coming to the show we keep that following.

Ron Jeffery of the Weyburn Oil Show board agreed there was a high degree of interest at the Calgary show.

We had all kinds of traffic, with inquiry after inquiry about how to get into our show. We had a lot of good PR about our show, he said.

Jeffery said much of the interest were from companies that have been in the oil show before, but know about Weyburn as its close to both the CO2 injection projects and the Bakken formation. They all want a piece of the action, he said.

The Weyburn delegation has had the same prime location at the Calgary show for the last five shows, and that has helped bring a lot of interest to the city and the Weyburn Oil Show as a result.

Its good for Weyburn and its good for the oil show. We wouldve had a sold-out show whether we were there or not, he said, adding being at the show exposes them to many companies that have not been here before.

He noted China had its own pavilion at the show with 30 booths, and they asked about setting up at the Weyburn show. It would be too large to be accommodated at the Weyburn show, he said, adding, It was kind of interesting they would even consider coming to our show. Were high profile when it comes to the oil industry in Canada.