Compass has been a integral part of my life. I started working here in my twenties, met my wife at Compass and even my teenage son has worked here during the summer.  Despite the unpleasant downturns in our industry I’ve thoroughly enjoyed my time here and wouldn’t trade it for anything.

25 Years Of Gratitude From Gary Long:

Likely the most important thing in looking back on the last 25 years is how fortunate I have been with the people I have worked with; both within the company, our vendors and customers.  A few highlights that come to mind include:

•      After leaving Eastman Christianson in 1991, I assisted a Canadian drilling contractor setting up a directional entity in Iran using Canadian hands.  It was while looking for equipment for this project  that I first met the Tensor folks.  They mentioned the MWD system they were working on.

•       When the Iran project ended w Iran seizing the rigs, I decided I would buy a Tensor MWD which was cost effective and enabled a small company to compete against the majors.  Myself and Multishot out of Lafayette were among the first companies to buy the Tensor product and trained together.  At the time the key people at Tensor included Bod, George, Sue Vaughn who was their engineer & Ken Braud who was the trainer.  One of the Wireline trainees we hired for Iran was Ivan Katic who today has a MWD business using Tensor tools in Canada.

•      While waiting for delivery of tools from Tensor I was approached by a group out of Canada to assist with setting up a directional entity in Estevan Saskatchewan.  This sidetracked us for a time but it was here that we discovered the issues with the dedicated collar & centralizer system.  We workedwith Harold Kreutzer at Wireline Technologies to resolve this issue.  Wireline shared the finding with Tensor and went on to become one of Tensor’s primary suppliers.

•      We had set up Quantum Drilling Systems to do the MWD business in Canada.  Initially the Tensor product was very unreliable due to the flow switch.  After multiple jobs with little success we finally did a job in Manitoba that saved us from having to give up.

•      While in Canada I received a call from Barry Bryant; a former regional manager at Eastman Christiansen, who needed help with a contract he had landed with Texaco in Denver for work in Midland.  We end up acquiring a couple more systems from a Canadian group in which Stan Shaw was involved.  We moved back to the US and establish Compass as our US entity,  The Quantum name was not available in the US.  Peter Finer, who we worked with in Iran, worked with us in the US initially.  It was Peter who discovered the issues with the pulser oil fill process and led to the Tensor tools increased reliability.  At times we ran up to 5 jobs out of the 3 kits we had at the time.

•      After this we ended up on a project in the Eagleford drilling directional wells under Antler lake.  As I recall this entity eventually became today’s Lewis Petroleum.

•      While home on a break between wells in South Texas, I got a call from John Hooks w Phoenix in Calgary who had purchased some Tensor tools and was having issues getting tools to work.  I advised I would be up as soon as I got free from the Eagleford job. 

•      I did go to Canada & trained John’s folks on all I had learned since acquiring the Tensor product line.  One of those trained at Phoenix was Art Poffenroth as I recall.  John & the other folks at Phoenix have become possibly the top one or two companies in Canada & since then have gone international including in the US.

•      We eventually ended up renting a shop in Conroe Just north of the 45/336 junction on the south side of Conroe. It was while in this shop that I received a call from Hsin Huang, who at one time was in Christensen’s R&D center.  While in Singapore with Norton Christensen I had opened up the China Market & the Company had sent him to help me out as China was becoming too big a market and we needed someone full time.  After Baker acquired Norton Christensen he had established a representative company in China,  He had a project for Beiken in Uramuchi China that required a couple of kits.  We had Dora from Dora International assist with the LC. Myself & Vickie; my wife, spent weeks sourcing all of the parts & assembling the kits and just barely made our required ship date.  Vickie & I were celebrating meeting the delivery date when Dora called and asked if we were going to need any help with the LC.  There was absolute panic for a few days while we located the shipment; fortunately still in the US, got the  flight delayed, Dora got the LC processed and our payment on the way.  We survived what could have been a business ending disaster but went on to deliver in excess of 20 kits to China over the next couple of years.  A significant part of my time was spent in China training field hands and techs to run the Tensor MWD system.  This is a story all by itself but during this time there was a love hate relationship with Tensor.  They also were selling into China but could not get their own kits to work.  In many cases the Tensor customers or even Tensor would ask me to solve thier problems.  I do recall Aubrey Holt; who had ended up as a Tensor engineering manager calling Vickie while I was in China trying to find out our pricing and customers.  It was during this time that I met Morgan Zhang who was Tensor’s China representative.  Most recently Morgan & I worked  deal to sell the Terravici entity to JH out of China

•      During this time we had also ended up with all out tools on lease to a new directional company called Perfolat.  This is where I first met Juan Yanez, Carlos & Felix.  After them came IPS which Felix started up after leaving Perfolat.

•      While working out of the Conroe shop we also assisted with the start-up of DDC in Michigan where we worked w Dennis Bealer.  They ended up in Texas w a shop in Conroe where w again we’re involved in the leasing & sales of kits.  Similarly we assisted with the start-up of Pro Directional.  It was during this time that we got into the lease/purchase basis for doing business that proved very successful & likely made us a top Tensor customer.  This basically replaced my mode of retaining my customer base after Tensor replaced thier vacuum based flow switch with the flow switch they have today.