Oil and gas tech company acquired for US $42.7M

A Saskatoon company that designs and builds oil and gas well site technology has been acquired by an American FRAC sand producer for up to US$42.75 million.

Erin Herman, who together with his father, Alvin, founded Quickthree Solutions Inc., said he was pleased with Texas-based Smart Sand Inc.’s offer for their company.

“It’s the kind of culmination of years of hard work,” Herman said in an interview last week, the day after Smart Sand confirmed its plan to buy the eight-year-old company.

“It’s nice to see that the technology and the employees have got a lot better opportunities with the backing of a much bigger company — it’s a good story,” Herman said.

Quickthree employs about 30 people at its production facility in Saskatoon, where it builds portable FRAC sand storage vessels as well as silos for other products.

Herman said the company’s products reduce well-site footprints and increase efficiency, and are in use in most major oil and gas fields across Canada and the U.S.

“It’s a cleaner, more efficient technology than what we were replacing.”

Smart Sand said in a news release that it will acquire the smaller firm’s facility and intellectual property, and that it plans to retain all of Quickthree’s employees.

“We see multiple opportunities for us to develop this line of business,” Smart Sand CEO Charles Young said in a statement announcing the acquisition.

Herman, meanwhile, said the deal will likely allow the company to further increase production in Saskatoon, and that he’s pleased Quickthree’s employees will remain with the company.