Oil downturn brings increase in thefts

CALGARY — Oilfield security firms say they’ve been dealing with more troublemakers in recent months with the crude price cratering and bringing drilling activity and jobs down with it.

Thieves have been nabbing diesel, generators and other odds and ends that aren’t bolted down from oilfield sites, said Joden Dorner, security operations manager at Prospector Energy Services Inc. in Bezanson, Alta., in the province’s northwest.

He’s also seen kicked-in doors and broken windows.

“There has been a little bit of equipment theft, but mostly things under $10,000,” said Dorner, whose firm provides onsite guards and surveillance. “It’s all minor theft and vandalism as of now.”

But he said those sorts of calls have been increasing “steadily” since spring. Year-over-year, he estimates those instances are up by about a quarter. “If this keeps on going at this rate, I would think it would double by next spring.”

The oilpatch has been struggling through a pro- longed downturn in crude prices since late last year, with the U.S. benchmark hovering at US$45 a barrel. This time last year, it was worth more than twice as much.

At least 35,000 jobs have been lost in Alberta’s oil and gas sector this year.

Danish Tahir, an operations manager with Security Services Group, said his firm has been dealing with copper wire theft at construction and oilfield sites. “The economy is a factor,” said Tahir, whose company controls access to sites and screens employees at various locations throughout Alberta. “Sometimes it is internal. People get laid off. They get mad.”

Damian Radcliffe, CEO of Sherwood Park, Alta.based Titanium Defence Corp., said he’s also seen more reports of theft, vandalism and even violence as economic conditions in the oilpatch deteriorate and ex-employees feel they have “less to lose.”

“When you have large numbers of people getting laid off, they’ll often think they’re entitled to things, taking home certain items they think belong to them.”