chef d’équipe gaz

floorhand

driller

derrick hand

foreur

Ensign Energy Services Inc.

If you are considering a role here, be prepared to navigate a highly fractured and politically charged environment.

Management & Structure: Post-acquisition integration was handled poorly. Leadership avoided making tough structural decisions, leaving parallel management layers in place. This creates constant friction between legacy teams who are effectively forced to work in opposition to one another. Furthermore, upper management regularly and actively undermines line managers, making it very difficult for mid-level supervisors to protect or support their teams.

Project Execution: There is a complete lack of executive agility and direction. Simple software evaluations and process improvements can stall for the better part of a year waiting for executive sign-off, only for leadership to move the goalposts once a decision point is finally reached. A project that should take months can easily stretch into a multi-year bottleneck due to shifting requirements.

Workplace Culture: The environment can be incredibly draining and disrespectful depending on which teams you are forced to interface with. There is a distinct "good old boys" club dynamic at the executive level, resulting in a high tolerance for unprofessional behavior from certain out-of-town management figures and a general lack of respect for the personnel executing the actual work.

I was brought on quickly during a period when the company needed immediate help. It became clear I was temporarily filling in for someone who had recently left. The rig I was assigned to was quite outdated, and despite being told certain equipment (like an Iron Roughneck) would be available, that wasn’t the case.

Accommodations were on-site in what they call a "Texas camp," where you're responsible for your own meals. The living conditions were below average—cleanliness and basic amenities could be improved. Additionally, the company no longer offers fly-in-fly-out; you have to drive yourself to whichever rig you're assigned to, which can be inconvenient.

The drilling environment was extremely fast-paced with very little downtime, making it physically demanding. This setup might be suitable for younger workers or those in top physical condition. My personal experience with site leadership was not positive, and the overall culture left much to be desired.

That said, the pay was decent for the short time I was there, but I ultimately decided to leave after one hitch. If you're in a tough spot and need quick money, this might work for you temporarily, but I wouldn't recommend it for a long-term career move.

Company has changed quite a bit in the past year. Not sure how things will fit in the coming couple years. 

But in the past good company to work for overall. Like any oilfield job there's the usual good and bad. They work reasonably well with your schedule and any emergencies can often get you out without too much delay. Good equipment to work with and often kept in good repair so not too much grief while on lease. Turnover means often working with new people but those who stick around are mostly good workers who know their stuff, and the bad eggs get chucked in due time. A good amount of camp work is a huge bonus, and the camps are usually pretty nice. Frequent opportunity to advance if you're showing a willingness to learn, improve, and work well as a team with crews/consultants/management. Running your own truck is encouraged over using company truck, so extra pay with good kilometers traveled. And you don't need to CVIP as a shop hand will often use company truck to tow.

Since the acqisition of Trinidad the place has been a Scheer mess. 
Trinidad employees are bitter and a pain to work with, always comparing what they had before to what Ensign offers. Ensign salaries are way less and benifits way worse. At least they have a job. 
Managment is a mess with obvious conflicts at the top and implementation of new systems are a constant failure causing a lot of greef and good people walking out the door. It used to be a great place to work, with people friendly and collaborative. Now its all competitive in a bad way. 
Given Alberta's economy, the only people working there now are Ensign people who have no other options or Trinidaders who were grandafthered with big paycheques that they won't get anywhere else. The guys and gals in Calgary HQ are making loads of monies, but people are being laid off, which shows the selfish culture trickelling down and leaving scraps for front end workers. Its a shayme to see where Ensign has landed.

High pay but work goes with it. Work 10 days (night shift 7pm-7am), 10 days (day shift 7am-7pm) 10 days off. You have no official lunch break so when the food arrives at the middle of your 12 hour shift you eat quickly 10mins +- then back to work. You survive your day by eating snacks like cookies throughout the day. You need to have minimum of physical strength for this job and of course pass the physical lifting at least 100lb. You also need to have thick skins as they might pick on you as the greenhorn there but all in all you are a team & if you take it seriously they will have your back when 💩 physical hits the fan. It can be life & death so you must make sure to pay attention for everyone’s safety.

Typical day consisted of 12 hr shifts days/nights. Show up well rested and ready for anything because anything can happen in the oilfield. No set lunch/coffee breaks, eat on the go or have a break when there were periods of down time, which was usually more then enough time. Learned respect, responsibility, discipline, hard work and to take pride in every part of the job. The majority of people out there are pretty reasonable to work with, obviously there are some difficult people. no human beings are the exact same. Hardest part of the job, working summer days in the heat, and coldest days in the winter but it is easy to be prepared for any situation. Most enjoyable part of the day was the end of the day :)

A typical day involved starting the day off with doghouse safety meetings, filling out JSA's, keeping the rig well maintained and clean, tripping pipe, running a loader repairing broken down equipment and other various tasks. I acquired a lot of mechanical skills anywhere from running a rig and maintaining it to working long hard hours with little for breaks. Management was really good they took care of us and safety was their number 1 priority as well as job completion. My co-workers were great we always made sure we were having fun while working. The hardest part of the job was not getting enough work and the work can be back breaking at times. The most enjoyable part of the job was getting to work with some great people.

If you want to make great money without any care of workplace environment or conditions this work is for you. Until you are promoted to a driller you are basically treated like garbage in the field. Not only by your own crew but by CNRL employees as well. It is hard to keep spirits high with long work days and no respect as a human. The motto seems to be work fast, don't ask questions and learn fast. If that doesn't bother you, great! You will be making $100,000 per year 3 months after hired. Enjoy the 15 hour long work days that stretch anywhere from 12-21 days straight before getting a day to rest.

My days were very long I was on call 24 hours a day A typical days work would getting up at 4:45 A.M. have a coffee make out my report from the day before on the computer send it to my boss than I would talk to him then I would go out to the rig floor and have a safety meeting with both crews (crew change) than discuss work to be done then walk around rig and check things out make sure every thing is going good then we would have another safety meeting @ 6:30 P.M. with both crews one crew change you learn something every day Worked with very good people and management The hardest part of my job was leaving the rig to go on days of I loved my job and working with people always met new people

Ensign was a great place to work. I was able to move up within the company and I had wonderful mentors within the company who were willing to teach me new jobs within the company. It was a fast paced environment and I learned to multi task and organize my work as per level of importance. I worked in the HR department and was a coordinator for finding employees to work on the rigs. It was a department that demanded excellent team work.The hardest part of the job was not being able to put our hands to work when there was no work, and the best part of the job was being able to send out our employees for work.

Top Job Titles	Average salary
Chef d’équipe gaz 5 salaries reported	$35.80 per hour
Floorhand 8 salaries reported	$29.20 per hour
Driller 8 salaries reported	$38.40 per hour
Derrick hand 7 salaries reported	$33.80 per hour
Foreur 2 salaries reported	$50.00 per hour

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