By Dan Healing:
Fracking technology company Packers Plus Energy Services Inc. said Monday it has won a $7.7-million judgement in a patent infringement lawsuit against rival Canuck Completions Ltd., a decision that could have implications for other similar lawsuits it is pursuing.
The Calgary-based company announced that the Federal Court of Canada ruled in its favour on Dec. 4, finding that Canuck’s IsoFrac multistage hydraulic fracturing system infringed on the patent held for a Packers’ product commonly known to the industry as Open Hole Multistage Ball Drop Fracturing Systems, used in horizontal drilling and completions. The suit was filed in July 2013.
Packers president and chief executive Dan Themig said the decision lays to rest Canuck’s contention — and that adopted by other companies who are also being sued by Packers in Canada and the United States — that its patent isn’t valid because the system was in common use before Packers claimed to have invented it.
“We’ve invested in the research, the development of these methods and apparatus and process that have been widely adapted by the industry, but the intellectual property belongs to Packers Plus,” he said.
“Over a period of years, it’s been probably tens of millions of dollars to develop the technology. We were the pioneers in this field.”
Themig said Packers has grown to employ about 800 people worldwide, with over 100 in each of Canada and the United States where it operates some of the largest drilling technology research centres in the world. It is partnered with global energy services giant Schlumberger, which owns a small equity stake in Packers. He wouldn’t give financial information about the private company.
The court also ordered Canuck to repay Packers $495,000 for costs, dismissed its counterclaim and ordered Canuck and others to stop infringing on the patent, Packers reported. Themig said Canuck has already paid the amount ordered by the court.
He said Packers has a total of 63 “families” of patents and numerous offshoots but the drop ball system is one of the most important. It allows well completions which break up tight underground formations and allow trapped oil and gas to be produced.
“It’s extremely important to us and the industry. If you look at the revolutionary changes in horizontal drilling technology, this is one of only a couple of key technologies that have really impacted the world’s supply of oil and gas.”
Canuck Completions is now a branch of TMK Completions, a woman answering the phone in its home community of Sylvan Lake, 150 kilometres north of Calgary, said Tuesday. According to its website, former Canuck managing director and co-founder Kevin Beck is now country manager for Houston-based TMK. He was not available for comment.
Packers also launched a patent infringement lawsuit against Essential Energy Services Ltd. of Calgary in October 2013 for allegedly violating the same patent.
In a regulatory filing last year, Essential said it had countersued and filed a statement of defence “based on the premise that the methodology and equipment on which the patent is based has been in use in the oil and natural gas industry prior to the patent’s effective filing date of Nov. 19, 2001.” It said a trial date had been set for February 2017.
Ball drop technology involves launching a ceramic ball the size of an orange with fluid into a horizontal well. When the ball reaches the bottom, it activates a port and opens a sleeve. Sand is pumped down at high pressure to fracture the rock. When the fracturing is completed, another ball is launched to fracture the next stage.
The same process is repeated at high speed multiple times, resulting in multi-stage fracking.
calgaryherald.com
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