Information on Civeo
Civeo calls itself "Workforce Accommodations and Hospitality Specialists." It is a Texas-based monopoly which owns and operates 20 work camps (or what the company calls lodges) in Alberta -- 17 of which are in the Athabasca oil sands region, as well as camps in Australia and the U.S. Canada is Civeo's major source of revenue. Civeo also runs camps owned by the oil sands monopolies, or mining companies in Australia, where it contracts to provide services. It also sets up temporary camps at major construction sites such as the Coastal GasLink pipeline.
Civeo was originally a Canadian company, formed in the Peace River area in 1977 as PTI Group to rent out mobile offices and dormitories. It later added catering and housekeeping services.
In 2001, PTI Group was acquired by Oil States International, Inc. of Houston.
The Oil States International Inc. (OSII) website states that the corporation "is a global provider of manufactured products and services used in the drilling, completion, subsea, production and infrastructure sectors of the oil and natural gas industry, as well as in the industrial and military sectors. The company's manufactured products include highly engineered capital equipment as well as products consumed in the drilling, well construction and production of oil and natural gas." The company also acquired a significant share of work camps or lodges housing workers at remote oil, gas, pipeline construction and mining sites, both permanent and temporary modular housing.
In 2014, OSII spun off its accommodation business as Civeo, carrying out what it called a "self-directed redomiciling," moving Civeo's headquarters to Calgary in order to take advantage of lower tax rates in Canada. "Redomiciling" is a measure permitted by the U.S. tax code for companies that do most of their business in a foreign jurisdiction.
Since that time, Civeo has aggressively expanded its share of the market for housing workers at remote sites. In 2018 Civeo purchased Noralta Lodge, one of Alberta's major oil sands accommodation companies for $367 million. Noralta had 11 lodges comprised of over 5,700 owned rooms and 7,900 total rooms. Civeo has also expanded its presence in Australia, acquiring Action Industrial Catering in 2019 as well as new contracts to operate a 1,540-room facility for an unnamed oil sands operator in Alberta, as well as new contracts in Australian mining camps.
Civeo now controls about 30 per cent of all work camp facilities measured by rooms, while its competitors together have about one-third, and the rest is owned by the monopolies and cartels operating in the oil and gas and mining sectors.
This article was published in
Number 29 - May 29, 2023
Article Link:
https://cpcml.ca/WF2023/Articles/WO10294.HTM
Website: www.cpcml.ca Email: editor@cpcml.ca