Sanjel Corp., an oil field services provider based in Calgary, plans to let go of 155 employees in Colorado and about 800 in the U.S.
Some portion of those workers, however, will likely end up employed with Denver-based Liberty Oilfield Services, which is acquiring the company’s U.S. assets.
“We are working mutually with Liberty to place as many people as possible,” said Caleb Barclay, a vice president with Sanjel’s U.S. operations, which are based in Denver.
Sanjel operates hydraulic fracturing equipment and crews, but depressed oil and gas prices have contributed to a steep dropoff in drilling and fracking.
Because the company doesn’t know exactly how many workers Liberty will take on, it filed notices under the Worker Readjustment and Retraining Notification Act (WARN).
The layoff includes 54 employees at the U.S. headquarters at 1630 Welton St. in Denver and another 101 at an operations facility in Fort Lupton at 15549 Colorado 52, according to letters filed May 5 with the Colorado Department of Labor.
Sanjel filed for bankruptcy protection in Canada and its Sanjel USA also did so under Chapter 15 of the U.S. bankruptcy code, the category for foreign firms with operations in the country.
On April 4, Liberty Oilfield Services said it would acquire Sanjel’s U.S. assets, doubling its capacity to fracture wells and giving it access to the Permian and Eagle Ford basins in Texas.
Liberty currently operates in the Williston, Denver-Julesburg and Power River basins, which are located, respectively, in North Dakota, Colorado and Wyoming.
Sanjel USA set up shop in Denver in 2002, and its workforce was much larger at the height of the oil boom, which ended in late 2014.
The number of rigs actively looking for oil and gas in Colorado has fallen from 77 in the fall of 2014 to only 15 currently, according to Baker Hughes.
While Sanjel didn’t operate those rigs, its crews came in after drilling was completed to hydraulically fracture wells.
Aldo Svaldi: 303-954-1410, asvaldi@denverpost.com or @aldosvaldi
