Note: The biennial Saskatchewan Oil and Gas Show in Weyburn recognizes Southeast Saskatchewan Legends at every edition of the event. Six long-time employees of the southeast oil patch will be recognized at this year's event June 3 and 4 in Weyburn.
WEYBURN — Hugh Borgland was born in Stettler, Alta., and spent most of his life living in Calgary, so he considers it a special honour to be selected as a Southeast Saskatchewan Legend.
Even though he doesn’t live in the southeast, Borgland’s professional focus has been in Saskatchewan.
“Southeast Saskatchewan is perfect for smaller companies,” Borgland said in his bio. “When companies are producing 50,000 and 100,000 barrels a day, the reserves are not there in Saskatchewan. But when you're producing 1,000-2,000, the 50,000-barrel reserves per well is very economical. I enjoy the excitement of the drilling and finding oil more than managing people, so staying small is a key to our success.”
Borgland graduated from the University of Calgary in 1967 with a degree in economics. His first job was with Sun Oil in their economics department. As part of Sun’s training program, Borgland was exposed to the land department, and found being a landman was more exciting than crunching numbers. Borgland’s first exposure to southeast Saskatchewan was as a landman with Sun and drilling wells in the Steelman area.
Also in 1967, he married his high school sweetheart Laureen Pickard, who made a career as a psychiatric nurse, specializing in adolescent day treatment and group therapy. They have three children: Craig, Brett and Stephanie.
Borgland then moved on to Anadarko Petroleum as division landman and eventually went on his own in 1973 as a consulting landman to various oil and gas companies. During this period, he started working with two geologists organizing and raising money for three different small drilling funds.
He was approached to convert a mining company to an oil and gas company. This was the formation of Ashlu Exploration in 1978. Ashlu drilled a couple of wells in the Midale area. However, between the bank lending money on a handshake, inflation, high interest rates, the National Energy policy; a little youthful exuberance and the bank wanting their money back, the 1980s were a difficult period.
For Ashlu to survive, Borgland had to dilute from 30 per cent of Ashlu to three per cent with a new board of directors. He eventually left Ashlu and determined that he needed a properly defined business plan on future ventures. Part of the plan was to concentrate on a defined geographic area. The area he chose was southeast Saskatchewan for a variety of reasons.
“When I came up with a new business plan, I said we’ve got to concentrate in one area, and I like southeast Saskatchewan, because number 1, it's light oil, and number 2, it's perfect for small companies, and I don't like to get too big,” said Borgland.
In 1993, he formed Trego Energy Inc., concentrating in the Weyburn area. This company was sold in 1998. Landex Exploration Ltd. was subsequently formed. It was sold to NAL Resources Ltd. in 2003. Landex Petroleum Ltd. was sold to Crescent Point Energy in 2008.
Borgland's older son Craig got his initial oil and gas experience doing field work for Trego, was more involved in Landex Exploration and was president of Landex Petroleum Ltd. His younger son Brett started his oil and gas career working with a geologist at Landex Petroleum. After Landex Petroleum was sold, the Borglands formed Highrock Energy, of which Craig Borgland was president and his father was chairman. At the same time, they also formed a family company called Triland Energy Inc., of which Brett is president and Hugh Borgland is chairman. They have subsequently issued shares to Triland’s staff and are still active today in southeast Saskatchewan.
After Highrock Energy was sold to Legacy Oil Ltd. in 2014, Craig formed Highrock Resources Ltd. and subsequently sold to Whitecap Resources in 2021. After the Whitecap sale, Craig formed Taprock Energy Inc., which is also currently active in southeast Saskatchewan.
During the period of Landex Petroleum, drilling rigs were in very short supply, so they formed Totem Drilling Ltd., of which Hugh Borgland was president. They built the company up to six rigs and eventually sold this company to CanElson Drilling. He served on the board of CanElson Drilling for several years prior to its sale to Trinidad Drilling.
The Borglands have two active exploration companies. Taprock Energy Inc. (1,000 barrels of oil equivalent per day [boepd]) has core areas near Alameda and Souris Flats. Triland Energy Inc. (1,200 boepd) is in the Wordsworth, Arcola and Manor areas. Both are active strictly in southeast Saskatchewan. Hugh Borgland serves on the board of these two companies. Each company has a staff of nine, including field operators.
The two sister companies each have a slightly different business plan, but they both focus on southeast Saskatchewan.
“My degree is in economics and I've taken accounting courses which I consider is very critical in this business,” he said. “Especially after my experience in the ‘80s. I have also had the attitude, and I think Craig and Brett would agree that, as a landman, you shouldn't just concentrate on land. You should understand financial, engineering and geology, not to the point where you're second guessing the experts, but understanding what they're doing. You become an all-around oilman, not just one facet,” he said.
“One thing that we like about southeast Saskatchewan is a lot of oilfield crews grew up on farms in Saskatchewan, so they understand and are more accepting of exploration and production activities.”
Borgland credited his wife Laureen, saying: “We've been married 58 years, and she's gone through a lot of ups and downs over the years in this oil business, and she's still hanging in.”
He also acknowledged Ken Collopy, who's been working with their various companies for over 30 years and is Triland’s operations manager. Collopy’s son James also works for Taprock.
The Borglands' daughter Stephanie is a neuroscientist at the Hotchkiss Brain Institute, which is part of the University of Calgary. She is also vice-president of research at the university and active on the board of Fresh Start Recovery Centre, of which Craig is currently chairman.
“My wife and I are active in philanthropy, making donations to Fresh Start Recovery; All in for Youth and Planet Youth programs with United Way; and the O2 research cancer program at U of C. We were also one of the financial founders of the Glands-Look Lung cancer database, We were honored to receive the Bill Siebens Award of Excellence granted by United Way in 2024,” Hugh Borgland said.
