Fortis Energy Services has been named Oilfield Services Company of the Year by the Oil & Gas Awards in recognition of the company’s health, safety and environmental programs, operational excellence, innovation and corporate social responsibility. Fortis is a privately held oilservice company with operations in the Williston basin and the Appalachian basin.
Edward Shelton, V.P. Business Development, and Nathan Conway, CEO, Fortis Energy Services accept Oilfield Services Company of the Year award.
The Oil & Gas Awards annually recognize outstanding achievements made within the upstream and midstream sectors of the North American oil and gas industry. Fortis received the award at an event in Denver. The Oilfield Service Company of the Year award recognizes companies providing multiple services to regional operators.
Fortis Energy Services scored highest in the category. “Fortis’s high degree of customer satisfaction and education are more than admirable. Their veteran and employment initiative is second to none and speaks for itself. Not only do they honor and respect our returning veterans but open avenues of education and training to those who have unselfishly served our country,” panelists commented.
“This is a tremendous honor to be acknowledged by our industry as the Oilfield Services Company of the Year,” said Fortis CEO Nathan Conway. This distinction underscores our strong commitment to deliver a culture of excellence and safety.”
Hiring Veterans to Work on the Rigs
Oil & Gas Awards panelists cited Fortis for proper training of its personnel, a very strong commitment to safety, excellent rig maintenance and the company’s program to hire and train Veterans. Fortis’s Fortis 4 Vets program stood the company out from the group, the panel said.
Oil & Gas 360® spoke to Nathan Conway about the company’s veterans hiring initiative.
OAG360: How did you get Fortis’s veterans initiative started; how did that come about?
NATHAN CONWAY: The Fortis 4 Veterans program is something we established in house as a hiring initiative to help veterans and reservists. We had learned that there are hundreds of thousands of soldiers coming back from combat zones. Many are displaced and they’re not able to find work. We have found that the returning veterans make great employees for us. They are very well trained. They already understand our need to be critically focused on safety and drug and alcohol testing. They’re in great shape physically, which you need to be in because of the physical nature of working on rigs. They are very respectful of the supervisors and have a great, great work ethic. We partner with the Department of Defense on their ESGR program—Employer Support of the Guard and Reserve—and about 10% of our workforce today is made up of veterans. This program combined with Lean Six Sigma methodologies has enhanced the ROI we deliver to our customers, which drove our steep growth curve.
OAG360: Could you talk about the Lean Six Sigma methodologies that you have employed at Fortis?
NATHAN CONWAY: People are aware that Lean Six Sigma was used primarily by the automotive industry, particularly by Toyota. But it’s just a mindset. We apply that same Lean methodology at our well sites. Our Design Solutions program came from the Six Sigma approach, and what we do is identify inefficiencies at the well sites of our customers and we work together to make improvements, make changes that will eliminate mistakes. So in addition to safety, we are asking our teams, “What can we do to conduct our operations and not let inefficiencies get in the way of what we are trying to accomplish?” This mindset results in constant improvement and better efficiency at every well site, which allows us to do more work and better work for our customers.
A video interview with Nathan Conway may be viewed here.
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