Yes drilling is slow as fuck right now, which is why Atlantic is down in Colombia and not in Alberta, but the Alberta oil patch isn't limited to drilling, as anyone who has read my oil sands thread knows. A large portion of the oil sands operations have nothing to do with drilling, they are mines in which the oil sands are scooped out of the ground by huge excavators and processed in a similar fashion to other large mining operations around the world. So to answer your question, yes, there still are mining and down stream opportunities in Alberta, which is why I'm not with Atlantic in Colombia, its busy as fuck here in Alberta right now (non drilling), here's some mining companies and operations in Northern Alberta:
Suncor: Base plant (oldest mine ops in the oil sands), also the Fort Hills project, the largest new construction project going on in the oil sands, around 3000 guys there now building it.
Syncrude: Main plant site
Shell: Albian Sands and Jack Pine Mine
CNRL: Horizon
Exxon/Imperial Oil: Kearl Lake
I've worked at all of these sites and they're big, dirty open pit mines full of bitumen, Google them and their contractors and see what happens, here's some mining services companies off the top of my head: SMS Equipment, Thyssen Krupp, KMC Mining, P&H Mining, etc.
Guys don't forget, despite the low oil prices, the amount of oil being sent down the pipelines has not decreased and is expected to increase by 3.5% this year, so yes, the exploration side is slow but production, maintenance, mid-stream/down-stream are still going strong.
Suncor: Base plant (oldest mine ops in the oil sands), also the Fort Hills project, the largest new construction project going on in the oil sands, around 3000 guys there now building it.
Syncrude: Main plant site
Shell: Albian Sands and Jack Pine Mine
CNRL: Horizon
Exxon/Imperial Oil: Kearl Lake
I've worked at all of these sites and they're big, dirty open pit mines full of bitumen, Google them and their contractors and see what happens, here's some mining services companies off the top of my head: SMS Equipment, Thyssen Krupp, KMC Mining, P&H Mining, etc.
Guys don't forget, despite the low oil prices, the amount of oil being sent down the pipelines has not decreased and is expected to increase by 3.5% this year, so yes, the exploration side is slow but production, maintenance, mid-stream/down-stream are still going strong.