James has over 20 years of experience in the oil & gas industry starting from a Roughneck working his way up through to Derrick hand prior to attending University. James has a degree in Petroleum Engineering from the University of Regina. After University James worked for NOV Downhole as an evaluation engineer. Focused on drill bit and downhole tool performance. James then moved into a wellsite supervision position at Encana. Focused primarily in the Montney. Working on large pads with multiple wells and concurrent operations. Dealing with constant anti-collision issues. Working at a large company the focus on safety during operations was primary. The area of operations also presented a lot of difficulties while dealing with the public and other area stakeholders. After several years in the field James transitioned to the Office as a Senior Drilling Engineer with Encana. While still focused heavily on Montney operations, he was also in charge of planning other wells in the deep basin. He has extensive experience with MPD and HTHP wells. He was also instrumental in the transition at Encana from OBM drilling fluids to brine systems. James then moved to a role with New Discovery Directional Services. My role there was to help smaller clients bring a higher level of project planning to their drilling programs. During his time at NDD he was able to gain a great deal of insight into the technical aspects of directional drilling and the downhole tools utilized. James also played a significant role in well planning and torque and drag analysis.