The Calgary maker of Matex drilling fluids is under new ownership from one of its minority owners and its biggest supplier of crude canola oil.
Winnipeg grain firm Richardson International announced last Tuesday it has bought full ownership of Control Chemical Corp. for an undisclosed amount.
Control Chemical is billed as a specialized manufacturer of environmentally safe drilling fluids and proprietary vegetable oil-based lubricants, used in mining and resource extraction processes such as diamond drilling, horizontal directional drilling and rotary and percussive drilling.
The company’s Matex products include downhole lubricants, specialty polymers, foams, tool lubricants, blast hole stabilizers, thread compounds and non-alcohol freeze control fluids.
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Given their capacity to withstand high temperatures, canola oil-based lubricants are “recognized for extending tool lifespan, optimizing production processes, and improving drilling core recovery and pathway stabilization,” Richardson said.
“This partnership will be beneficial to both companies, as historically speaking, Richardson is our largest supplier of crude canola oil,” John MacPhail, Control Chemical’s retiring principal, said in Richardson’s release.
“With petroleum oil prices increasing, we are in a unique position to reach new and more expansive markets for environmentally safe downhole, torque-reducing lubricants.”
For Richardson, which has been a minority shareholder in the company and supplied it with raw ingredients for “over 30” years, the deal marks “a unique opportunity to diversify our business and expand into innovative products derived from the core commodities we handle,” Darrell Sobkow, Richardson’s senior vice-president for processing, food and ingredients said in the same release.
Richardson’s oilseed crush plant at Lethbridge, Alta. will keep on supplying crude canola oil stock for Control Chemical products, which it makes at a 50,000-square foot plant in southeast Calgary and sells worldwide. — Glacier FarmMedia Network
