Engineering | Project Management
about frontier
Integrated. Integral.
Frontier People
Our highly trained and experienced personnel focus on providing clients with superior, value-added performance. Part of our commitment to quality includes expecting the same high standards of performance from all contractor's staff as from our own personnel – because our clients deserve no less.
Engineering Team:
Kenneth Shewan, President and CEO
Frontier Engineering was established in 1977 and Ken joined the company in 1992, becoming its President since 1996. Ken is an experienced general petroleum engineer with a strong background in production, completion and reservoir engineering as well as field operations management. Ken has worked extensively in Western Canada from sour light oil operations in SE Saskatchewan, medium gravity crude operations in SW Saskatchewan and Southern Alberta, sour crude and liquids-rich sour gas operations in western and northern Alberta, to gas operations in NE British Columbia. Ken has worked in a number of high profile production areas and is very knowledgeable about the public consultation process in public-opinion sensitive areas. In addition, Ken has experience with public company corporate compliance. Acting as CEO of Frontier, Ken manages and coordinates activities of up to 16 engineering staff and up to 30 field staff.
He owns a Bachelor of Science with Honours, Geological Sciences, Faculty of Applied Science, Queens University, 1974. Ken was a Director of the Small Explorers and Producers of Association of Canada (“SEPAC”) for over 10 years. He also is a registered professional engineer with APEGGA in Alberta.
William Hugh (Bill) Garman, Drilling and Completions Senior Manager
Bill Garman is an Engineer with more than three decades of experience in the oil and natural gas industry, specializing in well construction and well intervention matters. Prior to joining Frontier Engineering, Bill had held positions of increasing responsibility with Chevron Canada Resources including Drilling Manager and Business Unit Manager. Bill also worked as Drilling Superintendent in the Gulf of Mexico for Chevron U.S.A. Additionally, he also served as Vice President and General Manager of Schlumberger IPM Services Division of Schlumberger Canada Ltd., where he was accountable for technical and financial results under the Integrated Well Services contract at the Hibernia Project offshore Newfoundland.
Bill obtained a Mining Engineering degree from the University of Saskatchewan in 1969 and a Certificate in Management Development from the University of Calgary in 1990. He is a registered professional engineer in Alberta, British Columbia and Saskatchewan provinces.
John Bherer, Production and Completions Manager
A very experienced production and completion engineer with a strong background in petroleum engineering and field operations management. John’s initial training was obtained at Shell Canada where he worked as Senior Petroleum Engineer and then with Atlantic Richfield/Petro-Canada, where he managed the company’s Research and Development, Engineering and Field Operations in the in-situ area of Alberta’s oil sands.
Since joining Frontier, John has worked in all areas of Western Canada’s conventional oil and gas business, from sour oil and gas production in NE British Columbia and SE Saskatchewan to conventional sweet oil and gas operation in Central Alberta. At Frontier, John provides completion and workover, production engineering and construction management services to various clients in Western Canada and the U.S.A.
Mr. Bherer obtained a Bachelor of Applied Science in Mining Engineering from Queen’s University in 1962 and a Diploma from the Banff School of Advanced Management in 1979. He is a registered professional engineer with APEGGA.
Henry (Hank) Paranych, Field Services Manager
Hanks started in the oil patch in 1971 working as a lease hand on the drilling rigs, building his way to a drilling position on Diesel Electric Triples in the Foothills of Alberta and British Columbia's Alaska Highway corridor. He gained a lot of experience through the years in many specialized areas of the industry, such as air drilling, underbalanced multi-lateral wells, critical sour high pressure wells, coil tubing research and development, barefoot completions and snubbing pipe. Hank puts special attention to timelines, budgets and drilling curves, prioritizing Health and Safety as foundation for improvements in the industry practices.
Hank has also coordinated drilling operations for several simultaneous rigs on a large Core Hole and Stratigraphy Well project in the Fort McMurray Tar Sands. He has good experience in lease and access construction and he has obtained international experience while working in the Texas Panhandle, Gulf of Mexico, Sudan and Yemen.
James E. (Jim) Hawthorne, VP Special Projects
James Hawthorne is a very experienced businessman with a strong background in construction and project management. Jim has been directly involved in negotiating, initiating, developing and completing industrial and commercial projects across Canada and some areas of the USA. Jim operated his own consulting, construction and real estate development company for over 20 years. During that period he developed HSE programs that he is now applying in the oil and gas industry through Frontier. He also works as project manager for projects requiring Frontier’s services as prime contractor and negotiates and manages projects expanding the business scope of Frontier.
Jim is a Civil Engineering Technologist, graduated in 1965 at the Northern Alberta Institute of Technology.