CALGARY,
AB, June 20, 2022 /CNW/ - Cathedral Energy
Services Ltd. (TSX: CET) ("Cathedral" or the "Company") today
announced the acquisition of 90.98% of LEXA Drilling Technologies
Inc. ("LEXA"), a Calgary-based,
downhole technology company for equity consideration in Cathedral,
(the "Transaction"). As part of the Transaction, Mr. Axel Schmidt will join Cathedral as Senior Vice
President, Engineering and Technology while Mr. Chad Robinson will join as Vice President,
Corporate Development. LEXA also brings an experienced engineering
and development team.
"The principals of LEXA have deep experience in building sizable
directional drilling companies as well as highly-innovative and
reliable tools to differentiate those services" said Tom Connors, Cathedral's President and CEO.
"Axel and Chad were instrumental in building Pacesetter Directional
Drilling (now owned by Schlumberger) into a formidable Canadian
competitor. Axel has a strong tool development history, especially
in creating highly-reliable MWD (measurement-while-drilling) and
RSS (rotary steerable) technology for the Canadian marketplace and
his experience and insight will be invaluable as we build out our
differentiated technology platform into the future. Going forward,
we are excited at the opportunity for Axel to enhance our MWD
offering and ensure it remains among the top performing and most
reliable products in the industry."
LEXA is focused on the development and commercialization of high
data rate positive pulse MWD technology. They are also focused on
developing technology that enhances and enables drilling automation
through remote downhole directional equipment. The addition of
high-performance pulse technology to Cathedral's industry leading
electromagnetic technology will further strengthen the performance
of Cathedral's existing MWD platform. Mr. Connors added, "When it
comes to MWD technology, the US market is primarily a pulse market
and in the long run this addition of personnel and technology will
strengthen our offering and help us further penetrate the market.
As the market continues to evolve and portions of it demand MWD
tools that require less direct human interaction, we believe this
team will help accelerate Cathedral's plans to be a leader in this
space, further enabling drilling automation."
Axel is well-known in the directional drilling industry and
brings a wealth of technical experience focused on the development,
manufacturing, and operation of directional drilling tools. Over
the past 22 years, Axel has built a career developing
highly-competitive MWD platforms. At the start of his career with
Newsco, he developed and patented a revolutionary mud pulser for
MWD tools and went from there to develop and commercialize a
complete MWD platform, which was sold to Sondex in 2006. In 2007
Axel became owner and Vice President of Technology at Pacesetter
Directional Drilling where he assembled a team that developed a
proprietary MWD tool. Axel left Schlumberger/Pacesetter
in 2020 after the buyout was complete and founded Lexa Drilling
Technologies.
The addition of Chad will be a considerable boost to Cathedral's
business development efforts. Although he has over 24 years of
energy financial experience, Chad's role in helping to build
Pacesetter Directional Drilling is particularly noteworthy. From
2006 to 2015, Mr. Robinson was an owner and CFO before the company
sold to Schlumberger as Canada's
largest privately-owned, directional drilling company. After
Pacesetter, Chad was founder and President of Resource Equity
Partners, an oilfield boutique capital firm. He moved from there to
take the role of Calgary Operating and Managing Partner for SCF
Partners - a leading North American energy service private equity
firm. Most recently, he was also co-founder of Lexa Drilling
Technologies with Axel.
Cathedral would also like to thank Bogdan Picioreanu for his
years of services with Cathedral as VP, Technology. The
appointment of Axel to the Cathedral team will enable Bogdan to
proceed with his planned retirement date for the end of June,
2022.
In exchange for 90.98% of the shares of LEXA, its technology and
products in development, Cathedral will issue 1,612,891 Cathedral
common shares, (the 'Acquisition Shares") which will be subject to
a four-month hold period. A director of Cathedral, Mr. Rod Maxwell, owns the remaining shares equating
to 9.02% of LEXA, which were not purchased as part of the
Transaction. Cathedral intends to purchase the remaining
shares prior to year-end from Mr. Maxwell on the same terms and
conditions. Mr. Maxwell abstained from voting on the Transaction in
accordance with Cathedral's corporate governance
policies.
ABOUT CATHEDRAL
Cathedral Energy Services Ltd., based in Calgary, Alberta is incorporated under the
Business Corporations Act (Alberta) and operates in the U.S. under
Cathedral Energy Services Inc. Cathedral is publicly-traded on the
Toronto Stock Exchange under the symbol "CET". Cathedral is a
trusted partner to North American energy companies requiring high
performance directional drilling services. We work in partnership
with our customers to tailor our equipment and expertise to meet
their specific geographical and technical needs. Our experience,
technologies and responsive personnel enable our customers to
achieve higher efficiencies and lower project costs. For more
information, visit www.cathedralenergyservices.com
FORWARD-LOOKING
INFORMATION
This press release contains statements and information that may
constitute "forward-looking information" within the meaning of
applicable securities legislation, including statements identified
by the use of words such as "will", "expects", "positions",
"believe", "potential" and similar words, including negatives
thereof, or other similar expressions concerning matters that are
not historical facts. Forward- looking information in this news
release includes, but is not limited to, statements regarding
Cathedral's business plans to continue its technology platform
build-out, including expansion of its MWD tool offering; and
successful integration of LEXA's business into Cathedral. Such
forward- looking information is based on various assumptions that
may prove to be incorrect, including, but not limited to,
assumptions with respect to: the benefits from the Transaction; the
integration of the LEXA business and personnel into Cathedral's
business; expectations regarding the evolution of the US market for
directional drilling and Cathedral's ability to service such
market; conditions in the oil and gas market; the ability of the
Company to successfully implement its business plans and
initiatives and whether such business plans and initiatives will
yield the expected benefits. Although the Company believes that
such assumptions are reasonable, the Company can give no assurance
that such forward-looking statements will prove to be correct or
that any of the events anticipated by such forward-looking
statements will occur, or if any of them do so, what benefits the
Company will derive there from. Actual results could differ
materially due to a number of factors and risks including, but not
limited to: the risk that Cathedral will not be able to integrate
the LEXA business as anticipated or at all; the risk that the LEXA
business will not result in the business growth for Cathedral
expected by Cathedral; and economic conditions in the oil and gas
industry and debt and equity financial markets in Canada and the
United States generally. Additional information regarding
risks and uncertainties of the Company's business are contained
under the heading "Risk Factors" in the Company's annual
information form for the financial year ended December 31, 2021 and the Company's other public
filings which are available under the Company's profile on SEDAR at
www.sedar.com. The forward-looking information included in this
news release is made as of the date of this news release and the
Company does not undertake an obligation to publicly update such
forward-looking information to reflect new information, future
events or otherwise, except as required by applicable law.
SOURCE Cathedral Energy Services Ltd.