Waiting for the Great Leap Forward

And so the day has come! I can scarce wrap my head around it. This morning as I drove to Whyalla, my phone rang. It was someone from within the company who has been in a similar position to that I’ve been in with regard to the potential move to Canada. Though he’s only been in the loop for a month, not for the 15 months that we’ve been enduring it.

He called to tell me that there had been an announcement on the stock exchange and that we’d been named preferred tenderers for the work in Canada!

Holy crap. Of course, if there’s one place you don’t’ want to be when such news is flying about, its in a car without access to the internet or any of your email. I had to wait until after lunch time to finally be able to get my hands on the information that I was so desperately craving.

Here’s a little extract:

“…has today been selected as the preferred tenderer for an asset management services deal worth more than $1 billion Canadian dollars over five years with leading Canadian oil and gas producer …

…Taking our hydrocarbons industry expertise to the burgeoning North American market is significant to our international growth strategy and this opportunity with Suncor underpins our ability to compete at the highest level in the international asset management arena.

…a team of more than 1000 people across Suncor’s major production facilities at Fort McMurray, Firebag and Sarnia in Canada.

…I know that everyone will continue to support the team in Calgary as they continue to work through the tendering process and deliver a seamless transition.”

And when I was finally able to access my emails, I saw this:

Dave,

Now I can email back clearly. You would have seen the announcement by now so we can start to talk in more detail.

1. – Yes!
2. The time frame is 3rd quarter and Joseph has apparently had this discussion with you in relation to Santos etc. If everything does come good by the end of month of Feb when we hope to sign the contract, then we are talking full Sarnia operations.

Give me a call when you get this to talk.

The fact that the time I got this was 10pm in Canada did nothing for me because it means I am in no position to find out more information until tomorrow. I sense a very restless night’s sleep ahead.

What does it all mean? It means that we’re waiting for the great leap forward. It means that assuming the contract negotiations are completed (and they usually are) we could well be moving to Canada before the end of the year. But that is all tied up in the information that I don’t yet have.

Watch this space.