Quinn Pumps prides itself on its troubleshooting and problem-solving techniques.

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Quinn’s Oilfield Supply says it is the largest Canadian manufacturer of reciprocating rod pumps, but the Red Deer, Alberta-based company distributes its pumps through its 17 stores in Western Canada, and is finding continued success through its U.S. division, Quinn Pumps USA .

President and CEO Doug Quinn says he has unique control over the quality of his products because Quinn Pumps communicates thoroughly with end-users.

“It’s our people in the field talking with the end-users,” he explains. “Whatever issues or problems may come up, if we can’t solve them, we can react quicker in making sure the end-users get what they want.

“I know we have good products, but we try to really separate ourselves with our trouble-shooting and problem-solving services,” Quinn continues. “Every well is unique. It’s about designing the right pump, and making the right decisions at that particular point in time.

“[One has] to be able to make ongoing design changes and [continuously] troubleshoot, and I think that’s what separates us.”

For example, Quinn says, the company may have a customer who has a unique gas problem in his or her wells, or a well with a high-water content.

“A lot of times, maybe we don’t have the current pump that works in that condition,” Quinn explains. “We’ll go back, talk to [our] engineering [department], and come up with a design and get that product quickly to the field.”

The company can provide technical assistance and problem-solving techniques in R&D, product development, well optimization and training.  Its engineering and quality control department is made up of a mechanical engineer, a petroleum engineer and technologist, a materials and corrosion engineering technologist, a design draftsman and four quality control inspectors.  

The company says it became the first pump company to achieve ISO 9002 registration in July 1993. In 1997 the company’s system was upgraded and registered to ISO 9001.

The company’s R&D team focuses on  in-house product development, failure analysis and product improvements. The company has created a variety of new products to pump in diverse well conditions, including:

• Oil/water gravity separation
• Gas/water separation
• Big bore pumps up to 7 3/4 of an inch
• Frac pumps
• Scale pumps
• High-flow pumps
• Multi-phase pumps
  

U.S. Expansion
Quinns Pumps was established in 1965 and expanded into the United States with a Texas manufacturing facility in 1999.    

The company now has 19 sales and service locations in Texas, New Mexico, Mississippi, California and Alabama. Since moving to the United States, its production has almost tripled.

“Right now, in the U.S., at least in our sector, it’s quite active with the price of oil being so high,” Quinn acknowledges.

Client Relations
The company counts major petroleum companies, such as Exxon Mobil, among its customers, as well as a few small, independent well customers. Quinn says his company was built upon serving those small well customers, but relies on them less today. “Our latest big period of growth was when we moved into the U.S. in ’99,” Quinn says.    

“In Canada, we were already in every major market. I had all this excess capacity, which is why I moved into the U.S.”

Quinn says adjusting to the U.S. market was difficult at first. “When I moved down to Texas, it was a huge wake-up call,” Quinn admits. “I was pretty naïve, I guess, [about] how tough [starting in a different country] was.

“It was easy for me before,” Quinn continues. “But now, you’ve got a Canadian company going into the U.S. market. It took awhile for the industry to accept us.”