2009 will be a difficult year for almost all companies operating in the Western Canadian Sedimentary Basin (WCSB) but the lower cost structure that will emerge, coupled with enormous shale gas potential and the huge costs to run a much larger oilsands industry, should allow companies to withstand the difficult times, pending the inevitable upswing.

Doug Ramsay never expected things to get this bad for the Canadian oilfield service sector, but then how could an oilman know the pricking of a real estate bubble in the U.S. could cause the worst recession since the 1930s? "I always thought derivatives could be a problem because I didn't understand them," said the president and CEO of Calgary-based Calfrac Well Services Ltd. "I also thought the sub-prime mortgage situation could be a problem. But I certainly didn't think it would affect my business the way it has."