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Multinational company scouts area

A multinational consulting company is considering Central Alberta as a possible location for its Canadian headquarters.

A multinational consulting company is considering Central Alberta as a possible location for its Canadian headquarters.

Officials with Upstream Downstream Specialized Services Inc. (UDSS) visited the region on Wednesday.

They met with municipal and economic development officials, as well as representatives of Red Deer College, spending time at the college and at the Red Deer Airport.

Jaime Cocuy, chief marketing officer with the Florida-based company, said UDSS currently has an office in Montreal, but plans to relocate it to Alberta.

The new site will either be in Calgary or Central Alberta.

Focusing on the oil and gas sector, UDSS serves clients in Argentina, Brazil, Canada, Colombia, Ecuador, Mexico and the United States.

It provides professional and technical services, and also recruits and trains skilled workers for companies, with an emphasis on exploration, drilling, development, production, and chemical and petrochemical refining.

Cocuy said UDSS’s typical office consists of about 10 to 12 people, with these made up of executives, operations managers and administrative personnel.

Additional resource people are brought in as needed and on a project-by-project basis.

Fernando Gutierrez, USDD’s chief operating officer, accompanied Cocuy to Central Alberta.

He said Alberta is an industry leader when it comes to unconventional oil and gas development, and his company hopes to tap into that expertise.

“A lot of the products we’re looking at is more targeting unconventional oil resources, which we identify as the next important boom or movement in the countries where we operate — in Latin America mostly.”

Gutierrez said one possibility might be a training program developed in conjunction with Red Deer College that USDD could offer to its clients.

“The idea is to leverage Red Deer’s capabilities, not only in oil and gas but also on the business side, and offer some certificate programs in the market,” said Cocuy.

USDD could also help Canadians who have or would like to invest in the energy markets where USDD is already active, said Cocuy.

“We have relationships, we understand the market, we understand the culture; so we represent a conduit for them to be able to access that market in a quicker and a much more efficient manner than if they were to try to do it on their own.”

Cocuy said representatives from Central Alberta: Access Prosperity — a regional economic development organization — pitched this area to USDD during the Offshore Technology Conference in Houston. That led to the him and company CEO Pedro Orihuela travelling to Calgary in June for the Gas & Oil Expo.

Although Orihuela was initially interested in Calgary as a potential location for his company, Cocuy said that Central Alberta: Access Prosperity’s Danielle Klooster and Matthew Cornall convinced them to consider the Red Deer area as well. That prompted Wednesday’s visit.

“It would be one of the two,” said Cocuy of Central Alberta and Calgary.

“The decision is based on what makes the most sense for our business and where we would have the closest proximity to our clients and the people that we would do business with and engage with.

“But a lot of it also has to do with the connection within the community.”

He said a decision could be made by the end of August, and that he and Gutierrez were impressed with Central Alberta.

“It’s a great environment.”

USDD is also looking to expand its presence in the United States, and move into the Middle East and Africa, said Cocuy. But an Alberta office is the current priority.

hrichards@www.reddeeradvocate.com