Pavlo Pantus, P.Eng., MASc.

Early Life

I was born and grew up in Ivano-Frankivsk – a city in western Ukraine, close to the Carpathian Mountains. I was the youngest child in a middle-class family. My father was a petroleum engineer, and my mother was a fashion designer.

My father influenced my decision to become an engineer and was a great inspiration. Every time he came home after months-long work shifts, he would tell me how drilling for oil works and how mechanical parts operate on a drilling rig. Our conversations got me very interested in a career in engineering, particularly in mining and petroleum.

Education

After high school, I entered a local technical university, and in the third year of my studies, I started building my career as an engineer by taking student internship programs. Studying at the undergraduate level was tough but rewarding. Engineering school in Ukraine is very technical.

The decision to come to Canada permanently came to me after I finished the Canada-Ukraine Scientific Internship Program in 2009 while studying in my fifth year of technical university. I liked the opportunities that Canada offered in terms of an oil and gas engineering career. After graduating from the technical university, I moved to Regina and received a Master of Applied Science in 2012 from the University of Regina. The master’s program at was a great research experience and helped me join the oil and gas industry very quickly.

Work Experience

I started my career as an Engineer-in-Training at Mera Group of Companies in automation engineering projects. As the oil and gas industry continued booming in Canada in 2013, I went into upstream oil and gas in Alberta as a wireline field engineer with Weatherford and got my P.Eng. designation. My upstream oil and gas experience gave me a lot of exposure to field work, which allowed me to experience the petroleum industry first-hand from the frontline.

A year ago, I decided to return to Regina to join SaskEnergy in midstream oil and gas to learn the full engineering spectrum of the oil and gas supply chain. Many people don’t recognize how important field work is as the best way to learn your specialty. It helped me to make a gradual transition to the pipeline environment.

I never regretted coming to Canada to study engineering and start my career as an engineer, particularly in Saskatchewan. I would highly recommend Saskatchewan to young people as a starting ground on which to build their engineering careers. The education level of the universities is excellent and career opportunities are great in the different industries that make this province unique: potash mining, oil and gas, and agriculture.

Interests

Travelling is something I can’t live without. The opportunity to be able to travel with your friends and family to different countries and experience their cultures and traditions gives me a lot of energy. I also enjoy hiking and snowboarding. In addition, I help the Ukrainian community by volunteering at different local events.