NAICS 2131Industry group · 4-digitregional market1 market record

Support activities for mining, and oil and gas extraction

This industry group comprises establishments primarily engaged in providing support services, on a contract or fee basis, for the mining and quarrying of minerals and for the extraction of oil and gas. Establishments engaged in the exploration for minerals, other than oil or gas, are included. Exploration includes traditional prospecting methods, such as taking ore samples and making geological observations at prospective sites. — Statistics Canada, NAICS 2022A

Establishments · CanadaA
5,185
with employees
Under 10 employeesA
73%
most common size: 1–4
01

Size and shape

How many businesses there are and how small they are. Fragmentation is the first thing an entrant — or anyone selling software into this industry — needs to know, and it is one of the few things that is actually measured.

Canadian establishments by number of employeesA

1–43,19962%
5–959712%
10–1952610%
20–4950310%
50–991803%
100–1991012%
200–499621%
500+170%

Of 5,185 Canadian establishments with employees, 73% have fewer than ten — mostly small operators.

Where they areA

Alberta3,04759%
British Columbia74114%
Saskatchewan66713%
Ontario3447%

Largest four provinces by establishment count. Establishments with employees only — sole operators with no payroll are not in this table, so in trades and personal services the true number of businesses is higher.

How many new establishments are still tradingA
Mining, Quarrying, and Oil and Gas Extraction, US · opened 2020
75.4%
1 year
60%
3 years
48.5%
5 years
24.5%
10 years
opened 2015

Measured, not forecast: the share of US establishments opening in one year that were still active later. It counts good operators and bad ones together, which is exactly why it is the honest answer to “what are the odds”. It is for the whole sector rather than this market, and the ten-year figure comes from an older cohort because no younger one has reached ten years.

No US figure is shown. County Business Patterns is coded to the 2017 US edition of NAICS; this code either does not exist there, names a different industry, or is outside the programme's coverage (most of agriculture, rail, postal and public administration are). A figure is attached only where both the code and the title agree.

02

How businesses here compete

The structural profile of subsector 213, which every industry beneath it inherits. This is analyst judgment from how the subsector is organised — not research into this industry, and not a measurement.

Revenue is a geared bet on the commodity cycle: crews and iron idle when producers cut capex, and the customer sets terms in both directions.

Who sets the price
Producers, through bid work that tracks drilling activity.
The software it runs on
Field ticketing, well data, equipment and crew scheduling.
03

Market screens and studies

Market-entry records filed along this branch of the hierarchy. A record at or beneath this code is about this industry; one above it is about something wider that contains it.

Operating businessScreened
Oilfield Service ContractingOne thing must be true
binding constraint: growth quality

The existing 213 record screens the software; this one screens the service business itself, and it is one of the most reachable industrial codes in the country. 62% of the 5,185 establishments have one to four employees and 59% are in Alberta — incorporated wellsite supervisors, a vac truck, a hot-shot, a small rental fleet. A trade ticket, a truck and a master service agreement are enough to start. The cut is what the work is attached to. Precision Drilling, the largest Canadian driller, turned C$1,844M of 2025 revenue into C$490M of adjusted EBITDA and C$3.1M of net earnings after C$263M of capital spending [A]: the iron eats the margin even at the top. Its release puts the industry's average active land rig count at 176 in 2025, down from 186, while the contractors' association counts a member fleet of 365 drilling rigs and forecasts 5,709 wells for 2026 against 5,548 — its own word is that activity will hold steady [B]. Roughly half the fleet is parked in an average week. Producers have learned to grow output with fewer, longer wells, so barrels rise while service days do not, and the customer — a concentrated group of producers — sets the rate card and can drop a vendor with a phone call. Small operators survive on relationships and low overhead, but there is no growth to enter into. Mineral exploration drilling and mine-site services, also in this code, were not examined.

NAICS 21314 vendors named8 sourced figuresOpen →
04

Software serving this industry

The vertical software markets filed along the same branch — who sells to these businesses and who they would have to displace — and then the generic categories every business buys whatever it does.

Sold across the wider branch

05

Companies in this industry · 8

Every company this research names that is filed here or beneath — the operators, and the vendors that sell to them — largest disclosed revenue first. The rank is within the company’s own six-digit industry.

CompanyFiled underRevenueRank
Precision DrillingTSX:PDSupport activities for mining, and oil and gas extraction2131$1.8B1/8
Akita DRILLINGAKTAFSupport activities for mining, and oil and gas extraction2131—2/8
CalfracTSX:CFWSupport activities for mining, and oil and gas extraction2131—3/8
CES Energy SolutionsTSX:CEUSupport activities for mining, and oil and gas extraction2131—4/8
EnsignTSX:ESISupport activities for mining, and oil and gas extraction2131—5/8
SLB, Halliburton and Baker Hughes Canadian operationsPrivateSupport activities for mining, and oil and gas extraction2131—6/8
STEP EnergyPrivateSupport activities for mining, and oil and gas extraction2131—7/8
TricanPrivateSupport activities for mining, and oil and gas extraction2131—8/8
06

Who works here

The occupations employed in Mining, quarrying, and oil and gas extraction, most concentrated in it first. The share is measured against the whole sector, not this industry — the published cross-tabulation stops there.

Tagged to this industry

Concentrated in this sectorA

These jobs are mostly done here. An operator in this industry is competing for them against others in the same industry, not against the whole economy.

And the jobs every business has

Found across at least fourteen of the twenty sectors. But note the shape of this industry: 73% of establishments have fewer than ten employees, and at that size most of these roles are one person wearing several hats, or bought in from outside.

All 162 occupations →

07

Inside this industry

1 row sits directly beneath 2131, and 5 in all once every level is counted. Each has a base report of its own.

CodeIndustryEstablishments · CAWhat is known
21311Support activities for mining, and oil and gas extraction5,185screened at 2131