Setting up the Saskatchewan Oil and Gas Show, as Jim Hutt has done for roughly the past 16 years, is admittedly a pretty big job. But he gets by with a little help from the very sector that the Show is meant to serve.

"The oil companies and service companies around are always giving us their employees to do the work," says Hutt, who is in charge of co-ordinating the moving in and out of exhibitions and displays of the show. "Plus, the various service companies and oil companies give us equipment like forklifts, palette jacks and chains all the little stuff that you need.

"We're very fortunate," he added.

The 10th biennial Saskatchewan Oil and Gas Show kicks off on Wednesday and Thursday, June 4-5, and it promises to be another big show, as all of the exhibition spaces in and outside the Colosseum and Sports Arena have been completely filled.

That means another big job for Hutt, who never knows what exactly exhibitors are bringing to the Show until it actually arrives. But, he says, "it's always very interesting."

From when he started nearly two decades ago, Hutt said the show has definitely grown bigger, but they've never had a problem filling spaces.

Today, the Oil and Gas Show is the second largest petroleum industry trade show outside of Calgary, drawing hundreds of petroleum industry reps from Canada and the U.S.

Darcy Cretin, chairman of the Oil Show board, says it had a lot to do with the original organizing committee who put on the first show, but also the smallness of the industry in southeast Saskatchewan.

Because it's a relatively small sector, this show is as much as a homecoming as anything, because of the people from the southeast who have gone on to work elsewhere.

"I think the show is bit more of a social event too, for the people that come to it," says Cretin, pointing out the banquets and the golf tournament put on with the show are big draws.

"It kind of fits in with that Weyburn hospitality."

Although the Oil Show doesn't officially start until Wednesday, there's a lot going on starting Tuesday, June 3. That's when the show must be totally set up for the next day, but there is also the golf tournament at the Weyburn Golf Course for exhibitors.

Then, in the evening, there is the steak and lobster supper at 7 p.m. at the Weyburn Exhibition Grounds, put on by the Weyburn Red Wings. Tickets are $25 each and are available at the Oil Show board office.

Another big draw are the eight seminars being put on as part of the show. There will be four seminars on each day, with the first being "Lender's Perspective on E&P Financing" by the Royal Bank at 10:30 a.m., Wednesday.

At noon, SaskPower will host "The Future of Southeast Saskatchewan Oil and Gas," and Weatherford Artificial Lift Systems will put on an artificial lift seminar at 1:30 p.m. The day ends off with "Overview of Flare and Waste Gas Incineration Technologies" by Tornado Technologies Inc.

On Thursday, EnCana will host an update on the Weyburn CO2 unit at 9 a.m., followed by a seminar at noon on "Saskatchewan Private Transaction Market Update" by Waterous Securities.

There will be two final seminars at 1:30 p.m., one entitled "Introduction to the Futures Market" by Union Securities, the other an interactive demo of a horizontal drill and FX30 Hydrovac by Brandt Equipment.

On Wednesday evening, there will be an awards banquet at 7 p.m. with the supper put on by the Young Fellows Club of Weyburn. This event will include the presentation of the Saskatchewan Oil Patch awards. Tickets are $15 each.

Finally, on Thursday morning, the Petroleum Services Association of Canada (PSAC) will put on their regular pancake breakfast at the Exhibition Grounds from 7-9 a.m.

"I think (the 2003 Oil and Gas Show) should be as successful as our last couple of shows, if not more so," says Cretin.