Prater moves business to Plainville
by Candace Rachel, Plainville Times

Randy Prater has recently moved his company, Polymer Services to Plainville from Hays.  After a lifetime of working in the oilfields, beginning with a summer job driving an oilfield wireline logging truck, Prater has gathered the experience and knowledge to bring his polymer gel company to Plainville.

Prater,  a1976 graduate of Plainville High School, was the staff photographer "by default" for the Cardinal Booster.  He also worked for the Plainville Times, and attended Fort Hays State University where he was on the FHSU newspaper staff.  However, his journalistic skills were tucked away when he got a summer job driving what he thought was a delivery truck.  In reality, the job was an oilfield job, driving a wireline logging truck.  A 24-hour, on-call job with a van full of space-age instruments appealed to the 19-year-old, so he stayed with it for a while.  "It turned out to be interesting, and I stayed there six months or so," he said.

Since that time, Prater worked his way through various oilfield experiences before coming on the scene with Polymer Services.  The polymer process has been in use somewhat since the early 1970's.  However, only in recent years has a new generation of polymers made the process more successful.  The polymers, when injected into a well, lead to enhanced oil recovery.

Prater employs workers from Zurich, and Natoma, and is glad to be back home as he develops his company.