Page 42: of Marine News Magazine (June 2011)

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42 MN June 2011

James Parker became General Manager of the offshore marine division of Veolia ES Special Services in 2007.

Veolia’s marine services began on the inland side and expanded into the offshore market several years ago,

Parker said. “That was just prior to the hurricanes coming through the Gulf, Katrina being the first one, that tore up the infrastructure. It allowed Veolia an opportunity to break into the market when the market was very hot. It expanded from offering basic diving services, to saturation diving, to remote operated vehicle services. Then we acquired a couple vessels and grew from there.” “Up until this point we have been primarily focused in the Gulf of Mexico. With the BP incident in the Gulf of

Mexico, it rather dramatically effected our market and its still uncertain how fast it will recover. Eventually we expect it to return to pre-Macando levels, but we don’t really know when that will be.” The state of the Gulf mar- ket may slow down Veolia’s offshore marine division growth curve, or rate of personnel and capital acquisi- tions, “so we don’t outstrip the market,” Parker said. “As demand grows in the market, we will grow to meet that demand.”

As far as moving to international markets, “we don’t have any intent to reduce our presence in the Gulf of

Mexico,” said Brent DuBois, Director of Business

Development at Veolia. “But we do have a plan forward to pursue increasing our presence in other markets.”

Veolia’s current projects in the Gulf of Mexico include contracts with Chevron and Petrobras. “We have an ongoing project with Chevron, the

Hurricane Restoration Team project. We’re going in and cleaning up the mess the hurricanes made. Chevron has

Leadership Edition

Veolia James Parker, GM, Offshore Division

Images courtesy Veolia ES

GM, Veolia Offshore

James Parker “Up until this point we have been primarily focused in the Gulf of Mexico. With the BP incident in the Gulf of Mexico, it rather dra- matically effected our market and its still uncertain how fast it will recover. Eventually we expect it to return to pre-Macando lev- els, but we don’t really know when that will be.”