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58Maritime Reporter & Engineering News Navpreet Singh joined Dolphin Offshore Enter- prise India Limited (DOEIL) in 1989, as Directorof Finance at the age of 26. Considered a financial wizard, he soon saw the company through a phase of rapid growth. By taking DOEIL public in 1994, he helped raise capital for the acquisition of thecompany's first owned vessel, the Ganga Dolphin. Later, he secured additional capital for the com- pany to invest in two new workboats and a con- struction barge, through the issue of Foreign Currency Convertible Bonds to Clearwater Capi- tal. He soon took on the additional responsibilityof all the company's marine operations as the com- pany?s Chief Operating Officer until a few years later when he was given charge as Managing Di- rector of Dolphin Offshore Shipping Ltd., a wholly owned subsidiary of DOEIL. In addition Navpreet is now also the Joint Managing Director of DOEIL. In a freewheeling interview with Mar- itime Reporter & Engineering News he gives a rare insight into the offshore sector of India?s oil and gas scenario. Tell us how the Dolphin Offshore group came into being. The company was started by my father Rear Ad- miral Kirpal Singh in 1979 two years after he re- tired from the Indian Navy. Initially he partnered with a ship repair company. But it was also a time when the shipping industry was seeing a down- turn, with opportunities in ship repair business being few and far between. It was also the advent of the Indian oil and gas industry with oil having been discovered in Bombay High by the Oil and Natural Gas Corporation (ONGC) a few years ear- lier in 1975. Keen to get into diving services, something that was recommended to him by ONGC, my father decided on making a break into this new territory. He felt it a better option to get into a relatively new business than to operate in one where competition raged from establishedplayers. At an offshore conference he came in touch with Taylor Diving & Salvage Company Inc, a subsidiary of the U.S.-based Halliburton Group. Later he joined hands with them and establishedNavpreet Singh Dolphin Offshore Shipping & Dolphin Offshore Enterprises India As India continues to build its maritime infrastructure and grow its global importance to the world mar- itime and offshore industries, Maritime Reporter?s man in Mumbai meets with Navpreet Singh, manag- ing director of Dolphin Offshore Shipping & Dolphin Offshore Enterprises India, to discuss the company?s colorful past and promising future. ? By Joseph Fonseca, Mumbai FEATURE WORKBOAT ANNUAL One-on-One With MR Nov.11 # 8 (57-64):MR Template 11/2/2011 1:44 PM Page 58